Abel Tasman - Okiwi Bay

It was starting to feel like it was time to make a move. Vela spent her morning QS'ing - sorting out contractors and being a superstar at saving her company time and money. Meanwhile Nathan played boat husband, sweeping, vacuuming, and otherwise sorting things out so we'd be ready to leave in the afternoon. We also had a very cool bi-plane give us a top gun style fly-by.

After the hard work, Nathan cracked open a hazy (very nice drop by the way) and put the cricket on, watching the NZ batsmen smash Pakistan all over the park. Around 3.30 we motored away from Adele Island, pulled out some sails, and pointed our bow East towards Okiwi Bay. We had about 20-25kt of wind so started with just the mainsail, but once we were able to turn downwind a little further we pulled out the little staysail (re-tied leech cord working perfectly) and our speed was consistently around 8.5kt, reaching up into the low 9's.

We were smashing it across Tasman Bay. Nathan decided to join in on the smashing and his little toe paid the price - our first injury on board and hopefully the worst we get (don't look at the last photo if you don't like feet/blood/injuries). Vela made a comment about the conditions being hazy, which reminded Nathan he was feeling thirsty so another hazy came out of the fridge.

We were escorted by our friend Jason (Seagull) along the way. Which brought some laughs and smiles as he glided along behind us.

As we approached the eastern side of Tasman Bay, the wind lightened off, so we changed up to the big genoa, and eventually had to start the engine. We had made great time and were heading inside the harbour a little over 3 hours after leaving.

Once inside the harbour we seemed to be surrounded by wildlife. Nathan spotted a rather peeved looking seal just next to the boat (might have woken him from a nap), a penguin floating around, a shark fin gliding past our stern, and even a bunch of goats grazing the mountainside. The waters feel much more alive after leaving the Abel Tasman...

Vela whipped up some more of her epic garlic noodles with eggs and cucumber for dinner and we dropped anchor in a beautiful, calm Okiwi Bay for the evening. Unfortunately the anchorage was quite rolly overnight (although it remained glassy and we couldn't see any of the swells causing the rolling), but we chose to tough it out. Tomorrow afternoon we're heading through French Pass and properly into the Marlborough Sounds - unfortunately it looks like we're in for a bit of wet weather for the next few days...Meer informatie