Sailing again

Finally, after so long on land we set out on Cop Out to go fishing with my family.
We had a calm sunny day so we took Warren, Frances, Lynda’s son Mike, son in law Rob and grandson Jade for the day fishing. We were able to go out into the Straits and caught a variety of fish appreciating at least it was a nice enough day to go outside the harbour. The swell proved too much for some of them making for a queasy crew and perhaps next time we will just fish in the harbour as the haul did not justify the effort and time it takes to get out there. Mike took some of it home and brought us back some smoked which was delicious.
We set off on New Years Eve with our friends Anne and Harvey for what we hoped would be a summer vacation in the Marlborough Sounds. We had a fairly fast if not a little rough for Anne and Harvey passage across the infamous Cook Strait and through Tory Channel to a sheltered anchorage in the Queen Charlotte Sounds.
New Years Eve was celebrated there with John and Ann and their son, their catamaran is beside ours in Seaview Marina and we introduced them to Mexican Train and the 7 of us had a great start to 2010.
The weather was windy and unsettled which made the decision to do one more night in the same sheltered bay. We had planned on trying to head further west to the Abel Tasman area but once again the famed Cook Strait weather made us decide to spend the week Anne and Harvey would have with us in the Sounds. The next few days were still very windy which forced us to go from one sheltered bay to the next. Although it was not what we had envisioned when we planned the trip it was lovely to be back on the boat at anchor after so long land bound.
The advantage of this area is that each bay is accessible to the Queen Charlotte Track, one of NZ’s famed hiking trails so we were able to get off the boat and on land it was remarkably sheltered. It is a lovely area and even though Ken and I had been there last year it was fun to be there again and share it with good friends.
We had a couple of calm days and we were able to go out into the Straits and catch the famed “blue cod”. There has been a moratorium on them in the Sounds to replenish the stocks but one day after catching and throwing many back within the Sounds we feel that they should plan on reopening the area soon.
Each night our hunter gatherer men would go off in search of paua—a NZ relation to the abalone—and make paua fritters for dinner—even though Anne and I showed a less than enthusiastic response we ate our share each night and have to admit they were quite delicious.
Evenings were filled with much laughter with good food, wine and Mexican Train or phase 10—our card game. Anne who claims not to be competitive certainly did her part in disproving this with Ken and me never seeming to win!!
We gradually made our way towards Picton where Anne and Harvey would catch the ferry back to Wellington and arranged to tie up alongside at the marina there to sit out the next lot of strong winds. We had had another enjoyable time with them with Harvey having spent the prerequisite day in the engine room and were sad to see them go as they caught the ferry home. Unfortunately they had not had the weather they had hoped for but Anne is going to India in a few weeks so has some hot weather there to make up for it.
Ken and I decided to see if we could catch a bus to Nelson for the Saturday market the next day. The bus fares were $44 each return for us and we found we could rent a car for $65 so that was a no brainer!!
The next morning was a lovely day and we headed off on the 2 hour drive to the beautiful city of Nelson. Nelson is one of NZ’s artsy communities with lots of pottery and other wonderful arts and crafts and along with the sunny seaside location is my idea of a perfect place to live. The market is huge and very similar to the Salt Spring Island market with the fruit and veg component a big part of it. Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and cherries were in high season so we stocked up on all of them along with lots of salad vegs for our next part of our trip.
We restocked groceries and after waiting out a blustery Sunday decided to take what looked like a promising weather window on Monday to do the 2 day trip across to Abel Tasman Park as it is another favourite place of ours.
We set off to an anchorage which would give us access to travel through French Pass the next day at slack tide and joined up with another boat from Seaview Marina catching enough blue cod to share for dinner and another enjoyable evening.
The next morning we set off in calm weather and passed through the pass uneventfully picking up wind afterwards to have a fast sail to the anchorage in Abel Tasman arriving and anchoring late in the afternoon.
