1 December 2014 Tutukaka Bay to Whangarei, New Zealand
We dragged ourselves out of bed very early because the weather forecast was for strong winds in the afternoon. There was no wind at all when we motored out of the harbour into a very calm sea, but within an hour, we had 10 knot winds that gradually picked up to 25 knots and backed forcing us harder and harder on the wind.
The rope stripper on our propeller shaft became worryingly loud with a persistent knocking sound rather than a rattling. After a couple of hours, the knocking sound suddenly went away and we were left with just a quiet rattling noise - all I can assume is that the zinc on the end of the prop was loose and has now flung itself off.
By the time that we were 2 miles from Bream Head, the wind was forcing us out to sea, so we put on the engine and motor-sailed into the strong, cold winds as we rounded the headland. The bitter wind was dead on the nose as we motored up the estuary and then down the winding river into Whangarei Town Marina. Glenys kept up our spirits by making an Egg McMuffin and a cup of tea – who could ask for more?
We negotiated the lifting bridge, which was reminiscent of travelling down the Inter-coastal Waterway a couple of years ago. Without any major drama, we tied up in the Town Marina directly opposite our friends Paul and Celeste on “The Beguine” and, after a quick trip to the supermarket across the road, chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.
2 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
We went for an exploratory walk around Whangarei town centre which looks nice and compact with more than enough shops to suit us. I walked out to Norsand Boat Yard where we’re scheduled to haul out in a week’s time. It’s a couple of miles outside town, but is a pleasant enough place as far as boat yards go. They have showers, a communal kitchen, a barbecue area and a laundry which will be useful.
On the way back to town I called in at a huge Shopping Complex which has some huge stores including a supermarket, electronic goods shops, and a Kmart. We will obviously need some kind of transport when we’re in Norsand Boat Yard, so I bought two mountain bikes for $85NZ (£42) each. How on earth does anyone make any money out of that?
In the evening, we went to an Irish pub where David and Katrina from “Laragh” were taking part in a traditional Irish jam session with a local music group. I found Boddingtons bitter on tap (my favourite English beer) and just had to have two pints of it even though it was £5.50 a pint.
3 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
I went for a fifteen minute run before breakfast and it nearly killed me. It’s the first run for nearly a year and I was seriously out of breath.
After breakfast, we took down all three sails and bagged them. David from Calibre Sails picked us up and took us to his sail loft, where we inspected the sails. We’re going to get a rope sewn onto the luff of the genoa, so that it furls with a better shape. They’re also going to do some maintenance on all three sails, which will add up to less than £500, so I'm fairly happy with that.
In afternoon, we pottered about and then went to the cinema - first time for over a year. We were then very naughty and indulged in an Indian curry at “Indian Aroma” on Vine Street – it was very, very good.
4 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
I spent most of the day sat at my computer. I've just invested in another two 2TB USB drives (in addition to the two I bought a week ago), so I spent all day copying data onto the new disks - I now have spare space on all four of them, which is a relief after a year of shuffling data around.
While waiting for data to copy, I cruised the internet looking into stuff for the boat. I've received various quotes for spares and the prices in New Zealand are comparable to the UK for most things as long as we can get the NZ sales tax off, so I’ll probably buy most things here in New Zealand instead of buying them in the UK and lugging it all back.
In the evening we invited Dennis from “Pamela” and Paul & Celeste from “The Beguine” over for dinner. We last saw “The Beguine” in Penrhyn, when they left for Samoa a week before us.
Paul has been going through hell over the past three months. After he arrived in Samoa, his right foot swelled up with a really bad infection, which didn't react to antibiotics, so he was air-lifted to New Zealand. He had some kind of flesh-eating bacteria, which literally ate away the flesh on his ankle. The doctors couldn't identify the bacteria and could only give him strong painkillers and generalised antibiotics.
After a week, Paul had gaping wounds on both sides of his foot and had to have four operations to scrape out the festering flesh and give him skin grafts. It was touch and go whether he would have to have his lower leg cut off to stop the spread of the infection, but they managed to sort it out. Celeste flew back to Samoa and sailed the boat down here, so they’re in the marina for the foreseeable future waiting for Paul to recover. Scary business.
