Rusalka arrived in Port Adventure just on dark, and soon joined by Evohe for the night.
The next morning Al went for his swim, diving straight in from the side deck into 12.4°C water! Alex reports that “as we head south from Christchurch to Dunedin to Bluff and now to the bottom of Stewart Island (from 43° 12'S to 47° 12S) it's been getting cooler and cooler. We're preparing for more cooler and cooler weather as we get closer the Aucklands.”
After a bit of lounging around, they set off for another 30nm leg to Port Pegasus. Unfortunately it was upwind all the way, with a fairly sloppy sea so took longer than expected. Port Pegasus is lovely, with lots of sheltered nooks and crannies and comparisons were made with Tasmania’s Port Davey. A bit of loyalty and patriotism from Geoff in voting for Port Davey. They are both remote and exceedingly beautiful. Pegasus has very different shaped hills and mountains and vegetation. Button grass plans in Port Davey. Easier shore access in Port Davey. Similar tiny coves in each. Penguins (little blue penguins) in Pegasus. They are different but have similarities that come with wild, remote, isolated, uninhabited, rugged coast lines in 40's latitudes.
They anchored in over 24m of water in order to keep at least 300m from shore (the distance a rat can swim!), using 90m of chain. I was a bit concerned about how well it would hold in over 20kts of wind, but the track below shows that it was enough scope to hold!
Alex has filed a Float Plan with Peter Mott of Passage Guardian. He’ll be doing daily position reports by satellite email (and by SSB HF just to keep in practice). The forecast points to a possible departure for the Auckland Islands tomorrow morning. Then Alex also send a picture of the sky this afternoon – it could be a bit blowy! (“Mackerel skies and Mares tails make lofty ships take in their sails”)
To open a picture
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