M/Y Iron Lady

Jumping ahead here as we are now approaching East Cape on the North Island after departing Picton (Queen Charlotte Sound) on the South Island. The weather planning for this leg is a prime example of the compromises one must make to cruise New Zealand.

Red sky in the morning – Picton.

First, the route. Leaving Queen Charlotte by the Tory Channel, you enter Cook Straight and do a 70 mile leg southeast across the Straight passing Wellington and then on to Cape Pallisar.

There you turn northeasterly for the run to East Cape – a distance of of an additional 320 nautical miles. From there it is our intention to go to White Island – an active volcano some 80 miles further. All in all, this will take us approximately 60 hours at sea (no stops). We are currently approaching East Cape.

We have been watching the forecasts carefully to capture the best weather window, but, unfortunately, on this routing, the chances of getting a perfect window for the entire route is somewhere between slim and none (and Slim left town). Thus you have to pick between the least of the evils and that is pretty typical of the cruising we have been doing in New Zealand.

Here were our options. Cook Straight was predicted to be flat calm if we left early Sunday morning. Later in the day, winds were forecast to rise to gale strength (35 knots) in the straight between Queen Charlotte and Cape Pallisar. The Straight is NO place to be in gale force winds. Unfortunately, the chunk of water between Pallisar and East Cape are also renowned for their share of grief. Joe, our Captain, and his father were rolled 360 degrees in their 40 foot sailboat off Castle Point midway up this coast.

Starting early Monday morning, the weather for this part of the route was forecast to be light and variable – just what we wanted. Unfortunately from Sunday afternoon until then, the winds were to be out of the northeast at 25 to 30 knots – right on our nose. Now this isn’t fun on a good day, but to add to the misery, the prevailing current flows northeast along the coast and opposing winds and currents make for very short, steep and confused seas – the kind that launch even an 85000 pound 64 foot vessel right out of the water. Pallisar and East Cape also mix in a bit of their own misery with confused seas and currents as most Capes do. Add in 2.5 meter tides typical around here and you have the makings of a real mess.

Well Cook Straight was to calm down by late Tuesday but then the weather was even worse after Pallisar.

Waiting in Picton for a good window for the entire trip could take a month. So our choice really amounted to picking our misery. We chose to go Sunday before things got bad in the Cook Straight. The price came about 7 PM on Sunday night when the winds came up to 25 to 30 after rounding Pallisar. After several hours of crashing, I headed for deeper water but that didn’t really help much. We then bore off the wind about 30 degrees – well off our desired heading – and slowed the boat down to 7 knots. The crashing was reduced to several airborn launches an hour instead of one every few minutes. Heavy spray was still being thrown completely over the boat.

On the back deck, things are normally pretty sedate but even the contents of the dink were thrown around including full gas tanks.

Around 1 AM the winds started to abate and we were gradually able to come back to our course over several hours. By 4 AM the winds were down to 10 knots and we boosted our speed back up to 9.7 knots.

We are behind our original schedule but after a sound bit of sleep this morning (there wasn’t much last night), a hot shower and a bacon and egg breakfast, we are motoring along in flat seas. Didn’t much like it last night but this morning it looks like we called it right. The Stones had a song that went something like “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need”.

Guess we did.

No, we aren’t going to the dogs, but we do miss our dog Charlie. Down here though, Wwoofing has a different meaning – Willing Workers on Organic Farms.

Everywhere we have been there are just tons of young people from all corners of the world who are working their way around New Zealand Wwoofing. In exchange for something like 4 hours of work on a farm or in a vineyard, young people get room and board. The rest of their time is free to explore the area.

There seem to be numerous variations on this theme – many young people are working in restaurants, shops and such as well to earn money to travel about. While this is not strictly Wwoofing, it seems to follow a similar format. It is noteworthy to us that most of the young people, however, do not seem to be from the US.

While this old dog is way too old for such tricks, I wish such an opportunity had been around when I was younger – what a great way to see the world up close and personal on a budget.

Moving backwards in time to our first visit to Queen Charlotte Sound, we were hustling to get in before the next big blow with winds predicted outside to over 60 knots in the Cook Straight. Our destination was the marina in Picton at the head of the sound and was the first time we were going to be tied to a dock since Ashby’s in the Bay of Islands. The weather was looking ominous as we headed down the Sound.

That night, we saw steady 30 knot winds with gusts over 40 knots in the marina.

One of our fenders didn’t fare so well. Busted flat in Picton. Didn’t janice Joplin do a tune by that name?

Things were looking up by morning, so we went for a small walk about.

Here are some views of the Sound in a little better light.

Finally, some views from up high.

There are ferries that run daily to Wellington on the North Island from here. This is one of them.

This is a view of the town of Picton.

Iron Lady is parked in the marina in the back of the picture.

And finally, the obligatory sunset.

And yes, that is a 55 Nordhavn parked across the way – similar to the 50 we had.

Best

Well here we are approaching Queen Charlotte Sound for the second time and I haven’t even gotten the posts up from our first visit – and in the interim, we have circumnavigated the South Island of New Zealand. Down the east coast on the Southern Ocean (Roaring Forties) to Foveaux Straight and Stuart Island, past Puysegur Point to Fiordland and then on up the Tasman along the west coast around Cape Farewell and thru the Cook Strait to the Queen Charlotte. Almost all of it without cell or internet service except satellite which is absurdly expensive.

From Akaroa on the east coast all the way back to Queen Charlotte, we saw only one other cruising boat. A few locals and commercial fishermen and that was it.

Lots of posts to catch up on but that will take time. One picture this time around. Iron Lady sitting in Little Glory Bay, Patterson Inlet, Stuart Island – almost 50 degrees south.

Best to all!

We have covered Deb’s mobile herb garden in previous posts. They have typically lived in three pots located on top of the galley garage behind the cook top. Historically, they have lived quite happily there. There was one incident however (courtesy of Steve Dashew – not that I am mentioning names mind you).

Steve was with us on a trip down from the Bay of Islands in gale conditions and decided he wanted to test the boat in beam sea conditions without the stabilizers on. Well one of the pots didn’t think much of that and launched itself off the garage. The result was dead plants and a terrible mess, but Steve was pleased with the rest of the evaluation. But then he didn’t have to clean up the mess.

Anyway, all of last cruising season the plants in the three containers lived happily behind the stove (after the first casualties were taken care of). This year a new group of plants took up residence in the same location but the Tasman, Southern Ocean, Cook Straight, Cape Reinga and the Foveaux Straight had different ideas.

After several messes, the plants were relegated to the back deck. There, the aforementioned location proceeded to anihilate them with a gruesome combination of wind and sea water. As the plants died, there remains (along with dirt) were scattered all over the back deck. An even bigger mess.

The final straw came when said debris ended up in the guest head. The hatch, you see, is well protected and we leave it open to ventilate the head and the boat. At that juncture, much against Deb’s protest, the plants were given a suitable burial at sea.

(Do you hear Taps playing in the background?)

Jumping way ahead here, but wanted to throw in these shots as Mom Nature was putting on a pretty spectacular sky show. Moon, venus and one other planet – not sure which one. Anyway –

Cheers

Seems there is a crisis in New Zealand. The primary marmite producer in New Zealand was wiped out by the Christchurch earthquake and now the other producers can’t keep pace with demand.

The nasty stuff has flown off market shelves and hoarding has made the situation worse. On the TradeMe site (similar to Ebay), creative folks have found a way to capitalize on the crisis. 250 gm jars of the evil stuff are selling for as much as $500. One enterprising individual is selling a 1 Kg jar (already opened no less) for $1200.

The nickname – Marmigeddon.