Crossing Cook Strait

Today officially signaled the halfway point of our trip as we left the South Island and began our northward journey (even though Wellington is kinda to the South of Picton...) We left through Tory Channel and had some spectacular currents pushing the boat around as we made the most of the last south island landscapes we'll see on this trip.

Again we picked a great weather window and had little to no wind and very slight seas on our crossing. Vela was even able to get a bit of work in while we were on the move. We spotted a small pod of dolphins off the southern coast of Wellington, but they didn't get close enough to identify the species. We also saw a big albatross relaxing on the ocean.

Wellington harbor was completely glassed over, making it hard to believe that 40kt+ winds are forecast for tomorrow... Vela perfectly parked Starling into our marina berth and started chatting away making friends with a couple of marina kids - who we invited in for a tour.

We walked to a nearby Indian restaurant for dinner, and finished off the evening working on some visa applications (Nathan's Chinese and Vela's Japanese), with a surprise video call from Mike & Cass in Vietnam to top it off.Read more