1 March 2015 Twizle, New Zealand
The plan was to go sea kayaking on Tasman Lake, where there are icebergs which are formed when the Tasman Glacier calves into the lake. Unfortunately, the forecast was for high winds reaching gale force, so the guides running the trip cancelled it – they said they don’t do epics… We were very disappointed, but no one can change the weather.
We decided to walk up the Hooker Valley Track, which is a very popular trail up a hard packed gravel path. There were hundreds of people doing this three hour walk and most of them were Chinese. It’s amazing just how many Chinese tourists there are in New Zealand – some of the locals believe that the Chinese are going to be running New Zealand within a hundred years. The Chinese are currently being blamed for the high prices of houses in Auckland because of speculative buying of property.
Despite the hordes of tourists, the walk was very pleasant. There is supposed to be a fabulous view of Mount Cook from Hooker Lake, but the low clouds and rain hid most of the high mountains. It only took us three hours to do the return trip, so we went to Tasman Lake to have a look at the icebergs. We were gutted to see that the lake was as flat as a pancake – the forecast gale force winds hadn’t materialised. At least we got to see the icebergs from the shore.
It was grey and overcast all day in the Mount Cook National Park, but as we drove towards Twizle, the skies cleared and fifteen minutes later the sun was shining. The road goes along the side of Lake Pukaki and the view across the blue, blue waters to the misty mountains was lovely.
2 March 2015 Twizle, New Zealand
The forecast was for rain and high winds again in the Mount Cook National Park, so we drove to Lake Tekapo and did a really nice three hour hike up Mount John. The small mountain sticks up above the surrounding glacial plains and there are fabulous views from the top of the blue lakes and mountains surrounding the sweeping grasslands. It looks very much like the plains of Rohan in Lord of the Rings.
We had great weather all day, but “Laragh” had overcast and windy conditions for their hike in the Mount Cook National Park – it’s amazing how the weather changes within just 30 miles.
3 March 2015 Twizle to Christchurch, New Zealand
After cleaning up our mess after staying in one place for more than a couple of days, we drove to Christchurch, which took nearly five hours.
The motel that we booked into was in the university district a mile or so out of town, so after checking in, we drove into the city centre to have a quick look around.
There was a major earthquake in February 2011, which hit the city badly. 185 people were killed and many of the buildings in the central and east side of the city were damaged. Even after 4 years the city centre looks like a huge building site with half demolished buildings mixed in with new buildings being erected.
The cathedral was badly damaged and is still propped up by a steel framework, but the city has built a temporary Cathedral made from shipping containers and huge 2 metre diameter cardboard rolls. It only took 18 months to construct the building, which is an interesting structure. Many buildings are propped up by shipping containers and there’s even a shopping centre where all of the shops are built from old shipping containers.
We were very naughty and had an Indian curry for dinner to celebrate our fabulous three week break in South Island.
4 March 2015 Christchurch to Whangarei, New Zealand
We travelled back to Whangarei. There were no problems this time - we dropped the car off, the plane to Auckland was on time and we only had a 40 minute wait for the plane to Whangarei - we were back on the boat by 1430.
Fortunately, the boat hadn't sunk, so we unpacked and started to rewrite our To Do Lists - it’s back to work tomorrow.
5 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I ran around in the morning doing a few errands. The turbo for the engine had been refurbished and tested okay, which was a relief - I’ll have to refit it in the next few days, which I'm not looking forward to.
I called in to pick up the window for our windscreen, but it’s still not ready. The receptionist couldn't find out what was going on because the boss was out. They sent me an email later saying it that there had been a mistake with the glass and could be another ten days, so I sent a stroppy email back pointing out that I was planning to leave on the 16th and so far they’d had this little job for 12 weeks.
I ordered a new AIS Transceiver. We already have an AIS Receiver that shows us the position, course and speed of nearby vessels, but we feel that we need to be able to transmit our position as well. Nowadays, ships are relying more on AIS than Radar and this should alert shipping about our presence better than Radar.
After lunch, I completed the wiring for the new radar and all works well. I now need to get the radome down off the mast again so that we can paint the bracket.
Our new AB dinghy arrived, so we unpacked it all by the marina office, inflated it and rowed it back to the boat. I immediately put it on the foredeck, but unfortunately it doesn't quite fit between the mast and a set of stainless steel bars in front of the inner fore-stay. The bars used to protect a dorade vent which we have sealed off, so I'm now going to have to remove the bars and plug the holes in the deck - bummer.
