Russell: anchored
Russell: anchored
I powered forty-five minutes from my mooring to Russell this morning, anchored at 11:30, and rowed ashore to shop and lunch. Both shopping and restaurants are better in Pahia, as is the beach--sand there; shingle here; but the anchorage isn’t.
I like Russell, but I haven’t been here for almost three years.
Naturally there are some changes ashore.
The old Duke of Marlborough Hotel is being renovated. Some shops are new. Some have changed location. A few other places are being rebuilt or added onto. Russell seems to becoming trendy.
Other than residences on the hills, Russell is a two street town.
After buying a few necessities, including a bottle of Beefeaters and a bottle of Laphroaig at the sole liquor store, a set of tiny-- ‘precision’ it says on the box--screwdrivers to replace those that have corroded at the sole hardware store, and some vitamin pills at the sole chemist, I had my usual Russell lunch of fish, chips and salad at the Bounty Bistro. Fish and salad good; chips not. But I am not a chip or even a potato man.
While the wind is only ten knots from the east, a direction from which Russell is fully protected, I had forgotten that all the small Russell/Pahia passenger ferry boats and the day-trip boats leave wakes that throw everyone else around. Not a serious irritant and one that ends around sunset, but more motion than in Opua where wakes are unknown.
About time to go on deck and watch the sunset. The bay is wider here and the hills behind Pahia are two miles away.
Russell faces west. The top photo was taken at sunset.
THE HAWKE OF TUONELA is the most distant speck between tree branches. She is in fact only a quarter mile from shore, the same distance from my mooring to the Opua Cruising Club dinghy dock.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010