Napier to Wellington

29/12/2010

Set out this morning at 0600. Conditions beautiful, the sea almost glassy calm, such a contrast to the previous days wind shrieking through the marina.

Cape Kidnappers lies at the southern end of Hawke Bay and is an impressive sight with its high white cliffs and big caves hollowed into the sandstone.  It is also home to a large gannet colony and these beautiful birds with their painted faces must number thousands on the cliff top and down at sea level.



Cape Kidnappers



A fairly uneventful day with light north easterly winds which were on our beam going round as the day wore on. Past Cape Turnagain, and by 7pm we were abeam Castlepoint (about 4 miles off).

There seem to be a few versions to the story of the naming of Cape Kidnappers, the most common being that Captain Cook named it in 1769 when a member of Endeavour's crew was dragged into a Maori canoe in the after they had been trading.  The Endeavour fired at the Maori and the man was released and mangaged to get back aboard Endeavour.  Cape Turnagain was also named by Cook, being the furthest point on the east coast they reached before turning north again.

The faint outline of Castlepoint

   We had the company of a large pod of Dolphins, probably about 30 for 15 minutes and they were in the acrobatic mood with plenty of leaps and pushing each other out of the way to be closest to the keel at the stem of the boat. A very curious seal also came to have a close look at us, almost leaping aboard before darting under the water and swimming off at incredible speed. At this point it was time for a bit of dinner before settling down for the night and taking turns at the wheel for 3 hour on/off watches.

It was a fairly calm night and we kept the mainsail up until about 4am when we were abeam Cape Palliser and with the wind coming round astern the sail was not helping much so we dropped it.

 

Red lights in the wheelhouse (white lights destroy night vision)

We had a rolling ride across Palliser Bay reaching Turakirae Head about 7am and while we were tempted to head into Wellington the forecast was for strengthening winds in Western Cook Strait so we had a shot of caffeine and continued on.
Unfortunately by this stage we had a 20 knot northerly wind as well as the tide against us and we plugged into the short sharp seas, our speed dropping off from 7.5 knots to a frustratingly slow 3-4 knots past Karori Rock and around Cape Terawhiti.




Wind Generators on Wellingtons south coast

 After five hours from Wellington we were very happy to get into familiar territory – our old home of Mana Marina and the Mana Cruising Club which is situated at Paremata (Porirua Harbour).

Our good friend and fellow boatie, Dick Watt had kindly arranged a marina berth for us and was waiting to take our lines when we got in. We had a few nervous moments crossing the bar coming into Paremata as we had arrived about 11/2 hours after low tide and although we had been told there would be sufficient water over the bar for us we watched the depth sounder as the readings decreased but all was okay and we had just over half a metre of water under the keel.

The plan was to have a bit of a sleep, a quiet meal with Dick and Enid and an early night but this didn’t quite come off as there were quite a number of old friends to have a chat to who had seen us arrive and after a bottle of wine at the cruising club we managed to stay awake long enough to enjoy a good curry at a café across the road and then after 40 hours on the go we collapsed for an extremely good nights sleep.

5 January 2011
The days since our arrival here have been most enjoyable catching up with family and old friends. New Years eve was spent with Dick and Enid at their beautiful home in Plimmerton which has the most stunning view across the bay to Mana Island and beyond to the mountains of the South Island. The sunset was stunning and the food delicious, vodka cured Marlborough salmon followed by a piece of sirloin cooked on the bbq. (sad to say that I left the battery for my camera on charge at the boat…)

On New Years day Pete’s kids, Jason and his partner Adele and Justine and partner Ben came over. We had a bbq lunch and then went for a short motor out around the bay.

Corrin Miller has kindly leant us a car and she and her fiancé Andy came over for dinner last night.

Justine and Sam (Pete’s grandson) popped in yesterday and brought us lunch.

Once again I have forgotten to get my camera out so sorry no pictures.

At this point we haven’t made any plans but are thinking of heading over to the Marlborough Sounds for a while. We want to visit Pete’s sister Wendy who lives in Waikawa and have a few dives to see if we can find some scallops which are usually plentiful in the area.

Well that’s all for now. Sorry – blogs have been few and far between but things like doing laundry, sanding and oiling woodwork on the boat, and catching up with people have been taking preference.

Hope you have all had a very happy start to 2011.