Last full day on the dock

I booked the airport pick up mentioned in our last blog. That will get us to the yard with fresh provisions. We’ve decided that regardless of the state of the boat, we’ll find some way to sleep aboard. After a day or two on the hard we’ll probably need to hire a car but we can wait until it’s necessary.

I figured it would be good to have some project work to get on with once we’ve caught up with our sleep. The main project will be rebuilding my nav console so I needed to get hold of a new wood panel before we go. I grabbed Dan from Division II for some ideas on where to get a new panel and he pointed out that a kitchen outfitter should be able to make the custom piece. Whangarei has it all and soon I had my measurements in with a fitter who could cut the right sized piece of wood and cover it with laminate. By the afternoon I had my piece of wood. Sorted.

In the afternoon I walked to the other side of the river to the new All Marine (formerly Burnsco) to pick up a new igniter for our grill – that had arrived. On the way I noticed a theraputic massage place. I’ve been having a lot of problems with my neck recently and I thought I’d give it a go. Half an hour of pulling, pushing and twisting and I feel a bit better. Just hoping I’ll survive the forthcoming flights.

While I was out and about Helen continued with some more boat cleaning. The freezer is now empty and off. I worry a little about how quickly we’ll dirty up once in the yard but it’s good to start from a point of cleanliness.

Today we haul out. High tide is around 1pm so we expect to leave the dock around midday and be settled before the evening. We pick up our hire car tomorrow and have the full day in the yard. I’ll be pulling all the drive batteries out and most of the house bank in preparation for the work in February. On Saturday we’ll head south to visit our recent crew mate Lissa and her family and hopefully, over the weekend, visit the west coast. On Monday we’ll meet up with Tracey and Lew (met on the Otaga rail trail) who live near Mount Eden. We’ll leave them early Tuesday morning for our flight to South Africa. Busy times ahead – at least compared to our usual pace.