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Socializing ….

Some folks left the anchorage (Tahina, Dreamtime), a couple more arrived (Passages, Scream). Mike from Callisto popped by to invite us to drinks Thursday night. Steve & Darusha popped by and invited us for dinner Friday night.

During the day we just amused ourselves aboard the usual way. I decided to condition the batteries and ran the generator for most of the morning. I had planned to do more routine checks of the boat but put it off to today.

Drinks aboard Callisto was fun and went on til late. Also there the Kilkeas and Passages’s.

It’s nice here but we need to get out. All this socializing is hard on the body. The bloodstream at least.

Last day in Whangarei

What a day. We started the day with one last wash. The genset started ok but not with the zest we know it can with a good power supply. It’s battery was getting tired. A quick decision was made and it was off to the battery store to buy and then install a new battery. When I moved the original battery I tucked it way out of the way which meant pulling loads of stuff out of the generator compartment and then squeezing myself into a very tight place to work. Glad we did that as the genset starts perfectly now.

Next task was to head for Opua to sell the car back to Phil from Cars for Cruisers. I had an agreement with Rob and Ruth from Albatross III to head up to Opua too and give me a ride back. Just before leaving we bumped into a young lady from the NE US whose on a traveling trip and was looking for passage up to Fiji. We offered to take her up to Opua and back to investigate things there and learn a bit more about making what she was trying to do work.

On arriving in Opua I let Lauren off to explore the area and agreed to meet up at the Fish and Chip shop at noon where I’d promised to buy lunch for everyone for helping out. The deal with Phil went through smoothly and soon I was walking away with a cashable check.

While waiting for Lauren to show up I bumped into Andy from Zephyrus which was a pleasant surprise. We chatted for a while and I asked about people looking for crew. He had a good lead and shared it with Lauren when she found us. About 12:30 Rob and Ruth turned up having seen some friends. Unfortunately the Fish and Chip shop in Opua had closed down so we headed off to Pahia for the banks and shops there. Half way there I realize I’d left my GPS unit somewhere so we headed back finding it with Phil.

Leaving the others to look around I first went to Westpac to cash the check using my passport to prove my identity. She had to call Phil to verify the check was ok to cash and he approved with the caveat I owed him a GPS unit. She found the explanation of his remark quite funny. My next stop was the ANZ bank to deposit most the cash keeping enough to pay for our new kayak.

With all the financials handled I found the others and bought all Fish and Chips on the waterfront which turned out to be overfilling but delicious.

Rob took us north out of Pahia for a different route back to Whangarei. A few miles out of town I realized I didn’t have our folder containing our boat papers and passports. Not again. So back into town we went. I checked first at the Westpac. The teller grinned hugely and went to the safe to retrieve my passport. I found the folder in the ANZ where I’d left it. Where was my head???? I checked to make sure it was still in the right place physically. I think my brain had already set sail.

No more mishaps beset us as we traveled back to Whangarei. Rob helped me collect the kayak which we placed on the boat. Helen had spent the day making a clean boat immaculate for the evening’s party. By now there was not much time left. I performed a few small jobs around the boat before showering and soon after folks began to show.

All in all we had the pleasure of welcoming the crew from Albatross III, Attitude, Blue Penguin, Boree, Callisto, Clara Katherine, Division II, El Regalo, Imagine, Jackster, Leu Cat, Marquesa, Proximity, Sail Away, Scream, Sea Mist, Sidewinder, Stray Kitty, Tahina, True Companions and Tyee along with one or two marina neighbours. That was about forty people at once. It was a great test of our through hulls as we were down about 6-9 inches in the water. We didn’t sink.

This morning we woke fairly early and after doing last minute internetty things we dropped of our key to the shower block and headed out. As we headed down the river the winds were light and behind us. And cold. We motored on batteries alone for about 30 mins before turning on the generator. Near the river mouth we caught sight of True Companions ahead of us and called them on the radio to greet them.

As we rounded the heads we hit a dead patch and used the opportunity to raise the new main. We crossed our fingers hoping for wind as we really wanted to see how our new sails would perform. We didn’t have to wait too long and soon we were in winds that were to vary between 10-20 knots as we headed up the coast. We were gobsmacked by the improved boat performance. Before the boat speed would fade below about 12 knots under main and jib. Now she was achieving above 1/2 wind speed all the way down to 9 knots on the beam. We’ve never seen it so good.

We have found a couple of issues. The reef points on the new main are higher up than before and now the 1st reef only has a turn of spare line at the winch which is not enough to reef on the fly. We also have new modes of vibration on the luff of the main which we need to figure out how to handle. Apart from that everything seems to be in amazing shape. It feels like we have a new boat.

