Crew: Geoff, John, Tunch. Day 1 - Nelson to Ship Cove We cast off from our berth at Nelson Marina at 0810 hrs. After stopping at the fuel jetty we motor sailed through The Cut and headed north up Tasman Bay in company with Annie. Another beautiful Nelson day! The LINZ Tide Table indicated French... Continue Reading →
Tiller Repair and Sea Trial in Nelson – 16 Jan 2025
Crew: Geoff, Jim, Lindie, Anthony. On the way from Pelorus to Nelson I was concerned that the laminations at the base of Halo's wooden tiller were separating. I had taped and strapped it up and to seemed to be holding but I was worried about it falling apart during the upcoming Nelson regatta. I removed... Continue Reading →
Cruising Pelorus Sound to Nelson 3-13 Jan 2025
Graciela and I had been looking forward to visiting Pelorus Sound for a long time. We planned a leisurely cruise to explore the sounds before crossing French Pass then down Tasman Bay in time for the Nelson Regatta. On Friday 3rd January we took the afternoon Aratere from Wellington to rejoin Halo at the Waikawa... Continue Reading →
Nelson to Wellington – 24 Jan 2024
Crew: Geoff and Tunch. Day 1 - Wednesday 24th Abel Coastal Forecast: SW easing to 10 kts becoming SW 20 in the evening. After the excitement of the Nelson Regatta we now needed to sail Halo back to Wellington. After verifying the forecast and tides I did a route plan on OpenCPN. I logged our... Continue Reading →
Nelson Regatta 2024
This was our second time doing the regatta in sunny Nelson. There were 35 boats registered for the regatta including four Wellington boats, Gucci, 88%Proof, Matatoa and us. We entered Halo in the cruising division which suited us well and had a blast with the four days of racing. On day three we raced across to the beautiful... Continue Reading →
Wellington to Nelson – 17 Jan 2024
Crew: Geoff, Tunch, Murray. Day 1 - Wednesday 17th Cook Strait Crossing After monitoring the forecasts every day for the last week we decided today would be the day - a southerly dying out early morning becoming northerly 15 kts at the Brothers. The plan was for a leisurely sail to Nelson over three days to... Continue Reading →
Nelson to Punt Rails to Wellington 14-15 November 2022
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... Continue Reading →
D’Urville Island to Nelson – 11 Nov 2022
After resting for two nights at Catherine Cove we cast off from the mooring at 0817 hrs and headed down Admiralty Bay towards Te Aumiti / French Pass. Although the SE wind had eased off considerably from yesterday it was still a stiff 15-20 kts. Approaching French Pass As we neared the pass we noted... Continue Reading →
Motueka – French Pass – Catherine Cove – 17 Feb 2019
Crew: Geoff & Graciela. Forecast: Northerly 10 to 15 kts rising to 20 kts in the afternoon. The previous night after stocking up on provisions at the supermarket in Motueka, Geoff had a chat with the local secretary of the yachting club about our plans to sail across Tasman Bay and transit French Pass. One... Continue Reading →
Nelson – Motueka – Abel Tasman National Park 11-16 Feb 2019
Crew: Geoff and Graciela. Sailing Nelson to Motueka 11 Feb 2019 We flew to Nelson from Wellington and arrived at Halo in the Nelson Marina to discover the 12 volt house batteries were completely dead as a result of the stereo being left on (oops) plus the whole boat including solar panel being covered in... Continue Reading →