After an intensive weekend in Bluff, stocking up food and exercise some update on our web we sailed back to Stewart Island on Tuesday when the wind had eased. The harbour in Bluff is quite uncomfortable during strong wind conditions due to strong tidal current against the wind. Together with the wharf with only piles to fender against, the risk of getting damages on the boat are quite high. This time we where lucky. Mary on Fishermans Radio had arranged a berth where we could tie two ropes to keep Lindisfarne from the piles so it was only uncomfortable in the choppy sea the day we had 40 knots of wind in the harbour.
Tuesday morning we left for Stewart, mainly to wait for weather to go north.  We had not done Paterson Inlet when we first visited Stewart, knowing that we most certainly would have to come back before sailing to the north along the east coast of South Island.
We had only 15 knots of wind, but the swell against the tide was breaking for the first two hours from Bluff. Being the third time we left Bluff, we where experienced enough to avoid the breakers in the channel and we kept close to shore until we where in deeper water. This was the route of the fishing boats, and we had no trouble in spite of the rough sea after two days of storm and gale. Out in the Strait we got the swell beam-on, but Lindisfarne did just fine. No wave where allowed to touch more than the deck, no water came into the cockpit. Two hours from Bluff the sea state calmed down and the following three hours we could sail on a beam reach with no reef in the sails. It was a long time ago snice we could use the sails without any reef!
Coming into Paterson Inlet we turned to windward for the last 2 nm. Surprisingly the wind over the island was more from the north and we could sail a close reach on a completely flat water all the way into our chosen anchor cove. The cove was almost like a lake, closed in all directions from the sea. We managed to get the cockpit enclosure in place before the rain started and after a little while the Refleks stove was burning and the comfort was completed. No more jumping up and down as in Bluff harbour.
Wednesday started with heavy rain, but before noon we saw the sun between the showers. We emptied the dinghy from 50l of rainwater since yesterday evening and put on the outboard. The “lake” was partly quite shallow, and even with the dinghy we had to be careful. On the beach at low tide we got a lot of nice clams. They taste lovely steam cocked. We even tried to do some fishing out on Paterson Inlet after picking the clams. But the bait didn’t get deep enough due to the high speed drifting dinghy in the strong wind. We got two “surface fish”, King Mackerel, which we have tasted before and because of that they where released.
Back in the warm cabin we cocked the clams as a starter and lamb chops as main course.
Thursday morning; The condition at sea were still very tough with gale and storm warnings for Stewart and the surrounding areas. Now they even had a warning for extreme height of the swell, reaching seven meter from SW during Thursday. Luckily we are going NW when the weather have eased a bit. But they predict 30-40 knots until Saturday…
At lunchtime we moved to Princes Inlet, a small well protected inlet in Paterson's Inlet only a mile west from our previous anchorage. One reason was to have a shorter fetch and the other was to change views. But still the williwaws reached us and the short rowing ashore with the dinghy was exciting. We had to walk on the muddy tidal beach some hundred meters to reach shore and the walking track that we where aiming for. This track, starting in Oban, was well prepared and continued several miles all the way to the high ridge in the west of Stewart Island. We walked for an hour to a small camping site at the extreme west of Paterson Inlet and then back to Princes Inlet. Even if the track was well maintained and one of the most popular, we didn’t meet anybody. Back at the beach we found clams and mussels, which made a perfect dinner.
During the night the wind increased and the strong williwaws made the “sleeping” quite interrupted and uncomfortable. When the wind offshore exceeds 40 knots, it finds its way even into protected coves. In fact we have been more comfortable in bigger coves where the wind tends to come more or less from the same direction and relatively constant. Compared with small protected ones where the wind comes in gusts from different directions and with calms between the gusts. The latter means that in the calms, the boat moves forwards to the anchor and when the gusts comes the bow goes to leeward until the chain stretches and the boat heels rapidly and uncomfortable. This scenery is valid when we use only one anchor. With two anchors or anchor and rope ashore the bow can be kept in place, making the boat swing from the wind with no heeling. Much more comfortable and we use it whenever it's possible. So surprisingly it is not always the best solution to choose the most protected cove.