5 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
We both did some running about today. I've found a few more suppliers to supply various parts and a place to test our leaking scuba tanks. We've heard rumours that it’s very expensive to get cooking gas tanks filled here because the tanks have to be tested first, but I found a place that will do it for £14 and don’t charge anything if it fails, which is amazing.
Glenys went to the Shopping Complex for some retail therapy and didn't return for five hours. As well as a load of new clothes, she’s bought herself a new Kindle to replace her aged Sony e-reader. It has a built in back light, so I want one too.
Our bimini frame has been modified and chopped about over the last couple of years and is supported by bits of rope, which prevents us using the staysail winches properly, so I was planning to have a new frame made. I had a guy around to give me an estimate, which was between £750 and £1000 including 8 hours to fit it. He couldn't see a way of supporting the new frame any better, so we think that we’ll just keep what we've got.
We both went for a ten minute run in the evening which was hard. We’re starting to pile on weight with all the socialising and eating out, so it’s time to get a grip.
6 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
There’re only two days until we haul out, so I got on with some jobs, while Glenys went out to get her eyes checked by an optician. My first job was to change the engine and generator oil – I needed to get rid of all that nasty, corrosive, old oil because the boat will be on the hard for eight weeks. I then pickled the water-maker, which won’t be used until we go sailing again in April.
I then checked all of our 21 sea-cocks –they’re not as bad as I feared, but we need to repaint eight handles and two of the sea-cocks in the engine room need to be ripped out and replaced completely.
With my chores done, I spent the rest of afternoon looking up some new guitar music. After the jam session a couple of nights ago, I've decided that I need to learn “Wagon Wheel” and “You Ain’t Goin Nowhere”. I’d never heard these songs until the jam session a couple of nights ago, but everyone else knew them off by heart. I'm constantly amazed how many classic “jam session” songs , I've have never heard – it’s an American thing…
7 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealandd
Being a Sunday, we had a day off and went for a tramp up the Hatea River Trail, which was a pleasant two hour hike with a nice big waterfall at the end.
Robert and Heidi from “Nuwam” visited us. They've left their boat on the hard in Raitea in French Polynesia and have flown down to New Zealand to do some road travel. We were very, very naughty and went for another Indian curry - that’s two in one week - I’ll have to go running tomorrow to compensate.
8 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
We were up early, dropped our lines and motored out of the marina, through the bridge and then a mile along the river to Norsand Boat Yard. After waiting for twenty minutes for another boat to clear the slipway, we tentatively inched our way onto the holding dock - the slipway at Norsand is tidal and they can only launch and haul boats at high tide and there are some scary mud banks either side of the small channel.
Up to now, we've been hauled out on “travel lifts” where the boat is lifted on two slings, but here they push a large trolley down the slipway and the boat is floated onto the trolley. Side arms are positioned to hold the boat vertical and the whole trolley (with the boat) is trundled out of the water using a huge tractor. It’s a bit laborious and slow, but seems to be a safe way to get the boat out of the water.
After Alba was pressure-washed to get rid of any weed and barnacles, we were moved to our home for the next two months. Glenys and I then spent the rest of the day sorting out the electrics, water supply and grey water. All of our four sinks drain out through holes in the hull, which at sea is convenient way to dispose of waste water. On the hard, it’s not good to have smelly, old dish water being dumped under the boat, so we had to push hose-pipes up our skin fittings, which drain into containers to catch the grey water.
Toilets are even more of a challenge when on the hard. Normally, our toilets are flushed by sea water and the waste is dumped out to sea. Obviously this is not going to work on land, so we have to use the land based toilets provided by the boat yard. However, this is a little inconvenient at night.
Imagine awaking up feeling short at 4 o'clock in the morning and having to get dressed, climb down a 20 foot ladder and walk 100 metres to the toilet – not a good prospect. The solution to this little problem is to use a bucket as a chamber pot. This obviously creates a minor problem in the morning as the effluent has to be disposed of. Norsand fortunately provide a big, special drain to dispose of this grey water and, every morning, many people can be seen doing the walk of shame to the drain with a bucket.
9 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
This was our first day of doing jobs and we weren't very enthusiastic about it. I removed the pipework from three sea-cocks in engine room and inspected them. As expected, two sea-cocks need to be ripped out because they are seized and leaking. Despite my best efforts, there was no way that I could move either of them because there isn't enough space to get a large spanner in there, so I gave up.
