Departure Tomorrow
The Adventures of the Good Ship Equinox
Cate and Chris Galloway
Sun 9 Jan 2011 05:19
A quite busy day getting ready for the Wairarapa Coast, and a passage of about 225 nautical miles (about 410 km) to the Marlborough Sounds. As is the way with these things, my sister-in-law Marie arrives at 0915 tomorrow morning and by early afteroon a 48 hour weather window will open up which will allow us to do the passage in relatively benign conditions. We will however do a sail change tomorrow morning once the current strong SW wind eases off, replacing the 125% genoa with the smaller jib in anticipation of the potential for stronger winds once we get south of 40 deg south (not that there is anything too exciting in the forecast at this stage - famous last words...) The alternative is a one week wait here in Napier for the next window, reckon that would leave us a bit overdone around here - you can do the place in a morning.
This afternoon we visited the local Countdown (Woolies) and did a reasonably substantial store-ship, and as I write, Cate is busily preparing two nights worth of evening meals to get us through the passage. I am hopeful of arriving in the sounds by about midday Wednesday.
The plan once we arrive is to cruise the Sounds in slow time, to arrive off Picton in time to drop Marie off to the ferry in time to make her flight home. We are all really looking forward to the trip, or at least our arrival, in the Sounds.
Tomorrow night, all things being equal, we should be somewhere south of Cape Kidnappers making good miles to the south.