Graciela and I spent the weekend in Nelson and enjoyed a wonderful celebration of Dave’s 70th on Saturday night. Great to catch up with Bob there too. Our friends Jim and Lindie kindly let us stay in their house while they were in the Abel Tasman.
After checking the forecasts and tide tables we decided to depart Nelson early Monday morning. On the Sunday I took Halo round to the Talleys Jetty to top up the tank with 28 lt of diesel. This fuel jetty is a great improvement on the NPD depot we used last time. It has a floating jetty plus it accepts credit cards. Just have to watch out for the big fishing boats nearby!
Day 1
We slept the night on Halo at the Nelson Marina on Sunday and slipped our moorings at 0700 hrs in a beautiful morning with no wind. We motored out through the Cut and headed north up the coastline of Tasman Bay.
The light southerly breeze eventually built up as we switched off the engine and sailed past Croisilles Harbour at about 1100 hrs.
According to the tide table the Te Aumiti / French Pass tidal stream would start flowing towards NE at 1209 hours. We arrived at the entrance to the pass at 1308 hrs. The tide was in our favour and we transited easily.
We motored across Admiralty Bay in a flat calm, keeping our eyes open for our friendly dolphins but no luck this time. We passed Clay Point at 1423 hrs.
As the wind was predicted to change to northerly overnight we decided to head for the club mooring at Alligator Head which would offer us protection. We sailed into Guards Bay with our Pelorus Boating Club pennants flying. We found the bay was totally sheltered and we picked up the mooring at 1604 hrs. It was our first time visiting Punt Rails (no idea where that name came from) and wow, what a delight it was!
We launched the dinghy and went ashore to explore and climb the hills of the sheep farm and enjoy the views.
Back on Halo I jumped overboard for a brief swim and then we both used the solar shower. There was no wind at all so we got out the BBQ, cooked up the nice German sausages we bought at the Nelson Market, and had dinner in the cockpit while watching the sunset.
Day 2
The next day we woke to another beautiful windless morning. We cast off from the mooring at 0700 hrs. We noted a pod of small dolphins in the bay before rounding Alligator Head but they seemed to be on a mission and didn’t want to play.
We headed east towards the morning sun and set the course for Cape Jackson. The light northerly breeze on our port quarter was not enough to sail and we were going against the tide so we needed to keep the motor running to maintain a decent speed.
We rounded Cape Jackson at 0826 hrs and sailed across the top of Queen Charlotte Sound. As we passed Cape Koamaru at 0950 hrs our boat speed over ground (SOG) slowed down to 4 kts against the incoming tide.
Once we cleared The Brothers the current eased and we were able to make good speed for the long leg across Cook Strait. The northerly wind slowly built up and we switched off the engine and sailed towards our next waypoint 20 nautical miles away, south of Thoms Rock.
As we entered the Karori Rip and headed towards the Wellington Heads the northerly was now 17-20 kts. We sailed on a quick beam reach past Sinclair Head, Island Bay, Lyall Bay and then entered Chaffers Passage at 1500 hrs.
We motored up the harbour entrance and then sailed the rest of the way home past Pt Halswell, Oriental Bay and finally home. Tied Halo up at our berth at Chaffers marina at 1623 hrs.
Mission accomplished!
Total distance 103 nautical miles
Halo Log Book 