11 November 2024 -New Zealand-Mohurangi Heads

It was a damp and drizzly morning when we woke and we had a cup of tea before everyone was up. For Erika’s last breakfast we had avocado on toast with a poached egg.

Erika was packed and after saying goodbyes I took her to the Kawau Boating pontoon where the ferry was due to pick her up and take her to the mainland where she will get a bus to Auckland. I dropped her off and returned to Stormbird and before long the small ferry piked her up. It obeyed the 5 kt speed limit until the yellow buoys and then it speeded up and disappeared into the merk.

We finished our breakfast and coffee and got ready to depart. When we were ready in the drizzle we upped anchor and headed out of the bay. Our visibility was about a mile. We first headed to the Motuketeketa Islands some 4 nm away and it did not take us long to get there. We anchored off a beach and it was a beautiful setting with an isthmus between two islands.

We took the dinghy to explore and headed towards the wreck and were able to go right round it. It seemed quite a large wreck and we wondered about it. We returned back to our nearest island and went ashore and walked around. It had a lot of purple-coloured rocks around it and lots of grape type green grapes in the water.  We assume these are fish eggs.

We returned to Stormbird and looked up the wreck.

The wreck is the Alice A. Leigh and renamed the Rewa whose history is directly linked to the end of the days of sail. She was a 3,000-ton four masted steel barque built by the Whitehaven Shipbuilding Company, Cumbria and named after the Mayoress of Stockport. Alice was the biggest ship built in Whitehaven, carrying 31 sails on her lofty rig. Alice ran the typical trades of the large four–masters, from India and Australia to London.

The barque had several adventures, she survived a collision with the German ship Rickmers, a minor mutiny in 1904 and, in 1914, made a very fast passage of 48 days for the 9000-mile trip from Mexico to Newcastle. In October 1916, she was nearly sunk by the famous German submarine U-35 in the Mediterranean. Alice was sold in 1917 to the New York and Pacific Sailing Ship Co. Her last visit to Australia as the Alice A. Lee was in 1920, she was the sold to George H. Scales Pacific Ltd. Of Wellington and renamed the REWA.

Her chequered history continued when she took a load of NEW coal to Wellington, only to be embroiled in a waterfront dispute over the use of new equipment for unloading her cargo. She made her last major voyage to London via the Cape of Good Hope in 103 days, with a load of wool. She arrived in Auckland in August 1922 on her final voyage. In December 1922, the Auckland Harbour Board , ordered the REWA be removed to a harbour mooring and the proud 33-year sailing ship was ignominiously towed up the harbour to a mooring off Chelsea Wharf where for nearly 10 years she swung round her mooring, becoming more and more decrepit.

Rewa remained laid up off Northcote Point until April 1931 when Charles Hansen offered to purchase the REWA as she lay for 800pounds. Legend has it that he was “the front man” for a local syndicate, who wanted to circumvent the strict licensing and gambling laws of the day, by converting the REWA into a luxurious drinking and gambling establishment, linked to the mainland by fast motorboats. The REWA was towed by the steam tug Te Awhina to Moturekareka Island. The plan was to await high tide so that the 309 feet long ship could be positioned, to sit across the Bay on a sandbank, in a level position. Alas this did not happen , the Rewa slid off the sand bank, with the bow in shallow water, and the stern in deep water, tilted steeply over to port, totally unsuited for what the syndicate had intended.

What remains today? A recognizable hulk of a massive sailing ship, an important piece of world nautical history. I read about the third Captain Davison who lived on board for over 20 years. He and his wife had 6 children over the 20 years they lived on board and 2 died quite early in their lives. It is amazing that a wreck here has such a connection to the UK and to a sailing vessel which could not compete with steam.  She had a length of 331 feet ; Breadth 46 feet ; Depth 27 feet 4 inches, and her gross tonnage was 3000.

We had lunch and then moved on having been very surprised by the history of the wreck. We upped anchor and moved on to Motoura Island which was only a few miles away. It has become a creche for the Kiwi birds and when big enough they return them to the mainland. We did not stop but got a good sense of the island. We then headed over to Big Bay on the mainland and when we got there – there was an evident swell so we headed on round to the Mahurangi Heads which is an inlet that leads up some way. We went in about 0.5-0.75  nm to get out of the way of the swell and anchored in Otuawaea Bay.

The sun came out and we had a lovely rest of the afternoon and evening. It was sunny and warm and we enjoyed an aperitif and then I cooked a Spaghetti Bolognaise with broccoli which although I say it myself was not bad.

We enjoyed the evening and we saw a couple of boats come and join us in next door bay. After supper we chilled and read and will head on a little bit nearer to Auckland.

Unfortunately, when I went to inspect the engine room before we leave each day I found that our heads breather valve was leaking so we just need to replace the nipple in the breather syphon. Another head issue but easily solvable. Boats hey!!

Opportunity Year Two

In year two I will be going from New Zealand in early January 2025 across to Sydney and up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025. I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com