Another Holiday, another charter. Our lives here are tough. This time we took along some friends, Euan and Carolyn and their two children Katherine and Annie. Even trapped on a small (35 feet is small for seven people) boat, it was a great adventure.The first day was windy and gusty, as I've heard it often is in Queen Charlotte Sound. We put up the main with one reef in, and rolled the Genoa to about a jib, and still had to fight to keep from rounding up when the wind channeled through the bays. Tiller on a 35 footer still seems like torture to me.
We spent the night at the same mooring in Double Bay as we had our first charter. This charter was also for 3 days, and the boat had the same peculiar electric macerating toilet and 6 liter holding tank as our first charter. This time we were on Syrena, a Lotus 10.6.
We had a beautiful sunset, after we'd chased some interlopers off the Charterlink mooring, and had Euan serenade the sun down. Then Bob and I got Astronomy 101 as Euan told us about the southern skies and all the things we could see if one of the next two nights were clear enough to take the telescope to shore.
Next day dawned gloomy, but it really wasn't cold. It was still windy and gusty, and we sailed at hull speed with just the genny partly furled. No dolphins through Patten Passage, and we were somewhat disappointed. We saw Australasian Gannets, shags of several kinds, and we argued about whether we had seen blue penguins or shags swimming nearby.
Back again to Motuara Island (Bird Island) for the trip to the lookout over Cook Straits. It was really windy, and took us two tries to get anchored. Bob was worried enough about it holding that he stayed on the boat and got some alone time without having to get into the dinghy.
The rest of us ferried over to the dock in the teeny tiny 2.2 person dinghy. I did most of the rowing (thanks to the MSS Topeka for that obscure skill), taking Kat over, then two littlest ones together, then Carolyn and then let Euan row both of us (and his camera and binocs) on the last trip.
We saw a penguin in the nest box right off the dock, and then got to see bellbirds and fantails and the rare southern saddleback. The movie below doesn't show much, but is a recording of bellbirds in the forest. You can also hear the wind howling...
We re-did the ferry thing on the return to the boat, then took off under power (directly into the wind) toward Endeavor Inlet. We moored again in Tawa Bay, but this time we stayed at the charterlink mooring. The club mooring we had stayed at last time was...gone.
The girls did some exploring, but mostly we just hung out on the boat, had a great vegetarian lasagna dinner, and helped Annie make out her Easter Checklist. It was not clear if the list for the bunny, or the girls, or the parents. (Annie knows who the easter bunny is.) First on the list was Hide Easter Eggs, followed by Get Excited, then Make Brownies, and some others I can't remember. This was not just a list, this list was used, and as we completed each item, she checked it off! Annie is such a remarkable conversationalist it was hard to remember she was only SIX.
All the girls watched Ratatouille that night. I don't know what the boys did. They were clearly outnumbered.
It was a long and noisy night. The wind was not blowing directly up the bay, so when we moored and for a while afterward, we were protected and it was fairly calm. But then the wind picked up, or shifted more southerly, or both, and we periodically got gusts that would shiver the boat and rigging and turn us sideways to the mooring. And then the noise really began.
As instructed by the charterer, we had used a mooring pennant about 15 feet long to run through the eye splice in the top of the mooring can. One side was cleated to each bow cleat. And as the boat was pushed sideways the pennant would slide through the eye. When the gust died down, the boat wanted to return to center on the pennant, and it did. One squeaky bit at a time. It was horribly noisy. Just after daylight, Bob got up and took the anchor off the roller and ran the pennant over the anchor roller, then recleated to the line to both bow cleats. and there was...not silence, but at least a tolerable quiet. It is not clear what the 'correct' means of mooring is, but the next night we noticed that most boats used the anchor roller.
Bob and I went exploring, hoping to find a trail from Tawa Bay to the Queen Charlotte Track, a famous NZ track that had luxury resorts, some accessible only by trail or water, scattered a day apart. We didn't find any trails, so we headed to Furneaux Lodge to start our hike from that end.
In the middle of Endeavor Inlet, we found the dolphins. And the penguins. There were dolphins everywhere. Jumping, swimming at us, behind us, under us, with us. We think they were bottlenose dolphins (like Flipper). Annie was convinced that her dolphin call (a loud undulating scream of sorts) was what kept the dolphins with us for so long.
And we found out the penguin sighting from the day before was likely real. And we saw lots more penguins, usually in groups of 2 or 3, just swiming around, looking a bit like ducks in the water.
We picked up a mooring at Furneaux, and called for the water taxi service. It was cool. The lodge is beautiful, and the bush surrounding it is old growth and also beautiful. A walk to a waterfall, a beer on the veranda of the restaurant, and some time for the kids to play at the beach.
After another great dinner, Euan, Bob and I took the water taxi, and Euan's telescope to the beach to look at the skies while the rest continued the Disney marathon by watching Meet the Robinsons.