The grib-files continues to show gale and storm with high sea for the rest of the week, so we will surely have time to try out several of the possible anchorages in Paterson Inlet.
Before lunch we weigh anchor and motored out on Paterson Inlet. Now we really felt the force in the wind and the wind turned into some of our indented coves. We went back all the way to the east of the inlet - to Glory Cove, the same cove where we started our Stewart experiences, almost five weeks ago. With two ropes ashore we hoped to have a full night sleep, in spite of the predicted storm.
A very brave attempt to catch some fish from the dinghy failed in the strong wind, but we picked nice big mussels instead.
We have almost repressed the sand flies in Fjordland and therefore forgotten to tell you about the almost non existing sand flies in Stewart Islands. What a relief to be able to walk without clothes covering every inch of your body.
The night to Saturday was not very calm, but the ropes ashore was a blessing. The first half of the night brought short, 30 seconds, gusts with up to 60 knots of wind. The dinghy flipped in spite it was only one meter behind the stern. The anchor and ropes ashore kept the bow in place and the heeling was moderate. But it felt a little bit scary when the most violent gusts roared in the rig.
Saturday morning came with no wind at all in our cove! Offshore there where still a lot of wind, but only gale force. Good conditions for a walk and a photo trip ashore. Ocean Beach, the famous Kiwi beach to the east on the Kiwi reserve peninsula east of Glory Cove, was a perfect place in the now suddenly sunny weather. We put the outboard onto the dinghy and equipped with backpacks full of cameras and lunch we then walked across the peninsula after a dinghy ride ashore.
This early morning, and of course out of tourist season, there where several, not destroyed, fresh traces of Kiwi activities during the night. We had no hope of seeing a Kiwi in the daylight, but the beach itself was well worth the effort. We had the beach to ourselves until lunchtime, when three guys from the little hut in Glory Cove came and dived for Abalone and Lobster. We where given a big Abalone, before they walked back across the peninsula to their dinghy.
When we came back to our dinghy the guys had only made half of the way back to the hut. We towed them, in the now relatively strong headwind, the rest of the way. Back in Lindisfarne there was no wind thanks to the trees to windward.
After a dinner with clams, Abalone and rice we went to bed early, tired after two not very comfortable nights and a whole day out in the sun. The night was extremely calm. Almost as if we where stuck on the bottom! Some rain the first part, but then moonshine and Sunday morning came with sun from a cloudless sky. The grib showed that the possible window for Dunedin on Tuesday was only a memory. A new front with strong northerlies had appeared.
Luckily we explored only the south east part of Stewart the first time we where here, saving Oban and Paterson Inlet until after Fjordland. This gives us plenty of places to explore, waiting for a new weather window. The always changing wind direction makes it important to move between different anchorages so the exploring comes naturally. Just before the wind backed to east, right into Glory Cove, we motored to the west side of Ulva Island and anchored outside Boulder Beach at noon.
Ulva Island is a bird and tree reserve and there are plenty of well prepared walking paths all over the western part of the island. No rats, opossums and other predators are present on the island leaving a sanctuary for the birds to live in. Being a Sunday there where some tourists in spite of the late season. There are several water taxis offering 10 minutes trip from Golden Bay at Oban to Ulva charging $20 both ways.
We met a Swedish couple on the beach (they had spotted our flag!) and they told us that the roads in Fjordland had been closed due to flooding just after we left the area. So the warnings we heard when leaving the area a week ago was obviously for real.
After some hours and having done all the tracks on the island and seen several of the different rare species of birds, we pulled the anchor before the tide made the cove to shallow for our draft. It’s full moon and that give us spring tide. We motored back towards Glory Cove, but because of the easterly we anchored just west of that, in Sailors Rest, a very small cove. There was just enough water to have the anchor 30 m in front of us. With three ropes ashore we where quite safe and secured for any directions of the shifting wind.
