Two At Sea

March 23 – 28, 2016

After we arrived back in Picton, the front came in with its usual pattern: northerly winds followed by southerly winds that bring chilly air up from colder regions of the planet. This can make for pretty schizophrenic temperatures at times: hot one day, cold the next. Mostly, though, it’s comfortably warm.

What was unusual about this front was that the southerly winds were much stronger than predicted. We were very glad we’d gone into the marina when it gusted to 60 knots during the southerly! We wondered if this was a regular occurrence here, but after seeing some minor damage to boats in the marina (ripped canvas seams, shredded flags), we concluded it wasn’t. This was later confirmed by people we asked, who assured us that wasn’t normal at all! Hopefully we won’t be seeing this again, but we’ll make sure we’re in a well-protected anchorage if southerlies are due!

Picton is a small town, but we found a few culinary gems while we were here. The first I’ve mentioned: Oxley’s Rock with its fabulous green-lipped mussels in garlic, butter and wine broth. This was the first place we made a beeline for after stepping off the boat. I could have eaten here every day.

Another favorite was the incredible French toast at the Seabreeze Cafe. They make it with a baguette and somehow give it a thin caramelized crust, then it’s smothered with bacon and maple syrup. It’s Rich’s favorite French toast ever.

Our latest discovery was the really good pizzas at Cafe Cortado, especially the shrimp and garlic prawn pizza. They also make a delicious signature coffee drink that’s espresso with a little milk.

There’s also a very good Dutch bakery that makes excellent bread, and good place for ice cream if you pass up the Chateau brand (I can’t even imagine why they would offer this low-budget, inferior brand) and go for the Deep South brand, which is wonderful.

Finally, there’s this sign at Gusto, a local coffee cafe. We liked the coffee, but we loved this sign:

–Cyndi

March 23, 2016

We’re back in Picton, chased in by the threat of high wind gusts. Below are screen shots of what PredictWind has been showing the last few days…

This was really interesting to me. There’s been just about no wind here in the Marlborough Sounds. The top graph, wind, shows under ten knots for the next few days. The second graph, gusts, is what got us worried. It shows gusts to 35 knots! Maybe the bottom graph, rain, hints at why the gusts are so strong. It shows the gusty winds correlating with the rain. Front?

I don’t usually look at wind gusts on the GRIB models. I don’t even get it as an option the way I’ve been retrieving GRIBs to date. I just signed up for PredictWind and gusts are front and center there. Without this information, we’d still be out in the Sounds at anchor and I doubt we’d be too happy when the front hits tonight. Observations up north of us show gusts to 50 knots already.

The above graphs are for PredictWind’s PWG model (dark line) and PWC model (lighter line). Here’s what they say about them:

PWG is for PredictWind GFS and PWC stands for PredictWind CMC . The forecasts are proprietary to PredictWind, using the weather observation files from the GFS (Global Forecasting System) and the CMC ( Canadian Met Centre). PredictWind does not use the GFS/CMC forecasts, but simply the observations from GFS/CMC.

It would seem that gust data is available from the regular GFS model as well but not all retrieval systems can get this information. Below is windyty.com which displays the GFS model data in an incredibly useful (and very pretty) presentation. This image shows gusts, which seem to match PredictWind’s models pretty well. It also shows what looks like the responsible front.

When it comes to weather, I keep learning but any kind of mastery seems to be about a thousand years off. I do like my recent tools: PredictWind and Windyty.com. Both have Android apps that I have been using and am very pleased with. -Rich

Update, March 25, 2016 in Picton Marina

We didn’t get much in the way of northerlies that we came in from the Sounds to avoid, but last night, we got strong southerlies – gusting to 60 knots and practically laying us over on the dock we were along side. Everyone’s model missed that.

I might go back to my other weather prediction app… Heads it’ll be windy, tails – calm!

Guaranteed accurate 50% of the time!

March 19 – 23, 2016

There are several sounds that make up the Marlborough Sounds, and branching off these channels of water are numerous “arms,” much like branches along a tree trunk. These arms are much smaller than the “trunk,” and their more narrow scale can make them particularly beautiful.

After a stay in Picton, we went to explore the Grove Arm of Queen Charlotte Sound. While I can’t say it was more beautiful than what we’d already seen (some of those places in the Tory Channel were pretty hard to top), we did find a couple of special places. The first was Mistletoe Bay, with access to the Queen Charlotte Track (post coming). After spending a couple of days there, we ended up in a little bay called Flipper that was enchanting.

After Flipper Bay, we spent some time motoring around other areas of Grove Arm, but after trying and failing to anchor in a place called Waterfall Bay (lots of moorings, a cable to avoid, and a strangely hard bottom), we ended up back in Mistletoe Bay.

We had weather coming and planned to head back to Picton the following afternoon, but we enjoyed the beautiful Peninsula Walk between Mistletoe and Waterfall Bays and were glad we’d returned to see a little more.

Below is a gallery of pictures from Mistletoe Bay, Flipper Bay, and miscellaneous motoring around in the Grove Arm of Queen Charlotte Sound. Click to enlarge and scroll. –Cyndi

March 22, 2016

We’d only been in the Grove Arm a few days when we saw the forecast for another front coming in. It looked like it might get pretty gusty; so we had to decide whether to stay out in one of the bays or go back to Picton.

