Opua, NZ
November 5, 2008
We arrived in
November 6, 2008
It is cold this morning!
We slept with our down comforter last night, quite a change from
November 7, 2008
Today it is partly sunny and a little warmer. Mike is working on getting bids to see if we afford a stainless arch on the stern of our boat that he would install our solar panels on. They are always in our way when docking and it would be so nice to have them out of the way. They have quite a few marine services here near the marina. We found a shop that does rigging and they had the barrel piece, in American Standard versus metric, which we lost on our safety line on our first passage. This is the first place we could find the part. We were invited over to visit on Mi Quiake, with Lee and Jan. His boat was beautiful, he built it himself and it took him 12 years full time and then he had some hired help. Impressive!
November 8, 2008
Today Mike is working on the wind generator again and I am washing the sofa cushions.
November 9, 2008
Today we had a pork dinner at the yacht club, very good. Charisma arrived tonight and we took a bottle
of wine to celebrate their safe passage. They will only be here for one week
and then Kristen flies home for the holidays, while
November 10, 2008
It is cold again
today. We signed up with the
November 11, 2008
Today I went to town with Charisma. I stocked up on a few more groceries and
mailed some postcards. Mike stayed on
the boat and worked on the generator.
Tonight the
November 12, 2008
It was a very nice morning, I met Kristen and Barb and we
did laundry, went to the Marina Café and had coffee and Christian girl chat, so
nice. Later we took hot showers and went
over to Charisma where Mike and
November 13, 2008
Today Mike continued to work on the generator, we bought a
new solenoid. Tonight the
November 14, 2008
This morning I got up at 7AM, it was beautiful and
sunny. I ran up to the laundry early as
there have been testy times with only 3 washers, one broke and long lines. You can’t leave your laundry and come back
when it is finished as people have been known to take your laundry out of the
washer before it actually finishes.
There have been several cases of this reported, unbelievable! Kristen came over and we went to coffee and
then went over to the haircutter on the railroad tracks. Lisa cuts cruisers hair every Friday on the
old railroad tracks. At first she cut
hair on the porch of the yacht club, outside, but the cook felt hair could get in
the food he cooked, so she moved to the porch outside the laundry and there was
a complaint. So now Lisa puts a chair on
the old railroad tracks behind the customs building and cuts hair. She did a great job on mine too. Grace arrived today and they are in the slip
next to us. Tonight there was an
November 15, 2008
Today it is a little windy but Mike and I decided to take a
walk. Lisa told us to follow the
railroad tracks and it would take us to the town of
November 16, 2008
It is a beautiful and sunny morning and Mike and I walked up to the Marina Café and had coffee and muffins. Then John and Renee stopped by from Scarlett O’Hara. I invited them to dinner. Not sure what I would make, I am a little nervous as she is a great cook. I walked to the store and bought the makings of a lasagna, or close. I had to improvise but it turned out good. We invited Rick from Morning Star and Renee made Peach pie desserts they were awesome. We had a great time.
November 17, 2008
This morning was cold and wet. I had a terrible headache so I took a pain pill and went back to bed. Mike computed all day, although the Internet was down so he couldn’t use that. Lazy day we never even got dressed, it was warmer that way!
November 18, 2008
Sunny today. Mike was making his sixth follow up with Bay Electronics regarding carbon brushes for our refer motor. Finally he just told them to forget it and he got online and ordered them in a matter of minutes to be delivered for $50 including freight. They are sending them international priority, hopefully it won’t take too long. Tonight we decided to go to the Blue Water Café and just have dessert, we ordered chocolate soufflé. We thought it would be cheaper than dinner – wrong! It was $32 for 2 soufflés and one coffee. Oh well, we had a nice time, Casteel, Dorothy Marie and Destiny were all there.
November 19, 2008
We have to leave our slip today, the slip owners are coming back. That is okay, we have been in the marina for 2 weeks and we originally had made an agreement that we were not going to stay in marinas. It cost too much and then you don’t see much as you just get too comfortable. Today I am going to Kerikeri with Renee so we were able to get a spot for a night on the opposite end of the customs dock, it doesn’t have any amenities but it is close to shore which is a plus since I am going to buy some groceries. Leaving the slip was much easier than getting in it, for one thing the wind wasn’t blowing. Pat on Eelyos helped us dock which also helped. We had a great time shopping in Kerikeri, it is much bigger than Paihia. I bought Mike a butane sodering gun which he requested and I found a clock to stick on the hatch to replace the old one, and a cool clock that is a timer, alarm clock, temperature and the time all in one. I found a pair of sandals I thought I would love, cute but as it turns out they hurt my feet, I wore them to the yacht club tonight.
November 20 2008
Pretty out this morning. Mike made us pancakes and spam, very good. Then he got busy right away, he installed the new hatch clock, pulled himself up the mast and installed new LED lights he bought, and he swapped out our built in radio for another one we had on board. To do this he used the new butane sodering gun, I think he was just playing. J We were invited to Scarlett O’Hara’s for dinner so Renee could show me how to make tortillas. I cooked the taco meat and took it over to their boat. Then we made tortillas together, it was a lot of fun. The tacos were great too. Mike and John enjoyed talking together. They also gave us some Ilene Quinn music, she writes silly nautical lyrics, a lot of stuff I can relate to.
November 21, 2008
Today it is sunny and cold, and they have predicted rain. We definitely plan to anchor out today, so we are going to shore for one more hot shower before we turn in our bathroom keys. It was pretty easy to leave the Custom’s dock as the current and wind pushed us off the dock. We threw an anchor out not far from the yacht club. Since it was still sunny and nice out, I made us lunch and we sat in the cockpit to eat it. Later we watched the movie ‘2 for the money’ which Renee gave us and then bed.
November 22, 2008
It was very windy last night, we saw 23 knots of wind. We are hooked well since we did not seem to drag which is great since there are so many boats anchored out here in the bay. The next two days they predict wind and rain so we think we will stay put. Mike computed and I just kept busy reading and working on our website journal. I also made Mike a dessert of Jell-O (called raspberry crystals in NZ), bananas and whipped cream. We also got a season of Taxi and watched some of that, brings back old memories. We sure watched some stupid stuff!
November 23 2008
This morning the wind is blowing 25 knots. If it ever calms down we may go to the
chandlery trade show.
November 24, 2008
The storm continues and now with 30 knot gusts. One cruiser said they thought we had 50 knot
gusts but I don’t think so or I slept right through it. The rain filled our dinghy, Mike bailed it
all out before I knew it. It would have
been great for washing laundry. There is
always next time, it is predicted to rain again tomorrow. We do not have a good internet connection at
anchor, sometimes I could take my computer up to the deck and get a
connection. I would then get email and
then come inside and read and answer it and then go back outside to send my
email. It doesn’t always work but if you
have patience; you will eventually get it.
November 25 2008
Today is sunny and much calmer. We decided to stay another day, there is a cruisers potluck and a local school choir is going to sing. I decided to make chocolate no bake cookies for the potluck. I got all the ingredients out first and then decided to do the last part of the recipe first, which is put oatmeal and coconut in a big pan, so when the chocolate is finished cooking I could just pour it over the oats. However when I poured the oats in a pan there were black bugs everywhere. Yuk! I had just opened that bag two days ago to make oatmeal for breakfast, I wonder if we ate bugs? I had put half the oats in a canister and the other half was still in the bag. I pulled out the stuff in the bag and there were bugs in it too. I threw it all overboard. We decided against going to the potluck, now I had to see if there were bugs in anything else. We didn’t find any more bugs but now I am paranoid and am double checking everything! We checked with the marina to see if received our mail ordered part, no luck. We watched Taxi again and then to bed.
November 26, 2008
This morning it is totally foggy, but after a couple of
hours the sun came out. So we decided to
sail over to Russell. We noticed the
water in the bay was stirred up and murky, we didn’t want to use our water
maker in this stuff. When we pulled up
the anchor it was full of mud, so we washed it off as we pulled it up, which is
very time consuming. It only took about
an hour to motor to Russell. There were
lots of mooring balls but we decided to just anchor out since it is free, we
will just be a little farther from the dinghy dock. Now comfortable at anchor we decide to make a
‘rain catcher’. We had bought a tarp to
use to make a rain catcher back in
November 27, 2008
Today is Thanksgiving, actually tomorrow in the states and they don’t celebrate it here. We decide to go to town so we dinghy to the boat club dinghy dock. There is only one guy around so everything seems pretty quiet. The sign on the club says they only serve 3 days a week and are looking for a cook, so we are not sure they even really serve any food now. We walked about 3 blocks to town. The town seems very clean and touristy. We went to the local museum and got a map which showed a couple of hikes. The hike we took was up to a look out point and was mostly up a very steep road, the last part was up a steep trail, called the Flagstaff Historic Reserve. Once we got to the top we were at a flagpole and the view from the lookout was spectacular. The view was over two sides and the North tip of the island. We met another couple visiting from CA. We chatted for about an hour. The lookout was very popular and we met quite a few people. We walked down to the parking lot and up another trail to a sundial with a mosaic map marking other places you could see from the lookout. We hiked back to town via another trail and down to the ocean. Part of this trail could only be hiked at low tide, which it was. It took us back to town where we decided to have take away fish and chips for our thanksgiving dinner that we ate on the beach where we found a bench, It was great except for all the seagull type birds hovering, did I tell you I hate birds to be so near to me? When we were cleaning up I dropped a fries or a chip as they call them, and instantly a flock of birds appeared at my feet, yikes! I’m out of here. We decided to stop for ice cream cones before heading back. We stopped at the small grocery store too and bought a few things. It was a great day and the weather was excellent too. For dinner I heated up some mushroom soup, Mike took a picture because he felt this was our Thanksgiving dinner, he was sure someone would feel sorry for him, but I reminded him we had fish n chips in town! The Michaels said ”that although he is very cute and very daring we don't feel sorry about the Thanksgiving dinner...it is over-shadowed by his good fortune in living out his big dream”.
