My plan was to head
back to Lyttelton by Easter and the best opportunity appeared to be
to catch the north east that was forecast to pick up this afternoon
(Thursday). I was unsure about when to leave – Thursday afternoon
with a forecast of NE 15 knots, or Friday morning when the winds were
predicted to increase to 20-25 knots. I opted for leaving on Thursday
afternoon – this should give me a nice sail down the coast with
minimal swell and have me into Lyttelton Harbour before the rough
seas kicked in. It also meant that I would likely be passing Kaikoura
in the early morning, with the potential for seeing some whales. My
plan was to arrive into Lyttelton at around midnight on Friday and
stay the night on the club mooring in Little Port Cooper so I could
arrive into the harbour in the daylight, hopefully with timing to
coincide with the departure of the flotilla bound for Pigeon Bay.
Having spent the morning resting up and getting ready to leave (I
wasn't expecting much rest on this leg as it is a reasonably busy
shipping route), I motored out of Oyster Bay at 2pm and headed out of
Port Underwood, taking a peak into the eastern side of the port on
the way. This was my first time into Port Underwood, and I had not
really seen it arriving at dusk the night before. Port Underwood is
very similar to the Marlborough Sounds, only it has a more “scraggy”
appearance – it is almost completely covered in pine plantations
with the naked areas that come with harvesting, there are many lines
of mussel buoys and a number of pylons circle the harbour, presumably
feeding power to the HVDC link. There look to be a number of small
communities, most of which appear to be made up of fishermen and
mussel harvesters.
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| Oyster Bay, Port Underwood |
Outside Port Underwood
with a light easterly blowing, I raised the main and unfurled the
headsail and sailed towards Cape Campbell at about 4 knots. As I
neared Cape Campbell, I furled up the headsail and turned into the
wind to be sure I gave the nasty rocks around the cape a good clear
berth. I got a message from Mum that her and Kai had been down to the
end of the road in the Awatere Valley and had managed to spot me
using field glasses! Rounding Cape Campbell, with the headsail
unfurled and the light easterly still blowing, I moved along at 3.5 –
4.5 knots for a few miles until the sun set and the wind eased and I
was barely making 2.5 knots. I started the motor and motor sailed,
waiting for the forecast north easterly to kick in. A couple of times
it looked like it was starting and I'd drop the revs back on the
motor, only to find I was doing no more than 2.5 knots. By about
11pm, a light land breeze picked up instead, although again this sent
me along at no more than 2.5 knots. So I resigned myself to motor
sailing, and I carried on motor sailing for the rest of the night. A
large ship passed me one mile to seaward heading north at about
4.30am – I figured this was the ship I had seen on the Lyttelton
Port departures which left at 8.40pm, one that I made a mental note
to look out for. Car and truck lights were clearly visible running up
and down the Kaikoura coast through the night, at odd times there
were a reasonably large number presumably linking with the ferry
departures from Picton. Motor sailing meant I made very good timing,
the small amount of wind meaning Honey was moving along at about 6
knots, which had us at Kaikoura by 6am while it was still dark –
too early to be able to spot any whales. I slowed Honey down to an
idle and we slowly motored down the coast at about 4 miles out to sea
where the continental shelf rises from more than 1000 metres to about
100-200 metres, and where I hoped to spot a whale. It was glassy calm
as the sun rose, with the first rays glinting on the snow on the
Kaikoura mountains – very beautiful, but no whales. At 7.20am
having given up my hopes of whale spotting, I carried on motoring
down the coast hoping the wind would pick up sometime soon. I'd had
no rest to speak of that night – its not so easy to take naps when
the engine is continually whirring, and I'm also not able to hear my
alarm or the sound of an approaching boat.
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| Sunrise over the Kaikoura Range |
I was off the coast
from Point Gibson, roughly where the Hurunui River meets the sea,
when the north east wind finally picked up, and at 12.30pm I unfurled
the headsail and turned off the engine. So good to finally have some
peace, and moving along at 4 knots, I retreated into the cabin for a
short nap. Twenty minutes later and now sailing along at 5 knots and
with no other boats in view, I took another short nap. The wind
continued to pick up and soon I was doing 6 knots and then 7 knots
across Pegasus Bay, with the winds finally reaching about 20
knots. I reefed down, so that the little autohelm could easily handle
the small swell that had developed, and settled in to a nice
afternoon of sailing at about 6 knots. It was warm and sunny with not
a cloud in the sky and no other boats visible at all in the bay, the
only sound apart from the wind and the waves were planes passing high
overhead. Haze covered most of Banks Peninsula and the sun was
setting as Christchurch came into view – the twinkling lights of
Sumner and the Port Hills and the sillouettes of the few tall
buildings left in central Christchurch. It was an absolutely
beautiful evening, and the approach to Lyttelton from Pegasus Bay was
so lovely – I felt a huge sense of accomplishment as I passed back
into waters I know well. As I approached Godley Head, the wind
reduced and I shook out the reef in the main and sailed between two
large ships moored off Sumner Beach. Little Port Cooper is just
inside Lyttelton Harbour, and I was already at Adderley Head when I
quickly furled in the headsail and dropped the main and motored to
pick up the mooring. It was after 10.30pm and I would have struggled
to locate the mooring in the dark if it wasn't for the GPS
coordinates in the club handbook. Securely moored, with a view of the
lights of Lyttelton Port, I settled in for a light dinner and a good
night sleep before I would sail the final few miles down the harbour
in the morning.
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| Pegasus Bay and my daily view of the blue seas |
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