En route to Milford Sound

Date 23/1/2015 Time 1800 (Z) Position 41 20'S 170 44'E
Before leaving Abel Tasman NP we stretched our legs on Wednesday by rowing ashore in Torrent Bay and climbing Pit Head and walking out to Cleopatra's Pool. The cicadas were erratically buzzing everywhere particularly at our heads and necks! Ugh. Cleopatra's Pool was a lovely fresh water swimming hole where we enjoyed our lunch. There seemed to be more people standing around the swimming hole in their bathers then actually in the water. With the best of intentions of going for a swim the water temperature was not enticing. On the way there we saw some interesting pigeon like birds with a fancy top notch scratching on the the ground beside the trail surrounded by their tribe of about seven chicks scurrying after their parents. When we climbed Pit Head we were able to get phone and internet reception and Wayne downloaded a new grib file forecast for the west coast. A grib file shows the wind speed and direction every three hours for any number of days up to seven days. With the forecast looking good with variable wind up to 10 knots we decided to depart early Thursday morning.

We lifted the anchor and were underway at 7am. We planned to sail to the next bay called Bark Bay to collect fresh water to top our water tanks as we had discovered a watering point for boats here when we had been kayaking a few days previously. It consisted of a long hose coming out from a stream and the end of the hose marked by a floating buoy. The fresh water just flowed from the end of the hose. However the buoy was close to the rocks and the wind had been blowing on shore all night which had created choppy waters so we decided against anchoring and topping up our tanks.

We had a fast beam reach out of Tasman Bay and around Farewell Spit. Since then we have experienced the variable winds. We have been able to maintain an average speed of 5kn with calm seas and a southerly swell below one metre. We have had several sail combinations and also given the code zero and asymmetric spinnaker a turn. At times we have had to motor because of lack of wind. We are currently about 40nm off the coast from Westport. Because of our proximity to the coastline we have maintained a watch for other vessels throughout the night taking turns at doing three hours on, three hours off. There have been numerous fishing boats in sight as Westport is a fishing port. The stars last night were amazing as there were no city lights to interfere. The milky way stretched from the horizon on one side in an arch over Ambler to the horizon on the other side. There were so many different configurations and intensities. I hope we have more nights ahead like that as it makes you appreciate the size of our universe.

We expect to enter Milford Sound on Sunday. All is peaceful on board and a delicious aroma is coming from the galley from Captain Cook Wayno.

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