6 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I had a bit of a restless night worrying about the damn window. If they screw it up and/or damage the hinge moulding then we’ll be buggered - we can’t sail anywhere without the window in our windscreen. So after breakfast, I went round to the window manufacturer to piss and whinge, but they immediately took the wind out of my sails by telling me that they are working on it and it should be ready in a couple of days - I’ll just have to trust them.
Back on the boat, I remove the dorade bars and the dinghy now fits nicely on the foredeck. I still have to plug the holes in the deck.
My sister Yvonne and her husband Stuart called in for a visit. Their son Ben lives in Wellington and they've come over from the UK to visit him for a month. We've not seen them for a few years, so we had a lot of catching up to do.
In the evening, we went to the wedding of Phil and Sara from “Loch Marin”. We met them in the Marquesas and have ben bumping into them sever since. It was a good do with lots of cruisers there. Phil is Scottish and arranged a band that played reels and line dancing tunes, so it was great fun. "Laragh" just had to join with the band.
7 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
The new laptop that I bought in the UK came with Windows 8 installed and it’s been driving me mad for the past week. Our wireless internet antenna plugs into a USB port and the computer keeps disconnecting it every few minutes. I've discovered that Windows 8 has a problem with USB ports with no apparent solution, so the only answer is to install Windows 7. I spent the morning copying data from my new PC to my old PC ready to format the new laptop - damn Microsoft.
In the afternoon, I went up the mast and removed the radar radome and prepared the bracket for painting. I then finished off the new cupboard door for the aft heads and fitted the hinges and lock. We’re now ready to start painting. I also tested the pressures in our two fridges and, thankfully, they seem to be holding their pressure after I had the screw-fit connectors removed.
Glenys spent most of the day with her head down in the bilges or in cupboards, while she wire brushed and cleaned all of our 21 sea-cocks - they all seem to be in good condition once cleaned up.
8 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
It was Glenys’s birthday, so we had a chill-out day. This year she actually got a present - a pair of Jade earrings that she selected in Hokitika. Glenys worked hard at lounging about all day, but I couldn't resist having a play with our new AB dinghy.
It’s has bigger tubes than the Apex dinghy that we bought in Tahiti; has a deeper V-shaped aluminium hull and sits a lot higher at the bow, so I'm hoping that it will be plane quickly and be much drier. I attached our 15hp outboard engine hoping to go for a spin but, after a 3 month lay-off, I can’t get it to run consistently and I’ll have to strip down the carburettor.
“Laragh” are leaving Whangarei tomorrow and heading up to Opua to get ready to sail to Australia next week, so in the evening, we went across to the marina office where David and Katrina had organised a barbecue with a group of the other cruisers.
9 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We had a strange medical day. Glenys went to the dentist to get a temporary crown removed and a permanent one fitted. The procedure all went well, but the credit card suffered with a £800 bill.
I’ve been having problems with stiff and sometimes painful fingers in the mornings. I first noticed it in December when I was doing a lot of work on the boat. I thought that it might be a combination of over work and some kind of repetitive strain injury from playing the guitar too much, but the problem didn't go away despite a three week rest while we were down in South Island.
I went to see a doctor who sent me off to get some blood tests and some x-rays of my hands to check for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The x-rays looked clear and the blood tests came back negative for arthritis, but he then wanted to do a few more blood tests for more in-depth checks for rheumatoid arthritis, so it was another visit to the blood test place. I’ll hear back about those tests tomorrow.
One of the blood tests that the doctor did was a liver function test which unfortunately came back showing that I've got a problem with my liver. I've been drinking far too much - four cans of beer and ½ bottle of wine every night, which is twice the recommended limit. So, it’s no alcohol for me for a couple of weeks and then another blood test to see if my liver recovers. Oh miser!
To make things worse, we don’t have any medical insurance or health care cover, so I had to fork out £250 to pay the doctor and the various tests - it’s enough to drive one to drink…
I managed to get on with a few jobs, the main one being to paint the radar bracket. I covered the walls of the front heads with some old sheets and made a spray booth out of a large cardboard box. It all seemed to go well and the painting was fine, but unfortunately, the overspray in the enclosed space has got everywhere and despite my best efforts, I’ve trashed a new pair of black shorts (that now have white streaks) and the teak grating floor is covered in tiny white dots. I need a beer.