I spent the rest of day pulling other things apart - removing the dodgy starter switch from the engine control panel and a broken pipe fitting from the water cooler for engine. I then sent off emails asking for quotes from UK and NZ suppliers to decide where to buy the replacement parts.
In the afternoon, I talked to the yard manager, Peter, about the various jobs that I'm doing and he offered some good advice and seems very willing to provide people to assist me to do jobs if I get stuck, which is just what I want.
Peter had a look at our anti-foul paint, which has been giving us problems for two years, with big patches falling off. He agreed with me that it was time to remove all the old anti-foul paint and start again. To get a quote for doing the work, I agreed to let one of his guys scrape off a one metre section of the paint, which took him about an hour. Our hull below the water line is 42 square metres, so Peter reckons that there’s 40 hours’ work to remove the paint and another 20 hours to sand and fill the hull to prepare for paint. He’s then given me an estimate for three coats of epoxy and two coats of anti-foul paint – the total is £2,800! I've turned to drink.
10 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
I woke up agonising about whether to bite the bullet and get the bottom paint done properly now or wait until we get to Thailand next Christmas. The estimate is split £2,000 for labour and £800 for materials. Labour is probably a third of the cost in Thailand, so we would probably save £1,300, but we’ll have to spend £500 on doing a bodge job now, so realistically, we’ll only save about £800 and will have hassle for the next year with patches falling off.
After breakfast, I told the yard to go ahead with scraping the hull and putting in epoxy. I'm assuming that they will do a very good job and it’s worth paying the £800 premium to get the epoxying done properly - the last thing that I want it osmosis bubbles in the fibreglass.
I spent most of the morning running around town talking to suppliers and buying a few things. I've found a guy to make a new window for the windscreen, which shattered in St Lucia 3 years ago and I replaced with a “temporary” piece of Perspex. I've also found someone to test and tune our propeller which hasn't been looked at since we bought the boat.
Glenys dropped the anchor and chain onto the ground and removed all the anchor markers ready to switch ends. The galvanising on the half that gets used most is already starting to look a bit thin, whereas the other half looks pristine. She then started to measure up for some changes to our bimini and the various side flaps that zip onto it to protect us from rain and horrible weather.
In the afternoon, I ground off the outside of my two jammed sea-cocks. There was no chance of unscrewing them from the inside so the idea was to grind off the outside and then knock the whole assembly through the hull. The grinding went okay, but the hull fittings seem to be epoxied in place and I can’t shift them.
I took my trusty lump hammer and smacked the valve assemblies to try to loosen them and to my horror, one of the valves snapped off. Looking at the fracture, the phosphor bronze looks very red which is an indication of galvanic corrosion where the zinc is leached out of the bronze leaving behind copper. This is not a good thing - I might have an electrical problem causing stray electrical currents, which is slowly dissolving the metal fittings on our boat…
11 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
I finally managed to remove both skin fittings. Peter, the Yard Manager, came over and showed me how to knock them out using a big bolt as a drift and a lot of brute force. He got the first one moving and left me to it. I managed the first one but the second wouldn't budge.
Peter came back and we got one of the yard mechanics to make up a piece of ¼” mild steel plate that just fitted inside the bore and wedged against some lugs. Using a huge spanner, we managed to twist it loose and I then hammered it out using brute force and ignorance.
I spent a couple of hours spread eagled across the engine working on our PSS seal stern gland which is in a dark recess low in the engine room. This bit of gear is supposed to be a maintenance free way of stopping water coming into the boat along the rotating propeller shaft, but it’s been spraying out a thin mist of sea water ever since we had it installed two years ago. It was also making a knocking sound, so for the past year, we've had a bit of elastic shock cord holding it up.
After a lot of cursing and grunting, I managed to get it all apart and, after cleaning it up, it looks to be in good condition. The problem seems to be that the propeller shaft is not running central in the stern tube and the bellows were put on at a slight angle meaning that the face of the carbon bearing was being forced at an angle. It looks like all I need to do is to re-align the engine and put it all back together.
Glenys has started measuring up the bimini….
We aren't able to run our fridges while on the hard because they are normally cooled by sea water, so we jumped at the chance to buy a portable cooler from another boat for only £25. It’s improved our standard of life by a few notches because we now have cold beer and orange juice.
