The Warrens

News From Tutukaka

2011-06-05T12:28:00.002+12:00

I have been back from Australia for over a month now and it feels like longer than that. It felt like summer was still here when I first got back but now that has all changed - warmer clothes are creeping in, and so are the heavier duty bed clothes.
On a more personal note, I was still getting used to John having a job before I left but I think we have both got used to the new way of life now.

Here he is at his desk in the marina office. It is almost like a flight tower because the staff have to see what is going on all over the marina. Through the window you can see our car park all fenced off by the company "Total Marine" who are doing the marina upgrade. We have to walk right around the perimeter to get from E pier to the office building which makes it quite a long way at present.

Outside the office building. When we say we are "going to Tim's " for dinner it is at that pizzerea. The laundry and 'Ladies' and 'Gents' and 'Telephone' are all off to the right under the office rooms.

The biggest thing happening here at the moment is the marina upgrade. All the old wooden piers are past their use and are of concern in the event of bad storms and tsunamis. So we are getting the latest floating piers with full length fingers and longer poles that pin it all in place. There are five of them and each takes about a month to complete.

The pier we are on was the first to be done. When I first got back from Australia it was to find our boat located somewhere else and the work under way dismantling the old "E Sreet." The workmen chain saw it into pieces and crane it out of the water piece by piece. Everyone is impressed with their performance and they certainly seem to be a "Class Act" with both the dismantling and the assembling of the new.

The last of the old E Pier.

Up on the carpark the old bits and the new bits are stored within the fenced off enclosure. Here the first of the new bits is being put on the crane to go into the water.

The first bits of the new E pier being pushed in to place .

All done ! We can go back now.

Owners and marina staff getting the boats off D Pier and over to E so work can get started on D.

Me and "Irrepressible" proudly in our posh new berth. We went in nose first this time to take advantage of the sun and better view.

John standing at the end of the deseted D Pier jsut before they started work there.

John spends a lot of time wandering around the site and was given this outfit by the workmen. Go, JW !

Doreen's Visit to Australia

2011-05-09T15:03:00.002+12:00

I had an unexpected trip over to Australia during April. John and Leigh are reasonably new in their jobs and they were having difficulty arranging for someone to be home for Chloe and Katie during the New South Wales school holidays so they asked if we could help out. Unfortunately, John could not get away because he is also reasonably new in his situation as the marina manager - especially with the marina upgrade about to get started, so I went over on my own.

I began the time with a week in Brisbane so I could catch up with the Masons and the Knights and meet
Ange and Zane's little Ella, our newest grandchild, at last. She is every bit as adorable as what they all said she is. Here we are getting aquainted.

After Rick, Kerrie, Sophie and Toby picked me up from the airport we joined Ange, Zane, Liam, James and Ella for lunch. I was treated by being driven in the Mason's newest family addition - the new car. Lovely.

Rick and James showing us the back

....and Kerrie showing the front.

The Brisbane grandchildren all together posing for me outside the restaurant.

I had a great time staying with the Knights during the working week and it felt like old times doing the day-care and kindy runs, not to mention the Chermside runs.

James holding Court at the day-care centre. (It wasn't officially his day there that day which is why he is set apart.)

Liam organised a puppet show for us all one evening after he and James had spent the day making the puppets. The teddies were a captive audience.

I spent the last couple of nights in Brisbane at the Mason's house and it was nice to be able to be part of their

lives for a little while, too.

I heard Sophie playing her cello. She is doing so well - greatly improved since we were in Brisbane around Oct. last year. It is encouraging me to try harder with my violin.

Then on the Saturday we spent the morning watching Toby's soccer team win their first match of the season. Toby scored one of his team's three goals. Great stuff, Tobes.

Saturday afternoon found Kerrie, Sophie and I at Chermside - wish they had something like that in Whangarei. We all found things to buy! Sunday dawned - my last day and also Toby's birthday. The Knights came over and we all enjoyed a barbecue lunch. There is a pic of Toby below holding his gift from Grandma Linda.

There was time in the afternoon for us to take a drive around the Brighton, Sangate Shorncliffe area - there are changes but it is not greatly different to how it was when we lived there.

Then it was time to drop me off at the airport for my flight to Sydney.

It was getting late by the time I arrived in Sydey and in no time I was at French's Forest and settling in to become part of the O'Dowd household for the next three weeks. Chloe very kindly let me have the use of her room - thank you Chloe. It has a lovely comfortable bed.

It did not take long to establish a sort of routine while there was just myself and the girls. We got out for a walk on most days and we discovered the usefulness of the local buses which got us back and forwards to the Waringal Mall on more than one occasion. There were neighborhood children to play with although at one stage most of them seemed to be away somewhere. Chloe went away with a friend and her family to a holiday bach somewhere north of Newcastle so there was just Katie and me for a little bit.

On the first weekend the adults were able to catch up better. John and Leigh took me out and about showing me around the lovely part of Sydney that they live in. They are handy to the coast and the great beaches. Manley is vibrant with people having a good time. Lots of great places to have lunch. Here we are at one of them.

It was a lovely day that day and people were surfing and swimming as if it was still the height of the summer.

Here I am with the girls

There was a lovely 5 day break over Easter which encompassed Anzac Day and Labour Day. John took the girls to the Easter Show and they came back loaded down with Show Bags with all sorts in them. Rather a lot of lollies but they came in useful when Chloe was looking for something to treat her classmates with when her birthday arrived.

I gor rather used to being in a large house during my stay in Sydney - it doesn't take long. One thing I do miss with being on a boat is a nice dining room so it was good to have a family meal in style in John and Leigh's one.

