Cook Straight
"If you don't sail in gales, you won't sail at all", we were told, "they don't call it Windy Wellington for nothing". The Marlborough Sounds are the part of South Island that is north of the south of North Island (got that?). They are just across the Cook Straight, thirty miles from New Zealand's capital, Wellington.
We've lost count of the times while travelling, when putting our feet up in a yacht club bar and sharing a beer or two, local yachtsmen have intimated that their particular stretch of water is one of the most challenging anywhere. And we've nodded and expressed suitable admiration at their audacity. But for once, the Cook Straight has a genuine claim on this title. Its a combination of everything - gales, fierce tides with dangerous tide rips that stretch out for miles on both shores, deadly reefs and rocks, plus a lot of shipping traffic.
The Sounds
The reward for crossing is the sheltered Sounds, a picturesque but less dramatic version of the wild sounds of south-west New Zealand, or of the similar Desolation Sound region of British Columbia which we visited in 2008. They are a maze-like mix of bays, inlets, islands and peninsulas rising abruptly from the water into rugged and forested hills. Much is designated Scenic Reserve, the haunt of endangered kiwi and trail hikers. There are few roads, mostly it is only reachable by sea, apart from two villages, Picton and Havelock.
There are two main areas, Queen Charlotte Sound and Pelorus Sound. Queen Charlotte Sound is the busier, not least because of the main ferry service between the north and south of New Zealand, where ferries the size of those on the Dover-Calais run squeeze through the narrow Tory Channel to Picton. Without roads, the watertaxis buzz around serving the isolated holiday cottages ('baches') and away-from-it all holiday lodges and retreats that are found in the bays. Pelorus Sound is quieter - some days we hardly saw another boat. However, with a road of sorts, there are a few hamlets.
Sailing
Entering the Sounds (or travelling between them) means negotiating passes with fierce tide rips which call for careful planning, as well as big swells from the Tasman Sea and dangerous reefs. Once inside, one is protected from all that, but not from the winds. The Cook Straight is in the Roaring Forties - and what's worse it is a classic "acceleration zone" where the wind is squeezed through the gap between the two mountainous islands.I don't know if this summer was exceptional, but on 20 of the 28 days we spent in the Sounds, a gale for the Cook Straight was forecast.
Picton, the main ferry port for South Island.
Pelorous Sound (Mahau reach).
Some days were strictly for the ferries.
Sometimes the gales were accompanied by torrential rain, and we were forced to abandon sailing plans with both sets of guests we invited. The gales were mostly from the north but had a knack of switching abruptly to the south - sometimes at the height of a northerly gale we would see clouds pouring over the hills to the south, and within an hour the gale had reversed.
These gales didn't always get into the Sounds but it was breezy enough. Sometimes, on sunny days, this made for the finest of sailing. At other times the wind was all over the place, with gusts from all directions and then sudden holes in the wind, which would make it frustratingly difficult to keep Sentinel moving steadily. Oddly, the wind would often blow much harder in the bays than in the main reaches, and when we turned into a bay expecting shelter we would find it worse than outside. The wind often dropped around sunset though.
In Pelorous Sound one must get used to tides again, as they range up to 4 meters, and Havelock was only reachable at high tide with our keel. In Queen Charlotte Sound, as generally in NZ, they are a modest 1.5 meters maximum. It is worth noting that although close, Wellington and Marlborough Sounds have high tides between 4and 6 hours apart.
Destinations
There are dozens of bays and each bay has a number of coves, so there are a huge number of anchorages. (One of these, in Queen Charlotte Sound, was Captain Cook's New Zealand base during his expeditions of 1770-7). So it is easy to plan a day-sail of a few hours with a pleasant break for lunch and fishing.
There are mussel farms in many of the bays, but not in the best anchorages and these present little problem for sailing.
The anchorages generally have good holding but because the wind is so gusty and prone to switching, must be chosen carefully for a settled overnight berth. Also, because these are fjords, sometimes the bays drop off deep. Then the only way to anchor is to take a stern line ashore, which most people don't want to be bothered with. To cope with both problems, the local yacht clubs have laid a mooring or two in many of the deeper coves. While these are intended for yacht club members, in practice vistors can pick them up if vacant.
A hamlet in Pelorous Sound.
Sunset from a waterside bar.
Although uniformally pretty, the bays do come to have a samey look about them, mostly with little opportunity to get ashore. After a few days one is looking for daily destinations with rather more interest. There are some choices. The holiday lodges have bars and restaurants and, to encourage the passing trade, provide free moorings. After a day's sailing they make the ideal spot to sit gossiping with other yachties over a drink, watching the sun go down.
The two villages, Picton and Havelock, are the hub of yachting activity with two marinas in the former and one in the latter. Both cater for tourism with minor attractions, a large number of eateries, bars and hotels if one fancies a night ashore, and are the places to stock up and get information. Havelock styles itself, with some justification, "the green-shelled mussel capital of the world". As the ferry port, Picton is the ideal place to start a tour of South Island, with a train service, excursions by coach and water, car and cycle rentals, etc. About 30km down the road is the Marlborough wine-growing region, a great bad-weather day's outing (except for the driver!).
Three sheltered anchorages in Queen Charlotte Sound: Hituau Bay, note the 'club' mooring; Torea Bay, where we left Sentinel while we walked over the hill to the remote Portage Resort Hotel for lunch; Double Cove, note anchoring with a stern line ashore.