Queen Charlotte to Pelorus Sound

A few days ago we made the 30 mile journey from Queen Charlotte Sound around Cape Jackson and across to Pelorus Sound. Our cruising guide describes this stretch of water as “naturally exposed to all winds” and representing “quite a hurdle to boat users”. We travelled in convoy with some friends and had kept an eye on the weather forecast for a good opportunity to make the trip around. This journey is made much easier with a Southerly wind. The forecast on the morning of our departure was for Southerly 30kts easing to 20kts late afternoon. Now, if we had been on our own schedule I don’t think we would have chosen to go over to Pelorus Sound in such strong winds. However, our friends were only over for 2 weeks holiday and really wanted to be able to see some of Pelorus Sound before they had to sail back to Wellington. If we didn’t go then, it would have been likely that we would have had to wait another 5 days before there was another southerly wind.

Cape Jackson

It was quite nerve-wracking, as Cape Jackson has a bit of a reputation for being a challenging headland with strong currents and tides, but it was a good opportunity to test out the boat, and us, in some strong conditions. Our guidebook recommended rounding the Cape between the headland and the lighthouse, which stands on a rock about 500 metres out from the shore, to avoid the worst of the currents. Now, 500 metres probably seems like a fair distance, but in a sailing boat it felt like a very narrow gap, especially with rocks extending out from both sides.

Our friends on Antipodes following us around the cape

We found that Desolina needed very little sail out going downwind in 30kts. We had our third reef in the mainsail and a tiny hankerchief of headsail out and were averaging a speed of 8-9kts, with a maximum speed of 10kts. Again this probably doesn’t seem all that quick but it certainly feels fast on a sailing yacht. I couldn’t help but let out a few shrieks when we surfed down a few waves – you can get an adrenaline rush going 10mph on a sailing boat!

Sailing downwind with the third reef

Pelorus Sound certainly feels more remote than Queen Charlotte. I’m not sure which I prefer yet. Certainly our time here has been a little tainted so far by waves coming into the bays at night and causing some uncomfortable rocking motions. So we (particularly me) have not had a good sleep for a couple of nights. This is partly due to our choice of anchorage based on the forecasts to try to ensure we’re in a sheltered bay for the wind direction. However the forecasts for the coastal regions are a few miles from where we are. Deep in the sounds the wind direction can change quite a bit from the coast as it curves around landmasses. So an anchorage we think will be sheltered, normally isn’t! We’re hoping that conditions will be more conducive to a good nights sleep as we sail further into the Sound and we are more sheltered from the coastal winds.

On the helm