Yeah it's me in this forum...again...

[Alan Wheeler]

Mine is a regular mains AC stereo as well. Cheap to replace and it does everything. I even have a big powered sub. Actually I have a full 5.1 surround system with 21" LCD display etc. Real luxury.

[DeepFrz]

Actually the best map I have found is

smaps

but it doesn't have any of the rocks or headlands labeled. Haven't found any on line charts yet.

This map gives me a pretty good idea of your route.

Edit: just found this topo viewer and Karori rock, Thoms rock, tongue point. Looks interesting. That really is funnel isn't it.

[Alan Wheeler]

OK well here's somethign of interest to ya. Wellington sits right on one of the biggest fault lines there is. See that airport called Rongatai(wrong a tie) well all that flat land the airport sits on came up in a major earthquake. The hill to the right was no more than an Island. The actual fault line has teh main Hutt/Wellington highway built on it. All that is Earthquake produced. The last major quake was NZ's biggest at 8.5 in 1855. We are way overdue for the next one.
Oh and that fault line runs right under the straight and comes up here right through were I live. :-0

[cooper]

Thats alright wheels ....just think of your boat as a 45 foot surf board...... if you do end up with a major salami....your recent experience should hold you in good stead !! : )

[seafox]

the weather and sea state is chalk and cheese from what is around the corner a few miles away

Hmmm.

when it's blowing 60 knots in the stait and a big 10 metre plus swell is coming through with wind against tide, I don't think it matters what part you are in!

We go across the strait all the time and I wouldn't trivialise any part of the Cook Strait. We are not talking the Hauraki Gulf!! I always treat every crossing with respect and not as an inshore crossing but as an offshore. if anything goes wrong the next stop is either Australia or Antartica.

Hey wheels, every time we cross that strait we bungee, lash and triple check everything is tied down real good. We have had some hairy crossings in our time and the last thing you need to worry about is a stray microwave. We also turn off every seacock, wear our lifejacekets every crossing, put on the jack stays and wear a harness, have a grab bag full of torch, dingy pump, gps, epirb etc etc. We do a TR every trip with either maritime or Marlborough radio. Also tells friends our plans.

We check the tides and weather days before and try to get wind and tide running in the same direction. We go online and do a weather check as we leave every trip.

Even on a good day we still do all of the above.

[seafox]

Forgot to say, we have to also take the conditions and depth of the Mana bar into account leaving and entering our home port.

The local is even called the Sandbar and has a view of the bar.

I built a new home over the fault line In the last 7 years I have not felt the earthquakes. Our slab is reinforced concrete with steel and concrete beams inside the concrete slab. The whole house sort of floats of the ground when the earthquake swells go past.

[Alan Wheeler]

every time we cross that strait we bungee, lash and triple check

Yeah and I can imagine you tieing Paula to the mast or tiller while your below keeping warm and dry. ;-) :-)

[seafox]

Only if she has poured me a beer, cooked tea and done the dishes first!

[Alan Wheeler]

closely followed by pouring another beer. The first one would be dangerousely low by the time she had done the other chores. :-)

[Heron]

I just fired up my lap top in my comfy cottage here in Maine. Just read Allen's hair raising story, felt queesy, and I'm going back to bed.

HERON

[sildene]

Thanks for the detailed post, Wheels - a very good read. As a less experienced sailor its very good to be able to read such a detailed and first hand account of a yacht in difficult waters. Nothing to sell, no barrow to push, just a frank account of a personal experience.

I don't wish to labour the issue, but I've been struggling a bit to draw a clean conclusion here, and I'd love to. Were the sea conditions you described, in your view, caused mainly by the intersection of two wave trains; or due to a tidal race in opposition to a large swell; or due to a tidal race in opposition to the wind (swell less significant)?

Thanks
Martin

Wheels, timely post. I was just considering those solar vents for the hatches on the tri. Think I will go with plan B.
Also timely in that, while you were out there, we were watching a Disovery channel show on that exact area. Finally was able to put in perspective for the first mate, exactly where you are.
Still, mission accomplished. Any landing you can walk away from right?
As for the microwave, I vote for the enclosure.
Looking forward to some photos of the rigging project.

[Alan Wheeler]

One thing that happend to the microwave before the unit it'self went wandering around, was that the glass turntable inside smashed it's way through the microwave door. So that gives you an idea of the violent motions we encountered. It also gives you an idea that the unit it'self wasn't just sitting there as such. That takes a lot of force to break open a latched microwave door.
Martin, it was mixture of many local aspects, sided by the lack of local area knowledge and that I made a major mistake in not reading up on the area at first. For an offshore visiting boat, that could be understandable and excusable. But for me being local and even worse, actually having the guide with me, is very inexcusable and I am the first to smack the back of my hand and tell myself off for not doing the home work. Back to the question....because I had not read up on the area, I had not realised the extent of this rip. My main concerns had been with the overfalls of my own side of the ditch. One in particular has always been a concern, because we had a bad experiance on our maiden voyage in that area. So I had calculated tides perfectly to be in the right places at the right time. However, I was too early for the tides in the Wellington area. This meant I had an ebb tide. Ebb tides travel in a South direction. The swell that day was 4m and coming from the south and traveling in the north direction. A 25kt wind was coming from E/SE. So it was wave and wind against tide. The result was the Southerly swell had a 25kt wind over it from a more easterly direction. The large waves smashing onto the South coast were traveling back out against the southerly swell. Add to that mix that we had a very strong Northerly on the far N/NW side of the country and this had produced a 1.5m northerly swell that had rocked us on our mooring all night. So all in all, we had four different wave directions. Now add to all that the tidal movement and you can see I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We weren't that far from low tide and slack water and I think if we had have been that hr later, we may not have had such a steep sea. Confused still, most definitly, but it was the steep faces and backs of the sea's that was making us uncomfortable. 5m is not really a big sea. In fact, further away, we still had those big waves and we felt great rolling over them.
One plus with me, I am a very fast learner. I learnt some big lessons that day.

[Alan Wheeler]

I apologise for bringing this to the top again. It is not an intentional bump. But I was watching video's of ships in heavey weather on Youtube and came across this.

YouTube - ship in big storm

It is of our famouse Cook Straight and this video is the exact same place I got hammered. So you will all see what I went through.

[Lancerbye]

O.K. Alan, You know about bad things comings in sets of three. Have you about had your share. If not stay in bed. Awful entertaining though. You definitely get my vote for the best discribed sea horror of the month.