Our original plan had us making our way up the coast in smaller steps. With reduced wind tomorrow and nasty northeasterlies forecast for Friday we’re aiming to cover as much distance as we can today and complete the trip to the Bay of Islands tomorrow where we can find shelter from any type of wind. Our goal for today is the Whangamumu Bay which we visited last November.

We’ve now settled into a pleasant sail up the coast putting on and taking off our warm clothes as the sun goes in and out. We have about a knot of counter current but we’re doing well against it. We even have a line out for fish but nothing caught yet. We’ve shed the land life and are back on the water.

4th Thursday on the hard

I hope this is our last full day ‘status’ report of life on the hard. There’s an expression : “Life is hard in the yard.” It’s true.

  • Wrote a launch checklist.  Having played around with the underwater bits I want to be sure we catch any leaks as early as possible.
  • Tied on new jib sheet protector.  This is a line tied from a couple of meters up the mast down to the deck to keep the jib sheets away from the mast and being damaged.
  • Installed new clamshell scoops.
  • Visited the Town Basin Marina to confirm our intended Friday (that’s today !!!!) arrival and discuss location.  Bumped into Darusha/Steve from Scream and Christa from Lileth.
  • Tested the freezer.  Not exactly a hard task.  I simply turned it on.
  • Put sea anchor away.  Even though it needs another wash we’ve properly packed it in the bag and stowed it ready for unhoped for use.
  • Cleaned deck/dive locker.
  • Connected other end of exhaust hose (ie, the end not ultimately attached to the new through hull)
  • Helped install the new anchor guard
  • Tested the starboard motor.  In doing this we had one of those “Oh No” moments.  The zinc on the end of the prop was wobbling and so was the end of the on which it sat.  Was the nut (the one we’d had pinned onto the shaft) on wrong?  Was the shaft bent?  I took two and a half expert oppinions and the general sense was the prop was running withing a hairbreadth of true and we had no problem.  Phew.
  • Attached and raised anchor
  • Collected the new sails.  In doing this I discussed options with the sail makers for the fitting.  End result is they’re coming to the boat in the yard at 7:30am this morning.  I took the sails as there was a possibility the boat may already be raised by then making it more awkward to get them aboard.

In the afternoon both Helen and I were both awash with fatigue.  Perhaps it was coming down from the adrenalin of the wobbly nut.  After three weeks of dust and dirt and being a day from launch, the possibility of being delayed was not a pleasant one.  But we kept on and energy did eventually renew.

One other event which could have been a lot nastier than it ended up occurred when I was taking a hard drive over to Tahina.  I took a short cut under the some boats and was just about to jump a ditch when the firm footing for my take off turned out not to be firm at all.  I plunged into the ditch arresting my fall with my shin on some rocks.  There were scratches and numbness down my leg but no extra joints.  The hard drive and my bones were intact so all else was secondary and a relief.  Karen and Frank tended to my condition by preparing soapy swabs to clean the dirt out of the wounds and giving me a big band aid (which later took off a lot of hair) for the main bash.  I refrained from taking any further short cuts for the rest of the day.

The external work is now more or less complete. The anchor guard is now in place and the anchor chute epoxied. We’ve had bigger screws put into the mast based and have had propspeed applied to the props and shafts. Bar one small section on the starboard side the sides of the boat have been polished.

The main entertainment for the day came from the launch of a multi million dollar power cat which didn’t go as smoothly as it could.  The truck bringing it to the yard fractured in a few places and they had one big mistep (it appeared) when they placed it on the ramp above high tide.  While it was interesting to watch from time to time our main interest in seeing it launch was to know there was no bloody great boat stuck in the ramp we’re due to exit on Friday (today !!!!!).

Towards the end of the day I dropped of a case of beer for the workers as a thank you.  Turned out to be very welcome as Peter is taking them down the river this evening for a ‘booze cruise’ and this will add to the party.

We finished the evening by sharing grilled sausages and veg with Dennis and Allison from Kalida.  We had a good time together and the evening ended off with their sharing some of the Fiji experiences and our taking notes on places to go.

Soon.

Today, if you hadn’t guessed, is launch day. The sails will go on. The polishing complete. The dinghy raised. The boat raised and rudders fitted. This afternoon we’ll be off.

Oh.  How can I forget.  I uploaded pictures of the concert/wetlands walk from last Sunday (you’ll need to go back).  And I’ve uploaded some pictures of the boat work.  Here.

I have a few more pictures to add and take so I’ll republish this album when it’s complete.

