Wim Hof Wannabies

We awoke to a beautiful day in Torrent Bay just off the Abel Tasman National Park. The plan was to head into the Abel Tasman track and walk South to Anchorage or North to Torrent Bay. With a window of 1 hour each side of high tide to dinghy everyone up the river we timed our run perfectly…..somewhat. As I’m quite precious about donking the outboard on the rocks I pulled it up early as we sauntered up the river and made my crew get the paddles out. This is always an entertaining team building exercise to see if my crew can work in harmony together. In this case we were almost going around in circles so Nick our depth sounder jumped in up to his waist and pulled the dinghy in to save us anymore judgment from our onshore spectators.

We then walked to the beautiful Cleopatras pools where there are a series of natural rock pools and a waterslide at the bottom of the Torrent River. Here we got to put the Wim Hof method into practise(supposedly it’s good for you) as we plunged into the freezing cold water and tried to remember how to breathe again. Lot’s of laughter ensued as those that were brave enough to take the plunge then slid their way(in some not so elegant styles) down the rocky waterslide.

Cleopatras Pools

Emma and Matt finally succumbing to peer pressure

Amelia stopping to inspect every different type of fern. Try not to get stuck behind her……

On the beach hoping someone will come and pick us up

We then went back to the river crossing where the track splits to go South over the river to Anchorage Bay or North to Torrent Bay. As we arrived our new depth sounder Juliet was nearly halfway across the river almost up to her waist in water. This didn’t look great to me….mainly because I wanted to keep my pants dry and I’d been laughing at tourists crossing the river an hour earlier at high tide. We decided then to stay on the track and head North instead. The decision came a little late for Juliet but she was a good sport about it! She scrambled back up to the track and we all stood and had a good giggle at the Silver Fern crew who had started crossing the river in their undies. There were some close calls but they all managed to make it across the river unscathed.

Salt Lines crew providing Silver Fern with some vocal encouragement

We then had a lovely walk to the beach and headed back to the boat for a relaxed afternoon of book reading, dinner prep, and paddlewheel cleaning. Ok the paddlewheel cleaning may have not been so relaxing. Our water speed hasn’t been showing up on our chart plotter for a few days so as I mentioned earlier Nick volunteered to clean the paddlewheel to fix this problem. Nick did indeed end up going for a swim under the boat but needed a little more elbow grease to free the wheel. He then got the fun job of pulling the thru hull fitting out and trying not to sink the boat at the same time. There was a heap of barnacle growth on the paddlewheel as he pulled it out so I have no doubt it will be working perfectly tomorrow.

Depth sounder, and paddlewheel puller Nick

Silver Fern came and rafted up for a catchup, and another weather brief on what the plan is as it stands. After dinner they cast off and sneakily motored round the corner to Tonga Island for the night which is where we are planning to head tomorrow for the day.

Till next time,

Jess :)