Saturday 9 March Fame Cove

not quite the Zambezi

After we'd been in to Nelson marina for a couple of hours on Thursday to give Jackster a thorough wash with fresh water we sailed out to Fame Cove. It's only 4 miles from Nelson but a world away from commerce; not a house to be seen or a car motor heard. We were the only boat on Thursday night and had the choice of any of the 6 public mooring balls. As we got closer to the weekend all the balls were occupied.

This morning we kayaked up the river that feeds the bay. We were on the wrong end of the tide and couldn't get as far as we hoped before rocks and mud flats barred our way. David saw a kingfisher and we both saw the pelicans and a pair of black swans.

For the rest of the day David worked on a niggling noise he'd heard in the auto pilot – everything stripped down, cleaned and serviced and I think it sounded sweeter afterwards. At least we there's nothing broken inside the mechanism.