We saw H2 in orions belt (orion is 'upside down' in the southern hemisphere--if rome and greece had been in the southern hemisphere orion would be called...something else), a red dwarf, the Jewel Box, Alpha Centauri, and learned how to find the south celestial pole using the southern cross, Alpha and Beta Centauri and a star that starts with an A, but I forgot the name. The best thing, though, was getting to see the rings of saturn! Euan is an accomplished amateur astronomer and photographer. His photo of the Comet McNaught was published in National Geographic and Nature. You can see the photo here.
It's hard to make the adjustment to the southern hemisphere. After all, north really isn't UP, that's just the way we in the northern hemi draw it. So, if there isn't an UP, then being upside down can't be...egad, I'm confused.
Our last day was beautiful. Not much wind, but we easily motored over to feed the tame fish/ducks/seagulls. Got back to the dock a little early, and Bob masterfully backed the boat into the slip. We dropped the boat hook overboard, but someone in a power boat picked it up for us.
We left the Masons at the marina, they were off to see relatives in Havelock and we were headed home.
The girls did some exploring, but mostly we just hung out on the boat, had a great vegetarian lasagna dinner, and helped Annie make out her Easter Checklist. It was not clear if the list for the bunny, or the girls, or the parents. (Annie knows who the easter bunny is.) First on the list was Hide Easter Eggs, followed by Get Excited, then Make Brownies, and some others I can't remember. This was not just a list, this list was used, and as we completed each item, she checked it off! Annie is such a remarkable conversationalist it was hard to remember she was only SIX.
All the girls watched Ratatouille that night. I don't know what the boys did. They were clearly outnumbered.
It was a long and noisy night. The wind was not blowing directly up the bay, so when we moored and for a while afterward, we were protected and it was fairly calm. But then the wind picked up, or shifted more southerly, or both, and we periodically got gusts that would shiver the boat and rigging and turn us sideways to the mooring. And then the noise really began.
As instructed by the charterer, we had used a mooring pennant about 15 feet long to run through the eye splice in the top of the mooring can. One side was cleated to each bow cleat. And as the boat was pushed sideways the pennant would slide through the eye. When the gust died down, the boat wanted to return to center on the pennant, and it did. One squeaky bit at a time. It was horribly noisy. Just after daylight, Bob got up and took the anchor off the roller and ran the pennant over the anchor roller, then recleated to the line to both bow cleats. and there was...not silence, but at least a tolerable quiet. It is not clear what the 'correct' means of mooring is, but the next night we noticed that most boats used the anchor roller.
Bob and I went exploring, hoping to find a trail from Tawa Bay to the Queen Charlotte Track, a famous NZ track that had luxury resorts, some accessible only by trail or water, scattered a day apart. We didn't find any trails, so we headed to Furneaux Lodge to start our hike from that end.
In the middle of Endeavor Inlet, we found the dolphins. And the penguins. There were dolphins everywhere. Jumping, swimming at us, behind us, under us, with us. We think they were bottlenose dolphins (like Flipper). Annie was convinced that her dolphin call (a loud undulating scream of sorts) was what kept the dolphins with us for so long.
And we found out the penguin sighting from the day before was likely real. And we saw lots more penguins, usually in groups of 2 or 3, just swiming around, looking a bit like ducks in the water.
We picked up a mooring at Furneaux, and called for the water taxi service. It was cool. The lodge is beautiful, and the bush surrounding it is old growth and also beautiful. A walk to a waterfall, a beer on the veranda of the restaurant, and some time for the kids to play at the beach.
After another great dinner, Euan, Bob and I took the water taxi, and Euan's telescope to the beach to look at the skies while the rest continued the Disney marathon by watching Meet the Robinsons.
We saw H2 in orions belt (orion is 'upside down' in the southern hemisphere--if rome and greece had been in the southern hemisphere orion would be called...something else), a red dwarf, the Jewel Box, Alpha Centauri, and learned how to find the south celestial pole using the southern cross, Alpha and Beta Centauri and a star that starts with an A, but I forgot the name. The best thing, though, was getting to see the rings of saturn! Euan is an accomplished amateur astronomer and photographer. His photo of the Comet McNaught was published in National Geographic and Nature. You can see the photo here.
It's hard to make the adjustment to the southern hemisphere. After all, north really isn't UP, that's just the way we in the northern hemi draw it. So, if there isn't an UP, then being upside down can't be...egad, I'm confused.
Our last day was beautiful. Not much wind, but we easily motored over to feed the tame fish/ducks/seagulls. Got back to the dock a little early, and Bob masterfully backed the boat into the slip. We dropped the boat hook overboard, but someone in a power boat picked it up for us.
We left the Masons at the marina, they were off to see relatives in Havelock and we were headed home.
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