November 28, 2008
It is Thanksgiving in the states today! We have no internet connection so we can’t communicate with friends or family. I really wished we could have. We talked about what everyone might be doing and wondered if they missed us as much as we missed them. Mike worked on rebuilding the hand pump on the forward head, every time you pump the handle you get sprayed with salt water. I was going to try making tortillas today. As it turned out we made tortillas together, I made the dough. I had to use self rising flour as that is all we had. I didn’t have a rolling pin so I planned on using a wine bottle. And I was going to use a plate to do the initial flattening but it didn’t flatten much. Mike found he had two pieces of stainless steel circles the size of a plate, so he tried one of those. It still didn’t flatten it much more, so he put it on the floor and stood on it with all his weight and it didn’t do much, so we still used the wine bottle after the initial flattening. They cooked up a little too thick and I think it was due to the self rising flour. Using the tortillas I made another experiment trying to make sour cream enchiladas. I mixed the little sour cream I had, with cottage cheese and sautéed onions and put that in the tortillas, then covered them with a mixture of kidney beans and a chili taco simmering sauce and cooked for 30 minutes in a skillet on top the stove. They were very good! I will definitely make them again. I also made a chocolate coconut cake that was a recipe I noticed on the flour bag. So we had that after dinner while watching more Taxi.
November 29, 2008
We collected enough rain water to wash so I washed Mike’s
jeans and a few other items. Now we need
more rain for rinse water. I bailed the
water out of the dinghy but it was too dirty to use for rinse water. I made egg burritos for breakfast to use some
more of the tortillas, they were good. I
packed us a picnic lunch so we could go on another hike. This time we hiked up another hill and through
the ‘lemon tree track’, funny there were no lemon trees. It was just another sidewalk to the next
street above. We took the road to the
other side of the peninsula where it is supposedly warmer as the hill protects
you from the wind. It was a hot
hike. The views were spectacular
again. The beach was very pretty and
there was a strip of grass that had trees and benches all along the water. It was a perfect place for a picnic but it
didn’t take us long to get there and so we weren’t hungry. So we drank some water and rested while
watching the families on the beach.
Later we walked back using a different route to town. There we sat on a bench along the water
hoping that the birds would ignore us and watched the boats come and go on the
wharf. After lunch we walked through the
town and visited the art gallery, it was incredible, very different from most
galleries we have seen and very expensive.
We just looked. Then we checked
out the hardware store, we always check out the hardware store in every town we
go to, it’s a favorite thing Mike likes to do.
We got ice cream, hokey pokey a NZ flavor, very good. And we walked to the
November 30, 2008
It is the last day of November; the weather seems to be
getting warmer. It is sunny and light
winds so after breakfast we decide to motor over to
December 1, 2008
I can’t believe it is already December, especially in this weather. Even though it is raining today it is warmer than it has been, in the 70’s. We decide to not go ashore today as it is too wet but the good thing is we are getting rinse water for the laundry. Now we need the sun to dry the laundry. We just read and program on the computer all day.
December 2, 2008
It is warmer today and a shorts day! I rinsed the laundry with the rainwater we collected and hung the clothes to dry. We decide to go ashore and just as we got in our dinghy a dolphin tour boat came by, they had a swimmer in the water calling to dolphins and the dolphins came within five feet of our dinghy and jumped out of the water as they swam by. How amazing is that, it was really fun. There were about 10 large dolphins in the bay for about 30 minutes and then they disappeared. Once ashore we went on a hike again up a steep hill to a look out. It only took about 20 minutes to an incredible view. Since we are on a smaller island we could virtually see all around it. There was one wooden bench at the top of the look out and it had about four sailboats carved in the back of the bench. Hiked back to our boat and took another hot sun shower. Great day!
December 3. 2008
It is already Wednesday and another sunny day and another shorts day. Boats are still coming and going all day long, no matter what the weather holds. I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then did the dishes and cleaned and polished the stove. It looks great now. Mike spent the day working on the aft head. It sprays you with salt water every time you pump the head too. When he took it apart he noticed that the section right off the toilet bowl was filled with calcium, created by urine and salt water combining. The water flow was restricted by this down to maybe ½ inch or less, the tube was originally 1 ½ inches, so he had to clean it out. He dug out as much as possible and then we soaked it in vinegar and dug some more. The next section was almost as bad but not quite, he beat on it with a hammer and a lot fell out, then he pulled a knot in a rough line through the hose and more calcium came out and then we used the anchor wash down to clean even more. The next section he struggled with too but got it good enough to put back together. There was still one more section but it would be a nightmare to get in and out. He put the parts all back together and then we let it soak over night in vinegar. It now works excellent. Fun day – not!
December 4, 2008
We thought about going back to Opua today as our part may have come in. We had breakfast and then Mike started reorganizing stuff and soon it was too late to really go. So I got out the vinegar and decided to clean the forward cabin and head. There was a lot of salt water spray and mildew on the walls. It took half the day to get it done but now it is clean and smells much better. The chain locker had a pile of dirt in the bottom from bringing in muddy chain so I dug that out too. Mike cleaned and rearranged everything so now you can see the floor and the bed in that cabin. Very nice.
December 5, 2008
Today it is raining. We had planned to go back to Opua but not in the rain. So I finished updating the website journal while Michael enjoyed working on his computer. It is lunch time and the rain has stopped, so we pulled up our anchor and headed back to Opua in the sun. We anchored farther out in the bay than we wanted to but there were lots of boats now in the anchorage. We try to get close for a better internet connection. We took showers and met Scarlett at the yacht club for dinner. Afterwards we were invited for dessert of strawberries and whip cream, who could refuse? We hadn’t planned to be gone until dark, it is light out until 8:30 -9PM, and hadn’t left the anchor light on, now to find our boat in the dark.
December 6, 2008
Today our refer parts are in so we go to shore to pick them up and wash a load of clothes and have coffee at the café while we wait.
December 7, 2008
Did another load of laundry today, fun huh? Back at the boat we tried to call Bud, Mike’s dad but no answer. So we tried both his sisters and his brother and niece, with no answer. He got a little worried but we finally connected with Hermoyne, who wasn’t sure why Bud wasn’t answering his phone. It is difficult being so far from home when there could be an emergency. We could not get home very quickly. We were invited to Scarlett’s for dinner again. Renee had a soup she wanted us to try, it was very good! She is spoiling us!
December 8, 2008
It was very windy and rainy today. Mike fixed the refer motor with the parts we ordered and other than that it was a lazy day.
December 9, 2008
It was windy all night and it rained but we did not catch much water as the wind blew our bucket over. Next time we will be smarter and tie it down. For breakfast I made caramel lattes and cinnamon toast. Mike changed the main engine oil today another project out of the way, and crossed off the list.
December 10, 2008
The rain has quit so we decide to go to shore to go on a hike. We just start out and the dinghy engine quits. Turns out there is water in the fuel, once Mike has it working we head to shore again. We met up with Mike and Liz from Argonaut and they went hiking with us. We had a nice time although we didn’t go too far. Later we went to their boat for a visit and then went home to clean up for dinner. Going back to shore we had to dart through a sailboat race, kind of scary! Argonaut went to dinner with us at the yacht club. It was BBQ night which meant you cook your own meat outside. Mike from Argonaut and I cooked and Mike and Liz got drinks and waited inside. It was a fun time.
December 11, 2008
It is cold and cloudy today.
On shore at the yacht club, there is a ‘Trash and Treasures” swap meet
type function for yachties. I don’t know
why they would call it trash, however we planned to go. After it was over we remember it and had
forgotten to go. Bummer, we might have
wanted someone’s trash. Mike spent the
day cleaning the engine room and I started a bible study called Believing God
by Beth Moore. They ask for you to note
‘God Stops’ at the end of each day. God
Stops are places you see God at work, I think of His creation and you should
see
December 12, 2008
Today we planned to go to Paihia to buy groceries. The day looked cloudy and as if it might rain and felt cold. So we are wearing coats and dinghy ashore to meet the shuttle. Mary Ellen and Ron from Island Time were on the shuttle too. We planned to meet them for dinner in the next couple of days. We walked to the post office and saw Christmas cards and realized at home we didn’t send them lately due to a complete lack of time. Well that simply isn’t true right now so we bought a few Christmas cards to send to family. Postage is quite expensive to the states so we had to limit our list to family. We thought at one point mailing cards was silly since we have email, but we enjoyed sending them. Then we hiked to the grocery store and wished we hadn’t worn our coats, it was hot in town. We were able to buy most everything on our list and made it back to our boat safe and sound.
December 13, 2008
It was sunny today and Mike said it was warmer outside than inside our boat. We met Mary Ellen and Ron for a glass of wine on their boat before dinner. Their boat is a Norseman, built in the same boat yard as our boat. It was older than our boat but has been kept in perfect shape and actually looked newer. We enjoyed having dinner with them at the Blue Water Café located near to the yacht club. We talked so long we didn’t get back to our boat until 11PM. Usually we are asleep by then.