Chloe's birthday was the same day that Prince WIlliam and Kate Middleton got married. Because of the school holidays it was hard to arrange a party for Chloe so we had a family birthday with cup-cake birthday cake and settled down to watching the wedding. Chloe managed to have her party a week later - I had gone home by then but they tell me it was a great success.

I had to be at the airport by 4.30 early Saturday morning. John kindly took me in - we had to set out alarms for 3.30am.

I had a good flight home and having been away for 4 weeks altogether there was a lot to catch up on.

This posting is getting very large so I shall tell you all about being back in Tutukaka next time.

Thank you everyone for making my stay in Australia a great time to remember.

Visit to Marlbourough

2011-03-14T10:33:00.002+13:00

After 4 years of paying for the storage of our household furniture in Nelson we decided that the best option is to take delivery of it and get rid of it. If we find ourselves back in a house it would be quite nice to have a change anyway. So having reached this decision we phoned Dave and Bev who agreed to put us up where they are in Anakiwa and then went ahead and booked for the car on the inter-island ferry and were off the next day.

It was a very pleasant trip away - we should do it more often. A long way, though. We were on the road by 5am and arrived at Dave and Bev's after dark.

Dave and Bev live in a lovely spot right by the Anakiwa Outward Bound School. Their house is very nice and very comfortable and it was a pleasure to stay there with them.
It is a resonably long drive to go to Blenheim - very windy through the Queen Charlotte Drive and even further to go to Nelson which has its hilly windy parts as well. But it is all very pretty and one does adapt to it fairly quickly. The days started with great walks, usually on the Queen Charlotte Track which passes little bays along the way.
We manged to catch up with Tim and his fiancee Nicole, Kelly and baby Tyrone, and Hayley came and stayed at the house a few times while we were there.

Dave and Bev enjoying their semi-retirement. They have become quite keen to learn to play the guitar and we were amazed at how well they can play after the short time it has been since they started.

The top picture is of the Outward Bound School and the lower one is of the jetty which is in front of their boathouse which I understand is about 4 years old.We discovered that we could take delivery of the furniture to an auction house in Nelson but they could not take it for a week so we simply had to wait.

It was no harship, though with plenty to do or not to do depending on how energetic one felt. We spent a day out fishing, calling in at this lodge for some lunch first.

We managed to get our quota this day of 3 cod each. John managerd to get a snapper.

We went in to Blenheim to on the Tuesday (22nd Feb) where Bev went to the gym in the morning and Dave and Kelly went swimming while John and I took Tyrone for a walk in his pushchair - mainly around the Warehouse. After tthat we all had lunch at Subway.

After lunch Kelly took Tyrone home and the rest of us went to the movies and saw "The King's Speech." It was excellent but upon coming out of the theatre we heard about the earthquake disaster in Christchurch which by then had not long happened. Really shocking news. We spent a lot of time glued to the TV news trying to keep up with it all and recognise the places we knew. It is hard to imagine that Christchurch will ever get back to being the city that we knew.

By Monday the 28th Feb we were able to take delivery of our stored belongings and with the help of Dave and Bev managed to get it all unpacked and sorted in 2 days. The biggest problem was the volume of the stuff we wanted to keep which would NOT fit in our Suzuki car. To cut a long story short - we bought a light truck literally off the side of the road at Linkwater subject to it getting a Warrant, which it did the next day. So we were able to keep what we wanted to and transport it ourselves to Tutukaka. We thought we should have another set of wheels anyway. It needed a cleanup - lots of sweeping out and disinfectant to get rid of the rural animal smell in the back.!!

Here we are on Wednesday night (30th Feb) having a roast dinner with the saved Royal Albert dinner set and silver cutlery - all shined up for the occasion.

We were up really early the next day to get 5am ferry crossing - luckily we were able to book the truck on the same trip home that we had with the car. The truck is not greatly comfortable so we stopped overnight at Taupo which seemed to be quite crowded as if it was the height of the tourist season.

Truck got home all right but it is not as "nippy" as the car. Nigel has had it in his garage checking it over and it needed a new tyre and badly needed balancing and it needs a good service but apparently it will live.

So we are back in Tutukaka facing the changes here. While we were away the Marina Manager of about a year resigned. At the Trust meeting just after we got back the members all declared that there was no time to train up a new manager before the marina upgrade happens so they all thought John should take on the job for a year to see it all through. Ok, says John, then I shall resign as Chairman but they would not have that. So he is now the new manager answerable to himself as Chairman of the Trust. He started work this morning ( 14th March) dressed in the Marina Staff uniform. So much for retirement.

What a year so far

2011-03-14T07:06:00.003+13:00

This is our first posting for the year. In fact I see that we have not managed to make any report since the one about our Brisbane visit.
A lot has happened since then .
Our new grand-daughter Ella arrived and although we have not met yet we look forward to that time. In the meantime her Mum keeps us up to date with her progress.

We did not go away at Christmas time but it was quite pleasant staying in the marina and we met a lot of people stopping over here for a night or two. Our marina is a popular half way place for those on their way to the lovely Bay of Islands and Whangaroa Harbour to spend their holiday.

It was actually quite busy over that time and we and other people living in the marina were useful for finding berths for those that arrived after the the office was closed.

However, we have not been idle. We have been out on fishing trips mainly on Ken's boat which has the capacity to take up to 6 people away comfortably for a few days. The fishing has not been great but we always get enough and a bit to give away. Some things that come on the bait have us in despair though.

We cut this shark free - don't want him on board !

