We decided to poke our nose out into the rough stuff today to do a bit of sailing and give the crew a taste of what was to come when we head South. Only now that I’ve uploaded some of the crew photos have I realised that basically everyone except me was awake for the sunrise. Anyway……. with 2 reefs in the mizzen, 3 reefs in the main and the stay sail deployed we were ready for the 30knot gusts that smashed us on the nose as we tried to head around to Golden Bay. As the breeze started to strengthen we decided to turn around and head back downwind. We’d had our taster. That was enough for now!

I’d made the mistake of heading into the wet locker to pump the black tank out and promptly felt sick. You may wonder if people become immune to sea sickness if they are exposed to conditions more often. As someone who lives on a boat, I can confirm this makes no difference whatsoever. I quickly popped a nausicalm, sculled some water and lay down in the saloon for the next hour. I know what’s good for me. As we turned around to head downwind I popped my head up and all was right with the world again.

This is fun! I also can’t recognise anyone now they’re all geared up.

View from down below which was where I was hiding from the rain

We then motored on down to check out the impressive Split Apple Rock which sits 50m off the coast between Kaiteriteri and Marahau. Traditional Māori legend claims the boulder was split in half when two feuding gods were fighting to possess it. To resolve the issue, they used their strength to split the rock in half, hence the Māori name for the rock Toka Ngawhā which means “burst open rock”.

We then went to pick up our dinghy from Silver Fern in Kaiteriteri who had agreed to babysit it for us for the day. Well let’s just say I won’t trust them with my dinghy child in the future. After we dropped our child off for the day, Silver Fern changed their plans from the original plan of staying put for the day and instead poked their nose out into the windy weather as well. This resulted in the swamping of our poor dinghy through a wave and the loss of an oar! If you see them offering babysitting services in the future I’d be very dubious. After being reunited with the not so baby dinghy we set off for a more sheltered anchorage for the night.

Till next time,

Jess :)

Drastic change in weather later in the day

Join the crew for a sailing adventure

Rough Weather Practise

Proactive Procrastination

Romantic Cruise