The weather forcast for Anniversary Weekend (Friday 20 – Monday 23 Jan.) was reasonanbly favourable. A “dying” 25kn NW breeze on Friday, turning “fresh” southerly on Sunday afternoon, but “dying away” on Monday. So Lynn Bridget & I decided that we would cross the Strait and have a few fun days in Queen Charlotte Sound. Sniffy & Bindy were taking “Distracted” across, so we could accompany them. Sniffy was confident the forecast would be kind for the girls on their first crossing. Wrong! The 25kn NW did not die until we got to Tory Channel late in the afternoon, and the “fresh” southerly came in at 30kn in the Strait on Sunday and didn’t ease until Tuesday. So we had a lumpy sea most of the way across, motorsailing on reefed main, breeze across the starboard bow. Lynn & Bridget both held on to their lunch, but it was a struggle for Bridget. She did very well, but was pleased to reach the calm on the western side of the Strait. Monday was too rough to chance the return trip, so we delayed it ’till the southerly eased & the swell dropped on Tuesday.
But the pleasure of the 3 days in between, in the protected calm of the Sounds, made the crossings more than bearable.
We departed Chaffers Marina at 1245hrs on Friday and entered Tory Channel about 1800hrs. By the time we entered Tory the NW breeze had gone and the sea was flat calm. We pulled the mainsail down & the sails remained fully furled until we came to leave Tory Channel on Tuesday. That’s what you mostly do with sails on a big yacht in the Sounds. We said hello to Wal Edwards on the way up Tory, then headed for Ngarruru Bay, but went past and ended up in more shelter at the very top of Kawia Bay on a friendly mooring. We rafted up with Distracted and spent the first of 4 very relaxed and fun nights wining and dining and story-telling with Sniffy & Bindy.
Saturday dawned calm & sunny. Distracted cruised off early to explore Queen Charlotte but we stayed awhile for a leisurely breakfast. After we threw the mooring we motored in to Queen Charlotte, hooking in to Double Cove in time for afternoon tea at the lovely Manthel batch, with Neil & Adrienne in residence to welcome us. Ineviteably, Neil bought out some beers and wines, and Adrienne produced “afternoon tea” of fresh sweet corn, ham sandwiches and baby sausage rolls ! Delightful. Then we motored off, exploring Lochmara & Onahau Bays, then in to Grove Arm looking for Distracted. We found her anchored in Bottle Bay. The forecast was for NW rising to 30kn during the night, and we decided Bottle Bay wasn’t the most ideal in those conditions. I knew Malcy Brown had a mooring in “the most sheltered bay in the whole of the Sounds” : East Bay at the head of Lochmara. So I got hold of Malcy at his Te Horo ranch and he said we were welcome to use his mooring. We did, and if ever a 30kn breeze blew during the night, we never felt or heard a thing! Distracted rafted up with us, and we had another fun evening.
Sunday dawned calm and sunny again. We had seen and said hello to Robert Fisher on his jetty on Saturday afternoon and he had invited us up for coffee on Sunday morning. So we eagerly picked up his mooring on the SE corner of Double Cove at 1100hrs and went up to see Bob & Polly & Henrietta. We had a very pleasant time and departed just as the forecast southerly started rolling down from Mount Freeth in to Grove Arm. We found Distracted on a mooring in Becks Bay and rafted up with her. The southerly went over the top of us and we had another comfortably calm night.
Monday morning was calm where we were, but we knew it would be different out in Cook Strait. Bridget had to be back in Wellington on Monday night. Neither she nor Lynn wanted a rough trip back, so we decided to delay our return crossing until Tuesday. Distracted cruised off up the Sound, but we took Bridget in to Picton to catch a ferry. She sent a text from the middle of Cook Strait later in the day to say we had made the right decision. We found Distracted late in the afternoon moored in Tawa Bay at the very head of Onapua Bay. We rafted up again for the night. In the process of picking up the mooring, Lynn and I managed between us to drop both of our boathooks overboard and they drifted to the shore. I swam in to retrieve them. The water was murky and I couldn’t see the bottom. When I got to the shore and stood up, I planted one foot on something soft and rubbery, which shot out from under me. The motion and the fright nearly sent me flying. I knew immediately I had trodden on a stingray and disturbed it. Quite a large one as it turned out, watching it later from back on the boat as it mooched around the shallows. Beautiful fish to watch gliding through the water, but scary to stand on. After retrieving the boathooks, I spent time in the water scrubbing the Chaffers marina slime off the waterline, and diving to scrub the marine growth off the propellor. We spent another night in the very pleasant company of Sniffy and Bindy, enjoying a DVD of the Simon & Garfunkel concert after dinner.
We departed Tawa Bay at 0900 with the intention of getting out of Tory and across the Strait to catch slack water at Karori Rock early in the afternoon. But we struck trouble just inside Tory Channel. As we raised the mainsail, when it was a quarter of the way up, it jammed tightly where it enters the track just above the boom. One of the perils of running halyards on electric winches! The bolt rope folded over on to the thick stitching of a batten pocket, and I was too slow to feel the extra drag on the electric winch. The sail jammed solid in the track! No way would it come down again. Lynn & I threw all our resourcefiulness at it for a full hour and a half before we eventually got it free. We cut away some of the stitching on the batten pocket and poured detergent down the track and that seemed to do the trick. No significant damage. Distracted had begun her crossing but very kindly returned to investigate our delay. As a consequence of the delay, although the first part of the crossing was relatively calm as we motorsailed in to a 15kn SE breeze across our starboard bow, we hit the Karori rip at its very worst. Incoming tide sweeping eastward, in the face of a 15kn SE breeze, meant the waves were standing up on end with deep troughs, tightly packed. I could see the line of white caps as we approached from a mile away. Sea Kiwi crashed her way through the quite enormous and unpredictable “washing machine” waves with only an occasional shudder, down the back of one wave, burying in to the front of the next one. I think Lynn held her breath for the full 15 minutes or so it took us to get through the rip, and I had to prise her white knuckles of both hands from the grab rail on the companionway when we got to the other side of the rip.
We arrived safely at Chaffers Marina at 1700hrs well pleased with ourselves. Pleasantly weary, and feeling as though we had had a very enjoyable and memorable first holiday on Sea Kiwi.
SEA KIWI 