At one time the water seemed to be infested with these things - Moray Eels. They twist up like this and are really hard to get off the hook - especially when you don't want to get near their teeth.

Familly Tree research has been put on the backburner but I hope to get back to it soon. I am trying to trace what happened to the 16 children of pioneer Great-grandfather Clements and so far it has been rewarding. I have met a number of very nice and very helpful second cousins along the way.

John had to stand down as Chairman of the Tutukaka Marina Trust because he had completed his term but was promptly voted back in so he continues as before. The Trust has been busy arranging the upgrade for the marina.

The summer has not been entirely idyllic. There has been problem flooding and Tutukaka was cut off at one stage because of cliff faces giving way and covering the road with soil and trees. There was a leap tide at that time as well. Here is a pic showing the muddy water from the wash off the land and the really high tide that made us actually have to walk downhill off the jetty to go ashore

A number of funerals all seemed to happen withing a very short space of each other. A member of our pier ( E Street) died from cancer. Another was for a local woman who drove into the creek on the way to Whangarei - a result of the flooding and dangerous road.

We have our sail boat on the market. We are now satisfied that the sailing box has been properly "ticked" so when it sells we would like to buy a roomier launch with better creature comfort seeing we seem to have become permanent "live-aboards."

Visit to Brisbane

2010-10-20T10:49:00.000+13:00

As usual it's been a long time between blogs and although the last one was titled "mid winter blues" it's now the middle of October and still feels like mid winter and in fact, the last ten days have probably been worse than anything we had in the middle of winter with gales, heavy rain and even hail. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The big event of the last few months was our visit to Brisbane.

We left Tutukaka on 8 September for a long overdue visit to see the rest of the family. Our flight left at around 6.30am so we left here at 1.00am and drove to Auckland for the early start. The flight was uneventful with the airline service down at it's usual level of mediocrity although Brisbane airport seemed much friendlier than I remember on previous visits. We were met at the airport by Rick looking a mere shadow of his former self having lost what looked to be quite a lot of weight. When we arrived at Kerrie and Rick's place we found Kerrie looking very trim as well and as it turned out that was the inspiration I needed to do something about my figure.

Rick and Kerrie

After Tutukaka the weather was great, warm and sunny around 25C although there were a few cooler days when I put jeans and a long sleeved shirt back on but all in all it was a big step up from Northland.

It was at the Mason's that I learned their new bodies had been acquired with a combination of healthy eating and exercise (both of which had been in short supply in my life in recent times) and before I knew it I had got sucked into the regime and was starting to watch the kilos drop off. So far I've dropped a couple of clothes sizes but still have a long way to go. Watch this space.

After a week with Kerrie and Rick we moved over to Ange and Zane's new house for a week with them and the boys. Liam was doing a gardening project at day care and I was employed to help him transfer his gardening skills into his own place.

The week with the Knights went all to quickly and then it was back to the Mason's to look after their house for a week while they were on holiday in Vanuatu. And a very nice, quiet, relaxing week it was too. The weather wasn't great with lots of rain but still quite warm. All very nice.

Me relaxing on the Mason's patio.

After the Mason's returned from their holiday, Leigh , John and the girls arrived from Sydney for a few days and we moved back to the Knights place for the last week of our holiday. By now we were getting good at packing and unpacking! It was great to have the whole family together in one place for the first time in almost three years and as might be expected there were several family BBQ's and lots of photo ops.

A rare family photo of us all.

All six grandchildren.

James had lost interest by this time!

Ange and Zane (and ???)

John & Leigh (courtesy O'Dowd blog).

Chloe, Katie and Granddad.

James (am I cute or not?).

Liam

By now the weather was really nice again and it was back into shorts and T shirts and outdoor dining.

Lunch at Woody Point Tavern.

And a few days before the end of the holiday Ange and James took us up to Maroochydore for a visit to the Sunshine Plaze. On the way home we stopped of at Caloundra for a paddle.

James and Granddad at Caloundra.

Caloundra Beach

And all too soon it was all over and back to Tutukaka. Well, I came back but Doreen stayed on for another ten days to help Ange with the boys as Zane had gone to NZ for a wedding and then on to Sydney on business.

Mid Winter Blues

2010-07-11T11:10:00.004+12:00

We're now past the shortest day and well into winter which is not my favourite time on the boat to be perfectly honest. It's not that it's cold on board, in fact most of the time Doreen says I have it too hot, it's more that I can't do the things I really enjoy like fishing as often as I would like. This year hasn't been quite as bad I guess...the weather hasn't really been too bad and I've had plenty to occupy me as Chairman of the marina management board. There are a lot of changes going on like the marina replacement and staff changes and it's involved quite a lot of time and effort (which I am enjoying).

The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with mid winter, it was taken at Doreen's 65th birthday dinner at the Pizzeria but I've only just got the photos off of Nigel's phone.

At the moment I have the boat all to myself again as Doreen is staying with Erin in Whangarei for a few days while Erin does some house / dog sitting for friends.

And next week Doreen will have the boat to herself as I'm flying down to Picton with a friend to help him bring a 60 foot launch up to Auckland for its new owner. If the weather allows I think we will do the trip without any stops which will take about four days so it's not exactly a fun cruise. I'm quite looking forward to it all the same. More birthday pics.

There isn't really much other news, I'm only posting this because I'm bored really! A few of us got together and watched the All Blacks thrash the Springboks last night...great game, bring on the Wallabies!