10 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Straight after breakfast, I went to pick up the new window for our windscreen. It looked very good, but unfortunately, it didn’t fit because they’d attached the hinge at a slight angle, so I got them to come out to have a look. After a bit of discussion, we agreed a plan of action and they returned the window a couple of hours later. It fits perfectly and looks great, although it should do for £180…
Glenys went shopping and bought 23 metres of Sunbrella plus loads of zips and sewing stuff, so that she can make a new bimini and various side and back flaps to keep the rain out of our cockpit. The huge roll of Sunbrella has gone in the front cabin next to the other huge roll of Sunbrella that she bought two years ago to make a new spray hood. She’s going to be a busy girl soon.
I pottered about ticking a few jobs off the list and adding a few more. I fitted the window, but couldn’t get the outboard started even though I removed and cleaned the carburettor. I rewired the navigation lights on the pulpit, but bought two wheels for the dinghy, which I now have to fit. I tested the pressures on the fridges - one was okay, but the drinks fridge has lost pressure, so I’ve arranged for an engineer to come on Friday to look for the leak. We've resigned ourselves to an extra week in Whangarei and are now aiming to leave on the 21st.
11 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
In the morning, I fitted the reconditioned turbo to the engine. It took me all morning to do the job because I was paranoid about doing it wrong and damaging the turbo which is an expensive beast. The job went well and the engine started fine. After warming the engine and getting the oil circulating to the turbo, I increased the revs to 3,500 and the exhaust looked clear - if the turbo was faulty then there would have been black smoke pouring out.
We've hired a van to go down to Auckland tomorrow, mostly to drop off our Apex dinghy and some other things at our friend Bob’s house. He’s kindly agreed to sell them on Trade Me which is the New Zealand equivalent of eBay - unfortunately, I can’t sell anything myself because you have to be a New Zealand resident to register on the auction web site.
I spent most of the afternoon writing the text and taking photographs for the Trade Me adverts.
The results for most of my blood tests have come in now and they’re showing negative for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. There’s still one test to come in, but it’s looking good. The last test should be in the next couple of days, so fingers crossed. I’m on day 3 of not drinking alcohol and becoming addicted to Ginger Beer.
12 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We picked up the van and drove for two hours down to Auckland. The first stop was to pick up our life raft which has been serviced. They tell us that it inflated correctly and is in good condition, but most of the contents had expired and it cost us a whopping £650 to have it examined and repacked. It’s now certified for another two years, but we’ll probably get it done again in South Africa in three years’ time.
Horst from “Flow” met us in the Fish Market and we had a pleasant lunch catching up on the past couple of months. Later in the afternoon, we called in on Bob & Sian and dropped off our dinghy, our old AIS receiver, the barbecue that we never use and our 35lb CQR anchor. Bob isn't a boater and looked a bit perplexed about the stuff, but with my adverts and photos, he should be able to sell it all on Trade Me in the next few weeks.
We sat around chatting until six o'clock and then it took another two hours to drive back to Whangarei where, while we have a van, we stopped off at a supermarket to stock up on heavy items (3 cases of Ginger Beer) . It was ten o'clock before we managed to sit down with our Super Supreme pizza.
13 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
It was Friday the 13th, but I had a very good day and ticked off loads of jobs. I first went up the mast and finally finished off installing the radar radome with its newly painted bracket. While I was up there, I cut 70mm off the top of the extrusion for the stay-sail roller reefing because it’s been rubbing on the halyard sheave when we’re going upwind and making it hard to reef. It was a bit scary using a hacksaw to cut it off because if I made a slip and nicked the inner fore-stay wire then it would have to be replaced, but it all went well.
Flush with success, I took the end off the boom and replaced the bearing wheels on the main sail out haul car and installed a new attachment point to hold the boom brake. This was a job that could have turned very nasty, but went very smoothly.
The refrigeration engineer came and managed to find a leak at the end of the dryer on the drinks fridge. He’s filled the system with Nitrogen at 100 psi and will leave it over the weekend. If the pressure remains at 100 psi, then we’ll know that the damn leak is finally fixed.
Glenys pottered about, continuing to paint the toilet cupboard doors, then various odd jobs before making a lovely Dal with a mixed vegetable curry for dinner. She’s really got into Indian cooking - this is the third Indian meal this week.