This area is a stretch of golden sandy beaches backed by more of NZ’s lovely green bush clad hills which has become a huge centre for kayaking and hiking. We have kayaked it twice in the past and love it here.
The tourism has increased incredibly in the last decade and there is a constant arrival of water taxis and kayaks. You can kayak, hike or sail as much or as little as you want and you or your kayak can be picked up or dropped off at any beach you want. To kayak or hike the whole park is about 4 or 5 days but people who are limited by time can take just do part of it. It is absolutely idyllic and the weather patterns are no longer dictated by the Cook Strait so all of a sudden we felt as though our summer had started. We spent a few days in a lovely anchorage where we hiked for a few hours each day and even were able to barbecue on the boat.
Many NZers on sailboats use this area as their summer holidays much as we had used the Gulf Islands so although there are many boats here most are local with lots of kids and beach activities going on.
We met a family of Graeme, Linda and their 12 year old son Lochlan on their 28foot catamaran Little Blue—named after the little blue penguins prevalent in central NZ. They offered to take us to explore the lagoons which are behind each beach accessible at high tide but too shallow and narrow for our boat. We had an enjoyable day with them going into each lagoon which in bad weather they use as shelter anchorages and Ken was recruited to give Lochey some fishing education. Graeme is not a keen fisherman but Lochey is so he became Ken’s best friend. We caught a few small fish and on the way back dragged their scallop dredge. We had seen people do it everywhere here but as we don’t have access to one had not had the opportunity to try one out. You have a net attached to an aluminium frame which drags along the sandy bottom at about 2 knots and after ½ hour or so bringing it in. We were ecstatic to get 24 the first drag which we took back to our boat and shared them for supper with the fish. You just lightly sauté the scallops in garlic butter and they are delicious. As has become tradition we taught them Mexican Train and they say they will buy the game for their boat.
The next day they offered to take Ken scalloping again and fishing with Lochy and brought home lots more scallops but no fish. Linda and I did a nice hike over the hills at the back and I even ventured in the water for a swim—which as NZers have a habit of qualifying as ”nice once you get used to it”---why one needs to suffer through the agony first I am not sure!!!
We once again shared the dinner and the following day left together for another island anchorage where the stoats and possums have been eradicated and there are a multitude of native birds and the bush is alive with the melodies of the tuneful bell birds. The hike up the top was followed by a mini Olympics with Lochey, Ken and Graeme competing in jumping, running and throwing---Lochey is a delightful boy and Ken is enjoying being a kid with him
We then headed up around Separation Point with them further west into Golden Bay which is as the name says more golden sandy bays. As we planned fishing on the way Lochey came on our boat as he respects Ken’s fishing abilities but it was his dad who caught the biggest snapper!! Once we set up anchor Ken and Lochey tried diving for scallops and crayfish but just came back with green mussels. We also had another hike and enjoyed this lovely little bay. Dinner once again was the shared fish which we had caught on the way which is becoming a tradition.
We started heading back as we need to prepare to return to Wellington in a few days and they need to go back to Motueka. Lochey was on our boat again hoping to have a last haul of fish, unfortunately a barracuda and an octopus were the extent of this days effort.
The evening was another Mexican Train challenge.
We headed back in calm weather through French Pass and after 2 days made it back to Punga Cove in the Queen Charlottes again to await another weather window to Wellington. As we tied up to the buoy we were hailed by Jan and Dave who sailed with us for many miles in the Pacific on their boat Baraka. We knew they were somewhere in NZ but couldn’t believe they were in this tiny bay with us!!! We visited for an hour till their water taxi arrived getting their insight to Fiji and Vanuatu where they have spent the past season.
We stayed at Punga Cove a couple of nights doing a bit of hiking and then headed off on a light wind across to Wellington having an uneventful passage.
We will now spend the next few weeks visiting with family and readying the boat for our next cruising sector up the east coast of NZ to get to Opua ready to leave at the end of April.