North Bound

When you start drinking Cup O’ Soup instead of sun downers you know it is time to leave! As the weather and the water, cooled we departed South Island on Monday 11^th and headed out through the Tory Channel, leaving Queen Charlotte Sound behind us. Dodging ferries and other traffic we headed out to the mouth of the channel, timing our passage to take advantage of the 6 knots of tide. If that had been against us we would have been going backwards!

Farewell South Island

Harvest time on the Tory Channel

Once through the choppy channel entrance we were greeted by an almost completely still Cook Strait. You can tell it’s still when the albatross are all sitting on the water. They rely on the wind to glide effortlessly across the water and when there isn’t any they just sit there and save energy. We were quite nervous about crossing this notorious stretch of water and so we weren’t too disappointed by the lack of wind and it meant we had great views of the pod of seven dusky dolphins that came to see us off.

Exiting the Tory Channel into the Cook Strait

This Albatross wasn't enjoying the still conditions

One of seven Dusky dolphins which came to say goodbye

The Cook Strait and the east coast of North island in general, is quite busy with commercial shipping carrying goods up and down the coast, as well as cruise ships and fishing boats. The ships all carry AIS and so are easy to spot on our chart plotter but the fishing boats often turn it off and so it’s important to keep a good watch. We had a few confusing close encounters with fishing boats along the way as it is always difficult to judge how far things are away in the dark.

The Cook Strait is a busy place!

Fishing boat at Dusk

One of many container ships heading down the coast

As we rounded Cape Palliser we settled into our watch system for the next four days.  This consists of us taking turns for 3 hours each at night and 5 hours each during the day.  Pat also does an early evening 4 hour watch while Debi does hers in the morning.  When not on watch, we sleep, or try to.  It’s not always easy when the boat is pitching and the noise that Bob, our auto-helm, makes, is almost, but not quite, enough to make us take the helm ourselves.

The trip was uneventful with very light winds so we had a combination of sailing and motor sailing. We had the engine on for about 60% of the trip which was a  little more than we would have liked, but we covered the 555nm miles in a little over 4 days which was pretty much as planned. We arrived into Tryphena harbour on Great Barrier Island on Friday afternoon and after four dry days the bottle of bubbly came out, followed by a pretty solid sleep.

Feeling in need of some exercise after the long passage, we hauled out our inflatable kayak and headed off to explore on land.  It is a lot easier to carry than the dinghy and, as the tide goes in and out a very long way here, we contemplated using it as our means of transport while we are here.  However, on our way back to the boat the kayak insisted on going to port (left).  Eventually we got around the problem by Debi paddling on the left side only and we managed to wobble our way back to the boat.  The problem turned out to be a missing front tracking fin.  We went back in the dinghy later to look for it but to no avail so that has put paid to any further kayak trips until a replacement can be found.

Kayak madness

Our arrival in Tryphena was carefully timed to coincide with the St. Patrick’s day celidh at the Currach Irish pub in Tryphena. We were frequent patrons of this fine establishment last year and were very pleased to return. We had a nice meal and some chaotic dancing, and just a few glasses of Guinness. So we have now added a fourth “D” to the dangerous three “D’s” known to cruisers, Drink, Darkness, Dinghy and Dancing! A very dangerous combination, but we managed to get safely back to X-Pat despite them all.

Enough said!

The not very Irish, Irish band

On Monday (18^th), despite feeling a bit jaded, we decided to head around to the east coast of the island, something we didn’t manage to do on our last visit. We knew there was a light easterly forecast and thought we would be fine. However, as we got around to the east side we were met with a 2-3m swell, which wasn’t at all comfortable.

We persevered, motor sailing along a very spectacular coastline and decided to explore what is possibly the only anchorage on the east coast which is sheltered in an east wind. This is a place called “The Cove” on the NW side of Rakitu (Arid) Island. This proved to be an absolutely lovely little anchorage through a fairly narrow entrance in between some spectacular rocks.  Pat managed to catch a snapper, which we had for supper and we settled down for a nice evening in the cove.

At anchor in The Cove

Rakitu Island

Time for some exercise

This morning we took the dinghy ashore and explored the island. Like many islands here, this one is now administered by the Department of Conservation. There were a number of buildings on the shore but none looked particularly inhabited. We did a short walk up the valley to the east side of the island, with views back down the coast of Great Barrier Island where we had sailed yesterday.

Back on board X-Pat we departed the Cove and headed around the Northern tip of Great Barrier Island and we are now anchored in Nimaru Bay on the west side of the island again. The weather is a bit grey but the water temperature is 20 degree C, which is a lot better than the 13 degrees that we left behind in Queen Charlotte Sound!

Tomorrow we plan to head around to Port Fitzroy.

Chilling in Picton

Welcome to the new look blog. We have been aware for a while that the tracker wasn’t very obvious on the blog and Pat finally worked out how to rectify it! Hopefully it is now easier for people to follow us.