December 14, 2008
Today we spent quite awhile writing our Christmas cards, it was fun. Mike even wrote the ones for his family, which was a first. I know Bud and the grandkids in particular will enjoy them as they don’t have email. The kids may be disappointed there is no gift inside them but hopefully we can make it up to them when we do go home. Scarlet invited us to dinner again. Renee made the best scalloped potatoes and pork roast. She gave us all the stuff she didn’t want to keep on there boat while they are gone, they are going home. They were very generous and really blessed us. Mike will take them to shore in the morning so they can catch their ride to the airport.
December 15, 2008
Mike got up early to take John and Renee to shore, their boat is on the breakwater. He wasn’t gone too long and started the coffee upon his return. We were planning on leaving this anchorage today but the wind is predicted to gust at 30 knots. So we decide to stay and I cleaned the starboard side of the salon. I washed walls and ceiling and reorganized cupboards, it was a lot of work. I started the vacuum since the generator was running but so was the refer and suddenly the generator made weird noises and was no longer charging. Mike had a hard time getting it shut off and couldn’t get it fixed. Since I started my Believing God study I wondered if this was a test. So I just prayed for God to give Mike wisdom. We ended up running the main engine to charge the batteries and run the refer. But then the main engine started overheating. We think we may have sucked up a jellyfish. As it turned out we had to change the impellor, it was in about 10 pieces. We needed to make sure the engine worked in case our anchor dragged in this wind and we would need to move. The winds were clocked at 27 knots.
December 16, 2008
The wind continued to blow all night and our anchor alarm
went off several times showing we moved more than expected. We would have to get up and make sure we
hadn’t drug to close to another boat.
After breakfast Mike worked on the generator again without success. I continued to pray, I know God can do all
things! J Our boats were swinging weird due to the wind
and strong current, so you couldn’t predict who would swing where, just like
the LaPaz Waltz in
December 17, 2008
The wind continues to blow today. We decided we needed to move to a different
anchorage to make sure we wouldn’t hit or get hit by swinging boats, but when
pulling up the anchor our windlass quit.
So Mike had to pull up the anchor and all that chain by hand. Once the anchor is up he is tired and
breathing hard. We motored over to
December 18, 2008
It is beautiful sunny and warm this morning. So we had breakfast in the cockpit and afterwards Mike worked on the windlass. I read and prayed of course. Mike found loose wires but also there are 6 bolts that all corroded off. We need to buy new bolts before it can be fixed.
December 19, 2008
We decide to move to Omakiwi Cove today about 5 miles away. So once again Mike pulls up the anchor and while he is doing that 2 hammerhead sharks swam right by our boat. Wish we would have gotten a picture! Once anchored we notice camper vans on shore, which means the road must be close by. There are a couple of hikes out of this bay. I spent time working on rust on the stainless, I have worked on it for a coupe of days. If I do some everyday perhaps it won’t be long before its bright shiny and rustless! For dinner I made pizza crust with old yeast. It didn’t rise much and wasn’t all that good.
December 20, 2008
It is predicted to be windy and rainy today so we decide to
be lazy and compute and read. Later I
decided to make a pie using plain cookies crushed up with butter for the
crust. I topped with a can of apricot
pie filling. The store only had apricot
or raspberry. Heated on the stove top
and then topped off with whip cream.
Mike had to remind me to put sugar in the whip cream, I forgot how he
likes his dessert. Renee spoiled him. It
is 8PM and Mike decides the wind is really kicking up and from a direction that
would cause our boat to rock and roll. I
wish he would decide these things before dark.
It was dusk and he pulled up the anchor which seems to be really dug in,
it took longer to get it up this time.
We motored about a mile to
December 21, 2008
We had a very peaceful night. This morning is sunny but still windy. We spent most the morning cleaning the rust off the stainless again. Mike took the forward head apart again. This time it works much better. Later it was very nice so we took our dinghy around the bay trying to find a place to go ashore for a hike. But there were all private homes that bordered this bay and we would have had to cut through their yards to go anywhere so we just tootled around the bay. After dinner we watched a movie and went to bed.
December 22, 2008
It was another peaceful night and another sunny morning. I worked a little on the rust before we pulled anchor and went back over to Omakiwi Cove. We took our dinghy ashore and when I put my feet in the water to get out of the dinghy it was amazingly warm. We pulled the dinghy out of the water and then found a trail that brought you to the top of a bluff with a cemetery. It was very different, some graves appeared to be just piles of dirt with a white cross on top. Some had flowers planted on top of the dirt, others had plastic flowers, windmills, and statues. Some had headstones of rock, concrete and some granite. Some had logs around them and some graves looked like they were above the ground under concrete. The cemetery seemed well maintained, although the road to it was not. It had deep ruts and huge roots growing over it, you would have to have a 4 wheel drive to make it up that road. As we were walking back we were hearing something loud like crickets. We had to crawl over a fence to get to the main road. We took the road back to the bay. We met a local man and ask him about another hike from this bay, he said he wouldn’t leave our dinghy here. So we decided not to go on the longer hike. I collected quite a few shells before going back to the boat. There were millions of shells on this beach. There were 6 boats in this small bay at nightfall.
December 23, 2008
It was windy all night. Mike had to tie down the wind generator. It rained all day and our bucket was full, so I went out and switched to another empty bucket. I also got in the dinghy and bailed the water out of it, it was quite full. I scrubbed a little on the deck too trying to loosen the dirt hoping the rain would wash it off the boat. We made tortillas together again only this time we used the crust to make pizza. We made BBQ beef and onion with cheese, so good! We watched a movie before going to bed. We had to put bowls around the boat to catch rain water that was leaking inside the boat through windows.
December 24, 2008
It is sunny and windy and we have lots of rain water to wash clothes. I washed a load of clothes and hung them to dry. Since it was Christmas Eve I made Mike fried chicken, potatoes, gravy and corn for dinner. I even fried chicken legs, something I do not care for. He seemed very happy about his dinner.
December 25, 2008
Christmas in NZ. It doesn’t’ seem to be celebrated as much as in the states. All the decorating seems pretty low key. We are not in a main town so it is hard to say for sure, but we didn’t see one single house decorated or boat. We weren’t near enough to attend any churches so we are not sure how they celebrated. After breakfast Mike pulled up the anchor again, he should be getting pretty buff after all this exorcise. We are headed to Opua for an internet connection so we can call the kids on Christmas. And buy some windlass bolts. On our way back we saw tons of boats around the bay, seems like people don’t stay home to celebrate. It was a beautiful day. We had to anchor out farther than even last time as it was still busy but there were different boats anchored this time. We were still able to get an Internet connection. Mike helped me make sweet and sour pork for Christmas dinner. Spent the rest of the day reading emails.
December 26, 2008
Beautiful sunny morning, we want to go ashore to see if our Omni directional high gain antennae has arrived. Mike ordered it from the states. Plus Videen’s and Michael’s sent us packages that might have arrived as well. Well two packages arrived and they were both the antennae, thank goodness. We delayed our calls to the kids in hopes of the antennae and a better connection. Hurrying back to the boat Mike hooked up the antennae and our first phone call to the Stutzke’s was great. Birk said Julie was waiting all day for our call. We talked on speaker phone to all of them. Then we called Lyn and she was very surprised to hear from us, we weren’t sure if we had a number to reach her but we did. She didn’t have the kids but she told us Greg got a cell phone for Christmas, so we called him and talked to all the kids. We made several more calls and talked for a period of 5 hours. It was wonderful. Great day, thank you Jesus!
December 27, 2008
It was cloudy and rainy today. But we went to the marina for showers and treated ourselves to breakfast at the Marina Café. We ordered something like the Denny’s grand slam only I thought it was a hash, all mixed together. When we got it my eggs were sunny side up and the whites were runny. Anyone that knows me knows that is not okay. So I sent them back, they still were not as dead as I like them but I suffered through it. Mike said he was proud. We went to the marine store while Mike looked for bolts I looked at kayaks. Right now it is too cold to swim, too many jellyfish in the water and we are not able to hike much so I thought kayaks would be great exercise. Ocean kayaks are much less expensive here than at home. Mike researched them on line. Later I cleaned the main stateroom, I took the cushions off the bed and washed the ceiling and walls and put it all back together along with clean sheets.
December 28, 2008
We started to take laundry ashore but the engine quit again. When Mike got it running again we heard the weather was predicting 35 knot gusts and decided to go tomorrow instead of today.
December 29, 2008
I woke up with a major headache. I couldn’t even drink my coffee I was too nauseous. I stayed in bed until 11AM. Mike worked on the generator, we are believing God for a solution to this problem. We watched 2005 Christmas videos that Kathy made, I really enjoyed it, and I found myself laughing a lot. Then I watched Mom’s 70th birthday celebration, lots of fun with good memories!
December 30, 2008
What do you know it’s a beautiful sunny morning. We took the laundry ashore to wash. We received a package from Videen’s, the computer and Starbucks coffee, how great is that? Mike is so happy Mark sent him a new (old) laptop. NZ seems to mainly have instant coffee and in restaurants there’s mostly cappuccino and lattes, no regular drip coffee and creamer. Then don’t seem to know what creamer is. Mike having researched the kayak bought us the two man/person kayak! I kayaked back to the boat while Mike took the dinghy. My legs and arms hurt so bad once I got there. Then I had to figure out how to get out of it and in the sailboat without tipping over. They seem a little tippy but not too bad, I made it in our sailboat without too much trouble. Mike took the kayak for a short test spin. They had to order seats and another paddle so we can’t paddle together.
