Crew: Geoff, Graciela, Jim.
Forecast: Variable 5 kts.
A lovely calm day on the harbour for a sail over to Mākaro / Ward Island. Our friend Jim, from Nelson, hadn’t visited the island before.
We cast off from Chaffers at 1110 hrs and hoisted the no. 2 jib and full main. With Jim doing a great job on helm we managed to get just enough wind to fill our sails as we tacked our way up the bay. The calm conditions seemed to bring out the birds and expert bird-spotter Jim pointed out fluttering shearwaters, a couple of little blue penguins, black-backed gulls, silver gulls and white fronted terns.
We eventually dropped the jib as the wind died out and we motor-sailed across the harbour towards our destination.
As we approached the island we hoisted our nice new EBYMBC burgee in anticipation of tying up at the club mooring. There was another yacht already on the buoy so with our fenders and mooring lines ready, we circled the boat and requested permission to raft up with them.
They were very happy to accommodate us. Once we had secured our lines we introduced ourselves and had a nice chat with our neighbours , a friendly couple Adrian and Alex, the owners of Jayhawk, a Lidgard Demon 10.
After lunch we inflated the dinghy and rowed ashore to explore the island. Mākaro / Ward Island is about 250 metres long with a nice beach on the eastern side. Jim spotted a red crowned parakeet flying in the trees as well as some variable oystercatchers and white fronted terns. A couple of fishing boats were anchored in the bay and two guys were diving for mussels and kina.
We also met up with Tim Wood, skipper of Wiseguy, who was visiting the island with family and had anchored his Young 88 near the island.
After rowing back to Halo we slipped our lines from Jayhawk at 1420 hrs. By now the breeze had died out altogether so we just motored our way back to Wellington.
We could see schools of fish jumping in the water in places so we put out the fishing line with the spinner. Within minutes we had a bite! I reeled it in but just as it came out of the water it did a big jump and flew off the line back into the water.
We turned the boat around and motored back towards the schools of jumping fish. Pretty soon we had another bite! Jim gave me some good advice to wind it in slowly and keep the rod low near the water as he readied the net. Success! We landed a nice big kahawai.
We docked back at Chaffers at 1530 hrs and set up the fish filleting table on the pushpit. After watching an instructional video on Youtube, Graciela then expertly filleted our fish ready for dinner tonight. 🙂
Halo Log Book 