Cruising The Sounds 6-11 Sept 2024

Crew: Geoff, John, Jamie.

6 Sept – Ngaruru to Picton

After a restful night in Ngaruru Bay after our Cook Strait crossing yesterday, we said our goodbyes to the Grenadier and Tamerlane crews and headed off to Picton.

Ngaruru to Picton – 12 Nautical Miles

I had made a call to Mark at Picton Marina. He offered us a space in a 30 mt berth. You’ll have plenty of room he said!

In the afternoon Jamie, John and I went for a walk up to Bob’s Bay and over the ridge line towards Waikawa and back to Picton. A beautiful still day,

We did our food shopping in the afternoon and in the evening we set up the BBQ for pleasant outdoor dining on Halo with the lights of Picton as our backdrop.

7 Sept – Picton

There was a front coming over today so we decided to stay another day in the marina.

We visited the Edwin Fox Museum. One of the world’s oldest surviving merchant sailing ships, the Edwin Fox is also the only surviving ship that transported convicts to Australia.

After delicious lunch at Toastie Lords we visited the Whaling Museum. Very interesting to learn about this important part of Picton’s history.

Tamerlane and Grenadier decided to join us in Picton to shelter from the storm. Mark managed to squeeze us all into the one berth.

That evening we all got together for drinks and dinner at Seumus’s Irish Bar. A fun night. Meanwhile the wind was blowing up to 40 kts down at the marina.

8 Sept – Picton to Ship Cove

The storm blew over in the night and we woke to a beautiful calm morning. We decided to go ahead with our plan to sail to Ship Cove at the top of Queen Charlotte Sound. After a hearty breakfast we cast off at 0930 hrs. I did a slight miscalculation as we backed out and bumped into Tamerlane. Sorry Bill. I’ll make it up to you!

I logged a trip report with Marlborough Radio on ch. 63 and we hoisted the no. 3 jib and full main to sail on a fast beam reach all the way up the Sound. Mostly champagne sailing!

Picton to Ship Cove – 18 Nautical Miles

We arrived at Ship Cove at 1242 hrs and tied up at the visitors jetty. After a bite to eat we went ashore to explore the Captain Cook memorial. John took some nice photos.

We decided to go for a hike up the Queen Charlotte Track to the lookout at the top of the ridge. A one hour’s walk according to the DOC sign.

Just as we were approaching the top my phone, which was now getting signal, started beeping with multiple notifications. Oops, I had forgotten to close the TR with Marlborough Radio and they were trying to contact me. They had called Graciela who was in Wellington and of course had no idea where we were! I phoned Marlborough Radio and apologised for not closing the TR. They said they had held off calling out the Coastguard because they saw on the AIS that we were tied up at the Ship Cove jetty.

After that bit of excitement we enjoyed the beautiful views and then made our way back down to the boat.

We then motored Halo over to the club mooring where we would stay the night. The westerly was still blowing quite hard but we were nicely sheltered in the little cove.

Jamie started preparing another of his wonderful dinners while John did some fishing. I took the dinghy over to the shore and collected some nice big mussels and we cooked them in the BBQ. Delicious!

9 Sept – Ship Cove – Bay of Many Coves – Double Cove

After breakfast we left Ship Cove and started sailing back down Queen Charlotte Sound. I got in touch with Phil and we agreed to join with them at Double Cove.

By the time we had passed Endeavour Inlet the southerly wind was getting unpleasantly strong on our nose so we decided to pull in to the shelter of Bay of Many Coves to reassess the situation. Our options were to hang out in the bay for a while to see if the wind dropped or stay the night on one of the resort moorings or on a club mooring.

We motored over to the BOMC Resort where it was calm and tied up at their jetty. The luxury resort hadn’t opened for the season yet but the staff were happy for us to use their bathroom. We had lunch on Halo while waited to see what the weather would do.

By 1300 hrs the wind had dropped somewhat so off we went, motor sailing out of the bay and down Queen Charlotte Sound.

We arrived at Double Cove at 1430 hrs and found Grenadier tied up to Matt McCullough’s private mooring.

The plan was to raft up with Grenadier for the night. This mooring needs a stern line to be set so with Phil and Grace’s help we got the lines all set up. We were invited on to Grenadier for a nice afternoon tea.

Phil and I later decided that as the nearby club mooring was unoccupied we might as well move Halo over there to spend the night.

Ship Cove to Double Cove – 19.5 Nautical Miles

10 Sept – Double Cove – Kaipupu Sanctuary – Ruakaka Bay

After conferring with Phil we agreed on a plan to visit Kaipupu Sanctuary in the morning and then sail up to Ruakaka Bay. We got away early on Halo to pop into Picton to get a coffee at LeCafe and some more supplies.

We then motored around the corner to Shakespeare Bay and joined Grenadier who had just arrived at the Kaipupu visitors jetty. We rafted up next to them.

Stepping around a seal who was basking on the steps, we walked the loop track around the sanctuary.

We heard lots of birds and John got lovely photos of Kereru, Tui and a Korimako/bell bird. We spied a little blue penguin resting in a box and enjoyed views from the lookout.

John had to leave us today so after casting off from Kaipupu we motored round to Waikawa where John had his accommodation booked. I called Anne at the marina office and she confirmed we could tie up at the jetty next to the boat ramp.

I took the opportunity to walk over to the office to say hello to Anne and check out where we would be docking tomorrow.

After lunch and saying goodbye to John, Jamie and I set sail for Ruakaka Bay. The sailing was fast and furious and got a bit hairy at times as we passed across the bays and headlands.

At 1600 hrs we arrived at Ruakaka Bay and rafted up with Grenadier at the club mooring nicely sheltered from the northerly.

Double Cove to Ruakaka Bay – 15.5 Nautical Miles

I did a bit of fishing. Managed to catch one but being undersized it got released to the sea.

Jamie cooked up another lovely dinner and then we settled in for a good night’s sleep. At about 2 am we were rudely woken by the roar of wind through our rigging and the two boats bouncing roughly off each other. What’s going on? Its blowing a strong southerly. This wasn’t meant to happen!

Phil and I discussed our options. Look for another mooring, go to Waikawa marina or what…? Jamie managed to get some internet connection on his phone and saw that it was blowing 30 kts southerly in Picton but forecast to die out at around 3 pm. We decided to have a cup of tea and wait. Eventually it did settle down and we finally got back to sleep at about 3.30 am.

11 Sept -Ruakaka Bay – Lochmara Bay – Waikawa

We woke to a beautiful morning. I had a refreshing, if somewhat brief, swim.

We had a relaxing morning in the bay and I had some fun on the uke.

We eventually cast off and after a circuit around the bay we headed south following Grenadier down Queen Charlotte Sound to Lochmara Bay.

We were hoping to to catch up with Mike De Ruyter who was working at his bach at Lochmara but he wasn’t home. After having lunch while tied up at Mike’s jetty we cast off to motor across the Sound to drop off Jamie at Picton.

I then motored single handed round the Snout to Waikawa to dock Halo in our berth at the marina ready for the Waikawa Women’s Regatta which starts tomorrow.