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Museum, Fudge & Movie

by KC2RIY, on February 3rd, 2011 (New Zealand, Tahina)

In the morning we were back in Christchurch to visit the Canterbury Museum. It was very well presented and had a number of very interesting sections. We were in the building for about 2 hours before returning to the car to eat our prepared lunch.

We then moved the car to another car park to visit the Fudge Cottage which had a tour of the fudge kitchen at 2pm. While waiting for the tour to start we were able to nibble on free sampled of fudge. By 2pm we had just enough interested parties for the tour to commence. We were taken to the kitchen and showed some fudge already on the boil. As the fudge was taken through it’s various stages of preparation we were told about the history of the place and given more samples to try out. The best moment was when we were given a spoon of hot/cooling freshly made fudge to sample. My heart nearly gave out at that point.

After the fudge factory it was back to the campsite for an hour or so before heading to the mall to meet up with Frank and Karen from Tahina. Having met up we had a simple but tasty dinner at the food court before heading in to watch “The King’s Speech” which was a truly excellent movie. After the movie we stopped for a couple of beers and more of a chat.

This morning we have to decide what to do. We could stay. We could move on. Weather on the west coast remains poor to mediocre for the next 5 days but it’s better on the east coast. At this point we have not made up our minds.

Category: New Zealand, Tahina | Here is my comment

Last day on the boat (for a while)

by steve, on January 18th, 2011 (Division II, New Zealand, Tahina)

We managed to do all the things we wanted to do.  Outboard is back on the dinghy.  The upholsterer visited.  We finished packing the car.  etc.

The concern for the day was the deteriorating weather.  On Monday it had been very humid and damp with occasional rain.  On Tuesday the front associated with this came over making us worry if we would be able to move the boat as planned.  In the late afternoon the wind eased allowing us off the dock.  We motored over to the pilings and with a bit of help from Dan on Division II and Frank from Tahina we were soon tied on.  I tossed our spare keys over to Dan who will be keeping an eye on Dignity for us and that was that.

We settled in for the evening with nothing left to do.  This morning Frank will be dinghying us ashore and we’ll be off.

Next stop Lake Waikaremoana.  Maybe.  Depends on the weather.

Category: Division II, New Zealand, Tahina | Here is my comment

No rest on Sunday

by steve, on January 16th, 2011 (Division II, Emily Grace, Leu Cat, New Zealand, Tahina, True Companions)

We’re hoping to be out of here by Wednesday. Our ferry to the south island is the following Monday and we’d like to take our time getting down to Wellington. We’ve also had a gracious invitation from some NZers near Napier to stay with them on Friday and Saturday which we’re aiming to make. So. There’s no time to rest. This is going to be one of those project list blogs …..

First order of the day was to remove the sails before the possibility of the wind picking up. The jib is always easy and this we accomplished first. Removing the mainsail requires removing the reefs and the battons, sliding off the sail cars and lowering the lazy bag before heaving the sail off the boom. Both sails had to be folded which is not so hard to do on the foredeck. They’re now bagged up and ready to be collected by the sailmaker today.

Between us (either collectively or separate) for the rest of the day we accomplished the following other items :

  • Chased an erroneous bank charge down
  • Talked to Tom on Emily Grace about his experiences aggregating items in the US to be sent to NZ
  • Learned that our car battery should be here on Monday (today)
  • Went to a local store to buy plastic boxes for putting all our loose items in for camping.  Also bought tubing for creating an easy delivery system for topping up house batteries.
  • Packed plastic boxes with items for camping
  • Partially packed car (including moving car twice)
  • Removed oven and inspected interior in anticipation for future improvement
  • Installed diversion valve on water maker output line to make filling external vessels simpler
  • Installed new hose connections at dock tap to make removal of pressure limiter simpler
  • Changed filters on water maker
  • Filled 2 x 5 gallon containers of water from dock via water maker making huge supply of very good battery water
  • Went to top up house batteries only to discover they don’t need topping up (but was pleased with all the prep work as I intended to do it anyway)
  • Fixed burst hose (unplanned)

Along the way we bumped into a few of the cruisers still here: Frank from Tahina, Dan from Division II, Tom & Kim from Emily Grace (already mentioned), Dave from Leu Cat and Steve & Vicky from True Companions.  Each meeting involved a bit of a chat and a catch up so I feel relieved we accomplished as much as we did.

In the evening we received a brief Facebook message from Sam to say they’d arrived safely with no hiccups on the flights. The boat feels quite empty. We keep expecting to see Ben in the corner where he made his home. But he’s not there.

We still have more to do today and tomorrow.  I’ll bore you with the detail on the next blog.