Anchoring for one of these fronts is a bit tricky because of their pattern: they start with northerly winds, but finish with southerlies. You have to look for a spot that gives you protection from both while being aware that certain areas can act as a funnel for winds, actually enhancing them before blasting them into the bay.

We spent part of a day motoring around sightseeing; then went to look at a potential all-weather anchorage in the east arm of a bay called Double Cove. It was in a long narrow cove lined with private homes. While we couldn’t really see the houses in the thick vegetation, the shore was lined with their boathouses, and everyone seemed to have at least one private mooring. This left no room for us to anchor.

That was the first of three reasons we decided to head back to Picton for the weekend. The second was that it was Easter weekend. Pretty much every boat in New Zealand is out during Easter weekend, and while this is a big area, we pictured all the best spots filling up.

The third reason refers back to that big area thing. The next area of Queen Charlotte Sound we wanted to explore was about 15 miles long, with several big bays about a mile deep, plus a big one about 4 miles deep. Within these big bays are the little coves and bays where you can anchor or moor your boat, and these are the main attraction. I’d learned in “little” Grove Arm just how long a trip can become when you motor up into every bay to look at the anchorages, and how much it can start to annoy the ship’s captain. So I came up with an idea: do the mail run.

The mail run is one of Picton’s main attractions. The mail boat takes different routes through Queen Charlotte Sound, depending on what day it is, delivering mail to scattered homes throughout the area that have no access by road. They take passengers along for the trip, letting them enjoy the scenery inside the bays (something they don’t get to see from the ferry).

I’d known about the mail run, but when we arrived here I smugly thought we don’t need to even consider it when we have our own boat! But now I’d been humbled by the size and grandeur of this area. The things we could see in a day from the mail boat would take us weeks in our own boat. We could pick out two or three spots we most wanted stay and go back there on our own.

There was one more thought: maybe we’d make the drive to Havelock (another town in the sounds north of us) and Nelson (our final destination) and make some decisions about whether we want to hurry to get there or take our time. We had so many unknowns ahead; and it had been confusing to try to figure out what we wanted to squeeze in before the season was over.

I will note here that, a couple of months ago, we decided not to buy a car and drive around the south island this year. Instead, we did our major boat work in Tauranga (on the north island) before making our way south. We’d then devote what remained of this season to cruising the north end of the south island. Hopefully we’d do the driving thing the following year.

Meanwhile, here’s a gallery from our motoring around Grove Arm, including some spots we checked out but decided not to stay. Click to enlarge, scroll, and see names. –Cyndi

And here’s where all this is (including Mistletoe Bay and Flipper where we did stay–see the post before last) on this map of Grove Arm (interactive Google map – zoom and pan as you wish)…

March 20, 2016

The Queen Charlotte Track is one of the most famous walks in New Zealand. It’s 44 miles long, mostly running along a ridge topping the mountains between two sounds: the Queen Charlotte Sound and the Kenepuru Sound. It takes 3 to 5 days to do the entire track and thus attracts a lot of serious hikers.

Luckily for less-serious hikers, there are seven bays with relatively short access trails to the Queen Charlotte Track, and water taxis from Picton have day-trip options where they’ll drop you off at one point and meet you at another several hours later. These walks take anywhere from 3 to 8 hours, depending on which option you pick. Some access points also have lodging/camping areas for the hikers.

Luckily for us not-serious-at-all hikers, you can visit just one bay, use the access trail to the Queen Charlotte Track; walk a little bit of it, then return to the bay. If you have your own boat, you can do this in several different places (which we’re hoping to do as we go along).

This is how we came to walk some of the Queen Charlotte Track. We picked Mistletoe Bay in the Grove Arm because of its access trail, the James Vogel Nature Track. After taking our dinghy to the dock provided by the park service, we found ourselves in a nice area of cabins plus a lawn area for tent campers. There was a dining area and kitchen for fixing your own food, and a tiny shop that makes coffee drinks for those who think to bring their wallet. (We didn’t think to bring our wallet).

We learned a couple of things during our hike. The first was that these access trails are nothing to sneeze at. The hike was uphill, longer, steeper, and more rugged than we anticipated, taking about 30 minutes (not including rests). The surprise was how beautiful it was. While much of the Queen Charlotte Track is on a ridge up high where drier native brush grows, this access track (the James Vogel Nature Track) was in a lush, green forest that looked like a rainforest. In spite of my research, I’d never heard of this track until we looked at the trail maps onshore, and I’m surprised because I think it would be an attraction in itself.

Climbing was a bit of a challenge as the trail would disappear at times amid coiling tree roots. It would pick up again, though, and we survived the climb to the top. The sign up there said this was the James Vogel Trail for “expert hikers.” All other hikers could take a nearby gravel road down to Mistletoe Bay. Wow, they left out that “expert hiker” bit on the sign at the other end of the trail.

Once we were on the Queen Charlotte Track, the inclines were gentle and as expected, the vegetation was more dry. We walked far enough to get a great view of Kenepuru Sound, then turned and went the other way for awhile hoping to get a view of Queen Charlotte Sound. After it became apparent that would be too long of a walk for us, we took the gravel road back to our bay, gawking at the tree ferns growing along it that must have been nearly 30 feet high. Below, a gallery of photos from our hike (click to enlarge and scroll). –Cyndi