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!!

Big sail and crossed the notorious Cook Strait!! Yesterday started with zero wind then started to build as forecast and just kept on building. Long night with 25-30 knots of wind and 2-3 metre seas. Beating into it. 🫠 Continued the whole next day, but eventually turned to downwinding 👏 Longest sail to date and proud of ourselves for some pretty challenging sailing conditions! Now, sleep 😴

A real mix of zero wind to gusting 35 knots. Motor sailing to all three sails out to two reefs in the main. No sleep. On arrival discovered our shaft seal is leaking substantially. Have to potentially back track and go out on the hard. Again. 😭

Another successful overnight sail! Light winds but we kept sailing! And only had to turn on the motor right at the end as the wind died off 👏 Found a beautiful little anchorage for the night and then we will maybe head to the marina to check out Napier town tomorrow 😊

Not too much wind so a short motor sail to the next bay south. We will wait here until this afternoon/evening and see if the wind picks up to carry on south.

Back in the water after a 5 week haul out due to work (but we went to Antarctica so not a bad contract!). Got a nice weather window to head around the East Cape. 👌 And beautiful escort by a dozen dolphins for a while!!! Happy heart! Headed to Fiordland!! (Don’t think that max speed is right 🤣)

Perfect conditions for a final sail, just went in at low slack to anchor at Pilot Bay. Then we will motor over to the marina at High slack ready for tomorrow morning. Putting the boat on the hard tomorrow for a month while we go back to work! Will miss it but looking forward to exploring the New Zealand SubAntarctics and the Ross Sea for work 😍 🐧 🦭 🐋 🧊

Great sail! Started the day with about an hour of motoring as low winds again and then it just kept picking up. One reef in by the end of the day as consistently above 25 knots. Lots of tacking as our destination was pretty much directly upwind. A little swelly and blustery and just loved it! Great day, just felt so content and happy 💕 ⛵️

Just decided to move to the other anchorage off the island as the other one was a little small/shallow and this one has better protection from the wind. Beautiful sunset on the way!

Started the day with no wind (less than 5 knots) so first half was motoring 👎 But we put the sails up anyway just in case and luckily the wind picked up!! So second half was sailing and consistent 15ish knots, up to 20/22 so yay! Also a pod of dolphins came by to say hi! Very quick but quite a big pod and the water was so clear you could see them swimming along! 😍 Anchored off of Whale Island, can’t go ashore as wildlife reserve (I really need a walk, it’s been 3 days!!!) but I did go for a snorkel and it was awesome! Eagle ray, tons of little fish, some really big fish and a fur seal on the rock! 😍

Phew! What a day. Started out sporty with 20-25kts consistent and gusting 35kts. Then turned downwind and it mellowed right out. Max boat speed 11.8 knots baby!!! Unfortunately the place we were planning on anchoring wasn’t suitable and next spot was another 30nm away… so a biiig day. Big winds. Winds died then picked back up very quickly. Snapped our 2nd reef line 😬 So had to go for 3, but with 30+ gusts probably a good thing! Sporty. Aaand coming into the anchorage in the dark in 25 knots of wind.. 😬 But success. 😮‍💨

Due to no wind yesterday, counting this as my birthday sail. 😆 Perfect amount of wind and long enough to even sit and read a little. We arrived at a stunning anchorage with clear water. Bliss.

No wind so unfortunately had to motor but nice to be back out on the water and moving after a week at the marina!

We stopped at Whangamata to check out the cool cave/Donut Island on the way. We were going to stay overnight here but we had made good time and it was pretty swelly so we kept going all the way to Tauranga! Long day but really good sailing. Some upwind, lots of downwind. Downwinding is the best!

Bit of a motor sail as winds not as forecast. But headed over to Slipper Island to get protection from the swell. Gorgeous little beach, paddle boarded, snorkelled and relaxed.

We still managed to get the sails up for our short hop south but very light (less than 10 knots). We weren’t in any rush and didn’t have far to go so enjoyed the quiet, slow travel. Forgot to take any photos 😬 Looks like we landed in paradise though! Beautiful little bay!

(Something happened to the tracking, it was only about an hour or two.) Light winds and short distance but instead of just motoring we put the Genoa out and sailed slowly downwind. A nice gentle 3 knots to cruise down the coast. A little swelly anchorage but little to no wind.

Zero wind (well, like 3 knots) so we motored over to Hahei where the plan was to hike over to Cathedral Cove. Anchored off the beach. Beautiful morning.

Super nice sail! Wind consistently between 15-17 knots, just perfect! We were headed pretty much upwind so tacked down the Hole in the Wall channel. Cruising along quite comfortably between 5 and 8 knots and all three sails out 👌 Feeling like we are getting more efficient at this whole sailing thing! 😄 Happy days!

Back to Opito Bay for the night after a quick visit to Great Mercury Island yesterday before continuing south tomorrow. Really nice sail! One reef in but had the main, jib and Genoa out and cruised along super comfortably! The wind was 15-18kts consistently with a few gusts meant we were cruising along at 8 knots for a little while! 10.2 knots max 🙌 Gusting to 20+ right when we had to get the main sail down of course 😅 but we got there! Planning on leaving early in the morning for Whitianga just around the corner as need to do some provisioning!

We tried sailing initially, just had the Genoa out to try and figure out the right trim. But had 0-3 knots, sometimes 5 so we eventually furled it in and decided to motor. Didn’t have far to go anyway. Our original planned stop was totally packed with people so we kept going to our anchorage for the night.