Till next time - JW

Visit to Sydney

2010-07-03T15:30:00.010+12:00

Since John and Leigh returned to Australia from the UK we have been keen to catch up with them and see their new home in French's Forest, Sydney. With Leigh's 40th birthday looming up on the 13th July it seemed to be the best time to go over. John W. rang John O' to check that it would be all right - which it was (hoping that their furniture had arrived on schedule from the UK) so I booked a plane fare. John felt that he could not go at this time because the Trust was in the last stages of interviewing and selecting a new Manager who would be started in the new job almost straight away. From John O' we learnt that Kerrie and Leigh and Sophie would be coming down from Sydney to surprise Leigh as well so we contrived to keep my arrival to ourselves and hopefully surprise everyone. This we managed to do. Chloe and and Katie were speechless to see me wander over to their table with their father - they thought they were only at the airport for something to eat! Then when we arrived at the house it was Leigh's turn - oh, it is great fun making surprises!

The next day (Sat.12th) John had booked us in at the hairdressers in the morning so he could get off on his own to collect Kerrie and Angela and Sophie. When Leigh and I arrived at the hotel to meet John as arranged - there he was with Kerrie and Leigh all booking in. More stunned Leigh! We had a wonderful lunch all together at Darling Harbour then I taxied home leaving the young things to dress up and party that evening. I had a very enjoyable evening with John's sister Kerrie who was the official babysitter. Sunday (Leigh's actual birthday) arrived and when John, Leigh Kerrie and Angela arrived after checking out of the hotel we had the opening of presents time and then we all went to lunch at a favourite pub venue. John had to take Kerrie, Angela and Sophie to the airport from there. It had been wonderful being all together after so long. All the females of three generations were pressent that weekend. During the week Chloe and Katie had to go to school and Leigh and John kept me busy looking around their new patch. They are in a lovely part of Sydney, so close to nice beaches and good shopping and transport. There really is a forest in French's Forest and it looks great. I stayed for another weekend and all too soo it was Monday again and time to go home.
A big thank you to John O' for the what must have been the nerve-racking planning orchestrating all our arrivals and for your wonderful generosity.

May already

2010-05-16T11:15:00.008+12:00

I'm all Facebooked, BEBO'ed and Twittered out at the moment and with everybody updating their blogs recently the burden of guilt has become too great and I thought I'd better get on and do ours. I must say I do enjoy reading them all and it is a good way to keep in touch.

Our long, hot summer is finally drawing to a close with everyone saying it's the best summer for
as long as they can remember. We've had a couple of weeks of strong winds and a bit of rain but it's still warm with overnight temperatures not getting below about 17C and around 22C in the daytime. I have moved out of shorts and into jeans but some days feel I could change back.

What have we been doing for the last several months? Well, I've been fishing whenever the weather has been good and we've actually had a couple of quite good hauls with my best for the summer being a 15lb snapper.

Ken ,of course had to go one better with a 22lb snapper.

And an 80lb Hapuka.

Doreen, meantime has been heavily involved with her hobby, genealogy. A friend of hers organised a genealogy day at Matapouri, the next bay along from Tutukaka at Easter and from where a number of her Clements ancestors come from.

She had her own table to display her Clements family research and ended up meeting a number of cousins several times removed and took several orders for copies of the books she has been compiling.

And I guess the big news of the last four months is that we both hit 65 and are now getting some of our taxes back via the Old Age Pension or more politically correctly, the NZ Superannuation Scheme. For Doreen's birthday we met with 20 or so friends and had dinner at the Pizzeria just along from the boat and for mine, Doreen cooked a very nice roast dinner for the same friends which we had on Nigel and Fred's boat. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any photos of Doreen's party and the only one of mine isn't that flash! We both did very well for presents with Doreen scoring a new laptop and me a very nice (and expensive) new fishing reel.

There haven't been any major projects on the boat lately, just a lot of pottering and tinkering with odd jobs and routine maintenance. We had a bit of drama last week when Doreen pumped the entire contents of the washing machine all over the bed in the aft cabin instead of down the sink but apart from that all has been pretty much plain sailing.

So now with winter approaching, the heavy duvets are on the bed, the fleecy PJ's are on standby, a new heater has been installed in the saloon and we're ready to hunker down until spring. Who knows, we may even find time to post another blog before the swallows come back to Tutukaka.

Getting Back To Normal

2010-02-18T15:12:00.022+13:00

Whatever normal is, that is to say.
Here we are past the middle of February already and it feels like we have only just got back to Tutukaka It has taken us quite a long time to settle down and get into projects again. This may have something to do with the weather which has been HOT with awful humidity. It is best to get the walks done early in the morning now. Today it rained - that slow misty drizzly rain. It looks so refreshing but it is only increasing the humidity.
The schoolchildren are back at school but the holiday-makers are still around. the marina is quite full and there are usually campervans in the carpark. The local camping ground seems to be still busy, too.

The anchor winch was hard to get out ( see last posting "Bay of Islands" ) and there is now a hole in the nicely refurbished wood in the forward cabin - but that too is fixable. The winch went to Auckland and there were parts that had to be ordered for it. So, many dollars later, it was put back but failed to work so it had to go back to Auckland. We now have it back and reinstalled and it is working perfectly. The person who fixed said it will be good for another 25 years now - that's good - it will be nice if we are still doing this when we are ninety.

John is being kept busy with his new responsibilty as Chairman of the Tutukaka Marina Trust.

I have been out walking since we have been back in order to do some "damage-control" after all the holiday festivities. I go early before the sun gets much of a chance and I usually walk the ridge above the marina. The views are great and the sea never seems to be the same. I took my new camera (Christmas present from Santa) with me last week and here are a couple of photos near the end of the ridge.

