Brian Rogers Brian's boat blog www.sunlive.co.nz

When the rubbish weather finally cracked, the Bay's boaties were ready for it. They left the marinas, moorings and boat ramps in their thousands this week, hitting the water like lemmings.

After many months of cold, then rain, then wind, it was a welcome relief to see forecasts of dying swells, calming winds and plenty of sunshine.

The Waterline magazine crew headed for Mayor Island for an overnighter and about 25 other vessels had the same idea.

Nothing like a busy New Year's Eve, but quite a good muster for an early October weekend. There's always plenty of neighbourly consideration and friendly banter between boats as they shuffle around to find a spot for the night.

Warm enough for a swim.

By most accounts the fishing was a bit slow, but no-one seemed to care, it was just so good to get out on the water again and enjoy the calm sea and sunshine.

Divers enjoyed some reasonable visibility of 20 to 30 feet.

The seals in South East Bay have become a great source of entertainment.

The grumpy old buggers from years gone by seem to have moved on, leaving half a dozen younger, smaller more playful characters with much better PR skills.

Several snorkelers, including some from Butler's Gemini Galaxsea, stopping in for a lunch break, enjoyed a playful frolic around with them. There may not have been many dolphins around on Saturday, but going home to Europe with snapshots of tourists swimming with playful seals in crystal clear waters, as the kaka cackled overhead, won't do the country any harm.

One thing decidedly lacking on our voyages was kahawai. Ironically at the same weekend the government announced there'd be no change to the catch quota, there was not one to be seen from the Waterline boat in 40 nautical miles of ocean.

Once, back in the good old days of just a few years ago, you could not possibly travel from the Mount to Mayor without seeing boil ups, sometimes acres-wide. It would have been unthinkable of failing to hook up a fierce fighting kahawai on a well-travelled Smiths jig or a simple hook with a bit of wool. But these days the kahawai are so sparse, it is hard to fathom the thinking of officials who cannot see that the resource is dwindling and wasted on huge commercial quotas for catfood and fertiliser.

It's not just recreational fishers wanting to put a reliable feed on the table – the kahawai are an important link in the food chain and a lot of species, as well as human, rely on its abundance.