Kaniva Kruise

[MainlySteam]

My wife and I leave about 14-15th Jan for our first short around 2 week cruise this summer so will not be on the forums then (I can hear the cheers of delight from here).

I always enjoy the little stories of peoples trips. So assuming some interest, I will attempt to do my little bit too. We will be frequenting an area with very historic associations with all of James Cook's voyages so I will try with a bit of watery history of which any Englishmen with associations with the sea can be very proud. To maintain a bit of Euro history as well, Abel Tasman's voyage also included the fringes of this area and just recently an important little matter about his voyage has been proposed, which if we have time, we will also explore the correctness of.

Also, a number of other forumites have joined me in the conduct of a little long range experiment while we are away. If successful I will tell all.

I will try and make time to send these from the boat, but as I still have business type work to do while away, together with fishing and everyday things it may have to wait 'til I get home.

Assuming, of course, everything holds together and doesn't break and weather being kind. Todays Cook Strait forecast is-

"Northerly rising to 30 knots this afternoon. Sea rough.
Outlook following 12 hours: Northwest 30 knots" Which can mean 50 - 60 knot gusts across the bottom of North Island. Has been like this for weeks unfortunately, so might be a bumpy ride.

In the meantime, don't squabble too much without me /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Regards

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

This going to be a radio type experiment?

Look forward to the stories

Have fun!!

<hr width=100% size=1>There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."

 

[MainlySteam]

Yes.

About the stories - sorry no drunken pub scenes and brawls unfortunately! Will be rather more mundane, no pubs I am afraid.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

What frequency? Don't have a shortwave reciever of any note anymore, but may be able to get friends to record

No Aussie cruisers you can throw abuse at?

<hr width=100% size=1>There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."

 

[MainlySteam]

See PM about the frequencies as undecided yet.

Hardly see any Oz cruisers over here. I gather many do not stray far from Australia, and given the very nice variety of cruising grounds over there I can see why. We do have a very good deck washdown hose though so if I see any I'll give them a squirt from you and post you the time bomb they give me in return!

Most we see out here are from USA and some Europe (from there we see mostly French I guess, with a variety of others including Scandanavia - was actually a Norwegian cruising boat in the marina a couple of weeks ago).

John



<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

See pm back, are you sure about those frequencies, and propagation?

Interesting that mainly USA, and from Europe the French get there? Why's that do you think?

<hr width=100% size=1>There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Hope you have a great holiday John - Lucky B****** - and will look forward to your reports.


<hr width=100% size=1>OK - Get Fell In you 'orrible lot! There's wine to be drunk!

 

[chippie]

How far North are you going John? I remember reading a facsimile copy of Cook's journal .When off Cape Karekare he was further back from when he started after three days sailing.
Fair winds to you, Its been very hot up here.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tome]

John

Best wishes for the cruise - I look forward to reading about it on your return (or possibly sooner).

Tom

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Benign Cook Strait Transit then Storms

21 January

Wife Litia, I, and cat (the parrot wisely decided to stay with friends) set off through Cook Strait from Wellington Harbour, New Zealand on Wednesday 14 Jan, as planned, for the Northern entrance of Queen Charlotte Sound and then in to Ship Cove. In the end we had a calm voyage with a light following Southerly wind, the Strait having had a Southerly gale dying the day before and a Northerly gale forecast (and eventuated!) for the next day.

We were forced to motor the first 6nm out of the harbour and the last 6 nm into Ship Cove due to lack of wind, but through the Strait was a light 5 - 12 knots. With use of the tide we managed to average around 6 knots over the sailing part of our track in a heavy displacement (12T with full tanks, stores, etc) approx 36 ft WL yacht with no light weather sail wardrobe. As that included some time where we were pretty much becalmed we were quite happy with our planning.

Our route was pretty efficient, managing to keep to reaches much of the way and close to the shortest course, and was from Seaview Marina (NE corner of Wellington Harbour), out Westwards around Southern Coast of North Island approx 0.5 nm minimum off dangers, clearing North Island to approx 1.3nm South of The Brothers islands, inside them to the Northern Entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound, then around 6nm down to Ship Cove, Captain Cook's main refuge during all of his voyages. For anyone who wants to follow on a chart, the Cook Strait chart is available in jpg or tiff format from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.hydro.linz.govt.nz>http://www.hydro.linz.govt.nz</A> - go to Charts>Catalogue>Choose Chart>NZ46 Cook Strait.