Here are some boats coming through the Tutukaka heads. Yes, it is a fairly narrow passage and there are days when the sea is too rough. Plenty of "bricks!" It is too dangerous to go on the other side.

That's the Hen andChicks out on the horizon.

And this is slightly further along looking across the entrance. The oblong building is part of the "Pacific Rendezvous" holiday motels where Zane and Ange and Liam stayed for part of their time here the year before last.

In the distance that almost conical shape is Bream Head which marks the entrance to Whangarei.

The weekend before last was a busy time for Tutukaka. There was a big game fishing competition on all weekend and on the Sunday night the Village Green in front of the hotel was the venue for the "Wine Tour" concert featuring Dave Dobbyn and Tim Finn on stage together, plus others who seem to be famous but I didn't recognise the names. I was a bit bemused because we are a marina and not a vineyard - but there are a couple of vineyards somewhere in Tutukaka so I suppose that made it all right.
There was no point trying to sleep until the concert was over so we all sat on our boats listening. They had to finish by 10pm. Ticket-holders were admitted into a closed off area which was all set up with stands providing all sorts of meals and bar facilities so it was no small job getting it set up.

Somebody caught a marlin. It did not count because it was Ladies' Day and they didn't even have a female on board. However, it is here to be weighed and photographed with the angler.

These fish usually go away to be smoked which seems to be the preferred way to eat them. We have tried it - it is quite delicious.

Talking about fishing - John and Ken go out as often as possible usually taking other guests on Ken's boat. They have not caught any marlin or anything like that (yet) but now and then they do get a large one.

Here Ken is struggling to hold this Hapuka. It was part fileted and part cut into steaks after the photo was taken

Look at those big chunky steaks.

All this was watched by the other residents of E pier and after all the cleaning up was done Ken very generously offered it to feed everyone for dinner. After a mad flurry by all the women to provide salads etc we all sat out on the pier where the fish was cooked on the back of "Seaforth II" and then enjoyed the communal dinner. The photo is taken from the deck of "Irrepressible."

Bay of Islands

2010-02-18T11:57:00.008+13:00

After our time in Whangaroa Harbour we pointed the good ship "Irrepressible" southward intending to go back to Tutukaka but stopped for a night in Whangamumu where we stayed on the way up. We knew that our Tutukaka 'E' Street neighbors and friends were there and that Ken was going back the next day as was our intention. However, came the morning Ken got away and 'Fred and Nigel were all set to go up to the Bay of Islands and were quite persuasive about why we should go too. Every time we had been there in the past the weather was not the best so we had decided that we did not like the Bay of Islands but ended up agreeing to give it another chance. So glad we did because the weather was lovely all the time we were there and it made all the difference. The whole Bay was full of boats but apart from the hoons that sped around everywhere making rough wake for everyone else and endangering people trying to dive or swim or kayak it was all very tranquil and pretty.

And would you know it - lots of boats from E-Street there so it was sort of home away from home.
We gathered most nights on Nigel and Fred's boat "Seaforth II" because it is the biggest (see photo). One evening there were about 15 of us gathered and we ended up having a communal BBQ dinner (mostly sausages and bread with tomato sauce!) and then nobody wanted to go back to their own boats. A BeeJees video went on and so the evening turned into a dance party. I felt a bit sorry for 'Fred and Nigel but on reflection I think they love to be the hosts of a successful gathering.
We got together again on another night because somebody
had a birthday and the spouse had cooked a cake and wanted everyone to be there.

We went into Russell a couple of times. In colonial days it was dubbed "The Hell-hole of the Pacific" and was not a safe place to be in but now it is a very charming and picturesque seaside village. There are a couple of 4-Square supermarkets there so we were able to keep up supplies of fresh goods. There is also a very good museum and lots of arty sort of shops, lovely old colonial buildings and good eating venues - not to mention the coffee.

The annual Tall Ships Race took place while we were there which is rather fun. It is a sail boat race and it attracts really old boats and interesting boats. This event is always followed at the end of the day with a "Hangi" in the next cove. Sandra and Graham usually go to that.

Erin and Ivan sailed down from Whangaroa for a couple of nights before we left and we cooked a roast on our boat one night for them and Sandra and Graham.

Out anchor winch developed odd noises which caused us to make the decision to head off home. We were afraid that using it any more than we had to might make whatever was wrong worse and we did not fancy hauling up the anchor by hand if it failed altogether. 'Fred and Nigel decided to head homeward too and we risked using the anchor again in Whangamumu (hoping the winch would get it up one more time) for another night.
The offending winch did get the anchor up all right the next morning ( but the noise was a worry!) and we got back to Tutukaka at a good time to tidy up the boat a bit and do some washing.
The electric appliances came out and the whistleing kettle and camp toast maker went away until next time. We collected our mail and plugged in the TV and now we are caught up with the rest of world.

CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR 2009 - 2010

2010-02-14T05:41:00.011+13:00

Cooling off on the public wharf after the shopping trip in Kaeo.

We went north again this Christmas in the boat in order to spend Christmas with Erin and Ivan who are on their boat in Whangaroa - including Tom who was staying with them.
We took the trip over 2 days dropping the anchor in a lovely little bay called Whangamumu which is just south of Cape Brett and is a favourite with boaties who want to break their journeys. Next day we went round Cape Brett and passed the entrance to the Bay of Islands and headed straight for Whangaroa via the Cavalli Islands. The wind came up from a perfect direction and we had a great sail and arrived ahead of schedule.
We had a great time with Erin and Ivan - didn't do much except eat and drink interspersed with fishing , sailing and wandering around ashore. Erin and Ivan have got Dad's old flounder net and a lot flounder were caught and frozen for Tom to take back with him when he left and we were able to freeze some to take home as well. Yum.

