After the first few days in Oban, we sailed down the east
coast to Port Pegasus. There are two main inlets on Stewart Island, Paterson
Inlet (where Oban is) and Port Pegasus (see the first picture in the first post for a reference map). There are a few other bays and inlets
along the east coast, but much smaller than those two. The west coast is pretty
rugged and exposed to the prevailing westerlies, and it only offers a handful of
anchorages, so we had already decided to give that a miss.
Port Pegasus alone is worth the whole trip though. It’s huge
and boasts heaps of anchorages. The scenery is more rugged and dramatic than
Paterson Inlet. It’s split into a north and south arm. Many of the bays are
quite small and set up with stern lines. The two photos below are Waterlily Bay.
We spent almost two weeks in Port
Pegasus and saw only a few fishing
boats, and didn’t speak with anyone for over a week until an American yacht
(Visions of Johanna and aboard were also Bruce and Alene from Migration. Both boats had been through Tonga and had lots of great advise for us) came into our anchorage for a night.
Most of the land is covered in bush, all native trees and scrub.
It rains a lot so it’s super green. I thought the bush was so pretty, that it
alone deserved a photo.
Speaking of the rain, below I'm seen sporting the latest fashion in fishermen wet weather gear! 100% waterproof, 100% non-breathable, yes to sitting in puddles without getting a wet bum.
Belltopper Falls is a reasonable big waterfall at the NE
corner of the North Arm. We had fun watching a Shag diving for fish in the clear water
just in front of the waterfall. The currents were quite strong and he was
super-fast, and quite successful in catching fish. We must have acclimatised quite well to
holiday-mode, since we were so easily entertained :-)
Smuggler’s Cove is in the NW corner of the North Arm near
Waterlily Bay. It’s impossible to see until you’re right in front of it, but
it’s a tiny cove, with only a dinghy’ wide entrance. It was raining when we were there, thus
emphasising the rain forest feeling.
Looks gorgeous! I want to go!
ReplyDeleteThat little cove looks fantastic. Pity the rain, but I suppose it added ambiance... :)
ReplyDeleteSer fantastisk ud!! Er meget misundelig på jeres eventyr!! Knus
ReplyDeleteThanks so much girls, it's great that you're commenting :-)
ReplyDelete@ Viki, go next summer! I'm sure with your great organisational skills that you can even round up a naval point excursion there. You just gotta pick nice weather to go there, and once you're' there, you're sweet!
@ Sutter, yeah, was such a great little cove, overall we had great weather, so was ok with a bit of rain
@ Louise, tak :-) Vi glaeder os til du kommer og besoeger os paa Sophia! Jeg skal nok snart skrive en email.
Where is that amaing cove exactly in north pegasus???? im heading there soon and am really keen to visit it
ReplyDeleteHi Dev. Do you have the Stewart Island Cruising Guide (from Mana yacht club)? We can really recommend it, it was super good, eventhough it's quite old. Page 45 has a handdrawn map of the north arm and it's indicated on there. We dinghied there from Waterlily Bay and it's straight north of there. We started at the outcrop and just followed the shoreline north and just when you come into the corner and starts heading west, it's there. When we were there, two branches were layed across the entrance like a x (see the photo above). So all up, it wasn't that difficult to find. Hope my directions make sense. Have fun!
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