Honey

Honey

Sailing around New Zealand

Emily is sailing solo around New Zealand on her 32 foot yacht Honey, from Lyttelton south down the east coast, around the bottom of Stewart Island, up the west coast of the South and North Islands and down the east coast back to Lyttelton. The whole adventure is expected to take 3 months. This blog will provide updates as I travel (when I have mobile reception to upload).


Thursday 24 January 2013

Paradise Found – Port Adventure


Now this is what I had envisaged with my journey – today (22nd Jan) was a perfect day! Up early to get ready to sail down to Port Adventure from Half Moon Bay, listening to the weather and placing my sked call. I set off at 7.45am, and the wind was already starting to pick up to a bit over 15 knots. It was a lovely run down to Port Adventure, passing below 47º South, with winds varying from almost dead to gusts of over 20-25 knots, it kept me busy with adjusting the sails and I arrived in no time. The only slight annoyance was a bumble bee that flew next to Honey and me the whole way down and is still hanging around! Safely moored in Abraham's Bosom by 11am, I had the whole day to explore and relax. After I'd tidied up and stowed the ropes and sails, I jumped into the dinghy and across to the lovely beach I was moored next to, a short bush wack through to the other side and I landed in paradise – the most beautiful deserted golden sand beach, except for a few deer tracks!

I walked the length of the beach, and then decided it was about time for my first swim of the year – it was actually warm and sunny, so a quick skinny dip and a walk back to the other end of the beach. Next up it was back to the dinghy and an explore in the cove where I was anchored, up to the end where a stream came out, and up the stream in the dinghy to a waterfall, surrounded by native bush, so beautiful, and then I let the breeze blow me back to Honey.

A quick lunch – leftover sausage stew from last night and I settled into an afternoon of relaxing and reading in the sun, and swatting away pesky bumble bees. The only folk I have seen since I have been here are some lads who are staying in a hut nearby that came by in their dinghy and said hi. The breeze completely died off and I almost forgot I was on a boat, glassy calm with not even any lapping. A good opportunity for a shower – I had filled up the solar shower when I bucketed water into Honey's tanks yesterday, and then to top off a perfect day I thought I'd treat myself to a Rheineck!

Today has been really restorative and I feel for the first time in more than a week that I can keep going with my goal of circumnavigating New Zealand. My confidence (and tolerance) had taken a knock with the wild weather since I arrived in Stewart Island. Of course, this assumes the weather plays ball, as it is wild and unpredictable in these parts, even more so this summer than normal.

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