We took a few trips into the township ( a pub, a motel, a small marina, a game-fishing club, and a small store where emergemcy stuff MIGHT be available) . One time we left Ivan & Erin's boat on the public wharf and we went into Kaeo in their car to do some more serious shopping at the 4-Square store there. Normally Ivan and Erin like to go into Kerikeri once a month to stock up at the bigger supermarkets

When there is a dog on board these shore trips need to happen reasonably often. This is Maisie - Tom's mates bought her for him after his lovely big black cat died.

Terry and Cathie drove up from
Auckland and stayed with Erin and Ivan. We rafted both the boats together on New Year's Eve so we could move back and forwards easily
without having to worry about using the dingy.

Here we all are inside "Masada" with
the camera set to take us all. Tom had left by this time.

We all parted company after New Year. Terry and Cathie drove back to Auckland and we headed off south towards Tutukaka.

Tsunami

2009-10-05T10:14:00.002+13:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week you would have seen the news of the earthquake near Samoa and the subsequent tsunami. Thank you all for your concerned phone calls (I think someone rang) and I can assure you all that we survived it and are both still alive and well and spending the kids inheritance as fast as we can.

It was, however, an interesting experience and in spite of the pathetic TV news coverage of it in NZ, we did actually get quite a large wave at Tutukaka.

The radio had been reporting the earthquake and tsunami all morning, forecasting that it would hit East Cape and Gisborne first at about 9.45am, arriving at Auckland about 10.30am. In actual fact, nothing happened at East Cape and they ended up canceling the warning around 10.30am. A few minutes later they reactivated the warning and said it would arrive at Auckland around midday.

At 12.05pm the tide level in Tutukaka dropped about a meter over a five minute period and then a few minutes later a rush of water hit the entrance to the marina and the tide level rose a meter in a few minutes. The best way to describe it was that it was like being on the Mississippi River in a raging flood with the tide coming in at close to 15 knots. This was followed a few minutes later with the tide going out just as quickly as it had come in. This happened at about half hourly intervals throughout the afternoon. There is a video clip of the tide going out on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIhOcrzFqw.

I had managed to get some quite good film of it all on the camcorder and rang TV One to see if they were interested in it and they sent a cameraman up from Whangarei to get it from me. He arrived about 3pm and was interviewing me on the jetty when all of a sudden there was a wall of white water racing in the entrance and all hell broke loose. A dinghy and 40hp outboard on the boat next to us was completely swamped and disappeared under the water and then one of the mooring piles along from us was broken off at seabed level and a 45 foot yacht on it was rolled over onto its side and was lucky not to have sunk. This was about the seventh surge since it all started and was by far the biggest one being at least a meter high. I hadn't really thought about it much before but I now know that a tsunami isn't just a moving wave on top of the water but the complete volume of water from the seabed up all moving at about 15 knots. Luckily it was low tide when it happened otherwise the damage would have been considerably worse. The surges gradually got smaller and weaker but were still occuring on a small scale the following morning.

Unfortunately I haven't got any still photos of it but I'm not sure they would have really given an idea of what it was like anyway.

So that was the week's excitement. The weather has been cold, wet and windy for the last couple of weeks so there hasn't been any fishing or much of anything happening for that matter.

We're looking forward to getting to Brisbane and some warmth and sun next week.

September already!

2009-09-12T10:38:00.013+12:00

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It only seems like yesterday that Doreen did the June update. In fact it's so long ago I can't really remember what we've been doing since then so I'll stick to the few bits I can remember.

There have been several fairly major projects under way since the last report, some of them finished, some still work in progress. The one finished project is the conversion of the starboard quarter berth area into a utility room with storage for all the food and most of the utensils.

As the photo shows, we've built a cupboard with sliding doors and a few shelves. It doesn't look much but it was actually quite a challenging job but one that has made a huge difference to our comfort on the boat.

The other major project of mine has been laying a new floor after the damage caused by replacing the fuel tanks. This job is still ongoing but starting to look as if it will turn out quite well.

The new floor is oak veneer over tongue and groove pine planks and is quite difficult to get cut out neatly given that there are no right angle corners or straight lines on a boat. Nothing that filler can't hide though.

The last project and probably the biggest and hardest one has fallen fairly and squarely into Doreen's lap and that is the recovering of all the squabs throughout the boat. It would be a big enough challenge doing it in a house where there's plenty of room let alone trying to do it on the saloon table! Having said that, the parts that have been finished are looking really good and when the whole boat has been done it will look fantastic.

The photo at right is obviously the forward cabin and those of you that have seen the boat or remembered from previous photos will note that I have rebuilt the port side bunk. Before, it was about 300mm higher and extended over the 'thwartships (crossways) squab. Now there is a large storage area under the bunk and all (well, most) of my tools are stored there.

The saloon squabs are still WIP but are starting to shape up nicely.

And the final project was the delivery trip I did last week bringing our neighbour's new boat up here from Picton. Our friends Nigel and Fred (Winifred) recently sold their yacht Holo Malano (see Easter blog and trip to Great Barrier) and bought a 58 foot motor launch which was based in Picton. The Tutukaka Thinking Mans Drinking Club (Dad's Army) was appointed to bring the new boat back to Tutukaka and duly set off by road for Wellington at 3.15am Tuesday week ago. The trip down was reasonably uneventful and we arrived at the Ferry Terminal at about 4pm (co-incidently, about the same time as the normal nightly meetings start) and so set up temporary clubrooms under the overpass and prepared for the Cook Strait crossing due to leave at 6.25pm. The crossing got away on time and was reasonably smooth and comfortable and we finally got to the boat at 9.30pm.

