Crew – Geoff and Graciela.
Following our Cook Strait crossing from Wellington with Murray and Phil, Geoff spent a couple of days on Halo in Picton doing a bit of boat cleanup and maintenance before Graciela flew over from Wellington on Sounds Air. We celebrated her arrival on Saturday with a dinner and blues music night at Le Cafe. Great evening hosted by Peter, the owner of Le Cafe. We had a good chat with Peter about our mutual experiences on Quark ships in the Antarctic. He was ‘executive chef’ on the MV Khlebnikov.
We spent another day at Picton before sailing off up Queen Charlotte Sound on Monday. Nineteen miles of beautiful sailing in variable breezes.
We arrived at Meretoto Ship Cove and tied up on the club mooring at 1514 hrs. Launched the dinghy and rowed over to explore the little beach near the mooring. Had a lovely time admiring the rocks, shells and flaxes. We discovered great quantities of very large mussels exposed on the rocks at low tide and gathered a few to have with our dinner. Geoff got out our new barbecue and we had a very pleasant dinner of steamed mussels with steak and veges and some nice Chilean wine. A lovely evening.
In the morning we saw one boat had arrived in the night, the new 18-guest expedition yacht Heritage Explorer anchored in the bay. We also discovered that the predicted northerlies had arrived with williwaws blowing out in the channel. It was still nice and calm in the bay though. We tried to get the updated forecast but found that as well as having no cell phone coverage at all we couldn’t even pick up the forecast on VHF ch. 63 which is transmitted by Marlborough Radio at 0835 hrs each morning.
We motored Halo over to the the jetty where we tied up and stretched our legs and used the facilities.
We decided to sail back south to Lochmara Bay which is located in the more protected waters of the inner Queen Charlotte. Once we got out in the channel the fun began. A 25 kts northwesterly giving us a great beam reach with Halo ripping along at 7.5 kts. Graciela was doing a great job on helm with gusts up to 35 kts and then the rain started pouring down. By the time we were passing Tory Channel entrance the wind was dying down but the rain continued. We both got totally soaking wet. We arrived at Lochmara Bay, got changed and went up to the lodge for extra-hot coffees and sat in front of the fire to warm up.
The next morning we were treated to a beautiful warm calm day as the sun came up over the hills.
After breakfast and a great morning coffee at the lodge we decided to sail across to Picton so we could dry out our wet clothes at the marina facilities (and enjoy a hot shower). We tied up at the same berth on Pier One.
After lunch we rented bikes from Wilderness Guides in Picton and biked over the Snout Ridgeline Track to Waikawa and back. A great workout for us both and we enjoyed a marvellous view of Queen Charlotte Sound from the top.
That night the wind turned to a cold southerly breeze. Normally we keep the washboards open at night when sleeping on Halo but as we were cold we closed them both to keep warm. Geoff woke up at 3 am wondering how come it was raining inside the boat but discovered it was just lots of condensation dripping on us. Sleeping bags got pretty wet which was uncomfortable. In the morning we decided to check into a motel to dry out.
On Friday we explored the Link Pathway. A nice 10 km hike starting from Picton, around Shakespeare Bay and up to the WW2 lookout above Queen Charlotte Sound and towards Grove Arm above Ngakuta Bay. We walked down to the road at Governors Bay and hitched a ride back to Picton with a friendly farm worker.
On Saturday Geoff started preparing Halo for our return Cook Strait crossing with Eduardo and Sandra who would come over on the Interislander on Saturday afternoon to join us.
Halo Log Book 