Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • Mount Manaia

    Too many pies recently so it was time for some exercise. Having waited by Mount Manaia for two days without going ashore due to rain we decided to go back there. We invited John from Sea Mist as he is usually up for it. He was glad of the invite as he’d also not been out much recently. In the end John offered to take all of us in his car as it was bigger which worked out well.

    After one wrong turn we made it to the mountain. Although it was pretty high, the hike was much easier than others we have done in the last year as the path was well made all the way. The weather was cool but clear so we had some great views. Sam, as part of his art course, has to take pictures so he was the official photographer.

    In the afternoon I visited the nearby yard to book our haul out. We are booked for April 5th which we can easily change. There I bumped into Dan from Division 2 who we met up in Tonga. It turns out we’ll be on the pilings soon right next to him. He’s agreed to keep an eye on Dignity while we’re away touring.

    I spent some time in the afternoon wrestling with a few Project Euler problems. I’ve abandoned use of spreadsheets and have now started coding for the first time in years. My success count has now raced to 32 out of 315. Of course, I am doing the easier ones first so each new one is gradually getting tougher to do.

    The Jacksters pulled into the town basin in the afternoon so it was nice to say hello to them. They were interested in joining the Xmas Eve meal with all the other cruisers here so we arranged this pretty quickly.

    Apart from that Helen finished another edit of her Two Years On blog which is being used as the basis of our Xmas Letter this year. The big difference is that it now has embedded pics.

  • Sam’s Aboard

    Shortly after 6am we took off in the car to drive to Auckland International Airport. We’d been given warnings of the traffic so we gave ourselves plenty of time to get there. Despite plenty of traffic we were still nearly an hour early so we stopped for breakfast and a shop before entering the airport.

    Sam duly came through and we had hugs all round despite Sam suffering (read reeking) from sitting in airplanes for over a day. Now further motivated to get the shower working on the boat we stopped at a few DIY/garden centers on the way to see if we could find a regulator/pressure reducer so solve the over pressure problem we have from the dock water. We had no luck.

    On the way back we also detoured to the small village of M*** where we stopped for fish and chips. The day had turned out to be exceptionally dry and warm which was a very nice change from all the rain we’ve been having recently.

    After lunch we headed back to Whangarei. On the way I received two calls, one from the chandlery to say the new grill burner has arrived and one from the garden center to say our regulator had arrived. We stopped first at the latter. Ben and Sam chose to walk through the town back to the boat from there. We then picked up the burner and returned to the boat to find Ben and Sam already there.

    The water and grill were soon fixed and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting. We were invited over to Scream for beers which we did and met Dave from Marquesas there too. He’s arrived recently and will be here for a few months. Scream will be leaving today.

    Today we’ll be doing some shopping for Sam and probably go and see the new Tron movie.

  • A busy day

    We got quite a lot done today and had a very pleasant surprise.

    The mornings started with a big clean up and some fixing. My first chore was to fix the toilet that Sam will be using. We’ve had a replacement pump for months but as noone has been using that head I’ve never got round to fixing the one that’s leaking. This will be the last of the original pumps that I’m replacing with the lock down ones – much better.

    That done I tackled the grill which was filthy and not running as strong as it used to. It took me a while to clean the grills and to figure out how to disassemble the pieces so I could get at and remove the burner. Being able to access information online got me to the point where I could apply force to the right place and remove the various pieces.

    Once they were all clean I was off to find parts. First stop was the Burnsco chandler where I was able to order a new burner which should arrive before Xmas. They didn’t have a pressure regulator for the dock water but pointed me towards a garden center that might.

    I then visited the stainless steel place next door to talk about options for making a new helm seat. They wanted to look at pics on line but this ran into difficulties as their computer was running really slow. I fixed that for them and me made some progress but ended up with a few more things to think about and do.

    Then it was off to the electrical shop to see if they had the float switch I need for the shower sump. Didn’t make a lot of progress here but I have their card and now need to refind the part online and call them to try and get it ordered in.

    Nearby was the propane place so I filled a tank that had run out recently and then it was on to the garden center. They didn’t have the regulator but, again, were able to order some in. Hopefully by Xmas too.

