Puysegur and Beyond

We spent a glorious xmas day in Revolver Bay. The sun was hot, sky blue and wind light. After our morning dive we spent a great time sat on deck with a glass or two of wine enjoying the lovely day. A few sand-flies did venture out the 500m to join us but even they seemed to be taking a day off from biting (too much). The evening forecast showed a prolonged period of strong winds approaching. Give this forecast we readied for sea and set of early the next day. The day was grey and rainy with a reasonable
swell but only moderate sea (at first). We passed about a couple of miles off Puysegur Point, Quite a different sight from our visit by land! As we progressed towards Stewart Island the wind continued to build, as did the sea. We had a very swift passage surfing in excess of 10 knots. As the voyage had been so quick we arrived earlier and pushed the tide around the north of Stewart Island. This foul tide combined with the funneling effect of the Island on the wind saw us pass through some steep
seas and good winds. The lee of the island flattened the seas for us but the strong winds remained gusty at about 50 knots. We made Port William just before dusk. A passage average of 8.2 knots. I doubt we will ever beat that.

The next morning we got underway for Halfmoon Bay, the only populated area on the island. We managed to top up with fresh water (that wasn't brown as we had been used to seeing) although it took us almost an hour to take on just under a tonne of water. We were unable to get petrol as the only pump was closed for a few days. Our diesel tanks were still over half full despite motoring for a total of 78 hours since our last top up. We did manage to top up on fresh fruit a vege's and a bit of chocolate
(you have to get the essentials of life). A few hours motoring saw us in Patterson Inlet anchored off the old whaling station. This proved a great, sand-fly and mosquito free anchorage for a few days while we explored. A trip to Ulva island was good, but proved less fruitful in bird spotting than we had hoped. The whaling station was a good visit and pleasant walk to a nearby beach. The day the petrol pump opened we were ready to fill up and move on. Unfortunately we had managed to rap our anchor
around a one and a half meter, 200 kg discarded anchor. After winching this to the surface, hang it off, untangle the mess, and drop the old anchor we had had a good work out. Time to get the petrol, and ice cream and move on.

Paterson Inlet has a cove called Glory Cove. We planned to go ashore here at night and sit quietly to watch the KIwi that night. Unfortunately a large sign ashore stated we could now no longer do this without a permit from DOC. It was a tad annoying to watch a large noisy group go ashore that night from a charter vessel. We will apply for a permit as we pass back north. After a night accompanied by many mosquitos we moved on to the southern end of Stewart Island. This was a seven hour motor in flat
calm, mind you the other extreme was even less appealing. We spent a few days in the north part of Port Pegasus exploring the old mining and fish freezing sites, and a walk up the Tin Ranges. These peaks gave good views of the inner part of the island and back down to Port Pegasus. The route up follows the old Tramway to the site of the old tin mines. The Bell Topper falls near the start of the track proved a good spot to catch up with the laundry.

Now we are anchored in the south part of Port Patterson. The weather is a bit breezy and so we are well tucked up with lots of lines ashore as well as the anchor down. We are awaiting a slightly lower wind speed (anything of 30 knots,force 7 or less would do) so we can climb up a couple of peaks nearby (Magog and Gog). However this is not the case at present so we are making do with reading, cooking and catching up on a few running repairs.

Happy New Year to all.