We tied alongside a small wharf and were met by two young ladies with the demeanor of angels. They were very nice, if a little different. We were led past the attack pit bull terriers to a sunny grove, where we spent the next half-hour pleasantly chatting to the leader of what is now a religious retreat. She was convinced that God had sent us to them for a reason.

They were very helpful but unable to sell us ice, as they had no electrical power, we couldn't purchase fresh milk as their cow had recently passed on. We were however provided with 20 litres of holy water. After declining their generous offer to join them on a more permanent basis we motored off in search of another shop.

The next bay did indeed have a small shop attached to some chalets and we managed to buy ice and milk.

We then returned to Ketu Bay near the entrance to Pelorus Sound in preparation for moving back into Tasman Bay the next day.

That night 40 knot southerlies were forecast which don't seem to cause nearly the problem in the sounds as a 40 knot northerly does. We got the odd strong gust but otherwise had a pleasant night.

I got up before dawn the next morning to get the 0533hrs marine forecast. They were still talking 40 knot southerlies for Cook but only 15 knot southerlies where we were heading in Abel. It was still dark as I motored out of Pelorus Sound.

As the dawn broke I could see a classic example of the Southern Alps splitting the weather. Looking east the sky was an angry red with solid black threatening cloud looking really nasty. Looking towards the west the sky was completely blue with just the odd puffy white cloud. The two weather patterns divided up the middle by the backbone of the South Island.

I was happy to exit the sounds and turn my back on the bad weather of Cook. Slack water at French Pass was about 1000hrs and I had planned to pass through as usual with slack water as it normally means the difference between flat water and a white water river ride complete with whirlpools etc.

As the current was favourable as I approached the pass from the north we made better than expected time and I found that we were going to enter the pass about 0900hrs one hour early. I thought of anchoring for an hour to wait for slack water, but the flow was going the same direction as us. I decided that if we put up with a bit of bouncy water we would then benefit from a favourable current for the next hour, to flush us out of Current Basin.

I was also influenced by a desire to leave the threatening black clouds behind me so I decided to go for it. We already had lifejackets and harnesses on but as I approached the narrows I noticed a considerable amount of white water on the downstream side.

The swell rarely reaches French Pass as it has to come directly from the south to get in there and the prevailing swell is S/W. But as luck would have it I later found out it had been southerly for 3 days prior to this, and a 2 m southerly swell was pushing right up to the narrows.

Anyone who has ever had 6 knots of current meet 2 m of opposing swell with have an idea of the sea conditions. Add to that the fact that the ocean is trying to squeeze itself through a gap only 30 metres wide and I think you get the picture.

We were already in the current flow when I realised this and thus committed, as Nightshift would not be able to motor against the current. We battened down the hatches clipped on and waited for the fun.

The water was smooth on the upstream side of the narrows with just the odd spinning knot of water to be felt hitting the keel but once through the narrows it was all on. We had the distinct impression of being flushed. Nightshift being twisted off the direction we were heading by as much as 30 degrees, then the waves started building up and flopping over on themselves.

I didn't have a lot of control over our direction but I was able to keep out of the clearly visible back eddies racing back towards the narrows and in the current that was at least taking us the way we wanted to go. A least the whirlpools normally evident seemed to be absent perhaps being broken up by the breaking waves.

After a while when we had gained some clearance from the shoals on either side I relaxed and started to enjoy it. Sort of like a rollercoaster ride. I went up on deck to set some main to take the roll out of her and had great fun holding on to the mast as Nightshift fell into the troughs from backless waves to stop me falling separate from the yacht and meeting it at the bottom.

This all lasted only about a mile and as the current slowed the swell turned back into a normal Tasman Bay swell with nice rounded humps that wouldn't worry a P class.

As we didn't have to go back to work for a few days we set course for the Abel Tasman coast. I put George the windvane's feet on, (a steering rudder and a servo pendulum one), locked the helm with our motorcycle tie-downs and relaxed with a coffee.

The sun shone brilliantly and the only problem was that our forecast southerly wind was blowing from the southwest, which was also where we were going. The closest I could lay was Golden Bay so I decided we were meant to go there instead.

Over the next two hours the wind steadily veered and strengthened. Eventually I had to tuck in a reef. After another cup of coffee I looked up and started to abuse George the windvane, we had passed D'Urville Island and were now heading back to the North Island, (somewhere in the vicinity of Wanganui).

A quick check revealed that it wasn't George's fault he was steering like a trouper despite the boisterous conditions and he was still maintaining the exact same angle to the wind it was just the wind that had changed. So a quick change of tacks and we were tight hauled on the other tack and pointing not too far from Torrent Bay. I decided we must have been meant to go there after all.

Late in the afternoon we sailed into Torrent Bay, dropped the sails and joined the 4 other boats already there. One belonged to some friends of ours so it was a social couple of days. Our friends were waiting for a weather window to sail up to Bay of Islands.

After two days of nice sunny winter weather under a 1030hpa High it was unfortunately time to head for Nelson for work and back to reality. The 5 hour passage back to Nelson was uneventful, in typical Nelson fashion it got sunnier and warmer the closer we got to Nelson.

All in all considering the time of year the weather was not too bad. Only one low with two days of rain and a couple of short fronts. After all if it weren't for a bit of instability in the atmosphere we wouldn't have enough wind to sail.