    While at the garden center I received a call from Ben to inform me that our friend Dick (Sam’s godfather) had shown up as they were passing through. They figured stopping for lunch here would be a good idea so they would have less hastle on Xmas day when they’re also due to visit. I dropped the last thing on my list to get back to the boat to say hello. In the end we had over a couple of hours together which was nice.

    With time running out I was able to sort out one further item which was to acquire the Beachmaster wheels for our dinghy that we wanted. Once Ben has left, hauling the dinghy up and down tide affected beaches will be a chore for Helen and I so some decent wheel are essential. The boat that sells them is here in the marina although on the other side of the river. It only took about 10 mins to pick them up.

    This evening Steve and Darusha from Scream popped by to invite us over tomorrow. We ended up inviting them in and chatting.

    In between all of this Ben and I have been challenging ourselves with problems from the Project Euler website. The problems (requiring math and some computational skills to solve) are somewhat tricky but immensely rewarding to solve. I’ve nailed 13 so far but lost some hair over problem 29.

    Sam is well on his way. We received a message from it from LA airport between flights. Up early tomorrow to get to Auckland airport to meet him.

  • A somewhat moist day in Whangarei

    Curry last night was delicious. We’d recommend the place – the Aroma on Vine Street. Not the best ever but the best we’ve had in a while. We also got pretty lucky in that we didn’t get rained on.

    But it did piss down overnight. And this morning. And at various times throughout the day.

    Helen and I did manage to make it out and see the Farmer’s Market close down. We found a few odds and ends to buy which was useful. In one store we ran into Fergus and Kay from Paleides – can’t keep away from old friends. We did a semi major shop on the way back borrowing a trolley to bring everything back to the boat. We all went out to return the trolley and went for our biannual MacDonalds. The last one we had was in Tahiti. We haven’t missed much.

    I then thought I’d try out the car to make sure it was all right. It wasn’t. The battery was as flat as a very flat pancake. A quick examination revealed why – the parking lights had been left on by whoever delivered the car last Wednesday. Leaving Helen to go off walking around town some more I managed to grab Dirk from Sail Away who was willing to get me started. I had the jump leads and he had the car. On close examination we found that not only was the battery flat but the connections to the battery were loose. Dirk managed to wiggle them tighter so I was able to drive to a slightly nearer car park where I parked to get my tools.

    I brought back some extra bits and pieces so I could wire in my earlier purchased device to fix the radio frequencies accessible from the Japanese radio we have. Unfortunately there still wasn’t enough juice to turn the engine. Fortunately Dirk and I had parked next to each other in case this should happen. He came out and jump started me again. This time I left the engine running while sorting out the radio and then went for a drive around town. Hopefully this will be enough to get us going next time.

    Not a lot else to report so I won’t.

  • Whangarei

    The weather continued to be miserable. We also got a call from Whangarei marina letting us know a slot on the dock was coming available Friday afternoon. We didn’t get off the boat on Thursday and waking up this morning (Friday) we saw the mountain we wanted to climb shrouded in cloud. Our minds were made up. One hour after low tide we headed up river and here we are in Whangarei.

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    We overtook Scream on the way up the river who turned out to be anchored one bay away. We saw John on Sea Mist at Riverside Marina close to town. We all waved. He called to see if we were interested in a dinner at a nearby hotel on Xmas eve. We were so that was sorted even before we were tied to the dock.

    Docking was tight but the wind was blowing us slightly onto the dock which allowed me to be totally cool and let the boat drive right into it’s place nudging the motors to keep us in place. This was in front of a ton of people all around the dock and restaurant which overlooks us. The audience can make or break you – this time I wasn’t beaten.

    On the dock we soon ran into Laura from Jenny, Kim from Emily Grace and Mary Margaret from Leu Cat. Nothing changes. Here we are 15 miles up river and we’re still bumping into old friends. Should be a good time here. We also recognised a lot of other boats that crossed the Pacific this year. Hopefully we’ll meet all these in good time.

    We’re now hooked up to internet and water (in that order) and sorted out our stay at the office. Tonight we’re off for a curry, if the rain stops.