However, while we have had a few nice days since, we have had uncomfortable Northerly gales for 2 days and nights and for the last two days and nights a Southerly Storm in Cook Strait ('easing' to 50 knots this afternoon from 90 knots reported off ships)which has even stopped, unusually, the big rail ferries from crossing. As Ship Cove is just inside from Cook Strait we have been getting a shake up here sharing the anchorage with a very nice UK flagged around 60-70 foot yacht (looks like may be an Oyster). The gusts in the Cove are whipping up swirls of spray higher than our upper spreaders (around 12-13m) on occasion, and outside the Cove are easily reaching more than 30-40m (measured against the topography of the island behind). We are sheltered from the seas coming down the Sound though.

In the Cove's anchorage most sheltered for this quarter wind there is not much room for anyone else as we 2 yachts have all chain out doing big circles as the big swirling gusts drive us around our anchors. Just uncomfortable and boring, the worst event so far being having my glass of wine (in a squat tumbler) sliding off the table onto the settee on the OTHER side of the cabin as we got knocked over by a sharp strong gust. Cat is very disgruntled as he cannot go on deck for fear of being blown overboard!

In case of any interest we are currently in the more Southerly sheltered part of the Cove at 41 06.05S 174 14.50E; the large scale chart is NZ6153 Queen Charlotte Sound, also available off the above internet site. The other yacht is between us and the head of the little bay to the SW, we both being on around the centreline of the bay. Because the gusts swirl in from any direction we have enough room between us so that we can swing in opposition. Also, we cannot tuck in hard under the lee of the hills to the South, otherwise one finds oneself rotated on the chain in a big gust with the rocks a few meters off the stern with no margin in case of dragging.

Will post this when the weather moderates enough for us to get out into GPRS coverage. I trust that our sad summer weather makes you all feel much better about your winter's!

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Maritime Mobile SSB Radio Experiment

21 January

Questions periodically come up on the forum regarding SSB radio installations on yachts and I think many underestimate what is possible with an efficient installation on board. A number of forum members who are also amateur radio operators offered to try for a half way around the world contact from UK to our yacht in New Zealand while we are away (on the amateur HF frequencies, of course, but the results are the same for the marine frequencies). Those arrangements were to try for contacts on UK mornings over the Friday, weekend and Monday.

Unfortunately, was no success last weekend but will be trying again next. However, as is usual, I have been able on this trip to work other UK and European stations from our current anchorage of Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand. As a demonstration of what is possible, the star of those was talking to Mike G0WSB who was using an HF 100 watt radio plus whip antenna installation in his car, while he was parked on the seafront in Southampton, England - strong signals both ways with him having trouble sometimes copying me due to interference from other European stations close by in frequency.

For those interested, the SSB radio installation used for the above is an Icom IC-M802, through an Icom AT140 Antenna Tuning Unit to an approximate 9m high wire vertical on a halyard between the deck and the upper spreaders.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Kudos for Kim

This forum works really slickly over GPRS. First time I have accessed it in that manner - I wish my boat's email provider's site was as efficient.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrendanS]

Re: Benign Cook Strait Transit then Storms

Excellent stuff John - keep them coming!

<hr width=100% size=1>There is no such thing as "fun for the whole family."

 

[MainlySteam]

... And The Gannets Turned Into Chickens

23 January

Ship's cat and I spent a pleasant late afternoon today watching several gannets "fishing" around the cove. The Australasian Gannet is similar to the Northern (or Atlantic) Gannet seen in the British Isles excepting that its wing's secondary feathers are black, instead of white, as are the centre tail feathers.

I spent much of my youth boating and fishing within 40nm of a gannet colony so there were frequently gannets around and I enjoyed watching their gliding/short flapping search, then high vertical or raking dive with wings out until the last moment, folding them in close just as they entered the water. Then the wait until they surfaced, sometimes just about bobbing right out of the water they had gone so deep. If the dive was close to the boat and in clear water, the bird would disappear downwards out of sight, hidden behind a trail of bubbles.

So, cat and I were reminiscing on all this and admiring these beautiful birds' dives, when wife appeared in the companionway. We pointed them out to her as she enjoys watching them too, but this time only commented "We used to eat those when we were little" and disappeared (she spent her early years in the tropics and was referring to the Booby of course - same family as the gannet).

I am sure there was a hidden message from her in that, but it escapes me.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[BrianJ]

John.. Just shows the difference “local knowledge” plays in navigation

I opened up my charts and planned your route… then compared it with yours. I went outside “The Brothers’ then South of Motuara Island, before heading app. 281* to your drop ‘anchor’

Keep posting, it is interesting to read details of your voyager .

BrianJ


<hr width=100% size=1>BrianJ

 

[MainlySteam]

Hi Brian

We actually aimed at the middle of The Brothers and made the decision to go inside once we could see there was some wind on the inshore side of them and that it would not be a flat run from there to Cape Koamaru (Arapawa Island rotates the wind towards parallel with the coast). The plotted track on the computer shows our decision point - sharpish left hand down a bit! We lost the wind as we rounded the cape.

