Abel Tasman

We had a smooth day of sailing from Catherine’s Cove on Durville Island to Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman National Park. We were looking forward to the reliable sea breezes we had heard blow across Tasman Bay in the afternoon after the fickle winds in the Marlborough Sounds. Sure enough the sea breeze kicked in around midday on our crossing after very little wind in the morning. We were promised a steady 15kts, which we got. What we weren’t expecting was for the wind to continue building throughout the afternoon to a gusty 25kts by the time we reached Abel Tasman.

Crossing Tasman Bay

We left Catherine’s Cove at 8am and arrived at Torrent Bay around 4pm.  About half way across Tasman Bay we thought we had caught our second fish of the trip as we had been trawling a line behind us the whole way across. Unfortunately it turned out to be a Barracuda that we threw back. Barracuda are not recommended for dinner as they can carry parasites. If you haven’t ever seen a Barracuda before they are pretty mean looking with very sharp teeth. Dave wore his steel wire fishing glove to handle it while getting the hook out.

The passage through French Pass at the start of the day was quite nerve wracking. French Pass is the narrow channel between Durville Island and the mainland, which is the entrance to Tasman Bay from Marlborough. This little passage has a big reputation and deservedly so. The currents that run through French Pass are extremely strong, and we had been told NEVER to attempt going against the current. We had to be especially careful when we went through, as it was a spring tide, which meant that the tides and currents were at their strongest. We went through the pass a couple of hours before slack water so that we would have a little current with us to speed us on our way. The currents at that time were still quite strong. That morning was dead calm and the sea was flat as a millpond so we could clearly see the currents running through the passage, it looked at if the water was boiling. It felt more like running some river rapids than sailing at sea. As we went through we hit 11kts on the GPS, which meant we had about 6kts of current flowing with us. We had heard that small whirlpools can form in the passage because of the strong currents flowing through, they definitely weren’t kidding. As we passed through the narrowest part we could see whirlpools forming on either side of the boat.

Swirling currents in French Pass

Nevertheless, the overall journey went smoothly enough and we are now enjoying the impossibly golden sandy beaches of Abel Tasman. We spent the first couple of nights in Torrent Bay at The Anchorage. 

Torrent Bay

There is a nice walk from the bay to Cleopatra’s Pool just off the Abel Tasman coastal track. The bays at Abel Tasman are very tidal and the whole river estuary floods at high tide. We discovered that we could kayak up the river from the bay near high water and decided to go back to a good swimming spot we had found on the previous day’s walk. The swimming spot there has a layer of warm salt water trapped underneath a layer of VERY cold fresh water. We had great fun diving down into the warm layer of salt water and then getting the sudden shock of cold water as we surfaced.

River Estuary at Torrent Bay

Swimming near Cleopatra's Pool

Since Torrent Bay we have spent a night in Bark Bay and are now anchored next to Adele Island. Bark Bay was beautiful, with easy shallow anchoring. Dave was able to dive underneath at low tide, stand on the sandy bottom and reach up to touch our keel. The water here is also the warmest we’ve had so far at 22c. We’re planning to spend a few more nights here before heading back over to Marlborough later this week.

Dave and Desolina

Abel Tasman sunset