We left Picton on 23 November, it was a quiet day with light winds and favourable tides, ideal conditions to cross the Cook Strait. It was lovely and peaceful motoring along the Tory Channel, we waited for an incoming ferry before transiting the Heads and venturing out into the Cook Strait. We had a calm and uneventful crossing the only rocky bit being as we passed Sinclair Head which is always a bit rough even in the best weather.
We sailed across the harbour and moored in Seaview Marina which is across the bay near the town of Lower Hutt. The area around the marina is mostly industrial and it is an hour bus ride into Wellington. On Monday we took the bus into the city and met up a friend Nick and had lunch and a good chat. In the afternoon we walked down to the waterfront and found the new Sea Shepherd vessel Sam Simon was docked in the harbour. We had an interesting tour around the vessel and imagined what life must be like on board in the Southern Ocean.
Later in the day we took a train out to Porirua to stay with my cousin Sally and her husband Pete Mitchell and the girls. It was lovely to catch up with the family and all their news, the girls of course have grown up and are now busy with ballet and pony club. They have two new ponies and I was persuaded to go for a ride, the first time for quite a few years. I managed to keep my seat and not disgrace myself but politely refused to try the jumps.
We caught up with Maya on Tuesday at her flat off Cuba Street, a salubrious neighbourhood but very centrally located. We had lunch and made plans for the rest of the week and her 21st birthday celebrations at the weekend. It made a lot more sense for us to be in Wellington so we decided to move to Chaffers Marina. However we were unable to move the boat until the Friday when the 60kt northerlies abated! This is one windy place!!
Celebrations began on Friday evening with a family dinner at Mexico. This was not your average Mexican restaurant, most of the menu items I had never heard of and could barely pronounce. The sangria and tequila were flowing and we had a great night. The next morning we reassembled for a birthday breakfast with presents galore, enough to make Maya’s fingers ache opening them, and lots of photos and reminiscences of her 21 years so far.
We hosted the Mitchell clan and Julie, my aunt, on the boat for Saturday lunch. Unfortunately the weather was too windy (surprise, surprise) to launch the kayak or dinghy so we entertained ourselves stringing together all the signal flags to decorate the boat for Maya’s birthday. Hauling them up the backstay and inner forestay was trial and error but we got them up in the end and it looked great. Heather, Neil’s sister, flew in on Saturday afternoon and stayed with us on the boat which was great. We celebrated Maya’s birthday again on Sunday with cake and balloons on the boat then another family dinner in the evening.
We were all somewhat shattered by Monday morning and quite glad to have a relaxed day with no more festivities! The weather looked good for Tuesday for our return crossing and once again it went well and without incident. We spent a couple of days in the Marlborough Sounds and arrived back in Nelson on Friday morning. It’s good to be back!
Cheers for now
Suzy and Neil