Our second meal of fresh southern crayfish - it was such a rich meal but most welcome after the events of a tough trip south
The journey to Doubtful Sound
It was Monday 2nd April and even more pressured to get nearer to fuel, we set off after breakfast for Doubtful Sound, a sound named by Captain Cook ( not me) come on, it was 1770!!!
He didn’t chart this Fjord as he had concerns that with Bauza Island situated right in the middle of the entrance, it would shield the inlet from most winds, with an easterly wind required to sail back out again, ( he had already discovered easterlies only occurred about once a month) he did not want to risk being stuck in there for a whole month so he continued on his voyage. It would be 23 years before Doubtful Sound would be charted by the Hydrographer, second lieutenant Felipe Bauza, under Spanish Captain, Alessandro Malaspina during an expedition in 1793. They were the first Europeans to explore and chart Doubtfull Harbour.
As mentioned, we were showing zero fuel in the main tank with the reserve of 500 litres to go, so plenty for the trip although it is scary looking at a fuel gauge that showed ‘Empty’ - see photo attached. we cruised out towards the ocean from George and on glancing at the wind speed indicator I saw 35 knots on the nose and the sound was actually rough inside! We motored towards the entrance at 10 knots where the sea was rolling directly in so we continued heading due North for a safer turn to run South to our destination. On turning to run South on a track to make the distant headland we soon discovered the size of the sea and the speed. I increased speed to run with the sea for as long as possible. I was on Auto pilot , but very quickly realised that I could track the changes of heading using the wheel faster than the auto pilot could manage and the wheel needed high inputs to hold our heading. Many times on full lock to Port to avoid a broach. The sea was the largest we had encountered to date (5 - 6 Metres) and when I glimpsed to the wind speed indicator I saw 52 knots!! Robin was looking at the sea behind and calling the next big set. Basically we had squalls coming through with the expected high winds in front of those. That really made it interesting. On one large set I couldn’t hold our course even with full rudder and we broached rolling back over the top of the wave but thanks to the Allan Warwick design she sat flat on the side of the wave albeit not on an angle that most boaties would enjoy! We were going to be out there for at least another 21|2 hours, this was going to be one hell of a ride requiring total concentration at the helm. Most waves we were surfing down at 18 knots - just manageable with a boat low on fuel and running ‘bow down’. We peaked at 22 knots just as the bow buried its nose into a huge wave in front, sending 150mm of water over the bow, entirely filling our anchor locker, the front of Horizon III was now completely buried in the wave, thankfully she was tracking dead straight or we would have had other issues to be dealing with! On pulling the throttles to allow the bow to rise up and spill all the excess weight of water from the bow, it was then straight back on the throttles to climb another monster wave to try and escape the huge wave looming from behind. We took that rear wave which came right up onto the cockpit floor! I was able to feel that push from behind at the helm, my with my body and head lurching backwards. Horizon III weighs 22 tonne, so imagine the power of the ocean to feel that huge shove in the back from the stern! Slowing down only seemed to make it more difficult to navigate the extremely messy sea. The angle of attack was about 15 degrees off our track to destination in order to maintain our direction of choice. By now I could see the impressions where Robins hands were holding onto the Instrument surround ha ha, it was a white knuckle ride though. Apart from the concentration required, I was enjoying the run in a sea that totally lived up to it’s reputation but again Horizon III continued to react consistently and most importantly, predictably, keeping me feeling good about our situation. The concern in these conditions would be mechanical failure of any of the vital components such as engines, steering pumps, hull damage Thankfully, this boat has no bad habits and clearly the great condition of the boat showed its worth.
The most welcome calm waters of Doubtful Sound
We were very pleased to cruise in around 2:30pm, I hopped straight on to channel 10 and called up Billy from Deep Cove Lodge to see if we could get some fuel. He wanted to know how much we needed, so I held my breath when asking him if he was ok with 2300 L. Thankfully he responded, “yep that will be ok”, I gave Robin the ‘thumbs up’, we were both very relieved. He asked us to anchor up to allow one of tour boats to Finish fuelling and leave the jetty. He called us about 1|2 hour later so at last we would get the fuel we so desperately needed to make Bluff in another week or so. We filled up the boat and Billy said to come with him to his house|office to settle up. We hopped in the double cab and as is habit, I. Grabbed the seat belt to put it on and he just said “oh you wont be needing that around here”. He then shot up the gravel road at breakneck speed in his double cab, chatting as we went! He is an interesting character, but then I guess you would have to be, in order to live here permanently. We chatted about local dramas (culvert needing replacement after storm requiring road closure for 4 - 6 months - from tomorrow). As the diesel is trucked weekly to Manapouri then barged across the lake to the western end, pumped into a waiting truck then driven to Doubtful Sound - no wonder it was bloody expensive! With the road closure looming, they will have to leave a truck in Doubtful on the other side of the culvert and pump the fuel from one truck to the other then deliver the fuel another kilometre or two to the storage tank near the jetty. What a rigmarole! But these guys are supply 50,000 litres a week to boats off this jetty so they have no option but to find a solution. We were just happy to be sitting low in the stern with a very full tank. Billy organised a mooring we could use so we tied up to that and attached a stern line. Finally we could relax, it has been one hell of a day! We shared a bottle of wine to reward ourselves for our courage!
