Ship Meretoto

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Cruising NZ
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- Jan 27, 2024
- 🌬 22 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Ship Cove Ship Meretoto -41.09168, 174.23919941°5’30” S 174°14’21” E
4
Day 63
Stormy Saturday at Ship Cove
January 27 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 22 °C
Saturday started earlier than expected for Nathan. At 4am he got up with a full bladder and while heading outside found that the wind had changed direction, leaving them with not a lot of room (about 20m to possible rocks, and 50m to the shore) behind them should the anchor slip. Feeling uneasy about this, and knowing the weather forecast was for worse to come, the anchor came up and we moved to a spot with a bit more of a buffer.

With the anchor and all of the chain down, the forecast weather quickly came through and settled in. Unable to go back to sleep, Nathan made himself cozy in the saloon to keep an eye on things. The weather did get pretty extreme, but the anchor held. Vela got up and requested a coffee and some sesame porridge, but with the wild weather the food and drink didn't want to stay down.

We went into hibernation mode for a few hours stairs, wrapped up in a blanket and napping when we had the chance. Nathan jumped up a few times to check our distances to shore and make sure we weren't dragging. But our anchor held fantastically - fingers crossed it always does so!

Late morning the weather started to clear, and by midday we had beautiful blue skies and it was time to explore Ship Cove. We launched the dinghy and went ashore, the humidity and heat from the sun, coupled with the beach and thick undergrowth made it feel very tropical. We did a little bit of exploration, checking out the wharf, the James Cook monument and the many bush chickens (Weka) that we're hanging about. We also noted a short walk to a waterfall so we plan to come back tomorrow with some better footwear to check that out too.

Afterwards we took the dinghy to the point for a little bit of a fish, Vela pulled in a baby blue cod which got sent home, and also another spiny dogfish. Back on board Starling and Vela was on a roll, fishing up another spiny dogfish, myriads of small Gurnard, and one extra Gurnard big enough to keep. No blue cod for the bin today unfortunately.

We celebrated with a Pina colada, and Vela cooked up a little hot pot of yesterday's Gurnard and the jar remaining blue cod.Read more
Traveler The morning sounds awful! Hope you guys are feel better now
1/27/24Reply
Traveler It was nally! We are okay once it’s gone haha
1/27/24Reply
Traveler I feel sea sick just watching this
1/27/24Reply
Traveler Yeah i was like why are we doing this
1/27/24Reply
Traveler I would've swam to shore and stayed there
1/27/24Reply
Traveler It’ll be wet af but at least not rolling around, I got sea sick that morning was quite bad
1/27/24Reply
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Traveler New Zealand
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- Jan 17, 2024, 2:00pm
- ⛅ 22 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Ship Cove Ship Meretoto -41.093906, 174.23606941°5’38” S 174°14’10” E
Day 93
South Island ahead
January 17 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
taking the ferry to the South Island and then a water taxi to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track
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Cruising NZ
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- Jan 26, 2024
- ⛅ 20 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Ship Cove Ship Meretoto -41.093642, 174.24021941°5’37” S 174°14’25” E
Day 62
Ketu Bay - Ship Cove
January 26 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
This morning was an absolute stunner, glassy water, clear blue skies, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. You can't ask for much more!

Nathan made the most of the weather by jumping in the dinghy and heading over to the point where he finally managed to get into some legal blue cod. The point was just about swarming with fish, clearly shows you have to pick the right spot to throw your line in. Meanwhile Vela had edited up her drone footage from yesterday's hike.

Being Friday, and with some average looking weather on its way for the weekend, we decided to make the jump from Pelorus Sound over to Queen Charlotte Sound. So we hauled up the anchor, logged our trip with Coastguard, pulled out our sails, and set off.

The sail started off with a leisurely motor sail, but as expected the wind built as we got into Cook Strait. We were able to turn the motor off and were averaging close to 9kt (we hit 10kt a couple of times) on a broad reach straight for the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound. The water was spectacular and rough as we rounded Cape Jackson. A very tactical and safe gybe later and we were inside Queen Charlotte Sound.

We expected the wind to start to die off once we were inside, but it continued to increase, with our anemometer reading 30kt (but we think it under reads). We quickly shortened our sails, rolling our Genoa away to about 1/3 its full size, and the main to about 1/2. This was still plenty of sail but the boat was much more manageable. We were still hitting 10kt at times though.

We made short work of the rest of our sail into Ship Cove and found it to be nice and sheltered with only the occasional gust coming over the hills. Nathan cooked up our first taste of blue cod for dinner with a side of fried vege - definitely in the top 3 of fish species we've eaten on this trip!

We packed the boat up in preparation for some stormy weather on Saturday morning, and settled in for the evening.Read more
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