We where just done with all mooring arrangement when a deer turned up on the windward beach, having the sun right behind us. Because of these conditions we could without being detected take a lot of photos. In fact it never spotted us. When it came to our rope across the beach, it turned around, went slowly back into the woods.
The wind eased completely at sunset and we had a quiet and comfortable night.
Monday morning, and still sunshine from a cloudless sky. After breakfast we moved across Paterson Inlet to Golden Bay on the south side of Oban. The predicted northerlies made it possible to anchor safe and visit Oban. In Oban there is a Supermarket, a Hotel and Pub, some Restaurants and Cafés. It offers also a lot of well prepared walks that we where longing for. Exercise  really is a problem with the dense vegetation reaching all the way down to the water on most islands.
We did two walks with a meal at the Pub in between before we visited the Supermarket. It was closed already at four a’ clock. It was the yearly stocktaking! There where no harm done, we had already decided to spend the night in Golden Bay, so shopping the next morning was the simple solution..
Back in the boat the VHF started once again to send warnings for torrential rain and flooding in Fjordland and Stewart Island. Being in a boat we have at least no problem with flooding. Even our grib-files shows a changing in the weather to a more instable situation.
The sunset in Golden Bay told us why the bay was given that name! The night was completely calm and Tuesday came with still a clear sky. We took the dinghy ashore very early and did our postponed shopping. One of the friendly tourist boat skippers offered us to moor the dinghy at their floating pontoon. He had probably seen our dinghy hanging in its lines from the concrete wharf during yesterday extreme low water.
With some grocery and a cheese we where back in Lindisfarne before lunchtime and sailed once again across Peterson Inlet to Glory Cove, a cove that should be able to give us shelter from the next two days of strong, shifting wind during the passage of the two fronts.
We still thought that Thursday morning was a possible take of for Dunedin.
Wednesday came with a weak easterly wind and pouring rain. No doubt the sunny weather had come to an end. The grib we got at breakfast was not easy to judge. Great difficulties to get accordance between the grib and the VHF-weather. Our weather window on Thursday seams now to be to short. All together it looks like we should leave for Dunedin tonight to reach Dunedin before the wind turns to north again.
We spent most of the day indoors in the rain, waiting for the easterly to ease down. Three o’clock we secured the dinghy on deck and pulled in our lines and anchor and steamed of Stewart Island for the last time. The sea was very confused and we had a couple of uncomfortable hours, still in rain, to Nugget point. After that the rain stopped and we got a pale moonshine through the clouds from the full moon, almost as our light Nordic summer nights.
We could furl out the genoa early next morning and shut down the engine. A weak south east gave us five knots, but with a current of one knot we had a reasonable margin for the tide shift at Otago Harbour, Dunedin.
The wind increased and backed to south and we could pole out with increasing speed  and we where almost to early at the entrance of Otago Harbour. It’s quite a deferens to have matching tide. Imagine having two knots against, in spite of helping you to overcome the last ten miles in the harbourafter more than twenty-four hours of sailing. The difference in speed is 4knots , compare 3,5 with 7,5 for Lindisfarne making 5,5 through the water under normal conditions.
The approach was something special, used as we are to mind our own business. Now we where already announced to the Harbour control and the Yacht Club by Mary from Fishermans Radio in Bluff. We had informed Mary when we left Stewart Island and the next morning at sea Mary called us and checked our progress and that all was well.
When we called Otago Harbour control they obviously know of us and that made everything much easier.  Later, motoring along in the inlet, calling Otago Yacht Club they had already a reserved berth for us. That’s really what service is about! Once again we send a thankful thought to Mary.
On the VHF we got information how to navigate the shallow lead into the Yacht Harbour and Kevin, the caretaker was at the pontoon, helping us with our lines. After we secured Lindisfarne, he showed the facilities of the Yacht Club; shower, toilet, garbage bin and so on. He also gave us a bag full of brochures, showing the possibilities in the surroundings and southern south island so we could plan our excursions.
After a long hot shower we had dinner and then went to bed early for a long nigh, not disturbed, sleep.

1 April 2010
Annika & Björn
Lindisfarne

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