December 31, 2008
It is the last day of the year! It is partly sunny today and we dinghy ashore to check on our other package and pick up our seats and paddle for the kayak. Our package was there and had a note that it was opened in customs! Thus the delay, those customs people. We received 5 coffee packs, 4 creamers and 2 cappuccinos, boy are we spoiled, we love it! J Although we are very sad to say the freight costs are unbelievable. They also sent maple flavoring which I can’t find in NZ either. So I have been experimenting making syrup. You mostly find golden syrup here which we are not fond of at all. And still Believing God! Petition God without a doubt that He can do what you ask!
January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
If there were fire works we missed them. We never have been good at staying up until midnight, it must be that over 50 thing! This morning is sunny and calm. We kayaked about 2 miles, it was very nice. The only problem is we always get very wet, with salt water, and it is difficult to do laundry. We decide we must wear the same clothes each time so we don’t end up with lots of laundry.
January 2, 2009
It was a partly sunny, partly cloudy and windy day. Mike spent the day playing with the new computer Mark sent him. I am working on the bible study ‘Believing God’. Later in the day we called Mark and Yvonne, we used the video cam, but due to limited broad band so their voices were distorted and after awhile we turned it off. It is fun too see friends and family back home!
January 3, 2009
It was another nice day so we kayaked about 5 miles. Boy do my arms hurt my butt and back too. This may be better exercise than I thought. Mike is used to using these muscles as he says nothing hurts him. HA! We went to a small island, it was really pretty with quite a variety of flowers. There were lots of jellyfish and oysters on the island too. Going back the wind and waves were against us, argh! Mike found ALNC’s website and Pastor John had a podcast on prayer so we enjoyed listening to that! Nice that someone is working on the website as Mike was doing it when we were home.
January 4, 2009
This is Sunday today, Mike brought our coffee and his computer to bed and we listens to the Sunday service posted on the ALNC website from the prior week. We really enjoyed it however we really miss the music, the hugs, handshakes and smiling faces. It is really windy today, so we decide not to kayak and besides my arms need to rest. I cleaned some fiberglass today and Mike worked on other repairs.
January 5, 2009
Today we went to shore and did the usual showers and dump the trash that we do. We also tried to follow up on the bolts for the windlass. Cater Marine was not having any luck. One company could make them but it would take 3 weeks and be expensive. Mike while lying in bed thought that perhaps the bolts we could buy at Cater Marine could be altered. So we took them to Opua Engineering where in about 20 minutes made them perfect. Gosh we have already waited 3 weeks for this and didn’t realize it could be so easy. Then off to SeaPower to see when Bruce could come to look at our generator. He came late in the afternoon and narrowed it down to two things. We sent the injector pump and the injector out to be checked. Thank you Jesus it feels like things are looking up.
January 6, 2009
Mike put the windlass together and it works plus he was able to make a guide work that tells how much chain you have out or are bringing in. That is so great, especially in the dark it is hard to see the markers and the markers keep coming off. Today I spent my time cleaning, just like a house it is never ending. The salt in the water is just as bad as sand and gets all over. We went for a short paddle in the kayak to look at another boats dodger, we would like one that would keep us dry during passages, out in the cockpit.
January 7, 2009
Today we went to shore to check on the injector pump and
injector, they should have come back from being checked. The compression in the injector pump is good,
they did replace the nozzle on the injector but they do not think that is the
problem. Bruce came out to reinstall
them and discovered a spring had popped off inside the engine. He also emptied all the oil that we had just
replaced. Bummer about losing all that
oil but so great that the engine actually runs better than ever. Thank you Jesus! We went to the Opua Cruising Club to celebrate
over dinner and we met Lorraine and Robby of Southern Cross, a 36’ Sea Witch.
January 8, 2009
While waiting for the shuttle to go to Paihia, we stopped at
Southern Cross for a minute, she is a beautiful boat. We plan to see the local doctor to get our
prescriptions renewed. The doctor was a woman, she took our blood pressure and
listened to Mike’s heart. Mike’s blood
pressure was high so we need to get it checked again, he may need
medication. And she changed my
medication as
January 9, 2009
Tom and Dawn are coming to dinner tonight, so we have more
cleaning to do. Mike went to shore to
pay our SeaPower bill, see if we could get the gooseneck straighten for the
spinnaker pole, and he tighten the packing gland so the bilge pump would quit
coming on so often. We ended up going to
shore again to get sour cream and we wondered if they would come to dinner, the
wind was blowing and it was rough. After
that he helped me make tortillas for tacos tonight. I also bought chili salsa it is kind of like
a spicy chili with corn for chips, it was very good. Dawn made dessert, blue berries and
strawberries with whip cream in brandy cups, it was so good! We had a great evening. They told us about their crossing from
January 10, 2009
We are not feeling well today, so it is a lazy day!
January 11, 2009
It is Sunday and we listen to Pastor John’s sermon from last
week. He read my email to the
congregation, kind of nice. We listened
in bed and enjoy hearing God’s word over coffee. Later Tom comes over with his thumb drive and
gives us all the documents we need to extend our ‘Visitor’s Permit’ in
We have to fill out 16 pages, get updated and notarized
passport photos, proof of income, proof of boat ownership and insurance and
copies of our passports. It is crazy, it
is more than when we originally checked in to
January 12, 2009
We went to shore again.
Showers and the usual errands again today, although I thought Erika, my
great niece who is 9 years old, might enjoy getting a post card from
January 13, 2009
Today we went to shore only to find the dinghy dock had
sunk. It was a relatively new dock
too. No one knows how it happened. We went over to Southern Crosses slip and ask
if we could tie up there. We planned to
go to Keri Keri with Kristine of SeaPower today. We brought our propane tank as it just ran
out and also the jerry can for our gas for the outboard engine. We went to Mitre 10, the local hardware
store, McDonald’s for lunch (and it wasn’t that great) and then to
January 14, 2009
Today started out beautiful and sunny, and then early afternoon turned to rain. Mike is not feeling well so he took a nap and I worked on Believing God study.
January 15, 2009
Today
January 16, 2009
Another beautiful morning.
Mike checked his blood pressure and it is fine today. We are still going to start watching our
diets. Mike helped
January 17, 2009
Sunny this morning.
Mike worked on replacing the mast boot today and painted the chips in
the mast and boom. He put the gooseneck
back on the mast for the spinnaker pole and put the pole back in place and more
importantly got it off the deck. It all
looks very nice now. I cleaned and waxed
the cockpit. It looks much better too. This afternoon the wind really picked up again
and we had quite a waltz sailing around in the current with
January 18, 2009
The wind continued to blow hard along with rain today. And Mike got up before 6AM as he could not sleep. We cleaned the sea strainer and changed the water filter today. We are trying to get rid of the bad water smell, much like rotten eggs. And the water in both the heads is gray. The water quality is not that great in this anchorage, it is very murky but it did help to change the filter. Today is Sunday so we listened to Pastor John’s sermon on the internet today.
January 19, 3009
Today is Julie’s 30th birthday! So we plan to
call tomorrow at work, since we are a day ahead of the
January 20, 2009
Today the weather seems calmer. We called Julie to wish her happy birthday,
it was nice to hear her voice again. We
went to shore to take showers but first check on Robby and
January 21, 2009
This morning Sally on Dorothy Marie called and invited us to go to Keri Keri with them. We didn’t really need anything as Kristine just taken us, but we do want to stock up on canned goods for the trip home, might as well start early. Plus we wanted to get to know them better. We bought produce and some more coffee whitener which Sally had found yesterday and bought me one. We were so happy about that, must have coffee creamer. We checked out the town, it really isn’t all that much bigger than Paihia. We had lunch at Rock Salt outside where we could watch for Glen and Sally. They joined us before going home. They had some work done on their car, it is leaking oil. Tonight we were invited to a potluck on Bold Spirit with Jeff and Kathi, Glen and Sally, and Tauran with Kathy and Brian. Jeff and Kathi are leaving their boat to go do land tours so they want to eat everything in their freezer, so we benefitted with fish, pork, and sausages. It was a fun evening with great food.
January 22, 2009
Today is sunny but cold. Mike took his blood pressure and it is up. He found a website where he could order US flags, our second flag since the trip is shredded, so he ordered three. He also found a list of ‘flag’ rules, I think flags are constantly abused. We stayed on the boat all day, Mike is not feeling well.
January 23, 2009
It was a nice morning so we went to shore. I got my haircut and we took showers and did
laundry, a chore day. We checked on
Southern Cross, they were sanding. A
huge job. We invited ourselves to happy
hour and brought a bean dip and chips.
The crew from Momo, Bernie, Michelle, Lola and
January 24, 2009
It is a beautiful morning so we kayaked over to the sunken
ship again. This time with our camera
although we were not sure it was working properly. We also kayaked over to Momo and gave the
girls the candy canes that Scarlett had given us. Mike worked on the voltage regulator this
afternoon and I got out my budget spreadsheet again. We received two emails today, one that our
dear friend Mary Ann Gambill was ushered into the
January 25, 2009
Another nice day, so we went to shore for dinner at the yacht club. We both had chicken cordon blue, we really enjoyed dinner. Afterwards we walked down to check on Southern Cross again. But Robby and Loraine were on Toketie having appetizers. We were invited to have popcorn. That meant we had to climb a ladder and it was higher than the one on Robby’s boat. But we did it and had a great time.
January 26, 2009
Today it is hot. We decided to scrub the barnacles off the dinghy and the outboard engine, boy were they covered. They both look great now and we agreed that we must not leave them in the water overnight again!
