Wild ride to Broad Bay (26 January)

I had a lovely sleep in Disappointment Cove and woke up refreshed rearing to climb Magog, but unfortunately it alluded me. I moored in Seal Creek and took the dinghy to the start of the track but there was none to find. (The Stewart Island Cruising Guide was published back in 1996 so I'm guessing its now a disused and overgrown track!) Then I went to Evening Cove, and thought I may get a small walk – I was running out of time to go the whole way up Magog. But no sooner had I hopped in my dinghy when a seal lion started doing circles round me – I made it back to Honey quick as I didn't want him to take a nip at my inflatable dinghy, and I didn't want him chasing me when I got to the beach! So I headed off to Broad Bay to be ready to head to Preservation Inlet in Fiordland the next morning. The forecast was for variable 10 knots in Foveaux, and unbeknown to me it had been upgraded to gale force (35 knots) in Puysegur extending to South West Cape. Broad Bay is in Foveaux but no more than 5 miles from South West Cape so it was blowing up for me on the way round – I was travelling with the tide and against the wind, which made the waves stand almost vertical at one point. I reminded myself that I should expect this kind of weather as I'm now in the Southern Ocean! Making very slow headway and taking a salt water shower with the waves coming over Honey (and waiting for the very noisy wind turbine to take off), I eventually managed to inch into Broad Bay. Polaris II (an Otago Uni research vessel, studying the sea lions) was already moored up, I was really pleased they'd made it round and I wasn't there by myself. (I'd seen them earlier in the day and they had said they were coming into Broad Bay). Its still rather breezy this evening, but I seem to be holding fine in this anchorage. With the weather forecast I won't be heading to Preservation Inlet tomorrow, will reassess my plans in the morning – Tuesday at this stage is potentially looking possible.