Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Around 8am I took the dinghy ashore to visit Catermarine to pick up our long awaited for charger. I learned that a second package had also arrived which turned out to be two replacement rudder pins provided free of charge from Lagoon. Unfortunately, as my new design has enlarged the bore on the flanges, these are of little use to us. But we appreciate the sentiment. While in the store I also picked up a gas fitting which we’d ordered at the end of last week to replace the one that had failed aboard.

Back on the boat I set about inspecting the new charger and prepping for the work. As soon as the charger had been inspected I notified the tech in the US who I’d been told would be ready to receive our call. While waiting for a response I continued with as much preparation as I could. I traced and labeled all the wires coming out of the new unit and the old so I’d have no difficulties rewiring. I took pictures of the old charger so I had something for possible future reference. I then waited for contact with the tech.

While waiting I set about fixing the gas connector that had failed. I’m not sure what was going on in my head but I cut the wrong end off of the hose with the damaged connector. That required another trip ashore to order a new connector and hose. The guy in the store actually made up the hose for me and probably did a better job of it. Back on the boat I puzzled over why I couldn’t put everything back together. I then realized I’d asked for a connector to go into the wrong end of the regulator. So an embarrassing third trip in was required to get the right connector. They switched over connectors without charging.

I was then able to reassemble everything. After testing all the connections with soapy water and finding/fixing a leak in a joint I hadn’t touched all was done. The new hose is a lot more flexible than the old so things are a little easier to manage in the gas cannister department so all in all it worked out well.

In the afternoon Helen and I drove to Paihia to shop. While out we were contacted by the upholterer who wanted to visit the boat. He didn’t want to go out in the dinghy as he had the new covers and foam which he wanted to bring aboard to fine tune. We had an hour to get back to the boat, put the food away, raise the anchor and get onto the delivery dock. We managed this with a few minutes to spare even though we had to take our time raising the anchor to wash all the mud off.

With the fine tuning done, the upholsterer left and we departed anchoring in a different and shallower spot. One of the changes we’re implementing is to improve the fastenings on the cushions as the old ones don’t hold very well. The last project of the day was to remove all the old fastenings, drill out and retap all the holes, seal all the holes, screw in all the new fittings and clean up.

We were not contacted by the tech for the charger. We’re getting kind of used to this. Sadly.

I did receive an email overnight from France saying that we will be able to contact the tech at 2pm our time. We had planned to go hiking today but are now staying in to hopefully establish contact and hence replace the charger.

This morning we’ve ordered a few more things we need for the boat which took a few hours of research. The day has been a little gray so perhaps it hasn’t been too bad staying in. Tomorrow afternoon there is a presentation planned on good anchorages in the area so we’ll hang around for that. We’d still like to do a hike so that now looks like Friday. Maybe tomorrow morning if we can get our act together.

Saturday brought our first day trip in the car. Using the free New Zealand road maps on my old Garmin 276C we keyed in a route to Kerikeri. We detoured early on to visit a hardware store where I hoped (and succeeded) to get a shaft extension for my drill so I could complete the A/C plumbing project.

The directions from the Garmin soon took us up a rough track. It may have thought it was the quickest route and perhaps it was considering the speed limit of 100km/h as attainable. But a rough track winding road on the side of a mountain was not drivable at anywhere near that speed. We got some lovely views and a dirty car.

We first stopped off at the Kerikeri Basin Recreation Reserve so that we could walk the river, see the falls and visit the stone store nearby. The whole area was incredibly picturesque. One can see why New Zealand was chosen to film the Lord of the Rings. The area felt like “The Shire”. The weather made it perfect.

The walk to see the river and falls was about an hour each way. The signs said it would be an hour and it was. Unlike the USA where we normally have to halve the posted hiking times. The first stop was an old generating station set up to encourage retired overseas civil servants to retire in the area.

Next was the Wharepuke Falls which were pretty but we didn’t linger as we wanted to press on and make it back to Kerikeri for lunch – our minds had been set on the pie shop.

The path continued on for a good distance before coming upon the more impressive Rainbow Falls which we were able to view from the bottom as well as the top.

We didn’t linger long as the pies beckoned. We made our way back to the car park but before leaving we crossed the footbridge to look around the stone buildings there which were one of the first built in the area by the European settlers.

Finally we visited the town of Kerikeri and after walking around and asking directions we found the pie shop. It was now 1pm and although the pies were pretty good, they seemed to have been in the heater for a little too long so it didn’t meet the expectations that had been set by others who had visited before us.

After lunch we visited a couple of stores before heading back by way of Paihia and a third set of falls – the Haruru Falls. Rather than show another picture of falls, the last pic on this page is of our new car. With dirty tires.

Back at the boat we rested for the remainder of the afternoon before eating dinner – more pies. We finished the day watching a movie.

This morning I completed the drilling and plumbing to provide drains for our stern A/Cs as well as an air vent on our cabin’s A/Cs water pump. Helen gave the outside of the boat another rinse and we all had showers as this was our last morning on the dock. Just before midday we threw the lines and left the berth behind anchoring a short distance away in the anchorage. It’s quite pleasant out here and less noisy so it’s a nice change of scene. We’ve had lunch and I’ll let you guess what we had.