January 27, 2009
Cloudy today with rain forecasted. Today we researched ‘sodium’. We need to understand how to eat better to
reduce Mike’s blood pressure. We found
we need around 2400 mg per day. Best
sources of fiber are avocados, black beans, kidney beans, broccoli, bran cereal
and oatmeal. We can do that! We do eat a lot of canned goods and they have
high sodium, we will try to do better. Oh and we need exercise so we will kayak
and hike as much as possible. Mike won’t
swim here the water is cold. HA! Mike
also researched what it takes to get a captains license in the event we want to
do chartering etc. for work when we return to the states. We went to shore to check on a part being
made by Opua engineering, but it wasn’t finished so we stopped by Southern
Cross.
January 28, 2009
It was a slow morning. The refer was at 31 degrees, we could only charge for ½ hour as we promised to go help Robby and Lorraine sand. We sanded for 3 hours and then showered and went back to our boat for an early dinner. I had a headache all day.
January 29, 2009
Today is my birthday.
I have a headache again today and after looking back in my journal I
notice about every 30 days I have a headache for 2 days. Hmmm.
Gladys invited us all up to her house for my birthday. Her ankle is quite swollen from her fall so
she can’t do much. I made a potato salad
and beef patties,
January 30, 2009
Today I got lots of birthday emails from friends at home,
they forget we are a day behind. It was
very nice! Mike took jerry jugs to the
fuel dock and filled them with diesel.
After checking our tanks we really didn’t need fuel yet. We don’t want to fill up too much yet as we
want to be more empty when we leave to get the duty free price. It looks like we only used 4 gallons in a
whole month. Tonight we were invited to
a power boat Feeling, by
January 31, 2009
Charisma arrived today to spend the night and do a little
February 1, 2009
Mike and
February 2, 2009
It is a cloudy morning. I decided to work on my expense spreadsheet again. Now it is up to date and in two formats, one by month and one where you can filter for anything you want to see. Like by country or by type of expense. Today we discussed and researched thoughts and routes to go home. Or possibly staying out in the islands. I just don’t know and I am starting to feel stressed. But I know that God is in charge of our lives!
February 3, 2009
Nice day, we went to shore and spent the day sanding on Southern Cross. They really seem to appreciate it and it felt good helping them. Back at our boat we had appetizers in the cockpit.
February 4, 2009
We stayed on our boat until early afternoon when we went to
shore to pick up mail. Our
February 5, 2009
Today we planned to go to Waitangi days with Charisma. They arrived about 11:00 and we met them on shore. It was $20 each to get into the treaty grounds for the day. We walked around the treaty grounds and listened to a couple of bands and then decided not much was going on until later. We walked back to town where there were food tents, some trinkets, arts and crafts. We had lunch, Mike and I had American hot dogs, not that great and not American. Then we walked to the ocean side of the road where there were Maori boats getting ready for a race. It was very interesting watching them get ready. Then we chatted with a few kids, many of them jumping off the bridge that said ‘no jumping’ but there must have been a hundred kids jumping and diving off the bridge. A couple of kids wanted money, some wanted to know about the states and knew much geography, it was impressive. One girl wanted to know if we had many African Americans, maybe because of Obama. And ask if she could sail with us. Later we had ice cream cones and walked back to the treaty grounds and watched the Royal Navy of NZ band and the lowering of the flag ceremony. It was the best, it opened with God Bless American, the tune, no words. They did many numbers and the navy marched and did a gun salute and then shot off the canon from the water, very cool. Finally we listened to a jazz singer, she was good but we just weren’t ready to sit for an hour and listen. Maybe if we had food. So we left and bought food to make chicken and mushroom pasta on the boat. We ended up eating at 9PM. We went right to bed.
February 6, 2009
We got up at 6AM and
February 7, 2009
It was a windy day but we took our trash to shore and checked on Southern Cross. Not much to do so we went back to our boat and took it easy.
February 8, 2009
I weighed myself this morning and promptly started weight watchers. Mike lost weight, although he has gained some back and I simply gained weight. Mike found the WW points list on line, so I am all set. He also set up a calculator that calculates points based on nutrition information on food packages. In NZ and other countries they use energy not calories. We then kayaked over to Southern Cross, must get lots of exercise. They invited us to dinner, I think this is a test on self control. Stacy and Ed who were looking to buy Southern Cross were also invited. They cooked mussels, so no contest, mussels are not for me. I had salad and rice. We also met Joy 70 years old married to Richard 51 year’s old, interesting couple. Nice evening and I didn’t cheat on my points. It was a full moon dinghy ride back to our boat.
February 9, 2009
Two whole days on WW and no cheating. We went to shore to see about renting a car tomorrow to go to Whangarei to help Charisma on their boat. We were able to rent a pickup, it was $70 per day plus fuel. It is a manual, and the stick is in the center, so yes Mike will have to shift with his left hand, the turn signal is opposite what are use to not to mention you drive on the opposite side of the road from what you do in the states. We took showers before heading back to our boat, which was a mistake, the water was so rough we were soaked and covered with salt. Yuk!
February 10, 2009
It poured rain all night.
I called the car rental place to see if the car is available and it has
not been returned yet.
February 11, 2009
Mike and I slept in the forward cabin on two twin beds. They
were fairly comfortable however the head was next to us and when it was flushed
you needed a gas mask! We got up at 9AM,
we didn’t get quite the early start we planned.
We had breakfast and got to work.
Kristen and I worked on removing the boot stripe, lots of scraping and
sanding. This time with an electric
sander, my job, I had to stand on a ladder to reach the stripe and after I had
been working for awhile
February 12, 2009
We got up around 9AM and had breakfast. Afterwards
February 13, 2009
The weather calmed down a lot over night but by the time we decided to go to shore it had picked up a little. We had to turn the car in today and since we were paying for it we decided to go to Woolworths. We didn’t need anything but we could stock up a little more since we had a car. We stopped by Southern Cross to see how they were doing, their boats almost finished. Then we took our groceries back to our boat in good size waves but they were rolling the same direction we were going so we didn’t get too wet.
February 14, 2009
Valentine’s Day! The
wind calmed down a lot but reports are predicting 30-40 knot gusts this
afternoon. We hurried to shore and
washed 3 loads of clothes, took showers and hurried back to the boat to hang up
the laundry to dry. It didn’t take long,
which was good because I didn’t have room to hang 3 loads and had to keep
rotating things. I wanted all the
clothes folded and put away before the strong winds came. Mike cut his hair today, now he is a pretty
boy! I made us a bean dip for lunch and
I used rice crackers, they are good and very few points compared to chips. I dropped a Correll plate it shattered
everywhere, in little slivers, we swept it up and vacuumed it and still we are
getting glass in our feet. Now I am one plate short of serving six for dinner,
bummer. Must be the day to break stuff,
Mike broke his computer keyboard and cut his finger. He can’t live without his computer so he found
a new keyboard on eBay. It is always
difficult using PayPal on purchases since our billing address is the
February 15, 2009
Calmer today but we are not going ashore so it is another reading, computing, eating and cleaning day.
February 16, 2009
Much calmer today. We
went to shore to go on a hike, we are going stir crazy! On the way we stopped at Toketie and invited Dave
and Linda over for appetizers tonight.
While we were sitting in our dinghy at their boat a duck came up an bit
my finger. They are not shy ducks! It didn’t hurt but scared me to death. I tried to keep them at bay with the oar but
that did not scare them. No wonder I
don’t like birds! We invited
February 17, 2009
Calm but chilly this morning. James from Titan Sails came to measure our
boat for an enclosure. We decided the exchange rate is so good here and
reasonable prices too so we should try to get a cockpit enclosure. Our dodger and bimini are in very sad shape
and in need of repair if nothing else.
We plan to sail home this year and we will be sailing to weather which
could be a wet cold ride. If we stay dry
that would help us stay warmer. And if
the wind is on the beam we would be shielded from the wind too. Later we went to shore to go on a hike and
Mike wanted to check on his parts. We
stopped at Southern Cross to see if we could plan a birthday dinner for
February 18, 2009
Very nice calm morning so we went for a long kayak ride
today. My shoulders are so sore, of
course Mike’s are fine. Today the regulator
that Mike ordered came in, so he picked it up and spent the afternoon
installing it. I took the dinghy to
shore myself and went to town with
February 19, 2009
The weather was windy today but not horrible. Mike went to shore and picked up our bid for
the cockpit enclosure. It is about $3500
NZ, so about half that
February 20, 2009
I don’t know what happened to summer here. It rained all night and all day with winds at 25-30 knot gusts. So we stayed on the boat all day. Mike wanted a shower so he took a cold one on the boat. Hopefully tomorrow we can go ashore and take hot showers and get more exercise. Rene and John brought us the new DVD release of Slumdog Millionaire, nice to see a new movie, we are on about the 3rd round of our DVD’s. As we get older we seem to forget how the movies end so we watch them again. That is the only good thing I can think of about losing your memory! J
February 21, 2009
This morning is still windy but not as bad, so we decided to go ashore. We need to buy hose to replace the hose we could not clean on the head as now after all that cleaning the head seems to be clogged. It was a difficult task to get the old hose out, Mike pushed and I pulled and still it would not come out. Finally Mike cut the hole that went down to the bilge a little bigger. We don’t think the hose has ever been replaced. We finally got it out and it was totally clogged with calcium. Now putting the new hose back in was an even greater challenge, it is about 7’ long. Mike ended up attaching a long hose with little diameter to the new hose and fed it through the floor, to a place no man could ever see and then we pushed and pulled again to get the new hose in place, finally! Just when we thought we had it made, the bronze joker valve broke. That is it, we had to stop and take a mental rest. We just sat in the cockpit in very bad moods and Shelly from Magic Dragon came over and asked if he could bring his wife over to visit, she just needed to get off their boat. Although we were in no mood for company we felt obligated to say “Yes”. The visit turned out to be just what we needed, they were delightful people, both nearing 80 and still sailing, or maybe just boating. Plus Shelly gave Mike an idea to fix the joker valve with epoxy and it worked! The evening turned out enjoyable with a beautiful starry night!