14 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
A major cyclone is currently hammering Vanuatu, which is a set of islands 1000 miles to the north-east of New Zealand. Super Cyclone Pam has been strengthening into a monster since the 10th, when it rapidly intensified from the equivalent of a category 2 to a category 4 in under 24 hours. Since then it has slowly continued to gain strength, reaching category 5 status a couple of days ago. Recent forecasts suggest Pam’s central pressure is down below 900 millibars, with winds up to 177 mph.
Pam is forecast to run down the whole island chain and the prognosis is not good for the low lying islands which are expected to take heavy damage to the infrastructure and likely loss of lives. We were planning on visiting these remote islands when we leave New Zealand in April, so if we’re still able to go there, we’ll be loading up with supplies to try to help the Vanuatu people.
I spent all day working on our 15hp outboard which needed some serious Tender Loving Care. I cleaned it up as best as I could, installed a new friction brake and clamping disks, then removed the lower leg and disassembled the water pump which was a mission because one of the bolts had broken off. By six o’clock, I’d run out of time and the outboard is still in pieces.
15 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Being a Sunday, we had a lazy day. Cyclone Pam has gone through Vanuatu with massive damage to buildings and there are reports of dozens killed. It has now dropped down to a category 4 cyclone and is directly north of us moving in a south east direction. The forecast is that it will pass 300 miles to the east of New Zealand’s North Island, but will still bring heavy rain and gale force winds.
We’re tucked up in a river a long way from the sea, completely surrounded by land, so the impact on us should be minimal. Even so, we've lashed the dinghy on the front deck, put out extra mooring lines and made sure that anything on deck is lashed down. We might have a restless night.
16 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Cyclone Pam went past us during the night, giving us some heavy rain, but the winds weren't too bad - the highest gust was 45 knots and mostly it was 25-30 knots.
Now that Pam has gone through, the weather looks settled next weekend, so we’re planning to leave Whangarei at the end of the week. I went through our To Do List and prioritised everything, so that we’ll be mobile by Friday – this mostly involved moving jobs onto a long term To Do List. It’s all a bit scary, we haven’t been sailing for over three months.
Glenys finished off painting the three cupboard doors for the toilets and then stripped off the edging tape from the inside of the cupboards - a long tedious job. She then put on a coat of undercoat and will finish off tomorrow.
The refrigeration engineer came back today and found that the pressure in the drinks fridge system had dropped slightly. It only took him ten minutes to find another tiny leak, this time on the joint where the capillary tube enters another pipe. He fixed the leak and left the system charged with 100psi of Nitrogen again - fingers crossed.
I worked on the 15hp outboard for the rest of the day. I installed a new water pump; replaced the lower leg on the outboard; changed the HT leads; replaced all of the internal fuel lines; changed the fuel connector and I just had time to put a new latch onto the cowling before it was six o'clock.
Normally, six o'clock is Miller Time and I’d be ripping open a can of cold beer, but I’m still not drinking alcohol - seven days and counting. I've made an appointment to see a different (and hopefully cheaper) doctor in a couple of days’ time to get some more blood tests done to see if my liver has recovered, then hopefully, I can have a beer of two. I've received all the results of my blood tests now and there’s no sign of rheumatoid arthritis, which is good, but I still don’t know why my fingers are so stiff in the mornings, so I’ll be getting a second opinion.
17 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We were beavering away again today. Glenys got out her sewing machine and did a few small jobs, as well as more painting.
The refrigeration engineer came and the pressure had remained at 100 psi overnight, so he evacuated and recharged the system. It looks like we've finally fixed both fridges. I fervently hope so - we’ve been plagued with leaks ever since we bought Alba four years ago.
I stripped down the carburettor for the 15hp outboard. This is the third day I've worked on it, but it’s still running very rough at idle. I'm not sure what the problem is - perhaps it’s old, stale fuel?
The last time that we ran the generator was back in December - just before we hauled out. Since then I've removed and replaced the generator, so it was with some trepidation that I tried to start it. I went through the usual process of bleeding the diesel a few times and eventually got it to run, but after five minutes it cut out and wouldn't start again.
I spent 30 frustrating minutes, bleeding the fuel system and trying to figure out what the hell was going on, when Glenys suggested the fuel relay might be at fault. I’d discounted this because I've just installed a new cover plate to hold the relays in place, but I had a look. Bingo! The new cover plate wasn't quite holding the relay in place, so I've put a couple of bits of packing in there and the generator ran for an hour without any problems.
