The general rule on a sailing vessel is when you come across sea life, dolphins, seals, whales etc, you should remain at least 100m away. You shouldn’t disturb the creatures, intimidate them or approach them. My question is, what’s the protocol when a massive sea lion decides to chase your dinghy, swim under it and splash you with its fins? The culprit is noticeably longer than our 2.6m dinghy, a proper chunky monkey and has a fine array of teeth in a rather impressively sized head.

Our dinghy has an aluminium hull but the tubes are made of hypalon which are filled with air. A little munch and it’s a deflating beach ball scenario. All was fine, I may be being a little melodramatic here although it was a scenario we hadn’t considered previously. There’s a beach behind where we are anchored here in Pegasus Inlet on Stewart Island. We’ve seen three sea lions plopped on that beach, just hanging out till it’s time to go fishing again. We’ve become accustomed to them swimming around the boat, our heads turning as they exhale sharply when they surface for air. Ah, the sea lions are back.

We sailed to Stewart Island just under a week ago. It was a 30 hour trip from Port Carey, near Dunedin. We won’t get much further south than this. The wind was from behind and the sea, as predicted, was a little boisterous during the night. But by the time we entered into the inlet, the wind had dropped and we motored to our chosen cove in calm bright weather and managed to anchor and sort stern lines without any drama.

It’s a stunning place. Pretty remote. Fish to catch. Old workings to explore. Yesterday we walked up onto the Tin Range. We saw precisely no one on our full day excursion, initially through the bush then out into the open with sketchy paths to follow, some bush bashing and great views all round. Today has been less active as our legs recover from 25km including a little laundry  after collecting water from the stream. Appreciate your washing machine.