February 22, 2009
It is a nice day today.
I started having some medical issues, but decide to wait a few days to
see what happens before seeking medical attention. We were invited this morning over to Shelly
and Jane’s on the Magic Dragon for coffee and cake. She calls herself “Just plain Jane”. After a lovely time there we went to see
Southern Cross, it is
February 23, 2009
Another nice day but I wasn’t feeling 100% with continued medical
issues. We had invited Robby,
February 24, 2009
It was a beautiful morning outside but not so inside. I had left all the greasy stinky dishes from last night for this morning. I wish I could throw them overboard. But that wouldn’t be practical. James the dodger, bimini designer came to measure our boat for the new enclosure. Turned out to be poor timing on his part, it rained along with much wind, not ideal to do his job. I made coffee and cookies until the storm passed and they could carry on. We went over to Scarlett O’Hara’s to visit and took my own pop with me, when I opened it, it exploded all over their cockpit, how embarrassing. Rene just poured water in the cockpit to rinse me and the cockpit. Rene gave me quite a few really nice shorts and pants. I was hoping they wouldn’t fit as they are a size bigger than I want to be, so good and bad, nice new clothes but I must lose weight! I had started doing weight watchers again so until I lose about 15 pounds I have some really nice clothes! We went to shore too as Mike ordered a program called AIS that tracks ships, a really nice feature to have on passages. It tracks ships up to 40 miles away, their course, speed, the name of the ship and its size and more. And he got a new keyboard for his computer, as it quit working, so now he will be a much happier guy with his new toys! Back on the boat we discover we have crickets, they are in jumping or flying, what ever they do in my hair. We no longer are seeing the jellyfish but now crickets!
February 25, 2009
It is Kathy’s birthday today! Mike took me to shore so I could go shopping
in Keri Keri with Renee. We went to a
printers and I had boat cards printed that Mike designed. They will post them to us as they say in
February 26, 2009
Beautiful morning! For me medically it was a bad night, after talking to pharmacist friend I decided to cut the HRT dosage in half to see if things improved. I tried to call Kathy and say happy birthday but we had a very poor connection. Tonight John and Rene are coming to dinner. I made fried chicken, potato salad, pea salad and green salad, dessert and appetizers. I really wanted it to be a nice dinner as they have given us so much and made us many dinners. We all enjoyed dessert fresh cold cherries dipped in chocolate sauce and whipped cream! We had a nice time, they are generous and fun people.
February 27, 2009
Very strong winds are predicted over the next two days. So we plan to stay on board and read and
compute. We are rather chilly and put on
extra layers of clothes. At about
10:30pm we are deciding it is time for bed and Mike checks our GPS to make sure
all is well, but all is not well. The
GPS shows our anchor has drug about 200’.
We look outside and see we are about to hit another boat. There is no moon so it is pitch black, with
27 knot winds gusting to 35 knots, rough seas and rain that stings your
face. We quickly pull on our foul
weather gear and Mike starts the engine and I run forward and start pulling up
the anchor only the chain gets stuck and won’t come up anymore. I run below to look in the chain locker and
can’t see any problems so I go back to the deck and try again. Finally I get it up and Mike has moved us
back to where we think we were anchored and tells me to drop the anchor. About 35 feet of chain comes out and we are in
30 feet of water and the chain is stuck again.
Five feet of chain on the bottom will not hold us we need more like 150
feet to be safe. I run below and can’t
see a problem and go above and try pulling it in and letting it out but no
luck. Mike is frustrated he has lost his
ability to figure out where we are and I can’t see a thing. Not only could we hit another boat we could
hit
February 28, 2009
What a long night. At 9AM I made coffee. We are still tired. We heard Angus on Innocenti calling the fleet looking for his dinghy. Finally it was located up the river. Thank you Jesus! We heard many boats had lots of issues last night. We stayed on the boat all day as the weather is still predicted to continue to be bad.
March 1, 2009
The weather is much better today and sunny. Dan’s birthday is today in the
March 2, 2009
Nice day with very little wind. I cleaned and re organized some of our drawers again. Mike worked on his AIS program and got it going. We sent some photos to Jayla. She seems to get a kick out of seeing our photos.
March 3, 2009
It started out a calm sunny morning so we pulled up the two anchors. If we leave two anchors out on the bow, the way the boat swings in the current we would soon have a tangled mess that could require a diver, so up they came and we moved closer to the cruising club for a better internet connection. Now the deck is a muddy mess. The mud in this bay is so sticky and stinky. It is supposed to rain so we are hoping that will wash the mud off the deck. When we moved we also noticed the engine is not circulating enough water and it had over heated the other night. Perhaps we need to clean the sea strainers again we already changed the impellor. We went to shore to check on our ‘enclosure’ and we went on a hike. Southern Cross came over for dinner and we watched the ‘Bucket List’. Our perceptions of the movie were so different from theirs.
March 4, 2009
Another windy rainy day and it is predicted to get worse. So James, the dodger enclosure guy never came. It is always weather permitting and the last few weeks have been wet and windy and yes cold! The rain pretty much cleaned our decks of mud so that was a good thing. Even with 25 knot winds the yacht club still had races. We were in the middle of the races, boats sailing very close to our boat, it was kind of exciting being in the middle of it all as long as they don’t hit us and they didn’t but they were very close.
March 5, 2009
It is still really windy, our GPS alarm went off once last night but it doesn’t appear that we drug out of the circle we have drawn on our chart plotter to see if we have drug or not. However this morning while I was making breakfast we did drag. We had our second anchor ready on deck and we motored forward and dropped it. We ended up closer to Ares Tor who was on a mooring ball but in this weather we didn’t want to pull up both anchors again. So of course we had to watch closely all day. Mike took a nap and then I went to bed right after dinner. The winds were predicted to get up to 55 knots so we needed to take turns at anchor watch. Mike tied everything down for the night.
March 6, 2009
As it turned out last night about 9PM everything turned calm, so much for 55 knot winds. We were really thankful but the weather report was so far off. What if it had been the other way! Our boat snagged a tree, or did the tree snag us? It was around 40’ long and made our boat shudder a couple of times, so Mike couldn’t sleep and got up. When I got up at 8AM there was no sign of the tree. Our dinghy was filled with rainwater. We put it in buckets and used it to do laundry and clean the boat. It had really rained a lot and we figured we collected about 50 gallons of water. Only our solar vents seemed to leak so Mike must have fixed all the other leaks. We decided to re anchor using just our Danforth anchor since it held so well last time.
March 7, 2009
It was a sunny calm morning. We sat in the cockpit drinking coffee and watching what appeared to be a floating island. It must have been a log where grass had grown over it extensively that broke loose from land during the last storm and floated through the anchorage with the current not hitting one single boat or mooring ball, amazing. It had several ducks riding on it too. Mike took pictures. We went to shore for a hike and stopped at the general store for bread and ice. For dinner I cooked one of those emergency food packs called Ala King. Well it wasn’t fit for a king or anyone else. First I cooked it in the pressure cooker and it burned, so I changed pans and finished cooking it and added some meat. It tasted way too salty and the meat was very gristly. I threw it overboard and not even the ducks would eat it. Then for dessert I made chocolate pudding and I couldn’t get the lumps out. I guess it wasn’t a good day for cooking.
March 8, 2009
It started out a beautiful sunny morning but it wasn’t long until the clouds came in and the temp dropped to 70 degrees, for us that feels like 40 degrees. It didn’t stop us from going ashore for a hike though. We are trying to get more exercise. While I got a head start Mike stopped for ice cream, he has his priorities. We stopped at the marina office to find that our new boat cards were ready. Mike really liked them. And Jim and Heather had sent Mike a fantastic birthday card, we couldn’t believe they paid $27 for postage, that is criminal. On the way back to our boat we discover that the great Danforth anchor wasn’t so great, our boat had drug across the channel about ¼ mile and not hit another boat. Unbelievable! Thank you Jesus! So Mike pulled up the anchor while I started the engine. This time we re anchored with the Bruce anchor and Mike really backed down on it in hopes up hooking good. I made beef stew for dinner and it turned out really good!
March 9, 2009
I woke up in the middle of the night with major cramps. So I took 2 Ibuprofen and went back to bed. They didn’t seem to help so I got up and took a pain pill and laid on the couch. At 5AM Mike wondered where I was and came looking for me with a flashlight that he shone in my face and woke me up. I didn’t get up until late as the pain pill seem to make me tired. Mike put away the rope rode and fixed the spinnaker pole so it would quit banging. Then James and his assistant showed up to make a pattern for our dodger, bimini and enclosure. We added a ceiling window so I can see the Windex, side pockets and rain gutters, we are so excited, I hope it doesn’t take long to make. The pattern was great because you could see the shape and how it would look. I worked on getting the rust off our small propane bottle so we can get it filled again. I made a doctors appointment for tomorrow.
