Docking in 15-20 knots of wind in a tiny narrow spot was a little stressful but surprisingly nailed it! 😅

Time to put the boat to bed for 6 weeks while we go back to work. Nice downwind sail with consistent 25-30 knots of wind (2 reefs in). Had one section close to the coast where we hit a strong tidal rip and everything stood up to 3+ metre waves in like 5 second periods… 😬 luckily it was short lived. Dark when we arrived so just picked up a mooring and will head to the marina in the morning after 😴

Just a short trip to move anchorages but ended up being quite sporty! Wind from 8 knots gusting up beyond 30… downwinding for the win. Then took the sail down to go through a narrow pass and our intended anchorage didn’t look good so went in search of another and eventually found one.

Just a little motor to switch up our anchorage as the wind shifted directions. Found a nice little protected cove.

Started the day with motor sailing but then the wind picked up so got some really nice 15 knot upwind sailing in. Primo!!! Lots of dolphins came to check us out on the way too! Sail down to go through the narrow current filled Tory Channel and back into Marlborough Sounds. This completes our circumnavigation of the South Island of New Zealand!!!! 🤩

Leaving Banks Peninsula after a few days sheltering from the weather at the marina. Headed north to Marlborough Sounds, pulled into Kaikoura to see if we could spot any whales. No whales but Dusky dolphins! (The 4th dolphins species to ride our bow!!) Decided to stop and anchor for the (2nd) night as the wind died anyway. Awesome downwind sail. Overnight was spicy with 3+ metre seas at 8-9 second intervals and 25-30 knots of wind. Two reefs in and still cooking along at 8+ knots! 🤟 Sleep now and will finish the trip tomorrow.

Can’t believe we are on our way north again! All the way from Stewart Island to Christchurch. First night very little wind (but bioluminescent dolphins!!!) and then pretty steady wind the rest of the trip. And made it into Lyttleton Marina before the storm hit! And had the rare Hector’s dolphins bow riding coming around the Banks Peninsula!

Quick trip around the corner to the beautiful pest free Ulva Island. The morning of rainbows!

Had to do something to get out for a little explore…

Motored over to anchor up and go for a walk to Puyseger Lighthouse. Super shallow channel coming in so went super slow but well worth it.

Super cool arches and caverns to explore. Bit of swell!

It was a soggy one! 🌧️ But winds higher than forecast (25 knots rather than 10!) so got some downwinding in! 👏 Then wind died off and had to motor the last bit. Beautiful scenery!

Morning cruise in the rain to check out the outer islands before we leave.

So epic through all the islands and narrow passes! And tons of fur seal pups AND a shark!! (And for reference, the fur seal pup came up to the GoPro and was super curious!!)

Short trip this morning to a flipping idyllic spot amongst many islands, tucked away in a cove surrounded by fur seals! On the way got boarded by Department of Conservation who checked our hull (all clean and pest free!)

Final dinghy explore of the day! Picked up a mooring at Cascade Cove and then dinghied over to where Captain Cook moored his boat at Pickersgill Harbour. Short walk up the boardwalk and the creek to Lake Forster. And then dinghy back via the little islands of Indian Island. Super cool!

Afternoon move to our spot for the evening. What a calm, beautiful day. Happy to find a mooring for the night! 🙌

Went for a little solo rip in the dinghy. The reflections in here were insane! And found where everyone stores their cray pots!!!

Quick morning motor to check out Earshell Cove and ‘The Basin’ by dinghy. Just picked up a mooring ball and ripped over to check it out.

Beautiful day motoring along in Dusky Sound and beautiful little anchorage sunset spot for the night. A day full of extremely narrow passages!!!

Repositioning to go for a short walk along the start of the Dusky track. Beautiful still morning!

Moored inside this island and went for a paddle explore. Sunshine, light winds and no sandflies!! Winning!