3rd Friday on the hard and an excellent break

The weather this week has been very alternating.  Every other day we have variable weather and on the alternate days we have a consistently good day.  Yesterday was a consistently good day.  Confused?  Because we had an afternoon event planned we had a shortened work day but we still made progress :

  • Sanded all the gelcoat touch ups
  • Replaced temporary split pin at top of mast
  • Added a layer of varnish to the shower sill
  • Picked up new code zero halyard
  • Replaced old main halyard (which was in the code zero halyard’s position) with new code zero halyard
  • Assembled gooseneck twice.  First time I thought I had it on the boom upside down but I discovered I was wrong about this after removing it.
  • Installed new main sheet
  • Reattached sail bag
  • 80% inflated dinghy (which was returned from having handle/rollock reattached)
  • Filed off ridges from inside boom in order to install new sheave for outhaul/third reef

On the external projects more progress was made than anticipated.  The dinghy arrived.  The anchor roller strengthening is now complete.  The chain chute is complete.  The props / shafts were returned from having a hole drilled and pin inserted. The new sheave was cut.  Our window inserts are now expected early next week and I postponed the forestay work to Monday.

I actually had a little time to study a few Euler problems and have now developed a strategy to solve one of them which I’ll implement over the weekend.  It’s interesting going back to them as at first they all look far too complicated to solve but sooner or later dormant brain cells wake up from their slumber and go to work.

Around 2:30pm we broke for the day and cleaned up for our afternoon out.  The town of Whangarei was putting on a farewell seminar/show for the cruisers who’ve spent time (and presumably quite a lot of money) here in the town – particularly on services to their ocean battered boats.  First was a very impressive traditional Maori challenge, far better than the one we saw at the Maori experience in Rotorua.

Next we had a half hour lecture by weather guru Bob McDavitt.  For those that don’t know him, he puts out an excellent cruising forecast each Sunday that makes a relevant read every Sunday.  As such he practically received a heroes welcome by the cruisers as a result of this service.  He does offer professional guidance / route planning to those that wish it.  His half hour brief was very informative.  He confirmed the weather scenario for leaving north that I’m now already anticipating.  More importantly he helped us understand the broader context for the weather patterns and their near term impact.  We’re in what’s called a declining La Nina situation which historically extends the cyclone season.  Thus the general recommendation is not to leave until May.  This fits our general plan which was to be ready by the third week in April and to take the first available weather window.  That window should now appear early May.  This extra time allows us the opportunity to flex our new wings (once installed) with a sail, perhaps, up to Opua before we leave.

Next was the BBQ which was a fine feast.  I thought I was taking a little of everything but my plate ended up piled high.  Having had a light and early lunch I was famished and polished off the lot.

Finally we were given a cultural Maori performance by a national competition winning local singing group.  Again – far better than the ones we’ve seen at tourist attractions.  We are lucky to have the opportunity in our lives to go cruising and further privileged to be given such joyful, harmonious and passionate performances.

We were not alone for this farewell presentation.  We sat amongst old friends from the ‘class of ’10’ puddle jumpers : Attitude, Boree, Callisto, El Regallo, Imagine, Leu Cat, Proximity, Scream & Tahina.  There were plenty of others there too and the sad thing is was our need to catch up with old friends prevented us from really making any new.

Being in the company of so many friends and having the Polynesian dancing and singing going on made most, if not all, of us keen to start our crossing and get back out into the wonders of the South Pacific.  Just got to get the boat work finished !!!!!

We finished the evening by inviting Frank and Karen over to a messy Dignity to share a bottle of wine.  Almost like being back out on the water.  Except for the gentle rocking.  The slapping of waves.  The warm nights.  The beautiful beaches.  The great snorkeling.  No yard dust.  Not having to pee in a bucket.  Ok – so not quite so similar but we’re on our way soon.

ADDED LATER: All too easy. Euler problem nailed. Off to work.

Happy New Year

Our New Year’s Eve began with a walk to Pier 21 where the Kamaya’s are moored. It was good to catch up with Ruth and Tim. As a bonus, Evi from Wonderland was staying aboard too. We then walked to the Ponsonby area where we met up with Richard and Krista from Lileth who we’ve not seen for ages. We had lunch with them and while doing so Darusha and Stephen from Scream showed up.

Our next stop was the Sky Tower where we had booked a jump from the observation deck. Ben and Helen didn’t feel it would be thrilling enough to justify the cost so it was down to Sam and I. With perfect weather the view from the top (and on the way down) was perfect. Stepping off the rim of the tower was quite intense. We were left dangling for about 10 seconds before the brakes were removed and we plummeted to the ground. Something to remember. We both received a free pass to take a ride to the observation deck which we gave to Helen and Ben.

Sam did a little more busking to help rebuild his entertainment kitty. Sam and Ben left us oldies to go back to Richard and Krista’s apartment near Ponsonby where they were due to meet up with Ian from Sea Mist and go out for the night. Helen and I had a meal out and watched the fireworks at midnight from a spot near the Sky Tower. There were fireworks from the tower and down on the river. We’d been told by a taxi driver that the river fireworks would be a long way away which turned out to be wrong advice. But we were able to see both which was quite good. We returned to the hotel to share a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the New Year.

Happy New Year to one and all.