March 10, 2009
We got up early this morning so we could meet the shuttle to
go to the doctors. First we bought a
watch because we never know what time it is and we need to be on time to the
doctors and to meet the shuttle this afternoon.
Then we bought birthday cards.
Then to the doctors, she told me to stop taking Kliogest HRT and I have
to go to Keri Keri to get an ultrasound.
While I was at the doctors Mike went to buy us lunch. He bought sandwiches and we sat on benches
overlooking the bay with seagulls at our feet.
Then we walked to Woolworth’s. We
have more storage room so I am still working on provisioning for our next
passage and beyond. Food in the next
islands is actually shipped from
March 11, 2009
It is sunny but cold this morning. Mike worked on the aft head again. It is not pumping again. When disconnected, water pumps through the
head and water pours in the through hole.
When he puts the connections together it doesn’t work, so what is it
now? Turns out it is the joker valve. It has a chunk of calcium stuck in it but we
just replaced it not 30 days ago. Those
valves cost $49NZ for just a little piece of red rubber. While working on that problem Mike found the
throttle cable is almost rusted in half, so he replaced that. And he found a mount around the heat
exchanger broke so he fixed that too.
What a busy boy! I made an
appointment for the ultra sound for the 27th, they are booked
out. Now it is questionable if we will
be able to tour the
March 12, 2009
It is Mikey’s birthday today in NZ but Mark, Yvonne, Julie and the Michaels all remember to email him one day earlier than in the states! How nice. I made him a nice birthday breakfast that he seemed to enjoy. Mike spent his birthday on the computer, but that is what he enjoys most. Taylor and Hannah emailed that they should be here in about 3 days. We went to dinner on Scarlett O’Hara’s and Rene made hamburgers. Topped it off with delicious pudding. My diet is shot but it is Mike’s birthday and he enjoyed it too. Rene let us barrow several DVD’s to copy, we will enjoy having a few new ones!
March 13, 2009
The weather started out sunny and calm but by late morning
there were 15 – 20 knot winds. We are
hoping James comes to do a fitting of our enclosure but with these winds it is
not likely. Mike received more birthday
emails today from the
March 14, 2009
It is Saturday and it is beautiful out, calm and sunny. I am doing some cleaning before Taylor and Hannah come for their visit. Mike is looking forward to working on the aft head again. HA! He installed the joker valve John gave him and now it works great. With the cost of two joker valves and one rebuild kit we could buy a whole new toilet. But you would still have to deal with hoses, about 12’ worth, that’s a lot. Bold Spirit did decide to just buy a new head, they decided it was crazy. But eventually you must buy rebuild kits, the salt water is very hard on toilets and everything else! We watched two movies and went to bed.
March 15, 2009
It was very windy all night. We thought
March 16, 2009
It is a very nice day.
Taylor and Hannah didn’t get up until 10:30 so we got a late start. We had to go to shore first to talk to the
canvas guys and buy a few groceries. It
was a wet ride. Back on the boat we
started the engine and raised the sails.
We pretty much sailed out of the channel. The plan was to go to
March 17, 2009
It was a beautiful sunny morning. We got up at 10AM, had breakfast, did laundry,
in a bucket the cruisers way and swam before sailing back down wind in a light
breeze. We had lunch on the sail back
and they had brought us a bottle of wine which we enjoyed then as well. We were
able to get our same spot back in the anchorage, which we were glad about. We had to anchor twice before we were
good. We made a potato salad and went to
a St. Patty’s day BBQ on the breakwater.
So they were able to meet some of our friends. They seem to enjoy the BBQ, there was lots to
eat. They also met Dave on Macy and I
believe he will give them a ride back to Whangarei tomorrow. So they just have to get to
March 18, 2009
It was another nice morning and I made pancakes while Taylor
and Hannah packed. They gave us all the
rest of their food, they couldn’t take it on the plane and then Hannah said
March 19, 2009
It is sunny and hot today, the thermometer says 97 in the
sun, but by noon it was raining. I
emailed Dad as it is his birthday today in the states. I mailed him an American Express gift card
that Kathy had sent me when we were in
March 20, 2009
It was a very calm night but a cloudy cold morning. Mike went to shore to see if his computer
would work any better. But I figured out
we were out of MB. We paid for a month
but with a limit of 1000MB. The program
doesn’t work correctly when you run out of MB only when you run out of
days. I guess they are trying to fix
it. Mike had downloaded quite a lot of
programs. I did laundry and used the
dirty water to wash the deck, we have mud again after pulling anchor and
sailing to
March 21, 2009
Nice day so we went to shore for a hike and we bought some cheese bread to have with dinner. John and Rene are coming to dinner and I am making pasta with cheese sauce and chicken, fattening but so good with bread and salad of course. Rene made chocolate chip cookies for dessert that were so good. They reminded me of the ones Mom used to make for our school lunches.
March 22, 2009
Cloudy and cold but nice and warm in our new enclosure, Mike calls it the conservatory. When we run the genset we turn on a blower that blows warm air into the enclosure and it is like we have heat. It is always 10 degrees warmer during the day out there compared to inside the boat. We went for a walk down the railroad tracks again. The sticker bushes seem to have grown up and we had on shorts, ouch! Mike wanted to go to the lumber store that we saw when we walk on the tracks a few months ago. He wants to build the nav station chair higher. It is too low to type. But they don’t sell pieces and we have no way to cut or carry a big piece of plywood back to our boat.
March 23, 2009
Went to shore to get parts to fix the stainless dodger mount, stopped by SeaPower to check on seawater pump, and Kristine offered her car for me to drive to the doctors and so did James at Titan, and Bob at Cater Marine also said if we needed a ride to the airport to meet Charisma he would drive us, even at O dark hour. We feel so blessed to have so many people that care about us. At dinner we made a To Do List. Boy is it long. Mark and Yvonne called, it was so good to hear friend’s voices again. That is one thing you miss a lot is the voices and hugs of the ones you love!
March 24, 2009
It is sunny and warm today.
I did laundry and reorganized.
Mike worked on the windless fittings.
We had new ones made at SeaPower.
We both reviewed our To do List and prioritized it. Mike went to shore and picked up our package
that our dear friends Heather and Jim mailed us, Pepcid Complete exactly what
Mike ordered and also blessed with coffee and fudge, so very sweet! And it was greatly appreciated, especially by
Mike. He must have his Pepcid. We
invited Kathi and Jeff on Bold Spirit to dinner. They have invited us over twice and we really
do enjoy their company. We met them in
March 25, 2009
James took our bimini back to add pockets, that battens fit
in, to protect the bimini chafe. The
battens keep water from pudding up on top the bimini. So now it is time to pay for this project, it
ended up $1900US, a little more than we thought but still less expensive than
in the states. We are working on our To
Do List but I think we add more than we cross off. Robby and
March 26, 2009
Jane and Shelly invited us for coffee and cake this morning. We went at 10AM and stayed a couple of hours. It is easy to lose track of time. Jane gave us some coffee filters as I had asked her if she found them in NZ since they have lived here the last five years. She uses a coffee plunger and never needs to buy them but found that she had some, cone ones, she gave to me. Mike was able to cross off replacing the throttle cable today. We took showers in preparation of going to the doctors tomorrow.
March 27, 2009
We dinghy ashore to borrow Kristine’s car to go to Keri Keri
for my ultrasound and Mike’s eye doctor appointment. We drove first to the Warehouse at Keri Keri
they remind us of a Target at home. So
to get miscellaneous items like fishing gloves.
We also bought a headlamp, we have one and decided we need two,
especially during emergencies when you need your hands you don’t have to hold a
flashlight. Then we made sure we knew
where our doctors were so we would be on time to the doctors’
appointments. We looked at Bin Inn for
gummy bears but they don’t carry them, Mike is sad. Oh well, you can’t have everything. We had an early lunch at McDonald’s, it was
better than the last time we came. Then
I went with Mike to help him select new eye glass frames and then I walked to
my appointment while he was in his appointment.
He met up with me afterwards and we went to
March 28, 2009
Nice warm and sunny day. It took me all day to re organize and put all the groceries away. Mike cleaned the outside of the boat and I cleaned the inside and made dinner for Bruce and Kristine. I made fish and I thought it was good but Mike thought it was only okay. We had a really nice visit with them, they are super people.
March 29, 2009
I went to shore and
March 30, 2009
Another nice day, Mike went to Cater Marine and I went on
another walk. Back at the boat we worked
on To Do List. My thing was cleaning the
shower sump pump filters, what a yucky job.
I wore gloves but it smelled too.
Then we discovered that the forward pump wasn’t working, it was
clogged. It is not used much so that may
be why, not enough goes through there to clean it out. We had to track the correct hose down and
ended up taking everything out from under the forward bed and taking 6 screws
out of a panel under the bed to see where it went. Then Mike got in the dinghy with a screw
driver and dug out the clog and it works fine now. Then I put everything away and put the screws
back in the panel, I had to get in the cupboard to fix it. I also found the key in the engine room that
went to the main engine water pump impellor, plus we found two more in spare
parts that we didn’t realize we had.
Robby and
March 31, 2009
Another nice day and another doctor appointment in
Paihia. I planned to take the shuttle
but
April 1, 2009
We hear it is still snowing in the states, or
April 2, 2009
Wind not too bad all night but cool this morning. We went to shore to look at a rubbish pile I saw on a hike that had wood scraps I thought might work for Mike to build his nav seat, but nothing looked quite right to him. Oh well, at least we got some exercise looking. We went to SeaPower and bought one starter battery and 3 new batteries to replace one bank that won’t charge, and oil and zincs. Bruce is going to deliver them to us in his power boat. See how great they are?