Wednesday we went into Blenheim and bought food and liquid refreshments for the trip before going back to the boat for an afternoon nap. The weather was fine but very cold and noticeably colder than up north.

Dave, Bev and Kelly visited us in the evening for a few quiet drinks before we all (minus Kelly) headed into town for dinner at the local curry house. As it turned out Kelly and her boyfriend live in a flat not more than a hundred meters from where the boat was moored.

Sorry about the photo Dave, it looks like you may have drunk something that didn't agree with you but unfortunately it was the only one I took.

Thursday, the weather forecast wasn't great so we delayed our departure a day and went for a short shakedown cruise along Queen Charlotte Sound before another afternoon nap.

Friday, the forecast wasn't too bad so we set off at 8.30am for the 690 nm trip to Tutukaka.

Rather than bore everyone with the full details of the trip I'll stick to a brief summary.

Departed Picton Friday 8.30am - arrived Napier Saturday 9.45am. Refuelled at Napier (1100 litres)
Departed Napier Sunday 9.00am - arrived and anchored Tolaga Bay 10.00pm
Departed Tolaga Bay Monday 3.30am - arrived and anchored Cape Runaway 7.00pm
Departed Cape Runaway Tuesday 4.30am - arrived Whitianga 4.30pm. Refuelled at Whitianga (1100 litres) and anchored overnight at Great Mercury Island about 20 miles from Whitianga.
Departed Great Mercury Wednesday 4.30am - arrived Tutukaka 4.00pm.

Seaforth II

The weather throughout the trip ranged from crap (5m swells between Napier and East Cape) to perfect (flat calm across the Bay of Plenty). For the interest of anyone who cares, we used about 2700 litres of diesel and averaged about 9.5 knots over the whole journey. Oh, and in case anyone does actually care, we stopped for a fish on the Ranfurly Banks (about 12 nm off East Cape) and I caught two Kingfish.

And that brings us up to the present time, snugly in our berth at Tutukaka wondering what to do next. The squabs and the flooring projects need to be finished before we go summer cruising as does the painting of the back of the boat and the relocating of the boarding platform. We also would like to fit in a trip to Oz but at the moment it's raining and it all seems too hard so I might just take my book up to forward cabin and have a nap.

JUNE REPORT

2009-06-22T11:12:00.016+12:00

I thought I had better hurry up and make a posting for June seeing it will soon be time to do one for July.

It has been quite a busy time since Easter and we have managed to get a lot done on the boat making the changes that need to change and fixing whatever needs fixing.

The biggest job was the diesel tank replacement. There were 2 tanks which carried far more fuel than we would ever need and they both had leaks starting. It was not worth trying to weld up old tanks so they had to come out which meant ripping up the galley floor but luckily the people doing the job managed to cut the tanks out to avoid having to take the whole galley out. We replace them with one new tank which will more than adequately do.
The first picture is looking right into the bilges with the galley floor all taken out and the old tanks gone. The steps from the cockpit are also gone so we had to climb in and out of the boat like monkeys getting a handhold and foothold where we could. The boat was in quite a mess for a while but we managed to cook, eat and sleep all right so there was no need to look for accommodation elsewhere. It seemed to drag on a bit because we had to wait for the new tank to be made and for the people doing the job to fit us in when they could.
The second picture shows the new tank arriving (mind the herb garden!)
Needless to say, this was all an unwanted expense and inconvenience but it is all done now and there are no more horrible diesel smells emanating from the bilge. It seems to go through everything!
Another bonus is that the new floor in the galley is much better - it is level and does no squeak and a cabinet was made slightly narrower when put back which meant a door could open properly at last.
While all this was going on the people who supplied us with and installed a new radar (over a year ago) finally got around to coming out and finding why it didn't work properly - turned out to be faulty cable running down from the unit on the mizzen mast. It was out of the guarantee period date but they accepted the responsibility about that.

After discovering there was no plug for the new tank ( and consequently having one more last diesel smell in the bilge when we tried putting some diesel in for the first time) we managed to procure one - the next challenge was getting the motor started again with the need to bleed the new fuel lines but that was not too much of a drama and it was good to hear it functioning again - music the ears, in fact.
We almost slipped the ropes and took off to Whangaroa just to enjoy the boat for a week or two and catch up with Erin and Ivan but there were too many appointments and social obligations coming up that we did not miss. Besides, the weather was going through a cool snap so we stayed put.
It is just as well we didn't go away because John discovered that a wound on his leg was inflamed and not healing. This happened while he was out fishing on Ken's boat "Aquadash" a while back when he was hurrying to help someone land a good-sized fish. The doc. prescribed antibiotics to get rid of the infection but it has become ulcerated so it could take some time getting better. He is visiting the doc. every two or three days now.

John's latest project is turning the quarter-berth off the galley into a sort of utility/pantry room. The fridge and freezer were already there and as you can see there are some nice new cupboards. Not finished yet - the top shelf needs railing and all needs varnishing.
We should have done this ages ago it is so much easier finding things now.
The plastic container is where we hide the washing up until it gets full or we feel like doing it.
I hate doing it when I am feeling settled after dinner or there is something good on T.V.