In the afternoon, I installed a new drive unit for the autopilot. The old unit is working fine, but is fourteen years old, so I've bought a replacement because I'm worried that it might fail in the middle of nowhere. It was a fairly easy job, just a bit fiddly rewiring the cables into a strip connector, so that it will be easy to swap if there’s a problem. Once it was all working, I spent an hour clamping the old drive in a position close to the working drive, so it will be quick to changeover – if the drive fails, it’s bound to be in rough weather and heavy seas.
18 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I went to see another doctor today. This guy was a normal General Practitioner who only charged me £27 instead of the £60 paid to White Cross. I found out that White Cross is a kind of emergency medical place and is open later hours than the normal doctors, so the locals only go there if they have an urgent problem outside their doctor’s surgery hours. So, in retrospect, it would have worked out cheaper to register with a GP as soon as we arrived.
While I was doing my medical bit, Glenys had arranged for a guy called Noel to come out and steam clean our carpets and upholstery. I arrived back just as he was finishing and noticed long dark streaks across the upholstery. The material is a kind of velvet corduroy and is light beige, so any discolouration shows up – it looked a right mess.
Noel agreed that it didn't look right and was puzzled by what had happened, but it looks like the nap of the fabric has been scorched. I made him steam clean every cushion again, this time brushing with the nap of the material, but it still looks awful and I feel like crying. We decided to let it all dry properly overnight and he’s coming back again in the morning.
Having given my blood for the blood tests, I felt compelled to drink, so we went out for a couple of beers and had a nice meal in a Thai restaurant.
19 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
First thing in the morning, Glynn from Palmer Canvas came to have a look at our upholstery. His verdict was that the pile of the fabric is irrecoverably damaged, probably by the steam cleaner being too hot or a reaction to the cleaning chemicals. In any case, the only solution is to replace every one of the 22 cushions. He measured up and came back with a quote for £2,500 to do the job. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait two weeks until they have a slot to do the work.
Noel came around a little later in the morning and agreed that the damage was irreparable and that it was his fault, so he’ll make a claim on his Professional Liability Insurance. To look on the bright side at least we’ll be getting new upholstery for free, but we’ll now have to stay here in Whangarei for another four weeks to get it all sorted out, which is frustrating.
In the afternoon, we had a guy around from Doyle Sails to give us another quote. It sounds like they’re very busy and we’d be better to go with Palmer Canvas, if we ever want to leave New Zealand.
Feeling a little bit depressed, we spent most of the day pottering about doing a few chores and running a few errands, but not achieving much.
20 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I rang Noel to make sure that he was processing the insurance claim for our upholstery and he told me that he’s on the job, scanning and emailing the claim to the insurers. We have the weekend coming up and he promises that he’ll ring the insurers on Monday to chase them up. Glenys went around to Palmer Canvas and got them to send off a sample of our upholstery material to a wholesaler in Auckland to try to get a match.
With time on my hands, I started to install Windows 7 onto my new laptop. It originally had Windows 8 installed, but I've been having all sorts of problems with the network card constantly disconnecting, so I bit the bullet, wiped the hard disk drive and started again. It wasn't easy. I was in a bit of a Catch 22 situation because I needed to install drivers which are available on the internet, but I didn't have a wireless network driver installed, so I couldn't access the internet - Arrrgggghhhh! Goodness knows how anyone survives without a second computer to access the internet.
By mid-afternoon and lots of cursing, I finally had the basic installation done with internet access and started the tedious process of re-loading on my programs and data - I wish that I’d never started.
I popped into the doctors and received the final results of my blood tests. The good news is that my liver has recovered; I've not got Hepatitis and I've not got Arthritis, but I've apparently had Cytomegalovirus and Epstein Barr Virus infections at some time in the past, but the infections have been “resolved”. I'm too scared to look up these diseases.
21 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Having resigned ourselves to another four weeks here in Whangarei, I did some admin and sorted through my To Do and To Buy lists, as well as continuing to load software onto my new laptop (what a tedious job). Glenys pottered about doing a few jobs.
In the afternoon, I motivated myself to do some small jobs, repairing one of the cockpit seats and making up new leads for our new AIS Transponder, which I've now partly installed.
