Day 15 - Tuesday 15 Feb

Cruise #2 - Marlborough Sounds! This marks the end of our time on shore and the beginning of our cruise in the Marlborough Sounds at the tip of South Island, at the mouth of Cook Strait which runs between Wellington and Picton. Eggs benny breakfast at Blenheim at 8am before doing the final provisioning at the local supermarket then loading the bus at 10am to take us all to Waikawa Bay, the bay next to Picton, to Charterlink - the boat charter company. Our 50ft Beneteau "Millenium Spirit" sat in berth 24 on dock 9W in the marina, glistening in the morning sunshine, her decks all clean, the dinghy stowed on the forward bow. Provisions were loaded, before all the gear for the 9 passengers on this leg! Thorough boat check with Tony and studied charts for advice on good mooring/anchoring spots. These are deep fjords with deep water close to shore, so anchoring not always possible and most bays offer mooring buoys. From the charts the Sounds looked about 4-5 times the size of the Gulf Islands in BC with a plethora of inlets, bays, islands, channels. We were not allowed to take the vessel into Cook Strait!
Cast off at 16.00 and motored to neighbouring Ngakuta Bay, arriving at 18.00 where we rafted up to 35ft Jeanneau "Vis a Vis" and Cookson 40 powerboat "Antaris" staying in between the other vessels as the mother ship!