Easter Cruise

We're back home again after a very enjoyable 10 day cruise round to Nelson with a detour on the way there and back to Pelorus Sound. It started out as a four day Easter Weekend trip to Pelorus but grew as time went on and none of us wanted to come home. We sailed in tandem with our friends Graham and Sandra on Nutcase which was the first time we've gone away like that and it proved to be a very successful formula.


We left mid afernoon on Good Friday and tied up to a club mooring in a bay towards the end of Queen Charlotte Sound that night. Fishing was good with three nice sized cod going into the fridge. The weather was just beautiful, clear blue sky but not much wind which meant a lot of motoring. The next morning we left about 9am and motor sailed up into Cook Strait, round Cape Jackson and across to Pelorus Sound where we arrived and anchored in a nice little bay about 3pm. Fishing was good again with more fish in the fridge. Sunday morning we moved to another bay across the sound and went ashore for a short walk through the bush before moving on to another bay to anchor up for the night. This one had a one man pub in it so we went ashore and watched the Chiefs v Highlanders Super 14 rugby.



By now we were getting low on diesel as I had neglected to fill the tanks before leaving and were faced with the option of going back to Picton to get some or carrying on to Nelson. We all consulted our social secretaries and confirmed none of us had any pressing engagements so elected to go to Nelson.

To get there we had to go through French Pass, a scary narrow bit of water between D'urville Island and the mainland. Unless you go through at slack tide the current races through at up to 7 knots and can send you backwards so it's important to get the timing right. As you may guess, we didn't and ended up going through sideways but made it through in one piece nevertheless. That night we ancored up just round from Okiwi Bay.


Left early next morning and motored in flat, glassy sea to Nelson where we arrived around midday. We tied up in the marina there for a couple of hours to refuel and restock the cupboards then went round to the waterfront where we anchored about 50 meters off the waterfront drive right in front of the Boatshed Restaurant for those of you who know Nelson. Fabulous views and great weather although cooling down considerably at night time. Tuesday morning we set off for the return journey but by now the weather was starting to deteriorate with gale force winds forecast for most of the country. We got back as far as our previous night's anchorage near Okiwi Bay where we decided to take shelter for the night as the wind was getting up around 30kts. It was a pretty uncomfortable night with the boat bouncing around and quite noisy and at 5am we all had had enough so up anchored and set off back towards French Pass.

The ride up there was quite lumpy and it was a relief to finally get in the shelter of D'urville Island and calm water again with the added bonus of striking French Pass right on slack water. The pass is really quite spectacular, only about 50m wide with big swirling eddies both sides but quite ok to go through provided the weather and tides are good. Once through, we motored back to Pelorus Sound arriving around midday just in the nick of time as the wind suddenly got up to about 45kts and it all got very exciting very quickly. Just before we got to the safety of the bay we intended sheltering in there was one gust of about 50kts which picked Nutcase's dinghy up and flipped it several times throwing the oars into the sea. Both of us spent the next half hour doing man overboard drills trying to recover them. For those of you who know Doreen well, picture this. 45kts of wind, rough sea, spray eveywhere and Doreen out the back on the landing platform hanging on for grim death with one arm, leaning out trying to recover an oar with the other. Madness I say. Anyway, we all survived (even the oars) and eventually anchored up for the night waiting for the front to pass. And pass it did and the next morning we made a 10 mile dash to the other side of the Sound to shelter from the next front which was due that night.



The next morning dawned fine and calm and after a short excursion ashore to check out the beach we set off for what we thought was the final stretch home. Our travelling companions had different ideas though and being in no hurry to get back we ended up staying on a mooring at Furneaux Lodge at the end of Endeavour Inlet near the outer end of Queen Charlotte Sound. We went ashore to the lodge that night and had a meal, a few drinks and watched the Crusaders thrash the Highlanders, all in all a great way to finish the cruise.
Sunday morning we left Furneaux at 9am and motored back to Picton where we arrived shortly before lunch.

Which brings us up to the present moment, back in the house, looking at the lawns that need mowing and all the other work that needs doing and wondering why.

I think it's common knowledge but in case anyone reading this doesn't know (and assuming you're even remotely interested) ,our boat is up for sale and we're buying a bigger one , packing the furniture up, renting the house out and going cruising for a few years. We hope to have all this done and ready to go by the time we get back from Australia in July. At the moment it looks likely that we will buy Phil Vining's boat (Blue Heron 2000) (see photosite). He's willing to trade our boat as part payment and is flexible with the timing so it's all looking good at the moment.