The departure - Dulcinea

I have been getting so excited for this trip for ages now, its been a while since we have been out (I think Easter was the last), Emma and I managed to finish work early, Amy was off already as was Roe so we got away at a decent time and Roe met us at the Shell in Kaiapoi which saved a lot of extra driving out to his place. We filled up and Emma managed to break the dipstick tube on the car which had me worried it was going to leak oil (by the way not her fault, it was brittle and fell apart). Then off we went, managed to carry on through Kaikoura this time and made a b-line right for Blenheim for dinner, booze and grocery shopping. First things first, dinner...we stopped at BK which is soooo slow and useless at the best of times, now add in a long weekend and they get worse exponentially so it took ages to get food and when we did they managed to serve Emma with a completely raw chicken pattie in her burger, then the replacement hay mayo in it which she asked not to have...3rd burger came with no sauces at all (should have had relish), I think she just gave up by then and ate it as it was. After that meal and Emma feeling sick (probably just in the mind after eating raw chicken) we headed to the local liquor shop to get Roe and Amy some rum...and the final stop along the way was Pak n' save for groceries...after buying enough food for a small army we piled back into the already full car, filed the food on top of Roe and Amy and headed the last 30mins to Havelock. We unlocked the boat, took cart load after cart load of stuff onboard and stowed everything away ready to get going, then some last minute showers and before we knew it was nearly midnight and we could clear the channel. We dropped the lines and headed off, Roe and Amy spotlighting the markers and cliffs out of the marina and before long we were into the open sound ticking along toward our first nights anchorage. We did some filming for Amy's presentation along the way and managed to get some good footage. I think it was near 2am when we pulled the club mooring ball at Putanui Point and I think we managed to startle a couple of people sleeping in a tent or hut on the nearby hillside...oh well, time to look at a bit of footage and head for bed.