Cancel your Great Barrier plans this Summer

[K4309 258]

23 minutes ago, CarpeDiem said:

Gutted. Was hoping to get to Port Fitzroy for our first time this summer.

 

Edit:

) Port Fitzroy Permit Exempt Anchoring Zone: means the area contained 
within the marine waters of Port Fitzroy, east of a line between Kotuku Point 
and Mt. Overlook headland of Kaikōura Island /Selwyn Island, and east of a 
line between the Man of War Passage and Governor Pass.

 

Where is that? 

There is a map in the CAN, I can't copy / paste it for some reason, you can anchor in all of Fitzroy.

Check this link Exotic Caulerpa Aotea and Ahuahu Controlled Area Notice 2023 (mpi.govt.nz)

[slanty 8]

Hi folks - I'm a GBI virgin and was hoping to take my lotus 9.2 out there this xmas. Does only having fitzroy available for anchoring limit the experience in your opinion? Will there be enough space there to swing safely? Interested in your thoughts.

[Bad Kitty 252]

32 minutes ago, slanty said:

Hi folks - I'm a GBI virgin and was hoping to take my lotus 9.2 out there this xmas. Does only having fitzroy available for anchoring limit the experience in your opinion? Will there be enough space there to swing safely? Interested in your thoughts.

I suspect Fitzroy will be pretty manic, unless a lot of people stay away. The big issue will be when a NE system comes thru, and limited safe anchoring in a storm becomes very desirable real estate. There's other places to go & anchor, but that red area on the CAN wipes a lot of them out.

Cavalli's is looking pretty good again!

[waikiore 399]

Yes I like the Bay shallower and warmer water with many options

[chariot 243]

Mercs are another option. Then again, that could be crowded with large part of Barrier out of bounds.

[K4309 258]

1 hour ago, Bad Kitty said:

I suspect Fitzroy will be pretty manic, unless a lot of people stay away. The big issue will be when a NE system comes thru, and limited safe anchoring in a storm becomes very desirable real estate. There's other places to go & anchor, but that red area on the CAN wipes a lot of them out.

Cavalli's is looking pretty good again!

Noting that you can anchor anywhere in the CAN on the grounds of safety.

I've not seen any guidelines on that, and I wouldn't just go anchoring in Bowling Alley or Whangaparapara willy nilly, but the skipper has sole responsibility and discretion as to what is safe and not for their vessel.

If you as skipper deem you need to anchor in the CAN anchoring ban on safety grounds, you can.

[K4309 258]

4 minutes ago, chariot said:

Mercs are another option. Then again, that could be crowded with large part of Barrier out of bounds.

Doesn't Mercs still have an anchoring ban?

[Bad Kitty 252]

4 hours ago, waikiore said:

Yes I like the Bay shallower and warmer water with many options

I imagine the Bay will be crazy busy, more so than usual with the question mark over Barrier. We usually head further North, and swing into the Bay when we head South, later in Jan once a big chunk of the crowd leaves.

[chariot 243]

I think the Mercs are now a clean your anchor and attachments as you lift. I know a lot of people are still anchoring on the northern side. South side not an issue.

[motorb 26]

On 30/11/2023 at 1:28 PM, K4309 said:

But with any luck the average punter will be too thick to read the rules, everyone will think Barrier is closed, and I will get the place to myself.

One can hope.... I too was hoping to have a crack at sailing there for the first time this summer

[ex Elly 197]

[Psyche 633]

Ok so if I have got this right, you can drift about and fish/dive/spear but not net, dredge or anchor in Red, you can park in Yellow but must clean your gear

[Bad Kitty 252]

What a waste of time. MPI spends millions on trying to wipe out Undaria every year, from the Chathams to Fiordland, flying divers around with scissors to manually cut it off rocks FFS.

It's had 30 years off massive effort, at uncountable cost in the Chathams, and it's still there. 

Divers living aboard in Fiordland, flying in & out since I think since around 2010? Someone jump in if you have better knowledge of this effort?

And here we are, Undaria still here, and still spreading.

But we think this time around, with Caulerpa it's going to be different? Hmmm, not convinced.

 

[K4309 258]

2 hours ago, Psyche said:

Ok so if I have got this right, you can drift about and fish/dive/spear but not net, dredge or anchor in Red, you can park in Yellow but must clean your gear

Yes, but you can anchor in red if you observe Schedule 2 Clause C of the CAN:

Anchoring in emergencies:

Anchoring is permitted without the need to acquire a permit for the following situations:

1) In the event of an emergency that

c) no other alternative safe sheltering locations or mooring can be easily acquired.