22 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Being a Sunday, we declared a rest day and went for a walk up to the Abbey Caves Reserve. The route was mostly on the road, climbing into the hills above Whangarei, but it was very pleasant scenery once we were out of the suburbs. The small natural reserve has lots of limestone outcrops in woodland and three large caves, which are freely accessible. I’d brought along a small head torch, but having looked at the cold, wet, gloomy entrances, neither of us fancied wading into the caves.
After a sandwich sat on a rock outcrop, we wandered over the Parihaka Mountain Biking Park and down the steep Ross Track back to the marina. It was a nice four hour walk and good to get off the boat.
23 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We've not heard anything from the insurers about replacing the upholstery, so we just got on with more jobs. I finished off wiring in our new AIS transponder, which works fine and other boats can now see where we are. The unit comes with a dedicated GPS antenna which I've temporarily installed inside the boat. Really it should be outside on the stern arch, but I can’t face the trauma of running the cable and fitting it on the arch.
Glenys dragged out her sewing machine again and did a few sewing jobs.
24 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We received an email from the insurance company, who offered us a settlement for the cost of the lowest quote to replace the upholstery. I rang them up and tried to negotiate up to Palmer’s higher quote, but they wouldn't move. They eventually said that they would pay us the cash up front including the sales tax of 15%, so I accepted the offer because we can then get on with our lives.
We’re now waiting for the material samples to arrive at Palmer Canvas, but no sign of them at the moment. We paid the 40% deposit and Palmer Canvas has said that they can start next week, when they have the material.
I bought a new SIM card and a year’s prepay subscription for our satellite phone. We’ll sailing up to Vanuatu by the end of April and out of Internet range, so we’ll be back to obtaining our weather forecasts via the satellite phone.
I spent the rest of the day on electrical jobs. Our battery monitor gauge stopped working a couple of months ago, so I've bought a replacement. It’s an intelligent device that has a shunt wired into the main battery circuit which allows it to monitor the current in and out of the batteries. The device came with a new shunt which would be a day’s work to re-wire, but fortunately, the manufacturer told me that I could use the existing shunt and wiring, so I was done within an hour.
Having recently installed our new chart plotter, radar and AIS systems, it was time to sort out the NMEA 0183 wiring, which is a small network linking the various electronic devices together. It’s obviously been added to over the past years and was a right mess. I had read a lot of manuals and draw circuit diagrams to work out what all the connections should be, then took a big breathe, cut all the wires and rewired the whole thing. Amazingly it all worked and the devices all talk to each other – I've even managed to connect my laptop into it all.
25 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
First thing in the morning, Glenys went to Palmers Canvas and the wholesalers still haven’t sent any samples up. Obtaining the upholstery material is now on our critical path. If we order exactly the same material from Hallberg Rassy, it will cost £50 per metre plus shipping from Sweden, with a long time delay. Our best bet is to get some material from Auckland, but it’s going to take days to sort it all out at this rate, so Glenys is going to catch a bus down to Auckland tomorrow and chose a material.
I pottered about sorting through my spares, throwing out old stuff and deciding what I need to buy. Over the past four years, I've collected an eclectic set of tools and spare parts. I'm very reticent to throw anything away, but Alba is definitely sitting low in the water and we need to lose some weight. I did quite well, throwing away old blocks and rigging screws, pieces of aluminium plate, old cans of paint, old electrical cable and lumps of wood. Unfortunately, my To Buy List has grown substantially.
26 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Glenys caught the bus into Auckland – it turned into a long day and she didn't get back until late in the evening, but she’s managed to select some material which should be tough as well as fitting in with the mahogany woodwork.
I spent most of the morning working in the front heads. I chopped out two pieces of mahogany trim next to the sink which have rotted – apparently mahogany doesn't like fresh water. It then took me a couple of hours to make two new pieces and glue them in place. I then applied new white silicone sealant to edges of work top and shower tray.
We've bought a set of wheels for our new dinghy. We've been struggling over the past year because there are large tides in the Pacific and it can be a long way to pull a heavy dinghy over the beaches at low tide. The wheels fold up out of the water normally, but can then be dropped down when we land on a beach allowing us to trundle the dinghy and heavy outboard up the sand.
Unfortunately, the AB dinghy comes with two towing points welded onto the transom, just where the wheel would fit, so I had to spend a couple of hours cutting them off and grinding away some of the welded plate to give enough clearance. I’d had the forethought to put down some protective sheets, but even so, the deck was covered with aluminium dust, which took ages to wash down with the hose pipe.
