Your sailing trip in Auckland, from kiosk to quay

The outing begins on foot, at a small booking kiosk inside Viaduct Harbour where Quay Street runs out, across the corner from the New Zealand Maritime Museum. Explore Group, the company that sails these yachts, wants every guest at the kiosk a quarter of an hour ahead, 15 minutes before casting off.^8,9 Arrive a little earlier on a busy summer day: the Viaduct fills with diners, superyacht watchers and other boat crews, and it is easy to walk past the kiosk the first time.

The yacht itself is the reason to go. Explore keeps three identical 50ft monohulls for its harbour sailing, named Courageous, Defiance and Challenger, built for relaxed cruising rather than racing.^10,11 Each has a large open cockpit where you will spend the trip, a dining saloon below deck, a small galley, a licensed bar and toilets.¹² The cockpit is where the ropes and the wheel are, so it is where the action is.

Before the lines come off, the skipper and crew introduce themselves and run through a short safety briefing.¹³ Listen to the parts about where to sit while the boat turns and which ropes to leave alone. The rest of the briefing is practical common sense: keep one hand for the boat when you stand, watch your head near the boom, and tell the crew early if you feel unwell. Then it is time to cast off.

Can you feel the boat rocking on a cruise like this? Yes, and that is the point of sailing rather than motoring. Explore warns that its yacht has moving parts and ropes and that it will pitch and roll during the trip.³ A sailing boat also leans away from the wind when the sails fill, which sailors call heeling. On a calm afternoon it is a gentle tilt; with more breeze the deck slopes and spray can reach the cockpit.

The inner Waitematā is usually kinder than open sea. Explore describes its evening sail as watching the city light up from sheltered water, and the harbour sail is billed as an inner-harbour outing around the bridge and the city waterfront.^28,29,14 Short, choppy waves can still build when wind blows against the tide, so treat any day on the water as a day when the floor moves, and hold a rail or a seat edge whenever you change places.

If you are prone to seasickness, prepare before you board. New Zealand's Healthify guidance is that prevention works better than treatment, and it suggests a small, light meal beforehand and no alcohol the night before.^27,30,31 On board, sit where the motion is least, look ahead at a fixed point on the horizon and breathe fresh air.^24,25,32 Children between 5 and 12 are more prone to it than adults, and seasickness medicine needs to go down before the trip, not once you feel ill.^33,34

Families are welcome: the harbour sailing takes every age group, with no fare for under-fives.²⁶ On its own price list, adults are 16 and over and children 5 to 15.⁴¹ Small children are safest in the cockpit with an adult, away from the winches, and many enjoy a supervised turn on the wheel. Bring a warm top for them even in summer: children cool down faster than adults once the wind picks up.

This sail is not wheelchair accessible, and boarding and leaving the yacht both involve stairs that guests must manage unaided.⁶ Anyone with limited mobility is asked to talk to the crew before booking, since the moving deck and lines make the boat hard to move around.⁴² A toilet on board takes some of the worry out of the trip for older travellers and families with small children.

There is a gentler alternative close by. The New Zealand Maritime Museum's heritage scow Ted Ashby accepts wheelchairs, depending on their size, with at most two on each sailing.⁷ Children under 14 wear life jackets on every museum sailing, supplied by the museum.²³ Public ferries are another option for anyone who mainly wants to be on the water: most of Auckland's ferries have ramps for wheelchairs and mobility scooters.⁴³