OCC Roving Rear Commodore's report from New Zealand
by Sarah and Phil Tadd 26 Sep 2022 00:17 BST
Walking the Queen Charlotte Track in New Zealand's Marlborough Sounds © Sarah and Phil Tadd
January saw us halfway through a summer cruise to New Zealand's South Island.
The Abel Tasman and Marlborough Sounds are very different but both beautiful, though each has challenges for cruisers; few and rolly anchorages in Abel Tasman and strong winds and deep water in the Sounds. We took time to walk the 4-day Queen Charlotte Track and enjoyed drinks on board Zest with Vicky and Tom, Port Officers for Nelson during ex-tropical cyclone Dovi.
We had been told that the hardest part of sailing to South Island was getting back north and so it proved. A series of depressions off East Cape forced us to shelter in Napier and then Tauranga before we finally got to Great Barrier Island for a few days with friends. Then it was just a day sail back to Whangarei, completing our circumnavigation of North Island.
Whangarei Town Basin has been our base during our prolonged stay in New Zealand and has been transformed over the last few years. With the friendly marina staff and availability of boat services, it is well worth the trip up the river. We spent April there preparing 'Serenity' for her first ocean passage in two and a half years, then sailed north to the Bay of Islands ready to check out from Opua.
We missed one weather window at the start of May, but after that, a constant stream of depressions or headwinds meant we didn't see an opportunity that suited us until 22nd June when we finally left New Zealand along with many other boats that had also been waiting. For the 880 nm passage to Noumea, New Caledonia, we anticipated a mild front a couple of days out then favourable winds, but the weather hadn't been watching the forecast and a new low appeared pushing fronts across our path. After a couple of days of pleasant sailing we hanked our working jib on and reefed down: as the front passed with torrential rain, we had four reefs in the main and hove too for a while. The front was followed by a strong southwest flow, but now we needed to slow down to arrive at the reef in daylight so continued under short sail for most of the rest of the passage.
We are now preparing to explore New Caledonia armed with useful information provided by David Plumley, Port Officer for Noumea, over a cup of tea.
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.