Unsettled weather

Sunday afternoon

We sailed on the Saturday morning on a whim really. Not a very promising forecast at all, but nothing dangerous. However, we did have the Sounds to ourselves! While the wind was NW we hung out in Ferndale and on Sunday when the sun left Ferndale (3pm) we moved over to Take-In Bay where we had sun for another hour and a half. A long-awaited front came through at sunset making for a spectacular end to the day.

Misty start to Monday

Weird the way the good weather has been synchronised with Wednesdays and the bad weather with Saturdays for about the last eight weeks. This time there was a ridge lined up for Monday. Woke to thick fog which lifted to about 100 metres above sea level with two miles visibility underneath it. All fast in the berth by 10.30.

Living in a lava lamp

Says it all, really

QBW18

The Kenepuru at sunset

Despite an unpromising forecast we decided to go out anyway, at 10 am on the Saturday. It turned into quite a nice day. We steamed as far north as Yncyca Bay on a recce. At this time of year, and in the SE'ly weather, it was a bit bleak. We approached the PMW buoy and recorded a waypoint for our return some summer evening. Then we beat a retreat to Take-In Bay. The picture shows how the weather dominated the weekend, but we had a nice time regardless. Sue caught a 26cm Spotty. 

We did a Man Overboard exercise and managed to get our bucket-and-fender casualty back aboard in quick time. We did a Williamson turn and that worked well, bringing us right back onto our reciprocal course and on track. The MOB feature on the Raymarine is not that good. I'm not sure, even after reading the manual, that it is working the way it should. Quite the worst feature is the way it automatically changes the range such that you can't see any land. I found it disorientating, and retaining your orientation and a heightened situational awareness is what a good MOB is all about. Our procedure now is simply to always start a track which means we can at any time exactly retrace our steps. 

Passing traffic in the Havelock Channel

We did some handle-down running to test the gearbox repairs and it passed with flying colours. The hottest part of the casing after an hour of full power was 70°C. The shifts to ahead and astern were instantaneous and smooth.

We came in near the top of the tide on the Monday around lunchtime. All in all, a satisfying long weekend.

Unsettled May

Lows pushing up from the south

Big savings on fuel this month. A chance to get all those wee jobs done. Like tidying up the engine room after the gearbox repairs and servicing the poo tank. This will give way to a long settled spell we hope. We'll have to see if June and July produce more weekends when we can get out and about. 

Everyone has their favourite weather app but the one that produces the most consistently reliable results for us is MarineWeather. 

Weather bomb

Saturday January 21st

A series of three deep depressions have tracked across the country, causing a fair amount of disruption to boating. It's funny how winds of fifty knots are becoming the new norm. We wonder what our chances are for a trip to Tennyson Inlet on Waitangi weekend.