[Psyche 633]

So if you arrive in the evening and dont want to navigate through Man O War for example?

[K4309 258]

8 minutes ago, Psyche said:

So if you arrive in the evening and dont want to navigate through Man O War for example?

Fatigue is the underlying cause of a massive number of accidents.

If a prudent skipper had a choice of proceeding directly to Bowling Alley Bay, which depending on where you were coming from is maybe 4 to 6 miles closer, and avoided navigating past multiple sunken rocks, islets and islands and then down an incredibly narrow, unlit, rock lined channel. It's already dark, the crew is tired (if you have one) and the skipper is fatigued, what option would the prudent skipper take?

Obviously, based on the CAN, the Skipper would have needed to set out for and intended to make Fitzroy, but lets say they were latter departing due to unforeseen circumstances, or did not achieve the calculated average speeds due to weather conditions, or that, despite planning to arrive at Man o War passage prior to night fall, now wont, then, (in my view) the CAN has provision for legitimately anchoring in Bowling Alley Bay, or any other bay in the red zone, provided their is a justification under Schedule 2 Clause C.

[ex Elly 197]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:27 AM, slanty said:

Hi folks - I'm a GBI virgin and was hoping to take my lotus 9.2 out there this xmas. Does only having fitzroy available for anchoring limit the experience in your opinion? Will there be enough space there to swing safely? Interested in your thoughts.

Yes, you should still go if you want to. Fitzroy is the main place that people head for. You could spend a week or more inside anchoring in a different bay each night. There are some people who don't go anywhere else as their wives need millpond conditions to get to sleep. However I find it a bit claustrophobic and usually prefer Broken Islands to Whangaparapara which are now closed. Plus there is still Abercrombie (explore the camp at the head of Karaka bay) and Katherine bay on the west (good fishing and anchorage behind the mussel farm). If the swell isn't too high you can still go up round the Needles to the eastern side and if you tow a lure you may catch a tuna. Head down to Rakitu (Arid) island (for some of the best snorkeling in NZ), then Harataonga (good walks ashore) and Whangapoua (swimming with sharks). Also the side trip to Mokohinaus is only a few hours (more good snorkelling, and an interesting walk up the railway tracks to the hut). This is not a good anchorage so needs settled conditions. However doing the circumnavigation will be a lot harder this year, since you can't tuck round the bottom into Tryphena. All this has been done in a Tracker, so you will have no problem in a Lotus.

 

[Frank 157]

Nobody wants invasive pests but wouldn't it be cool if just for once there was a silver lining like say " Voracious Schnapper fattening up on yellow clams" or "Crayfish Population Booming on Caulerpa beds"  sigh !

[Brien 22]

20 hours ago, Psyche said:

So if you arrive in the evening and dont want to navigate through Man O War for example?

You might have to justify why you would plan your trip to arrive when and where you could not safely navigate.

[K4309 258]

1 hour ago, Brien said:

You might have to justify why you would plan your trip to arrive when and where you could not safely navigate.

I don't think you can use Schedule 2 Clause C willy nilly. The point is that situations change en-route.

There is also the requirement that there be an emergency. Again, the skipper is the sole arbiter of what constitutes an emergency on his boat.

I'd make a note in the logbook if something cropped up mid-voyage.

"Not been able to prepare dinner while underway, getting hungry, emergency declared at 17:42 hours, diverting to Bowling Alley Bay"

"Feeling a bit queasy, clearly haven't got my sealegs yet. Emergency declared at 13:15, diverting to Bowling Alley Bay"

Or any manner of equipment failures, blocked heads, dicky autopilots that occur when you start using your boat at the start of the summer holidays. All of these minor things can distract the skipper and compound, via domino theory, to a serious incident.

My main point is you are fully allowed to anchor in the red zones if there is a justifiable need under schedule 2 clause C. It is not appropriate if people are having a shithouse crossing with things going wrong, getting excessively fatigued, seasick, gear playing up or breaking etc to blindly struggle on to Fitzroy when there are safer anchorages nearby.

I doubt you could justify going to Bowling Alley cause you'd been fishing at the Broken Islands and you just felt like it. You need a reason, and I'd document that reason in your logbook. But the skipper is the sole arbiter of safety on his boat, and depending on the circumstances, that reason could be fairly minor in the scale of things. There is nothing there about needing to declare a mayday, call for a rescue helo or even to report the 'emergency'. On this point, there is a sound argument to take action early to avoid some sort of big f*ck-up that does require a Mayday or rescue Helo.