12 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
We borrowed a car in the morning and did some serious running about. I was hoping to get our empty propane tank tested and filled, but they wouldn't test it because it was too old. Instead the guy sold me a second-hand tested one for £15, which is what I would have paid to have ours tested. It’s a steel tank and no use for long term use on the boat, but we can use it while we’re here in New Zealand.
I dropped the scuba tanks off at a dive shop, who will inspect and replace the o-rings on the valve, but they can’t give us a visual inspection ticket because they are US tanks without the proper New Zealand standards markings.
I also dropped off our propeller to be inspected and cleaned up, then ordered a new window for our windscreen. Having completed our main chores, we did a big shop at the supermarket and bought a few crates of beer and other heavy stuff.
We just pottered about in the afternoon.
13 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
All my Raymarine gear arrived this morning, including a new radar, a 9 inch chart plotter, a spare autopilot drive and a new fluxgate compass for our auto pilot. I spent the morning looking through the manuals for my nice new shiny stuff.
In the afternoon, I did the preparation work to be ready to lift the generator when I can get my hands on beam and some lifting gear. It was a bit of struggle, lying across the engine, but I've undone the mounting bolts, disconnected the diesel lines and freed the electrical cables, so I can lift the generator enough to get at the leaking exhaust hidden away underneath.
I borrowed a car again and picked up our scuba tanks, which thankfully passed inspection and don’t leak any more.
14 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
It was appalling weather last night and early this morning, so Glenys and I declared today to be a Lazy Sunday. After breakfast, we had a little music practise session in case we decide to inflict our playing on family and friends back in the UK. We’re going to buy a cheap guitar and Ukulele and leave them with our sons in the UK because we can’t bear the thought of not being able to play our instruments for a month.
I caught up on my photographs and blog, then sent out a hundred email Christmas cards.
We spent some time researching a road trip down to South Island. Our original plan was to hire a camper van and drive down, but we've worked out that it will be about the same cost to hire a cheaper car and stay in lodges and B&Bs. We decided that a three week trip would be good and leave us with enough time to spend a week touring the highlights of the North Island a little later on. Glenys booked some flights and car hire for a three week trip in February.
The weather picked up in the afternoon, but then deteriorated in the evening and we had winds up to 40 knots rattling the rigging and shaking the boat even though we’re on the hard. We’re ten miles up a river estuary; God knows what it would be like out at sea…
15 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
This weather is horrible. There’s a huge low formed to the north of us which is bringing heavy rain and strong gale force winds. The big gusts are making the mast and rigging vibrate so the whole boat is slightly rocking about all the time. Thank goodness that we’re not at sea or at anchor somewhere exposed.
My main job of the day was to remove the exhaust silencer from underneath the generator. Back in July, we had a major leak in one of the stainless steel end caps and I bodged it with some marine epoxy. I emptied out the cockpit locker, removed the dive compressor and opened up the hatch above the generator. I rented a chain block & tackle from the yard and rigged up a cross beam to lift the generator up.
It wasn't as bad a job as I first feared. I only had to reposition one cooling water pipe and disconnect the two diesel pipes - the rest of the pipes and electrical cables were long enough that I could lift the generator up a couple of feet without disconnecting them. Once I had the generator lifted, it took me 30 minutes of pushing, pulling and grunting to pull the two hoses off the silencer. It was a bit of a mess - the epoxy that I’d put on was loose and there‘s another weeping weld at the other end.
I put on my waterproof jacket and trousers, jumped on my bike and pedalled 4 miles in the driving rain to Whangarei Marine Services. After some discussion, Geoff and I decided that the end caps on the exhaust look okay - it’s just the welds on some extension pipework that seem to be leaking, so I've left it with Geoff to get it re-welded.
Meanwhile Glenys had ridden into town to get some things, so we were both like drowned rats by the time we got back to the boat. We had a hot shower and hunkered down for the evening.
16 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
The weather was even worse today, so I couldn't be bothered to do any jobs on the boat and instead spent most of the day on my laptop, investigating guitar lessons, downloading new songs and messing about on my guitar.
Glenys was much more industrious and did some sewing in the afternoon - working on various covers including a new cover for our horseshoe buoy which was looking very sad.
