31 March- 2 April

Hi! This is Hall. Dalton and I started off our April Fools jokes by hiding all of the books and  electronics on the boat! At first, our parents didn’t notice, but after breakfast, they started to realize that we had hidden them. 

We left Auckland yesterday (3/31) morning after refueling, doing laundry and buying some supplies and groceries.  So we got ready, secured everything on board, and left the dock for the Mercury Islands! It was so beautiful.  After about 5 hours, we anchored just after dark in Great Mercury Bay. Great Mercury is a privately owned island. We saw one of the two owners land in his helicopter. He didn’t stay long. We had supper and Dalton and I went out on the trampoline where we met a seal! She  swam around and around, eating fish and playing, RIGHT under our boat! We played with her and talked to her and we all named her Sandy. We had the LED lights on and she loved that so she stuck around for awhile. 

Hi! This is Dalton now. The next morning, 4/1, we sailed to Peach Grove Bay, which only took about 30 minutes. Hall and I saw some dolphins about 20 ft away from our boat, and went to paddle board with them! They swam under our paddle board, jumped around, and dove deep into the water to eat fish. We named them Snap, Crackle, and Pop.

Daddy and Hall went for an exploration on this river that we found. They took a radio so we could talk to each other! They found fresh water shrimp and some really cool caves. We made our own pizzas for dinner. 

The next day we ALL went to the river, but this time, it was LOW tide! Mommy fell off of her paddle board as we were paddling ashore and she got soaked! We walked up the river bed and there was SOO much mud! We sank into it and got REALLY dirty! We also made up names for the different types of mud. It was so fun! We had a mud fight and ended up with mud in our ears- it reminded us of the pluff mud from home, and it even smelled the same! 

The SW wind was forecasted to pick up in the evening, so we could not stay at Peachgrove for the night. After showers and lunch, we pulled up anchor in the afternoon and headed to Coralie Bay. 

Please see Instagram (@warrenssetsail) for photos!

S/v Nogal