After a rainy, stormy, morning at anchor, with the wind shifting we had to move to a different spot. Incredible mooring inside an island!! Wish I had the drone to show how epic it is 😭

Steve had to change fuel filters this morning which meant we left a little later and of course got hit by the heavy rain. Just motoring as the wind tends to funnel down the sounds but then when you turn it flips. Very squirrelly! We had 5 knots all the way up to 37 both upwind and downwind 😂 Picked up a mooring in Deep Cove so will sleep easy tonight!

It was gusting 35 (up to 45 knots at one stage!!) and 2.5-3m swell. And heavy heavy rain. Sporty but luckily not far to go. Arrived at a super scenic anchorage next to a waterfall!

From Milford to Bligh Sound. Just motoring but had to charge the batteries anyway. Crashed the drone while leaving anchorage at Milford 😓 Managed to recover it but it was in the ocean so most probably dead… Then dolphins (massive bottlenose!) to cheer me up in Bligh Sound. Found a cosy little anchorage with two stern lines and a TON of sand flies. (Forgot to stop recording, we actually arrived at about 5/5:30)

After 2 full days of TORRENTIAL rain, it finally stopped long enough to pump up the paddleboard and go for a little explore! So beautiful!

Our longest passage yet with a move time of 84hrs 6 mins!!! Our max speed was 10.6 knots, average 5.7kts. What a mixed bag!! The first day was beating upwind in 20+ knots, the second day and night were very little wind, so had to motor a fair bit. We got really good at taking the sail up and down! 😂 And then winds on and off and finally from about halfway through the third day the winds started to pick up beyond 10 knots. 👏 We were downwinding in 15-25 knots with 3 metre swell (but a long period) through the night and into our 4th day, it was great! We were really trying to maintain progress as we were trying to beat a weather system that was due to arrive the day we were due to arrive. We made it! We were able to sail right into Milford Sound, Fiordland, tacking more than half way down the fiord. Then we lost all wind and so put the sail away and wow, motored over to a waterfall and found our anchoring spot, SO BEAUTIFUL! First time using the stern line!

Getting ourselves positioned and ready for our 5am departure south tomorrow down the west coast!

Went to check out the local hang out fur seal pups and saw some bonus dolphins on my way back!!! 👏😍

When we couldn’t go on our big sail we decided to reposition to the anchorage we were at yesterday so I could go hang out with fur seal puppies!!! 🥰

After agonizing over the weather forecast we finally decided to set sail at 8pm which looked like our best weather window to round Cape Farewell. Started off well with downwind cruising at 6 knots but quickly dropped off. On checking the forecast AGAIN it had dropped off for the night so instead of aimlessly motoring through the night we pulled into the next anchorage (where we happened to walk to this morning). Let’s see what tomorrow brings… 🥴🫠

No wind so a little motor anchor hop to wait out until there’s some more wind! 🌬️

Need to decide whether we head to the south via the east or west coast… But after a couple of days in Nelson at the marina I had itchy feet to get going. It was great to get the sails up and actually had a pretty awesome sail! Cruising at consistently 8-9 knots so that was nice! We pulled in to an anchorage sooner than planned as we were losing the daylight. A shallow bay so just lifted the keel up! 👌

Time for some ‘big city’ vibes as we have a few errands to do. The wind was forecast to be very light but luckily it picked up (including randomly gusting to 25 knots a few times!), so we could sail the whole way south. Beautiful leaving at sunrise this morning 💕

Not much wind today and we had to motor through French Pass anyway so just motored and juiced up the batteries. French Pass was a little nerve wracking as current can be at 8 knots and navigable channel is less than 100 meters wide… we timed it at slack and was all smooth! Nice stop off at a quiet little bay tonight before we continue to Nelson.

Wow, night and day conditions sailing today compared to yesterday!! Beautiful downwinding with 15 knots of wind. Perfection. Wind died completely with 4nm to go so motored the last bit. Beautiful anchorage and greeted by a fur seal!!