The Camara is a 80ft sailing yacht that Kira and I got to sail on. The Palmers (Peter, Christina, Cameron, and Tara) acquired her 4 years ago and have been working on a major refit ever since. More information about the refit and the history of the Camara can be found here. With the refit now complete, the Palmers are living aboard, currently sailing between New Zealand and Fiji depending on the season. Kira and I joined the Palmers for a week long adventure around the Bay of Islands!
We left from Whangarei early in the morning heading north.
With (some) wind at our backs, we set a course for the Poor Knights, our first destination. The Poor Knights is a marine reserve with caves, sheer cliffs, and tons of fish to see. We arrived at our anchorage just after lunch.
Once the Camara dropped anchor we jumped in, sans wet suits for Kira and I, and spent a couple hours exploring. The fish were huge! I swam through schools of fish, examined kelp beds, saw mini jellyfish everywhere, and even spotted a few large kingfish. Much to Cameron’s dismay, we couldn’t fish for them, what with it being a marine reserve and all… But the snorkeling was great and the water wasn’t as cold as we thought it would be.
Apparently snorkeling wasn’t enough to tire Kira out, so she took the paddle board out for a couple hours. I did have to reassure Christina that this was normal Kira behavior and, no, we shouldn’t be worried about her being lost just yet.
The next morning we headed for the Bay of Islands. Over the next week, we settled into a nice routine.
We moved anchor most mornings.
We explored the islands on foot.
We went fishing.
We did a whole lot of activities around the boat, including learning how to plot our course (thanks Tara!) and losing a lot of Rummikub matches (thanks Tara…)
But most of all we had a great time! Peter, Christina, Cameron, and Tara – thank you for all the wonderful memories and we hope to see you all again soon!
MI & CO 