27 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
It was cold in the morning, so I stayed inside and fitted a new flux-gate compass to the autopilot. For the past year, the autopilot has been intermittently changing course every so often, even causing an unintentional gybe a couple of times. I'm not totally sure, but I think that the flux-gate compass is jamming in rough seas, so I've bought and fitted a new one.
I carried on with fitting the wheels which turned into even more of a mission than yesterday. I've bought a model of wheels that have a very neat way of attaching and removing the wheels. There are four cylindrical fittings over which slides a mounting plate for the wheels. Small levers then lock the plate into place.
It’s a very nicely engineered solution, but unfortunately, it only works if the cylindrical fittings are accurately positioned and square to the mounting plate. The transom on our aluminium hull is not flat, so the cylindrical fittings are definitely not parallel and the mounting plate doesn't slide on and off as intended.
I ended up making some packing plates out of ½ “ plywood, but still had to mess around for ages to pack behind the plywood to get it to lie flat. By the end of the day, I’d only managed to fit one and I’ll see how it works tomorrow after the sealant has dried.
Glenys spent most of the day working on a cover for the dinghy. It’s a complicated three dimensional projects and she’s making a template out of an old cotton bed sheet to work out how many panels to make and where the seams should be.
28 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
Glenys beavered away working on the dinghy cover and has just about finished the templates.
I woke up with a burning urge to find out where the hell we’re going when we leave New Zealand. The grand plan is to get to Malaysia by November. We know that we’re going to join the Sail Indonesia Rally at the beginning of August, but how are we going to get to Indonesia? It’s about 4,000 miles to cover in three months.
I spent all day slaving away at my laptop, looking at web sites and blogs. There’s a huge area of islands in New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea that all call out to be explored. Unfortunately, with all the miles that we have to sail, we’ll only have eight weeks to do any actual cruising, so after a lot of agonising, we've decided to concentrate on two areas – Vanuatu and The Louisaides in the south east of Papua New Guinea.
Vanuatu has been devastated by Cyclone Pam which ripped through a few weeks ago, so we’re planning on taking lots of supplies to help the villagers, who live a very basic lifestyle. After a month there, we’ll sail 1,000 miles west to the Louisaides, which are an isolated set of islands to the east of the main land of Papua New Guinea.
We need to be In Port Moresby by the middle of July, so that we can get our Indonesian visas and still have enough time to sail the remaining 1,200 miles through the Torres Straits to Indonesia.
So the plan is as follows:
| Apr 15 | Sail from New Zealand to Vanuatu (1,100 miles) |
| May 15 | Vanuatu (400 miles) |
| Jun 15 | Louisaides, Papua New Guinea (1,000 miles) |
| Jul 15 | Torres Straits to Indonesia (1,200 miles) |
| Aug - Oct 15 | Cruise Indonesia (2,600 miles) |
| Nov 15 | Singapore, then Malaysia |
We’ll then stay in Malaysia and Thailand for a year to explore South-East Asia by sea and land.
29 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I did some more investigation work on Papua New Guinea. It looks like there’s nowhere to clear into the Louisaides and I'm a bit worried that the authorities in Port Moresby might give us a hard time if we spend a month in the Louisaides without clearing in.
I've managed to find out that there’s a Health Officer in one of the islands (Misma) that may be able to do the Quarantine, but the nearest customs and Immigration are 150 miles further west and we’re definitely not spending two days bashing upwind back to the islands. It’s a dilemma. I need to do some more work on this.
In afternoon, I pottered about doing a few jobs and gave Glenys a hand for a few hours. She’s still working on the dinghy cover which is turning into a nightmare. All of the templates that she’s made from bed sheet material are stretching as she works and each time she does a fitting, something moves, but by the end of the day we had a set of templates.
In the evening, we went to a bar to watch the Cricket World Cup final. Australia were playing New Zealand, so it was an intense match. I expected there to be a load of Kiwis in the bar, but it was quite a subdued affair apart from a rowdy bunch of yachties, including Australians, Kiwis and Americans, so was interesting night. Unfortunately, New Zealand lost.
30 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
I finished fitting the second dinghy wheel. It looks like my plywood backing plates will work, so all I need to do now is to paint the plywood with some decent paint to stop them rotting.
When I last serviced the engine, the primary fuel filter looked like it needed some tender loving care, so this afternoon I removed the whole filter assembly. It was a right old mess. I’d never opened the drain screw in four years and it was seized solid. There was at least an inch of dark brown “crud” at the bottom of the bowl and the water separator was almost completely blocked. It was a wonder than the engine’s been running.
