Not much wind all the way and a little sailed out from the Noelex at Waikawa we were happy to motor all the way, besides I had installed a new fridge over Xmas and needed to test it.
A calm crossing through the straits arriving off the south coast amongst what seemed like all the Cook Strait ferries plying the straits, turned on the Nav lights and flat battery? No way we had been motoring for13 hours?
Switch over to the start battery, turn off fridge, auto pilot, stereo, instruments
We tied up at midnight, C V back in her old berth at Chaffers Mariner (Thanks Tony & Vesna) .
Next morning, check why we had lost battery power, again Knoxy sorted our problem, on removing the alternator for testing he found a broken wire. repaired, alternator replaced and we were charging.
The next couple of days we spent catching up with friends,
C V back in Wellington for 2015 Wellington - Nelson race
Friday 16th Jan 8am, Steve, Jenna, Alix, Griz Taylor (owner Young 8.4 Wild Thing) arrive on morning flight from Nelson, Matt had arrived Thursday night by ferry.
Stores and gear stowed ready for the 11:30am start,but after perfect conditions all week Wellington had decided today was going to be a blow hard day? in-fact the forecast was for gale force northerlies through until Thursday.
Pedro our race officer called a postponement which throughout the day went 11:30, postponed, try for 3:30pm, postponed, try for 5:30, postponed, try for 11:30 pm, at 9:30pm Race cancelled.
So here we are stuck in Wellington, No race 35-40 knots in the straits, but the forecast was for a drop to 25-30 overnight, increasing again in the morning, THE NELSON REGATTA on Sunday?
I decided to go anyway at 11:30pm but first needed some expert local knowledge, Brent Drewhurst Gucci, a local with miles under his keel and knows the straits like the back of his hand.
I phoned Brent to ask his advice, Gucci and crew were leaving at midnight was his reply, good enough for me.
I then phoned Missy the Nelson Regatta organiser to send out text to other boats in the race and entered in the regatta, we were going, maybe others would come along.
Richard on the other Nelson boat, Jet was keen, so the 3 boats headed out into the darkness of a very windy Cook Strait.
Storm jib and both reefs in the main, we cleared Moaning Milly at 1am, not a bad sail across Island Bay in flatfish water, but as we progressed on we had a couple of 37 and a 40 plus knotters,
Brent had the timing perfect as we had very little rip at Tarawhiti and once in the Straits proper settled into a bumpy but bearable crossing, and tide pushing us across, we were pleased we were not having to slog our way up to The Brothers, Tory Channel was slightly cracked sheets which made life easier.
As we neared Tory the breeze eased back to 27-33 and the sea flatter in the lee of Cape Koamaru.
We entered the shelter of the sounds at 5am, a 4 hour crossing, all 3 boats close together all the way.
drop the sails and motor through the sounds, some sleep for some of us and out North entrance, around Cape Jackson and home, we even had a wee shower of rain to wash the salt of us through the sounds.
There can't have been much wind through Jackson as I didn't wake until at Titi Island, off Pelorus Sound.
Nice and sunny now with a 12 knot northerly, we pushed on under motor as we were going to be late for French Pass, all on deck and lunch over, heading up Admiralty Bay we decided to see how the Freezer in new fridge was working, Ice creams all round.
14 hours after leaving Wellington, Ice creams, lunch desert
We arrived at French Pass 2 1/2 hours after the SW turn and shot through at a great rate C V twisting and shuddering as we hit the odd whirl pool, we were now on the last lap home.
We picked up a sniff of sea breeze south of Durville Island so hoisted the kite, we handed the helm over to Grizz for some practice as Wild Thing would be sporting Oldsmobile's old "Big Red" in the regatta.
The breeze dropped away again after a while so we dropped sails and motored home, arriving Nelson 8pm. A long day, but we were home and would be fronting up tomorrow for Day 1 Nelson Regatta.
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