We headed into Waikawa marina, which is just north of Picton, on Sunday. This is a wonderfully friendly place with lots of local sailors happy to help out with whatever you need. Debi contacted a few people through her “Women who Sail” facebook group and Juliet came down to the boat on Monday to say hello and give us a few tips. She and her husband run Oddies chandlery (oddiesmarine.co.nz) at the marina and kindly leant us their vehicle so that we could go and do our provisioning. That was very useful for topping up the onboard cellar as there is no public transport and car hire is very expensive.

Enjoying the sunshine at Waikawa Marina

Picton Harbour

On Tuesday we headed out to the Marlborough wine region on board a “hop-on hop-off” bus. Unfortunately our trip coincided with a cruise ship coming in which meant that things were busy and also that the bus service was truncated mid afternoon in order to get the cruise people back to Picton for 3pm. This meant things were a little rushed, but we still managed to visit three wineries, have lunch and visit a chocolate factory. Again, this was a useful trip for replenishing the onboard cellar.

Lunch at Framingham Winery

On our return from the vineyards we visited the Edwin Fox Museum. The Edwin Fox is the ninth oldest wooden troop ship in the world and was built in India in 1853. She is built from teak and saul with a copper bottom. Originally built as a cargo ship she was used to carry troops during the Crimean war and also transported prisoners to Australia and brought early settlers to New Zealand. After being used as a stationary freezer ship and then coal storage vessel in Picton, she was removed from the harbour and beached in Shakespeare Bay, Picton in 1967. She lay there for 20 years before locals managed to raise enough money to re-float her in 1986 and start the long preservation process. She now lies in a dry dock in Picton and it is amazing to go and stand in the hold and see how the hull has survived all those years of neglect and abuse. Her full history can be found here: www.edwinfoxsociety.com/history/

The Edwin Fox

The Edwin Fox

Tuesday evening was spent at the Waikawa sailing club where we met Nicky, Paul and the crew of local boat “On Appro”. This was a very enjoyable evening exchanging stories and getting a few tips on sailing in the area and the meals served were delicious and good value for money.

During our remaining time in the marina we managed to get X-Pat thoroughly cleaned, topped up our water and diesel and did a few running repairs. Yesterday (Thursday) we left the marina and are now anchored back in Carey Bay, just across from Picton. We are having a lazy day onboard as it is raining today, only our second day of rain on the whole trip. We had hoped to depart the Sounds tomorrow and head north to Great Barrier Island. However, the various weather forecasts, which we normally use are not in very good agreement which always makes us nervous. We will review again tonight but don’t want to take any chances crossing the Cook Strait so it may be a while before we feel comfortable to go.

In the footsteps of Captain Cook

As planned we set off last Monday and headed back out of Kenepuru Sound and anchored back in Ketu Bay in Pelorus Sound overnight. Then on Tuesday in reasonably fair weather we headed out around Cape Jackson for Queen Charlotte Sound. The wind was light and so we motor sailed the whole way. Despite the calm weather when we left Pelorus, the wind picked up a bit as we headed out and the sea was quite turbulent around Cape Jackson, where the tides sweep around the shallows of the Cape. The Sooty Shearwaters didn’t seem to mind and gave us a great demonstration of how to take the blustery conditions in your stride.

Farewell to Pelorus Sound

Sooty Shearwaters enjoying the breeze around Cape Jackson

As we headed into Queen Charlotte Sound, we had the wind behind us and we passed Motuara Island doing 8 knots. Then it was into calmer waters of Ship Cove to anchor in one of Captain Cook’s favourite spots. He visited here a total of five times, once on the Endeavour and four times on the Resolution. With shelter from the blustery conditions and freshwater from a nearby waterfall it’s not hard to see why this was a favourite. Apparently the fishing was also good in the bay when he was here, but not anymore.

At anchor in Ship Cove

Captain Cook obviously liked it here!

The Cook memorial

One of New Zealand’s best known long distance walks starts at Ship Cove and so on Wednesday we headed ashore to do a walk on the Queen Charlotte track to Resolution Bay. The track is very steep in parts as it negotiates the mountains, which separate the Sounds and so that gave us a good workout. The whole area is maintained by the Department of Conservation (DOC). We have visited many DOC maintained areas now and one thing that strikes you time and again is that their main approach to conservation seems to be to kill anything they deem invasive. The part of the Queen Charlotte track, which we walked, is lined with hundreds of rat traps, attempting to eliminate the rats from the headland and create a protected environment for the native residents. One of those native residents is the ground nesting Weka, which is a very inquisitive bird, which we have come across on many of our walks. Ironically, conservation groups could see the Weka as a pest as they feed on invertebrates, reptiles and the eggs of other ground nesting birds. Migration in the animal world appears to be as contentious as in the human!

