Wow, wow and WOW

Date 25/1/2015 Time 21:45 (and still plenty of daylight) Position Milford Sound
The three and a half day voyage down the coast was mostly calm as we were in the middle of a high pressure system or anti-cyclone. We now know why they call highs - anti-cyclones, because they are everything a cyclone isn't. No wind, cloud or waves. We did 56 hours of motoring while enjoying the stunning views and every detail of the (rarely cloudless) Southern Alps. It brought back memories of Wayne's mountaineering adventures up there when the ocean was rarely seen.
We arrived at Milford Sound this evening at 8.35pm. This place is absolutely amazing. We just kept saying look over there, wow look at that as we proceeded into the Fjord. The mountains around us soar up to and over 1000m from the shoreline and some are snow capped. There are also waterfalls cascading down the rock faces into the sound. We are straining our necks looking up all the time! It is an awe inspiring place. As we were coming along the sound we were experiencing 20kn winds with gusts lifting sheets of water off the surface. When the wind initially reached 15kn we said wow that is the most wind we've had on the trip down the coast.
We are now anchored in 29m of water at Harrison Bay which is a lovely, still anchorage half way along the sound. We have taken a shoreline from the stern of the boat to a tree on the shore so that we don't yaw around and end up on the sandbar which comes out of the Harrison River. If we look north from the boat we can see a snow capped peak rising above us and south from us is a sheer vertical rock face on the other side of the sound. As soon as we stopped to tie in, the sandflies started attacking. We have made covers for all the hatches and vents out of no-see-m mesh so we quickly had them all in place and Wayne had made an insect repellent of 50% detol and 50% baby oil.(Thanks Charles for this remedy.) It seems to be working. Now it's time for a hot shower, dinner and a long sleep.
Thanks to everyone for your comments on the blog, they come back to us through our ship's email system. Ben - We have a lot of ropes to pull from the cockpit now since installing all the new furling systems and they all work really well. We have yet to install the cables between the vane and pendulum. It's on the list, but there have just been so many jobs (and fun things too) that have taken precedence.
Happy Australia Day - Wayne n Kathy

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