Up at 5.00 to listen to the weather forecast and then left Coopers Bay after a peaceful night. Before going to bed we watched the phosphorescence in the water which was really bright with small water bugs skimming around causing bright green swirls in the dark water.
Cook Strait was benevolent this day and after rounding Cape Komaru and motoring past the Brothers Islands we put up a sail and had a quick crossing back to Mana Island where we picked up a mooring to wait for the tide to increase before going in across the bar.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the boat, washing out dive gear and washing clothes.
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| Mana Cruising Club |
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| Astrolabe - (the blue boat is one that Ron,Chris and I used to own) |
A busy few days preparing the boat for the trip from here. Have taken the dive tanks into the shop as they have to have their annual check; took the lump of lead into a scrap dealer and Pete happy as he got $60 for it!; went round second hand shops looking for old bone handle knives as they are good for getting the scallops out of their shells (haven’t found any yet); buying containers to store extra flour, sugar, etc. in and going to engineering shops to get bits made up.
On Thursday we spent a good few hours stocking up in the supermarket and then tearing our hair out trying to find places to store everything. There are plenty of areas for storage on the boat but not all are that easily accessible so it is essential to make an inventory of what is on the boat and where it is stored.
Monday - 31/01/2011
It has been blowing 45+ knots overnight and this morning the wind is still shrieking through the rigging of boats here in the marina. The boat is getting rocked around a fair bit so I am very pleased to be tied up in the marina rather than out at sea.
We are watching the weather and looking for a good 3 day forecast for the west coast. The plan is to leave here for Tarakohe in Golden Bay where we can top up the diesel tanks and then leave when the weather is right for us. Yesterdays prediction was that we would go to Tarakohe on Tuesday and leave there early Thursday morning getting in to Milford on Saturday morning.
Of course the weather gods may have different plans so we will wait, watch and let you know.
2 comments:
Hi Kate and Pete,
Have been following your voyage from South Africa--seems that you are having a great time.
As we are unfamiliar with the place names, do you not have a map showing your trip as well as your intended route.
Regards,
Graham and June Pearsondense
Hello Graham and June, nice to hear from you. good point on the map and i have been trying to map it out on google maps but kept having problems with it. will get on to it again though and post one soon. cheers, kate
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