After my usual morning chores (the washing up inevitably left from the previous evening) I called the Viaduct Marina to check if our allocated spot was free. After some toing and froing on the radio which managed to ascertain that it was so we very soon raised our anchor and headed over. We ended up two slips away from before.
Once in and connected to the internet we managed to chat with our friends (now almost extended family) Anne and John who have been fantastic help getting Sam over his last minute hurdles along with Ben and Amy. They were all involved in getting his luggage sorted and some late admin. Can’t say enough to express our gratitude to all those helping us out on this.
Our previous weekend companions John and Jose came by principally to pick up their fishing rods left behind when they departed. We’d used their visit to bring to us our repaired VHF radio which we’d had couriered to crewman Paul.
After they left I headed out to pick up our latest round of medication. Because both the Solomons and Vanuatu have malaria all three of us will need to be on medication for three months. We’ve also got some additional antibiotices, creams and, for the first time, some morphine based painkillers in case of a serious accident. To date we’ve planned on using a stiff upper lip but strong stuff is definitely better if you have a bone coming out where it shouldn’t.
I also checked out customs, which I may not have found, and the duty free store here in Auckland in case we leave from here.
Back on the boat I switched the radios and found our repaired radio to be working fine – better than the old Raymarine. And it fit the hole in the dashboard. So the one Sam is bringing will end up being a back up and the old Raymarine a backup to the backup.
Around 3:30pm we headed off towards the main supermarket. We split up so that I could collect the hire car. I met Helen in the store where we provisioned for three weeks – optimistically planning on 1 more week here and a double up on what’s needed for a one week passage.
Bringing our stuff back in the newly hired car we lugged everything back to the boat and then put the mainsail into the car before I parked it for the night.
Ed and Cornelia from A Cappella visited for dinner in the evening. Ed we’ve seen recently but it was our first chance to catch up with Cornelia in quite some time.
Today I’ll be heading up to Whangarei to sort our our mainsail and do a few extra bits and pieces while I wait. Hopefully I’ll be back by early afternoon. This evening we’re meeting up with John and Pam from Passages.
It’s hard to believe that tomorrow we’ll be picking Sam up from the airport. We’re very excited.