I took the whole assembly along to Geoff at Whangarei Marine Services, who suggested that I replace the aluminium bowl with a see-through glass one and gave me a refurbished water separator part. I really like Geoff, he’s very practical in his advice and doesn't try to sell me expensive replacement parts all the time – a new filter assembly is hundreds of dollars.
I spent the rest of the afternoon scraping, wire-brushing and cleaning the filter parts, so it’s now ready to put on the new glass bowl when it arrives next week.
Glenys cut out some panels in Sunbrella for her dinghy cover and started to sew the front end. Unfortunately, nothing worked and despite unpicking and redoing it, she couldn't get it to fit. It looks like the thin material she used for the templates is stretching and it’s accurate enough. She’s now in a state of depression, has lost the will to live and temporarily abandoned the job to get on with some other things.
31 March 2015 Whangarei, New Zealand
We both had a day off jobs and went shopping in morning. I ran around to various hardware stores and chandlers, buying spare parts. I also treated myself to a new six foot fishing rod because my old one has broken rings.
In the afternoon, we went to see a doctor who specialises in travel health. Having all the blood tests last week made me look at our immunisations and I discovered that our Hepatitis A and Typhoid injections have expired. Unfortunately, there’s only one guy in the whole of Whangarei who does travel injections, so we went to see him – that three doctors that I've seen in three weeks.
The consultation lasted an hour, while he comprehensively ran through all the possible diseases that we may be exposed to in our travels to Malaysia and Thailand. It’s all quite scary. Typhoid, Tetanus & Hepatitis A is everywhere; Malaria is a high risk in every country that we are visiting; Rabies is a very high risk in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia; and there’s loads of other mosquito borne diseases to worry about such as Dengue, Japanese Encephalitis and the strangely named Chikungunya.
We had our Typhoid and Hepatitis A boosters which will protect us from Typhoid for another three years and we’re now vaccinated against Hepatitis A for life. There are no vaccinations available for Dengue and Chikungunya, while Japanese Encephalitis is very expensive and we haven’t got time to take the whole course. Basically, we've spent the past four years in places with these diseases and will just have to keep trying to avoid mosquito bites.
We had a long discussion about Malaria and we've decided not to take any preventative medicines because we’ll be in malaria-ridden countries for the next three or four years and there are some unpleasant side effects with almost all of the drugs. Instead, our strategy is to carry four self-test kits for malaria and four courses of Malarone tablets, which is a treatment we can take if we test positive for Malaria.
The doctor was insistent on telling us the full horrors of Rabies. We’d been vaguely aware of Rabies and have been keeping away from dogs and wild mammals, but I hadn't realised that if you contract Rabies and don't get the correct medical attention quickly, then death is almost inevitable. I found these interesting facts on the Internet:
99% of infections from Rabies are caused by dogs. Early symptoms of Rabies can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of consciousness.
From the wound, the virus travels quickly along the neural pathways into the central nervous system eventually reaching the brain. After the brain is infected, the virus eventually migrates to the salivary glands, where it is ready to be transmitted to the next host.
Once symptoms appear it nearly always results in death, usually within two weeks. The time period between contracting the disease and the start of symptoms is usually one to three months; however, this time period can vary from less than one week to more than one year. The time is dependent on the distance the virus must travel to reach the central nervous system.
There is a vaccine for Rabies which involves three injections over a 28 day period, so we don’t have time to take those injections. In any case, the vaccine isn’t a cure for Rabies; it just gives you a little more time to get to medical aid and means that you only have to have two injections if you get bitten instead of five without the vaccine.
We've decided to be very cautious about dogs in Indonesia and we might get the Rabies injections when we get to Malaysia (before we start travelling inland). In the meantime, if we get bitten, the advice is to clean the wound with soap and water for fifteen minutes to remove as much of the rabies virus from the wound as possible and then douse it Povidone Iodine or ethanol which kills the rabies virus. Then we have to get to the best hospital in the area within 24 hours…
In the evening, we cycled around to Norsand Boatyard and had a barbeque with our friends Paul and Monique from “Full Circle”. They're also travelling to Vanuatu and have been raising money to take aid up to the islands. We’re going to keep in touch and we might be taking some of their aid up to Vanuatu as well as all the stuff that we’re starting to accumulate.