There are only two more sleeps before we travel to the UK, so we’re definitely in “de-mob” mood now and can’t wait to get going.
17 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
What a surprise, it lashed it down last night. At six o'clock, I heard the rumble of thunder, so I got out of bed and put our iPad and all of our back-up disks into our Faraday Cage (oven). This must have exhausted me because I slept in until nine o'clock.
By the time that we’d had breakfast, the wind had dropped and the rain had reduced to a light drizzle, so we dropped the dinghy from the davits and lifted it onto the foredeck, which is a safer place to store it while we’re in the UK. Of course, halfway through this operation the rain increased and by the end, we were like drowned rats.
Our new Rocna anchor was delivered this morning, so I fixed it on the anchor chain and lifted it up onto the boat. The head of it is much bigger than the old CQR, so it only just fits and is actually banging up against our pulpit, so I'm going to get a bigger bow roller made which should push it forward enough to clear the pulpit frame.
I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out the bow thruster. I removed the propellers and then had the tedious job of removing the anti-foul paint from the tunnel. It’s so small that I had to use an industrial paint stripper, which was horribly corrosive – a very nasty job.
18 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
We were up early because two guys started scraping our hull and the noise inside the boat was like someone dragging their fingernails over a blackboard.
I jumped on my bike and rode into town to pick up the Generator exhaust which had been re-welded and looked good. I also picked up the two new phosphor bronze sea cocks and fittings – a staggering £300 for the two of them.
We spent the rest of the morning preparing to leave the boat for a month, putting the bikes on deck and packing our bags. After lunch, “Scott Free” gave us a lift to the bus stop, so that we could get a bus to Auckland. The bus was an hour late arriving (this is not Switzerland), but the journey itself was a pleasant three hours.
The bus dropped us off across the road from the ferry terminal and we caught a ferry to West Park, where Horst from “Flow” picked us up and took us to his house. “Laragh” are staying in the nearby marina, so David and Katrina also came over for dinner.
19 December 2014 Whangarei, New Zealand
Karen took us on a lightning tour of the Auckland area. We called in at a dive shop and exchanged Glenys’s dive computer for a new one – a great deal only costing £40 even though it was four years old. We went to North Point which is an old naval base with gun emplacements to protect the Auckland harbour. There is a great view of the Auckland City skyline.
We then went into Auckland town centre where Glenys bought some hats and gloves made from Wombat fur as presents for people back in the UK. We had lunch at the fish market then visited some friends of “Flow” in the marina for sundowners.
20 December 2014 New Zealand to UK
Karen ran us to the airport and we started our flight back to the UK which was okay despite being ten hours to Singapore, a six hour layover and then fourteen hours to London. Singapore Airlines was very good with comfy seats, lots of tasty food and free wine - I watched eight movies on the journey. We arrived in Heathrow at 0530, picked up a car and were at our son Brett’s house by eight o'clock where we had a light breakfast and crashed out for six hours.
21 December 2014 to 14 January 2015 United Kingdom
We spent four weeks in the UK visiting family and friends. The UK was in full Christmas mode when we arrived and we spent a fun two days wandering around shopping centres, buying Christmas presents; including a cheap guitar for me and a cheap ukulele for Glenys, which we've left in the UK for our next visit.
Christmas Day was lovely. We spent it at our son Craig’s house along with his girlfriend Kristen, Brett and his girlfriend Tash. There were lots of presents to open, a huge lunch and we all dozed through the afternoon in front of the telly – magic.
After three days at Craig’s house, we started our two week UK tour, spending time with Glenys’s brother Gareth in the New Forest and my family up in Lancashire.
We also visited some friends – John from the yacht “Kika” (who we met in the Galapagos) lives near Conway in Wales and has returned back to life on his sheep farm. “Kika” is being shipped over to Holland by ship, so John’s looking forward to sailing her along the south coast of the UK this summer. Another friend was Joe Kunicki who we last saw in the late 1980’s. He was a skydiving buddy who we’d lost track of, but Joe had come across our website and contacted us – it was good to catch up on the last 25 years.
Our final weekend was spent at Centre Parcs with our sons and their girlfriends – we had a great time just chilling out. All too soon, our time was over and we had to go back to New Zealand.