At Anchor,Croiselles Harbour
The Adventures of the Good Ship Equinox
Cate and Chris Galloway
Thu 17 Feb 2011 05:27
|
Position at 1800 NZDT: 41.03.2100S
173.40.973E
Hi All,
A busy day, which started early when we motored
across to the small settlement of French Pass. We went ashore for a walk
mid-morning with Wayne to go and have a look at Te Amuti/French Pass. This is te
narrow channel which passes between the bottom end of D'Urville Island and the
South Island. The Gap is only a few hundred metres wide and the navigable chanel
is less than 90m wide. It was discovered by Dumont D'Urville, of the French Ship
ASTROLABE in the mid-1700's. We left a bit early before the and had a
challenging push through the narrow channel against a 3.5 knot current. Too much
earlier and we would have been pushing against the full 7 knots! Pctures
tomorrow, we are not in an internet coverage area tonight.
The other thing this area is famous for "Pelorus
Jack", a rare white dolphin which for 20 or so years in the early 1900s used to
escort steamers making the passage between Nelson and Wellington.
With a favourable weather window opening up for the
3-day trip up the west coast of the North Island we have decided to bring
forward our arrival in Nelson to tomorrow.
Photos tomorrow, until then,
TTFN.
|