On the Queen Charlotte Track

One of hundreds of rat traps on the track

The inquisitive Weka

Captain Cooks water supply

From Ship Cove we headed around to Endeavour Inlet and attempted to anchor in Dryden Bay, just at the entrance to the inlet. Conditions were blustery and, unusually, the charted depths seemed to be completely wrong. We were going to anchor in an area charted as 10m deep but in reality it was over 30m deep and impossible to anchor in. We headed around the corner to Mint Bay and encountered a similar situation. Fortunately, there was a single mooring in Mint Bay and despite some severe gusts of wind blowing across the bay, Debi managed to steer us beautifully up to mooring.

It was during our mooring manoeuvres that Pat looked back down the boat from his position on the bow, to see the dinghy upside down in the water, with the outboard motor still attached. The gusts had been so strong that they had flipped the dinghy over. We were convinced that that was probably the end of the outboard and felt very down. The dinghy and outboard motor are your lifeline to the shore when cruising and without them you are very restricted in what you can do. We managed to upright the dinghy and hauled the engine back on board X-Pat. On opening the engine cover it was surprising how dry things seemed inside. Pat removed the spark plug and turned the engine over a few times, filled the chamber with oil and left it overnight to decide what to do next.

In the morning we decided to move anchorage as a southerly change was forecast and so we headed further into the Sound and found a lovely peaceful anchorage called Carey Bay just across the water from Picton. As we headed up the Sound we were greeted by a pod of about forty Dusky dolphins. They were being very playful and an absolute pleasure to watch. Once anchored, Pat got to work on the outboard, put it all back together, filled the carburettor with carb cleaner and she started without too much protest! We were somewhat relieved.

The Picton to Wellington ferry passes Waikawa marina, our destination tomorrow

Our beautifully peaceful anchorage in Carey Bay

Yesterday we took advantage of the fact that the outboard was working and took the dinghy up to the head of Torea Bay. There is a wharf there with ferries and water taxis bringing people across from Picton to the Queen Charlotte track and to get across into the Kenepuru Sound, where we were last week.  We tied up and had a nice walk across the Torea Saddle and down into Kenepuru Sound and the village of Portage. It was a rare windless day and the water was like glass.

Intrepid explorer finds Kenepuru Sound

A very still Kenepuru Sound

Today we are chilling out onboard and tomorrow we are heading across the water to Waikawa marina, which is just outside Picton. We have been offshore for more than two weeks and have run out of bread, fresh milk and eggs.  More worryingly, we are onto our last bottle of red so it’s definitely time to go shopping.  We plan to have a few days exploring Picton and the surrounding area and then start preparing for the voyage across the Cook Strait and back up north.

Mussels, Driftwood and Williwaws

It’s been a quiet week on X-Pat. We have spent the week cruising around Pelorus and then Kenepuru Sounds, anchoring in secluded bays and basically chilling out.

A quiet moment

We have visited Cissy and Fairy Bays in Pelorus Sound and then around to Double Bay and St Omer Bay in Kenepuru Sound. Many of the bays are filled with mussel farms producing green-lipped mussels. This is a major industry in the area, producing thousands of tonnes of mussels a year, which are exported to over 50 countries.

Driftwood and Mussel Farms

Forestry is another key industry in the area and many of the steep slopes around the sounds are planted with trees. This has been a contentious issue as there is significant sediment run off from the slopes, which impacts the marine environment.

The bays which we have visited have generally had a sparse scattering of houses, many of which seem to be holiday homes or guest houses. This is a beautiful area to have a very quiet holiday, looking out over the sounds and doing not very much.

We have had a few nice walks when we have been able to get ashore. Many of the beaches are covered in driftwood, presumably the remains from trees which have escaped the chain saw and slid down into the sea. The sea and sand has smoothed them into beautiful shapes and the temptation is to collect a few, but we have resisted.

A view from the top across Cissy Bay

Bushfire control 

Debi has been keeping fit with her 45 minute swimming routine, albeit in a wetsuit as the water is about 19 degrees celcius. Pat has been fishing regularly and so far has caught absolutely nothing. Something is different about fishing in these sounds and we’re not sure what it is! Pat did manage to harvest some mussels from an old mooring line and so we had those one evening in a white wine and garlic sauce. Culinary standards remain high on X-Pat.

The weather here is variable and very localised. Finding a sheltered anchorage has proved to be a challenge as the wind seems to rarely come from the direction stated in the forecast. One minute it is completely still and the next minute a williwaw (blast of wind) comes rushing down a nearby mountain and out across the water, causing X-Pat to strain at the anchor. After our experience of dragging last week we are a little nervous, but are confident we have found a good spot here in St Omer Bay, to shelter from the gale force southerly which is forecasted for tomorrow.

Stormy Sky

Double Bay, Kenepuru Sound

The wreck of the Amokura, St Omer Bay

Once the winds die down we plan to leave Kenepuru and Pelorus Sounds early next week and head around Cape Jackson and into Queen Charlotte Sound.