Shortly after midnight we were awaken by the most violent thunderstorm with huge bolts of lightning. Then Horizon III was thoroughly doused in hundreds of millimetres of rain, which we were pleased about, as it washed all the salt from Horizon III following our trip the previous day. The following morning we got the kayaks organised to get a better look at the waterfall that we had listened to during the night and also to investigate the tail race from the Manapouri Dam. It was still raining but not so heavy now. We first paddled up the tail race but after about 100Metres or so we realised we were not going anywhere at all, as the current was just so strong, water was screaming out of there! We turned and run with the flow and were out it a matter of 30 seconds or so. No wonder there is a layer of fresh water 3 or more metres deep in here; made up of heaps of water falls and the hydro discharge.
Robin cruising down the tail race of Manapouri Dam - note the colour of the water following the night of violence from the storm.
We walked bare footed to the base of these mighty falls - our feet were numb in no time at all from the cold and the small sharp rocks beneath the surface. It was great to return to the boat to warm up!
We returned to H3 to see all sorts of action with a couple of vehicles full of blokes all kitted our for a hunting and diving trip, the speights was already flowing and it was only 10:00am! They had hired a local boat to be the mother ship and they had a fizz boat to scoot around in. There was all sorts going into the mother ship including, guns, dive gear, booze, food and a heap of jerry cans with 500 litres of petrol to feed the fizz boats’ twin outboards. They were a friendly bunch and when we left Deep Cove later for Crooked arm, we realised that the boats in front of us were this crew. The fizz boat came over and we had a good old yarn with Paul (boat salesman) and Trev (farmer) over a speights, naturally! We invited them on board for a look around Horizon III which they enjoyed and an hour or so later they decided they better go harvest some cray. We enjoyed a quiet night anchored near three boats rafted up with hunters on board and another converted cray fishing boat, which, as we later discovered, was owned by the Southland Massey Fergusson distributors. We decided to press on for Dusky but on travelling out towards the main Sound we were in extreme winds approaching 50 knots inside the Sound! So we bailed and returned to our anchorage. We radioed them on our return to let them know what we were doing and see if they had picked up the weather forecast, but they had trouble hearing it too. They also had an Iridian sat phone that worked about as well as mine does - bloody hopeless! They explained that they were having trouble with their generator so Robin offered to assist to try and resolve the issue for them. Unfortunately the problem was significant and the generator wasn’t able to be restored to operation. We enjoyed the company of Dave, Grant and the crew on board ‘Jewel’ and they were very helpful in explaining the things we could do in Dusky Sound and Preservation Inlet, places to anchor etc.
The rain and wind gusts abated while we were having lunch so we thought we would give it another go, making the run for Breaksea Sound and ultimately to head on down to Dusky. We ventured out of Doubtful Sound through relatively high seas with 15 knots on the nose. But as we continued the sea became steeper and closer together which we put down to the ‘funnel effect’ of the entrance. The sea did look pretty bad though. We continued, expecting it to improve slightly once clear of the funnel but instead it continued to get worse, soon we were in 5M seas with some sets reaching 6 -8M!!!! We obviously were running slow with me working hard to look after the boat. We had one heavy fall off a huge wave that had no water behind it at all, but Horizon III just kept on keeping on keeping on, albeit now at only 7knots or less.! We had burnt a lot of our daylight hours so it became clear we wouldn’t make it to Breaksea Sound before dark and I had no desire to navigate this sea in the dark, so we took plan B and escaped into Dagg Sound, a sound we were happy to bypass originally. We went right up to the end around the northern hook to discover a mooring buoy right in the middle so we hooked that up and settled in for a very comfortable night reflecting on another tough day on the helm! It was an exceptionally calm night apart from the standard rainfall. Our plan was to get up early and to get ready to head off but if the conditions were the same as today we were just going to anchor up and fish instead. Lesson of the day - always have a plan B.
The lack of photos will give you some idea that our primary focus was survival at sea!
The ‘Mother Ship’ heading out of Deep Cove with its bum down, loaded to the max for their excursion in Doubtful Sound