After a week on the farm, poor Guppy wanted to see me again. After all, I had only spent one day with her after the trip on Akatea. So I moved back to Guppy, and this time I’ve stayed onboard since–for a change. I gave some presentations at the Maritime Museum for groups of kids visiting the museum. It was really nice, as kids have such a different way of thinking and they ask such different but still very smart questions. After the presentations, I came aboard Guppy and saw that she wasn’t looking too happy. The big city with all the noise day and night, being surround by big buildings and lots of people, was becoming too much for her. Guppy wanted to get out into nature again–to feel the wind, waves and freedom. So I decided to sail to Tutukaka with two good friends I met in Auckland. The sail up north was gorgeous. To start, we had a really nice 15 to 20 knots of wind from the west and then it slowed down a bit at night. We had left in the afternoon and had the whole night to sail the 80 miles from Auckland to Tutukaka, so I didn’t really care when we were only doing 3 knots. We had dolphins out in front of Guppy and I saw that she was happy and smiling again. And it was so nice and quiet that we brought pillows and blankets into the cockpit and had hot chocolate while watching the stars and the beautiful clear night. Guppy got a nice berth in Tutukaka Marina where I’m working on the dive boats. It’s so nice here, being surrounded by nature and the atmosphere of a little village in a mild summer. Guppy looks so much happier here, but still keeps asking me when we will go out again.

Laura.