Crew: Geoff, Grant, Eduardo
Following our participation at the Waikawa Women’s Regatta, the plan was for Halo, Grenadier, Tamerlane and 88% Proof to sail together across Cook Strait from Waikawa back to Wellington early on Wednesday morning. The forecasts were showing a dying northerly from midnight Tuesday but changing to a strong southerly Wednesday afternoon. It was going to be a pretty narrow weather window of opportunity.
We took the Tuesday 4 pm Interislander and on arrival in Picton we were met by Gordon Ramsay (!) of Picton Shuttles who delivered us to Waikawa where Halo was waiting patiently for us at the marina. We packed our gear into the boat, secured the dingy on the foredeck, did our trip report to Maritime Radio and cast off into the night at 2010 hrs up Queen Charlotte Sound.
We arrived at Ngaruru Bay at 2200 hrs. Tamerlane was already there. Grenadier was close behind and we rafted up on the club mooring.
The general indication is to leave Tory Channel two hours after tidal stream starts setting East. On Wednesday the tide would begin East at 5 am so in theory we would leave Tory Channel at 7am and arrive into Wellington at about 1 pm. However, we decided to leave a couple of hours earlier as we were a bit concerned about the southerly storm which was forecast for Wednesday afternoon. We set our alarms for 3.45 am.
At 0409 hrs in a beautiful star-lit black night with no moon, we set off from Ngaruru Bay. As we motored up Tory Channel the Straitsman ferry steamed towards us. We gave them plenty of room.
As we neared the channel entrance in the dark we picked out the sectored navigational light on East Head. It was initially flashing green, then alternating white and green and then flashing white as we moved across the sectors and came into view of the two transit lights which would guide us out through the channel.
We did the ‘All ships’ call on ch. 18 and ch. 16 and passed through the channel entrance at 0510 hrs. Our speed over ground (SOG) was around 5.5 kts so we were obviously passing at slack water. The seas were calm with none of the whirlpools we have seen on previous crossings.
Once we were clear of the South Island the wind picked up to 10 kts southerly. We hoisted our No. 3 jib and turned off the engine as we sailed across Cook Strait enjoying the views of the sun rising over the distant hills of the North Island and the dolphins swimming in the dark beside us.
We made it into Wellington just in time before the southerly storm and rain kicked in. Tied Halo up in our berth in Chaffers Marina at 1052 hours and closed off our Trip Report with Maritime Radio. A great crossing!
Thanks to Eduardo for the photos.
Halo Log Book 