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Cell service is patchy, especially in the anchorages, as they tend to be tucked up under the hills. VHF is pretty good, with good forecasts. Best info is in the sounds cruising guide, get a copy if your going there. It gives all the anchorages, all the wind directions they are good for, holding type etc. It is way more detailed and accurate than anything I've found for the Hauraki Gulf!

The sounds are great, but cool - significantly cooler than Auckland. Its deep as well, there are many moorings marked PMW, owned by the local clubs. If you will be there a while, then its worth joining so you can use them. Otherwise, and anchor and a stern line ashore to get you in close is pretty normal.

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There is a specific Local/Private VHF system operating in the Sounds. 63 for Queen Charlotte, 65 for Pelorous. Ch16 is pretty useless except for line of sight use. They have regular weather updates and other local info. You are supposed to pay a registration if you intend to use it regularly. It is manned during the day only, from early morning to mid evening by volunteers.

The weather is an interesting one. You get weather for three area's. Cook Straight, Marlborough Sounds and Tasman. It does vary slightly depending on if the weather is Northerly or Southerly, but I have always found that the best is to take the Cook Straight Forecast and then reduce the Wind strength by 10kts.

As IT says about the Moorings. Call Pelorous Boating club for registering. They are the cheaper of the three clubs, being Mana, Queen Charlotte and Pelorous. It is not expensive to join them an the moorings make it so sooo much easier. There are a few bays that are anchorable, but many are very deep water.

Winds in bays can often be Catabatic. But mostly, the bays offer great shelter with a few being great Serious storm shelter.

Be very careful of the new Fishing rules. There is a season for catching Blue Cod and a limited number of Snapper allowed and the scallops have had a closed season this year.

There is over 1500Km of Coast line in the Sounds, so do not underestimate the fact that if you really want to explore, you need a lot of time, or viewed another way, you can spend a lot of time in the sounds and never get bored. Even though there are two main Sounds, each have large individual waterways that are different and spectacular in their own unique ways. Pelorous being the largest and most to explore. I was going to divide and name the area's, but have just realised how difficult that is.

 

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As IT says about the Moorings. Call Pelorous Boating club for registering. They are the cheaper of the three clubs, being Mana, Queen Charlotte and Pelorous. It is not expensive to join them an the moorings make it so sooo much easier. There are a few bays that are anchorable, but many are very deep water.

 

Just to avoid confusion, the pwm stands for Pelorus, Waikawa, Mana. What I think wheels is calling Queen Charlotte is the waikawa boating club. The moorings are definitely worth having access to.

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The council has developed a Sounds boating app which has much of the info from the old cruising guide, might be a good start.

 

I find the Predict wind forecast quite accurate, especially considering all the hills. Standard MetService don’t give one for the sounds as such, only Cook, the cook -10 knots thing works for some parts of the sounds, not others. The Pelorus side is more commonly said to be similar to Tasman.

 

Windyty and yr.no are also popular with the racing fleet.

 

Cell phone coverage in most of the outer bays is limited, sometimes non existent, a quick trip out of the bay your in will likely find you enough signal to check an online forecast each day though.

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Yes they do get good weather reports ,my brother in law is away cruising as we talk , he does the sounds every year leaving from mana for several weeks , last reports in transit all’s we’ll talk soon , sailing West Coast South Island in his lotus 9.2 zingara We usually get updates each day ,

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