April 3, 2009
We had a quick breakfast and went to the breakwater to see
Scarlett O’Hara off, they are headed for
April 4, 2009
It is cool this morning and Mike is working on installing
those batteries and I am doing laundry.
The laundry isn’t so bad if you just wash a few things every day and get
5 gallons of water when we go to shore in our jugs. Robby and
April 5, 2009
The water is a little choppy today so we stay on board and read, computed and watch movies. It rained but we didn’t catch much water, maybe two cups.
April 6, 2009
It is Monday and cold but sunny so
April 7, 2009
We hope Bernie can put our prop back on, we have no engine without it and with the wind we may need it if our boat was to drag again. After Mike finished with the prop I had to clean all the floors inside the boat, in the cockpit and the deck as he got black sanding dust everywhere. The prop is back on and one new zinc, we haven’t had to replace zinc in 7 months since we haven’t been in marinas. That is so great. Bernie cleaned the boat bottom and pulled and replaced the prop and installed one zinc for $150 NZ, that’s about $90US and in the states we paid $85 to just clean the bottom of our 30’ boat, so we got a good deal. He even offered to drop $25 since he dropped our key, but we knew it was a risk, so we paid him in full.
April 8, 2009
Dawn on Warm Rain invited me to go to Keri Keri with her
today. We had a nice girls day going in
lots of shops that I couldn’t drag Mike into.
Plus I got everything on my list.
We had a nice lunch together too. Overall a very nice time.
April 9, 2009
It is a beautiful sunny blue sky morning and all of a sudden it starts pouring rain and all the boats in the anchorage start swinging every which way. Scarlett came back early from their trip with engine problems. They had to sail from Whangarei and into this channel without an engine. They almost made it to the dock but got stuck on a sand bar. They were able to raft to another boat until the tide came in and then another cruiser helped them get to the dock. Boy that would make me crazy! Mike is working on the genet, we started working on it when we arrived in NZ and now that we are nearly ready to leave we are still working on it. We have prayed many prayers over it! Today I made a huge cabbage, green bean, broccoli and onion salad. I am trying to see if I can chop up cabbage for a passage and have it last for awhile. I don’t like chopping on a passage, I could lose my fingers rocking and rolling and chopping. I got my test results from the doctor today and they are normal, thank you Jesus. I won’t worry anymore. I talked to Mom for over an hour on Skype today, there is a 7 hour time difference and I think I had a blond moment and called her at midnight and woke her up, she said she didn’t mind and we talked an hour, poor mom. Mike got the rebuilt pump back, let’s pray it works. It seems too!
April 10, 2009
This is Easter weekend and it is sunny but cold, it was so
cold last night we both wore sweats to bed. In NZ they close business for a four day
holiday over Easter. This morning I
finished washing our sheets and I washed our Safeway blankets that Mark and
Yvonne got us and another sofa cover.
Lots to do by hand, especially hard to wring them out but it is finally
finished. Mike took the wind generator
down, this is a difficult task since it is up high and heavy and the boat is
usually moving just to make it more fun.
It was especially difficult to get apart due to corrosion, so it took
him a while. After much prayer it is
back up and running, but it seems to be spinning a little slow, not sure if
that is the way it should be or not.
Poor Mike, now the genset isn’t pumping water again. We prayed over it
and started it again and this time it worked. Thank you Jesus! Southern Cross invited us to dinner.
April 11, 2009
Cloudy, windy and cold today! Genset water pump quit working again, argh! It is such a simple thing he can’t believe it is not working. Later he thinks he found a hose leak and fixed that and it works, thank you Jesus! We are finding ourselves looking forward to the tropics as when we arrived it was freezing and then warmed up and now it is getting colder every day. It is the low 60’ and 70’s but we freeze and we have not heat on the boat. We had left overs for dinner and lattes to get warm and to bed in our sweats!
April 12, 2009
Happy Easter! Beautiful Day! Genset took two tries before it worked! What is with that thing? Mike hooked up the starter battery today. Then we went to shore and took showers and got more laundry water. I want everything possible to be washed before we leave NZ. We stopped and had coffee with Southern Cross before going back to our boat. Did laundry, had dinner and watched a movie.
April 13, 2009
It is Easter at home and business is still closed today. Not sure if mail will come today but looks like if it does my key board should be in. We were invited to Bruce and Kristine’s for dinner along with Southern Cross and Momo, so we will have a ride. They have a spectacular view of the valley from their home on top of a hill. They can see for miles and it is all beautiful green with cattle and sheep. Their business is on the water so they have the best of both worlds. We had appetizers first and there was an impressive layout of cheese, crackers, nuts and more. Then dinner, Bruce caught snapper it was delicious, salmon, marinated chicken and bangers, along with potatoes and salad. Dessert was a meringue with whipped cream and fruit. We chatted and even all danced to some jazz. Then Southern Cross decided to spend the night, so Bruce took Mike and I back to the marina, too bad as it was a half an hour drive each way. Once we arrived we realized we left our dinghy at Southern Cross and the gate is locked. At Bruce’s suggestion there are dinghy’s left at the dinghy dock that we could use one to get around the gate and then to our dinghy. Mike did that and Bruce retied the dinghy and we were ready to go.
April 14, 2009
Beautiful morning but I am not feeling great. I have a terrible headache all day. After breakfast Mike tried to start the genset, wouldn’t work again! Mike went to shore and bought a whole new hose. The hose is clear so we can see what is happening. On shore everyone told Mike he was famous, when we checked in they searched our boat and taped it and last night they played it on Coastwatch. Mike is trying to get a copy but it is not looking good. We spent the afternoon redoing our boat inventory with hose sizes again, so we would know for sure what we have and we zipped tied them all nice and neat. And he picked up my new keyboard and he installed it today too, such a busy boy!
April 15, 2009
It is cold and windy again today and I still have a headache. And even with the new hose the genset is not working. Did I say argh? We stayed on our boat all day and we watched DVD#2 of the Pink Panther, why did we like those movies so much when we were young. They are rather dumb and long.
April 16, 2009
Jim and Cindy from Summer Sky are coming to dinner tonight so I am giving the boat a good cleaning. We are getting mildew again with this weather. Mike had more trouble with the darn genset. Good news though Mike figured out the wind generator was hooked up wrong so it wasn’t charging, so he fixed it and now it is crankin out the amps! Cindy brought a salad for dinner and I made pizza. We had spicy chili cheese and crackers for appetizers and Jell-O and chocolate for dessert. We had a very nice evening.
April 17, 2009
It was windy again today but we went to shore anyway. Bruce let Mike use his van to go pick up
plywood at Carters Lumber. And then he
used his saw to cut it up and then we hauled it to our dinghy and back to our
boat. They are so nice and generous, we
want to do something for them before we leave.
I went on a short walk with
April 18, 2009
Today there is a ‘Trash & Treasures’ swap meet for cruisers, we planned to go but the wind was up and the sea was rough so we decided to stay warm in our boat. Once again the genset did not start so Mike decided to rebuild the seawater pump again and he greased it up good so there could be no air leaks and it started the first time! Thank you Jesus. Then Mike spent the afternoon building his new nav station seat, he is very proud of it. Once it was finished he sat on it and his feet just hung, he knew they would so he built a raised floor that now is additional tool storage. It turned our very nice, and will look great once we are able to upholster the boat, it needs it desperately, but first we need jobs! HA! I spent my time re organizing our medications and to make sure we have some seasick pills for our passage. I need to buy some more. This time we are taking them.
April 19, 2009
Praise the Lord, the genset started on the first try! It is another windy day. Today Mike worked on shaping a piece of
plywood he bought for the dinghy floor, all the slats that were on the bottom
are broken. Then he made himself a step
that hooks to his harness, so that when he goes up the mast he can stand on
it. Now he can get all the way to the
top by himself. Plus he may have more
leverage if he needs it. He will be trying
it out before we leave Opua for a safety check.
So many fittings vibrate apart under sail that he needs to tighten them
all. I worked all day on updating this
journal for the website. Kristen and
April 20, 2009
Praise the Lord again! The genset started right up! It sure makes Mikes day nicer and mine too when it starts on the first try! It rained really hard last night, so hard it woke us up. I got up to check my water jug to see if the rain gutter was filling it and it was full and over flowing, so I put the hose into another jug and it filled in about 5 minutes, these are 5 gallon jugs, so I had one more jug to fill but the rain slowed down and it didn’t fill up until late morning. Mike got up too at 5AM and put on his raincoat and went outside to open up the water fills on deck and plugged all the deck drains. We are really low on water so if we can collect it this way with the rain it would be nice. He was soaked when he came back in the boat. By late morning the starboard water tank is close to full but the port tank didn’t seem to get too much, probably because our boat is leaning to the starboard side. That is the side I stowed all the can goods I bought for the next passage. I bought quite a lot as it is cheaper in NZ, since all the islands import a significant amount of food from NZ they have to add the cost of importing. Plus they do not have the variety that NZ has. So we are stocking up! The dinghy had around 25 gallons of water in it. So I used it for laundry and to clean the deck, it’s not clean enough to put in the tanks. The decks should have been clean after all that rain but the mud here just sticks until you actually scrub it off. I hung out my wash even though it is predicted to rain and have 40 knot gusts, right now it is calm and no rain, so my laundry just may dry.