Honeymoon - Day 6 & 7 (Feb 1st and 2nd)

Day 6 - Motueka to Marlborough Sounds

Again my horse riding plans were foiled. We were all set to go this morning, but we awoke to some pretty miserable looking clouds. We were originally supposed to be across the strait by Saturday afternoon to avoid a weather system coming through. Which is annoying because Garth doesn't have to be back at work until Monday. So we were supposed to go horse riding early this morning, sail all day and either anchor quite late tonight or continue through the night to get home. But the weather changed, so we just had to head off. Unfortunately because of the tides at French Pass, if we'd missed one and had to wait for the next it would have made it dangerous to cross the stupid strait if the weather had picked up. We probably could have stayed, but as upset as I am about missing horse riding I'd rather us stay safe. I just wanted to canter along a golden beach... Stupid weather.

So we tried to sail today, although it was mostly motoring. You don't really notice how intrusive that motor is until you turn it off and everything is still and quiet. It's just a horrible noise you get used to after a while, like living on a main road. But then when you go away from the city the absence of that noise is such a relief.

We anchored in a pretty little bay and sat on deck reading as the sun set around us. Then we heard a noise in the background - I thought it might be a power boat, but when we looked up Garth asked if it was a tidal wave, in a really confused voice. We stared at it for about 10 seconds before it became evident that about 50 dolphins were making their way across the bay. They were having a great time, either putting on a show or just playing, but they were all leaping out of the water and twisting around and generally frolicking. I saw one do a backflip, then it landed facing the wrong way and was confused for a second. They were amazing. We watched them cross the bay, probably chasing fish, until eventually all their fins disappeared around the point. It was spectacular - I've never seen dolphins being quite so crazy in the wild before.

---

Day 7 - Marlborough sounds to Wellington

Our trip back was much more exciting than the crossing over. We had at least 30-40 knots across most of the strait, and we zoomed home. I prefer Garth steer when we're around land I'm unfamiliar with, and I like to take over when there's nothing around us but ocean. Ie when there is nothing for me to hit except sea creatures and other boats. So that's what we normally do - I chill out and Garth steers for an hour or 2 until there's minimal navigation to be done, and then we swap and he sleeps. I'd like to say he sleeps so much because he's lazy, but it's because he always gets up at a ridiculous hour so that when I pop my head up thinking "I guess we should head off," our anchorage is already disappearing behind us.

We had our number two genoa up (which is more like a number one, because our number one is like a giant monster of genoa goodness at around 150%). In the morning I was lying in the cockpit wrapped up in a blanket hugging my kindle, having totally forgotten what sailing is like after such a smooth passage over. That was when the first big wave came into the cockpit, drenching Garth from head to toe and rendering my blanket useless. After that we were literally ankle deep in water the whole trip back, which I suspect was due to our cockpit drainage needing to be cleaned out. But it was just one wave after another, leaving us drenched all day. Which reminds me, I should probably invest in some kind of waterproof case for my kindle...

As we got further into the strait I was in charge while Garth was sleeping in the cockpit. I could see it getting more turbulent ahead of us, with gust lines blowing across the water. I inspected it for a while before waking Garth up to tell him we should probably put in a reef (which is just reducing the sail so it's smaller, for my non-sailing friends. Which is probably everybody reading this.) He poked his head up, looked around and said "nah it's fine," then went back to sleep. About five or ten mins later I woke him up again and said "no seriously, we should definitely reef." Again, he got up, looked around and told me it would be okay. Then the wind started picking up and the gusts got stronger and stronger, and as the boat got overpowered he got knocked out of his sleeping spot, stood up and said "Hmm... we probably should have reefed." You think?!

This makes me happy though, because it does mean I know what I'm doing at least a little bit. It also means Garth is too used to sailing in strong winds and I need to remind him to be more careful now that the gear we're wrecking belongs to us and not somebody else. I should know better by now when it comes to listening to Garth if I suspect he is wrong, especially when he's half asleep. I need to learn to be more insistent that he listen to me, because every once and a while I'm right and he is wrong, which can be dangerous on the boat if we do it his way and it's the wrong one. But he's very rarely wrong.

So we had an exciting time going back, with me steering for most of it. It's silly, but that's the kind of sailing I like the most - waves crashing into the cockpit, wind and water in my eyes, and the boat flying along at ridiculous speeds. It's lots of fun to be behind the wheel when the weather is like that, but I can't really explain it. Like you're in charge of this tiny vessel in the middle of nowhere, with the wind behind you and not much separating you from this giant ocean. It's peaceful and exciting at the same time. I think the weather had a lot to do with it being so much fun though - the sky was blue and it was a lovely sunny day. I think if it was night time, it was raining and I was alone up on deck, I would be quite scared about taking on so much water and being in so much wind.

The Karori rip was really interesting on the way back - the currents were swirling in lots of different directions, with big waves coming from every side of the boat and crashing on top of us. There was so much debris swirling all around us - giant logs, huge clumps of seaweed and who knows what else underneath it all. I have no doubt that if one of us fell overboard in amongst all that mess it would be very easy to just get pulled under and drown.

Sometime as we were going through the rip I was standing up behind the wheel and heard a little puffy noise from the port side of the boat. I looked over and there was a big dolphin swimming next to me, staying adjacent to the wheel and blowing water everywhere. I think he must have wanted some attention. For once I was the one to stay at the wheel and Garth got to run up to the bow and play with the dolphins. They were all like, what Karori rip? We're cool dude. But the sole dolphin that I'd spotted first stayed next to me for a while - he must have known I didn't want to miss all the fun.

The second we rounded the corner of the North Island, the wind completely died. As in, we were doing under 1 knot. So we had to motor the rest of the way back, which was about two hours or so to the harbour. The headsail got stuck as we were furling it, and was ragging for ages while Garth was sorting it out.  Now a heap of the stitches have come out, so we get our first chance to figure out how to fix sails. I really wish it was going to be our last, but I suspect we will be very good at it after a while. But we got back safe and sound, albeit unhappy at having to go back to work and return to reality. I think all in all it was a pretty perfect honeymoon, broken bits and all. I'm very very glad we didn't fly to Rarotonga or some island like we were originally planning - swimming naked in the middle of the ocean and going to sleep looking up through our hatch at the stars beats some fancy resort any day.

-Monique