Tags: | Category: Division II, Emily Grace, Leu Cat, New Zealand, Tahina, True Companions | One reader has left a comment, here is mine

Pangaimotu

by KC2RIY, on November 3rd, 2010 (Boree, Imagine, Leu Cat, Sea Mist, Tahina, Tonga, Visions of Johanna)

Our sail down was slow and drizzly but uneventful. We’d aimed for the eastern passage into Tongatapu hoping to see whales outside in the deep water. No luck there. We arrived around 3pm, anchored behind the island of Pangaimotu on first try and settled down exhausted. We’d all had a troubled night’s sleep and were all ready for a rest.

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Not without first checking the internet. This was fortunate really as although it is free here, it is insanely slow. So we all started downloading stuff then slowing down and resting.

In the evening we went ashore to Big Mama’s where we ate out along with Sea Mists, Imagines and Tahinas. Later, the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was shown but we didn’t stay. The Visions of Johanna’s came for the movie so we had a chance to say hello and catch up. There are others in this anchorage we know. The Leu Cats are here as well as the Borees and another number of other boats we recognise but know less well. All are waiting here for their preferred weather window. A whole load of boats left last Sunday. I wouldn’t have but I keep my fingers crossed for all of them as we know a few.

This morning I took the 9am water taxi to the main dock a mile away to clear in. I shared a taxi to the Immigration Office with the Borees. There I discovered my visa was all in order and they said I didn’t need to do anything until I leave. Same was true for customs and the port captain, they said. It may be incorrect but I’m still cleared into Tonga so I can’t go too far wrong.

My next problem was that the return water taxi was at 1pm. I picked up some supplies based on a list that Helen gave me and wandered around Nuku’alofa for a while. I covered most of it in fairly short order and still ended up with plenty of time. I ended up at the dock an hour early. I sat in a cafe and read a magazine to kill the time.

This afternoon I’ve been back on the boat sorting out my ebook collection. Helen has spent all day on her year two perspective – still not finished. Ben has been stuck into his actuarial studies. It’s been too windy today to take down our headsail. Frank on Tahina offered us the use of his sail sewing machine which I’d like to do after taping up the tear. The quick and dirty fix of putting marine compound on the sail repair tape can wait until if and when it recurs.

A new headsail and a service of our old one was already on our to do list for New Zealand. I think the tear is a result of our old problem of the sun strip being a tad too narrow. We look after the sail by furling it tight but the initial damage may be quite old.

Category: Boree, Imagine, Leu Cat, Sea Mist, Tahina, Tonga, Visions of Johanna | Here is my comment

Last day in Ha’apai

by KC2RIY, on November 1st, 2010 (Tahina, Tonga)

Our morning started with our new Tongan friend showing up in his dugout canoe offering us a couple of octopii. We knew he needed a razor so we had four we didn’t want and some shaving foam we didn’t like the smell of. Along with a couple of tins of vanilla flavoured rice pudding we had a trade as well as thanks for our tour of the island.

The octopus were quite fascinating as their skin was still changing colour and their suckers, out of reflex, would still cling on to things. Our friend showed us how to turn the octopi inside out and to remove the guts. The guts make good fishing bait so we let him have these pieces as this was his livelihood.

Ben and I chopped the octopi up into pieces and Helen put the tougher parts of the tentacles into the pressure cooker to soften up.

Around 10:30 Frank from Tahina came over and we all dove the reef. We explored the caves some more, sometimes going in. We also explored the wreck of La Tortue being able to get inside that too. I found a fishing reel under the wreck which I kept and later cleaned up. If we meet Marie or Nicolas I’ll give it to them, otherwise it’s my salvage booty.

For lunch we battered and fried the octopus pieces. The novelty soon wore off and we ended up eating the batter leaving most of the octopus which ended up in the sea. I thought the pressure cooked octopus tasted like corned beef.

In the afternoon Ben and I finished off cleaning the hulls before putting all the hookah and dive gear away ready for today’s passage.

I found it hard to sleep last night so I spent a lot of time organizing my ebooks.

We set off early this morning. We motored out of the reef and put the sails up. A new problem. We noticed a small tear in the head sail, no doubt from the bashing to wind we’d been recently doing. A quick discussing about the pros and cons led us to decide to pull in the head sail and press on. We couldn’t lower the head sail to repair it on passage and going back to the anchorage would cost us a day and I didn’t like the forecast for tomorrow.

So here we are alternately sailing, motor sailing, sometimes with the genset on, sometimes running on batteries. Our ETA is late this afternoon as we don’t have the speed we would like but enough to get there in good time.

Category: Tahina, Tonga | Here is my comment
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