By Brian Hutton

After competing in the Stewart Island Race last year and setting up my Lyold 6.9 to Cat A rating I suggested to my friends it would be a Challenge to sail Timaru to Bluff to compete in this years race. The only taker was 80 year old Sandy Begbie who last Easter sailed from Timaru to Oamaru & back with me. He is an experienced sailor, engineer, mountaineer, motorbike enthusiast & a great guy to be with.

We would allow a week for the trip as some days weather would be against us. Sandy, Shane (my nephew) & I set out from Timaru Yacht club 1830hrs.  Wednesday 30th Jan. heading in to a 2m easterly swell that came from a storm near the Chathams. The wind was light north-east not strong enough to stop the sails slamming on every swell. By midnight we had only gone about 12 miles but the north-easterly freshened for the next 6hrs taking us south of Waitaki mouth. We ghosted into Oamaru at 0930hrs where Shane returned to Timaru. Sandy & I spent the rest of the day listening to Marine forecasts & decided to leave for Waikouaiti at 0200hrs to beat a southerly change due at midday.

Dawn was to see us off Moeraki sailing with a north- west wind which continued until we were off Waikouaiti at 1100hrs.. We motored into Karitane just as the southerly arrived and sheltered at the south end of the bay. The swell was still with us but we were reasonably comfortable.

Saturday morning after weather reports we decided we could make Taieri Mouth and left Karitane at 0400hrs using the motor across the Dunedin harbour entrance. Coming out of the harbour was the yacht “Morning Glory” bound for Long Point she soon left us well behind in light north-east breeze.

Setting a spinnaker good progress was made, as the wind continued to freshen the decision to drop the spinnaker was made. On going forward to drop the kite my safety harness tripped the spinnaker halyard & we ran over the sail. Goof No 1. We sorted this out okay but decided that Taieri Mouth was out as the north-easterly was continuing to freshen to 25 knots. We put out to clear Nugget Point by 7km and decided to run with it overnight on a storm jib & trail a warp & bucket. This was quite comfortable with the auto-helm in control we were doing 5 knots plus until dawn off the Chaslands. A container ship passed us, disappearing in a few minutes. The wind was now light so we put into Waikawa at 1300hrs Sunday anchoring just inside the river.

The forecast for Monday was a bit doubtful so we waited until Tuesday leaving for Bluff at 0600hrs following a fishing boat out into a big swell which lasted past Slope Point to Waipapa Point . We had a nice run across ToeToe Bay to Dog Island arriving at the Bluff Yacht Club at 1300 hrs., just 25 hrs before leaving for Port William on the Green Point Yacht Clubs race, on Waitangi Day.

On the Thursday morning we motored back to Bluff on a glassy Foveaux Strait and trailered home to Twizel. My boat log now reading 1300 nautical miles in 15 months.