In the tidal lee of The Brothers, especially if wind against tide (and especially on the southern side) one also has to keep in account the very steep waves that exist which can defeat progress! However, tide and wind were with us so not a problem.

Regards

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Capt James Cook - The Greatest English Navigator?

We have based ourselves in Ship Cove - James Cook's centre of the universe for all of his voyages.

In my opinion Cook was a navigator that any English sailor can be especially proud of. Few people realise that other well known British navigators, such as Bligh and Vancouver, also sailed as young men under Cook; names in other disciplines also did, such as Joseph Banks and William Green (who had sailed with the Astronomer Royal, Maskelyne, on the proving voyage to Barbados of Harrison's 'watch' chronometer). So to bore many, and hopefully interest some in front of their winter fires, here is a little about Ship Cove, and its relationship to your own James Cook.

After Cook's first arrival in New Zealand in October 1769 (he was the first European known to have landed, although Abel Tasman sailed part of the coast in 1642, including almost into the Western entrance of Cook Strait, he did not land) from Tahiti, he sailed up around the top of North Island from his first landfall at Gisborne and then down its West coast into a "very broad and deep bay" with inlets into which he decided to sail for a refuge to clean, repair and water Endeavour.

In January 1770 he anchored in 'a very snug Cove' - that being Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound. It had water, a bottom suitable for careening, plenty of fish, and Cook's 'wild celery' and 'scurvy grass' for the crew's health. They quickly discovered, and were given demonstrations of, cannabilism by the Maoris (who, in this area, did not cultivate food at all) and Joseph Banks recorded that 'I suppose they live entirely upon fish, dogs and enemies'. Ship Cove served as Cook's primary long term refuge on all three voyages for rendezvousing with his companion vessel, refitting and the planning of his discovery voyages following his voyages out from England. If I recall correctly, he had 4 long duration stays in Ship Cove. A map of his voyages shows it, perhaps by chance, to be the geographic centre of his explorations, those being the whole of the Antarctic Ocean, East Coast of Australia and up through the Pacific and West coast of North America through Bering Strait.

Directly out from Ship Cove by a little less than a mile and a half is Motuara Island which shelters the Cove from Cook Strait. During his first visit and on the highest part of this island (where there is today a cairn) Cook planted a post and flag, named the Sound after Queen Charlotte and took possession of the adjacent lands for King George III - it was the last time he took possession of any part of New Zealand. On Cook's second voyage, when he carried Kendall's first copy of the Harrison 'watch' chronometer and 3 of Arnold's, an observatory was set up on the Southern end of the island which with other observations reduced to Queen Charlotte Sound with the chronometers, Cook with much self questioning, discovered that he had misplaced New Zealand by 40' too far East on his first voyage's chart.

Many features around Ship Cove were renamed from the Maori by Cook, mainly after his ships and crew, and many of those names remain today around the Cove. The Strait, of course (believed to have been insisted on being 'Cook Strait' by Joseph Banks), Resolution Bay, Endeavour Inlet, Pickersgill Island (Pickersgill was master's mate Endeavour, and later lieutenant commanding Resolution), and Mount Furneaux (commander of Adventure) are examples. One name which has not stood the test of time is Grass Cove (hay was gathered for the animals there) across the Sound from Ship Cove and which now bears the Maori name Wharehunga. It was here on Cook's second voyage that the Adventure, under Furneaux and in Ship Cove alone (it had been separated from Cook's ship at sea), lost 10 men to cannabilism the few remnants of the bodies,some identifiable, being recovered afterwards.

Out into Cook Strait from Queen Charlotte Sound are a small group of islands which Cook named The Brothers. Upon his first departure from Ship Cove Cook set out in the early evening around Cape Koamaru at the Sound's entrance Eastward into the Strait (which he had identifed as being such from hilltops during his Ship Cove stay) and was promptly caught by the wind falling and the tide almost wrecked him on the Brothers. The tide rushes around and through these islets with strong rips and eddys and he managed to save himself with '150 fathoms of cable in 75 fathoms of water' and a change in the current flow. The possible location of this near disaster must be on the Southern side of the islets (that is he had sailed around and behind them) as it is recorded that it was an ebb tide (flows northwards) and it is only on that side that water of the recorded depth occurs.

Unfortunately, there are, to my knowledge, no verified physical remnants whatsoever left of Cook's extended stays in Ship Cove.

John



<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Ships We have Shared the Anchorage with

Not quite like the Med or Carribean which have super sized cruisy yachts abounding, but some interesting vessels do appear. Here are two we have spent time with on this trip.

