Crew: Geoff, Murray, Funny, Leah.
The forecast was looking good for sailing back to Wellington the Sunday after completing the Waikawa Women’s Regatta. Variable 10 kts in the morning, developing 15 kts northerly in the evening. After checking the tide tables I used OpenCPN to put together a route plan:
Murray, Funny and Leah came down to Waikawa Marina and joined me on Halo at 5.30 am and we did the safety briefing. I called Maritime Radio on ch. 16 to log our trip report and turned on our navigation lights. A few minutes before 0600 hrs we cast off from Waikawa Marina in a dark and very calm morning.
We motored up Queen Charlotte Sound with Murray on helm as the day broke. Funny and Leah rigged up the no. 3 jib.
In Tory Channel another Wellington boat Annie joined us as we passed Ngaruru Bay. Still only about 5 kts of light breeze as the fog started to clear.
Great excitement. A large pod of dolphins joined us. Funny captured them on video:
As we neared the Tory Channel entrance we we heard Grenadier and Tamerlane call “all ships” to transit West Head about an hour earlier than us. We saw the Aratere on the AIS and hugged the bays to keep clear as she steamed into the channel.
We then did our ‘all ships’ call on ch. 18 and ch. 16 to announce our Tory Channel outbound intentions then we were off.
The conditions were a bit rough in places as we slowly motored through the channel. Annie was a few minutes behind us.
After a few more minutes bouncing around in the rip the sea state settled down. The wind was a light southerly on our starboard beam. Funny and Leah hoisted the jib although we still needed to keep the engine running to maintain our target speed.
The cloud cleared for a beautiful day in Cook Strait. The light breeze on our nose meant the jib wasn’t helping so we dropped it and continued motoring.
As we neared Karori Rock we entered the rip and the ‘washing machine’ started. It was pretty mild compared to previous crossings. Well before we rounded Sinclair Head it had calmed down. We had to dodge lots of cray pots scattered around in our path.
Grenadier and Tamerlane had sailed much further south and we gained on them as we headed straight to our next waypoint south of Palmer Head.
We carefully navigated through Chaffers Passage into Wellington Harbour and rounded Steeple Rock lighthouse for the push into the wind up the harbour.
Around Point Halswell for the final reach home.
Entering Lambton Harbour we stowed the sails, closed our TR with Maritime radio, and then docked Halo in her berth at Chaffers at 1400 hrs.
A great crossing!
Total trip 48 nautical miles
Halo Log Book 