Spirit of New Zealand

The Spirit is an 148 foot steel barquentine owned by a New Zealand trust dedicated to developing the qualities of leadership and independance in secondary school pupils through the medium of the sea. She is square rigged on the foremast, and fore and aft gaff rigged on the other two. We frequently come across her while we are away - she sails all around New Zealand.

The voyages do not just include sail training but other land based challenges as well (rather like Outward Bound, of which the New Zealand school is also near here; their cutters periodically get out this far in the Sound). What always impresses us is the complete enjoyment the young participant crews obviously have - the anchorage is always full of activity, laughter, cheering, etc and when time comes for manually hoisting the sea boats on board, for example, the heaving chants of the "crew" also.

Clipper Odyssey

We frequently come across the small pocket cruise/luxury expedition ships in Ship Cove. The passengers are generally in the more mature half of their lives and well heeled. We see them undertaking adventures such as sleeping a wet rainy night in the New Zealand rain forest (???) and visiting natural/historic sites (hence Ship Cove).

As the Cove is quite deep (around 20m) we have also occasionally seen full sized cruise ships nosing right up into it, holding in position with their thrusters while a commentary is given over the ship's PA system, and then departing.

This trip Clipper Odyssey has spent time anchored in here and as the passengers were ferried ashore and back in the ribs they got a tour of the anchorage. Being the only yacht in here at the time we were on their sightseeing circuit, so they enjoyed such exciting sights as me hosing the deck, me getting the hard dinghy over the side and Litia doing the laundry. But when the laundry got to the pegging out the undies on the lifeline stage, it seemed we were suddenly taken off the "sights to be seen list"!

For a nice cosy and cruisy voyage, these ships look just the thing and would be a fantastic way to visit the places which are off the normal blue rinse set big cruise ship routes. Think I might put in an order for a private ship, just like them, just for us and special guests.

So please place your orders for a place on a cruise with us! I have saved enough for one propeller and one 44gallon drum of fuel so far, so construction will be starting very soon.

John



<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Re: Capt James Cook - The Greatest English Navigator?

I said "If I recall correctly, he had 4 long duration stays in Ship Cove."

In fact I have done a count up, he had 5 visits here during the course of his 3 voyages.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[MainlySteam]

Abel Tasman - the Puzzle of the Coastal Elevation

Another little piece of the European history of our home cruising waters.

Abel Tasman's voyage was from Batavia (now Jakarta) down to and along the 45th parallel, discovering Tasmania (Antony van Diemen's Land) and then across the sea now named after him to be the first European known to visit, but not land on, New Zealand. He sighted New Zealand's South Island's West coast on 13 December 1642 (Cook, who was next, arrived in 1769) and named it Staten Landt thinking it was part of South America. He sailed up the West Coast to the top of North Island and departed to discover (if I recall correctly) Tonga in the South Pacific.

At the North Western end of South Island he sailed into what is now Golden Bay where four crewmen in one of the Heemskerk's boats were attacked and killed by Maoris in a canoe - Tasman named the bay Murderer's Bay (actually Moordenaers, I believe). Some great act of Political Correctivitis has since changed that to Golden Bay, quite the opposite sense (and PC superciliously nice in comparison?) to Tasman's naming of it. He then sailed across the beautiful Tasman Bay (which name like the Tasman Sea has properly remained in his honour) to what are now D'Urville and Stephens Islands at the Western end of the entrance to Cook Strait. Tasman never realised the Strait existed (Cook discovered it by climbing hills in the Ship Cove area) and only got as far as spending Christmas Day anchored in deep water to the East of D'Urville Island, sheltering from a storm and enjoying (possibly not, given the age of the rations) pork and wine for Christmas dinner.

Now back to the unidentified coastal elevation. Among the voyage's records was a well executed panaramic New Zealand coastal elevation which has never been identified as to its location. In a recently published book including the voyage of Tasman to New Zealand ("The Merchant of Zeehaern") this elevation was included with the new proposal that it was drawn from the mast head while at this Christmas Day anchorage and that it included all of the coast from D'Urville Island to Cape Jackson, a broad panorama in the distorted perspective style of the time covering 20 miles of coast and the outlying islands. This identification was made from a pleasure sailboat by the author of the book.

We had intended sailing out on this trip to the estimated position of Tasman's D'Urville Island anchorage to see this for ourselves, but given the days we have lost to bad weather, we have decided to give it a miss. However, back in May, en route back to Wellington from Nelson in Kaniva, we sailed close enough to the position to see that without a doubt the proposed identification of the coastal elevation, not made until around 360 years after its execution, is correct.

I find it surprising that it took so long to identify and I wonder how many unidentified elevations there still are in the records of the great navigators awaiting possible identification by yachtsmen.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>