John has finished in the forward cabin now after making the toilet enclosure and lowering the bunk on the left side to make it even with the right - so much better and more inviting as a bedroom. He also fixed the wooded areas and I took all the old dark green front-runner down (felt "wallpaper" fabric - used to line the hull for insulation and looks) and replaced it with a fresh new lighter colour. The left squab had to be re-cut and rather than fix up the old red covers we have decided to make new blue covers as per the fabric sample in the photo.

I think that is about it for now.
The winter has not made us suffer so far - it is easy to keep the boat warm while we have the use of electricity and the sun is still warming. I rather like the fine clear winter days.

May Update

2009-05-07T09:26:00.006+12:00

Well it's May already and another year is almost half gone. The time seems to race past the older one gets!

Quite a lot has happened since the last update which I seem to remember finished with us getting ready to go away with our friends on their 50 foot launch Holo Malana, shown on the left anchored in Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island where we spent a few days. But more of that later.

We left Tutukaka early on the morning of Good Friday and headed off for Great Barrier expecting a good sail but as is so often the case on this coast, the wind was right on the nose, the sea quite snotty and we ended up motoring the whole 52 miles. Seven and a half hours later we arrived just as the sea flattened out, the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. And that's pretty much how it stayed the whole 10 days we were away. We spent a few days in Fitzroy harbour at the northern end of the island fishing, eating, drinking and sleeping (all in about equal quantities) before we got sick of all the excitement and motored down to Tryphena, about 15 miles down towards the bottom end of the island.

The fishing was pretty good at Fitzroy, we caught quite a few snapper and Doreen took the prize for the best fish...a nice sized John Dory. She had actually hooked a small undersize snapper (about 10cm.) and the John Dory thought it looked like a tasty morsel wriggling round on the end of the line and came along and took it hook, line and snapper!

For anyone who hasn't been there and is even remotely interested, Great Barrier Island is about 20 miles from top to bottom, 5 miles across and is a typical volcanic island ie. hilly and covered in native forest. The permanent population is around 700 people living mainly in Fitzroy in the north, Claris in the middle and Tryphena in the south. It's situated about 25 miles off the coast midway between Auckland and Whangarei.

Anyway, back to the story. We were lucky enough to be able to use a friend's mooring right by the wharf in Tryphena so had a good safe spot and felt comfortable leaving the boat and going ashore for extended periods. One day we borrowed a friend's car and drove the length of the island stopping in for a couple of hours at an old school friend of Doreen's who has a farm right on the water's edge half way down the island. That night was my birthday (thank you all for your cards, phone calls and emails) and we all went ashore and had dinner in one of the two restaurants in the area.

After a few days at Tryphena we got restless again and hauled up the anchor and motored down to Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf. We anchored in Mansion House Bay right opposite Governor Grey's house (The Mansion) where we spent a couple of very pleasant days going ashore for short walks (the men) and long walks (the women).

The picture on left shows Doreen and our friends coming back to the boat after a walk ashore.

By now we were running out of space to put all the empty bottles. An average morning while we were away saw about five empty wine bottles and one rum bottle needing to be disposed of plus our friends had to go back to work so we reluctantly up-anchored and sailed back up the coast to Tutukaka, about 8 hours away.

While we were away our boat builder had been on our boat and removed the two fuel tanks that needed replacing so we arrived back to find a temporary floor with a big hole under it! They ended up having to cut the tanks up to get them out otherwise they would have had to do some serious damage to the galley and navigation area and rather than replace them as they were we've had one big tank made that will be easily accessed in the event it ever needs attention. At the moment the new tank has been built and we're just waiting for the boat builder to come back and fit it in.

After the beautiful weather we had at Easter, the last couple of weeks have been awful with strong winds and a lot of rain and right now a major low pressure area the size of Australia with a centre of 960 hps is due to descend on us. Should be fun!

Until next time...............

And Now It's April

2009-04-07T13:34:00.007+12:00

Like a thief in the night, March came and went and we're now a quarter of the way through the year.

March had it's ups and downs, with Doreen's birthday (only 12 months to the pension) being an up and more work and money to be spent on the boat (sorry children) being one of he downs. In between, the great summer weather we've been having this year continued and the NZ cricket team maintained their tradition of being totally useless. Aside from all that it's just been another month in the lives of a couple of aging babyboomers.

The problem with the boat is mildly serious with very slow leaks in both fuel tanks needing to be fixed. Problem is the tanks were put in the boat before it was fitted out and the galley, navigation area, battery compartments and companionway steps have all been built in over the top of them. A bit like the old song about the thighbone being connected to the hipbone really. Anyway, to cut a long tale of woe short, the tanks need to be taken out and either repaired or (more likely) replaced with new ones. I shall leave you, dear reader, to envisage the task ahead.

.

On a brighter note, we went out to The Poor Knights (not to be confused with our daughter and son-in-law, The Rich Knights) Islands on a friend's launch last Sunday and as the other Knights will know, it was well worth the trip. The islands are a wildlife sanctuary about 12 miles off the coast of Tutukaka and a well known dive location which draws visitors from around the world. Fishing is not allowed there and consequently the water is teeming with fish (mainly snapper) that are quite tame and almost eat out of your hand. The island scenery is quite spectacular and well worth a visit. The islands are obviously the result of some violent volcanic activity a long time ago and are full of caves, some of which are big enough to take a boat into.

And that's about all the news for March.

This coming Friday (Easter Friday) we're taking off for a week with friends on their boat for a bit of a break at Great Barrier Island. Should be a lot of fun.

So until May.........

March Already

2009-03-19T08:38:00.002+13:00

The unimaginative title reflects the fact that not a lot of interest has been happening here since the last post in February. There aren't even any photos to put on but I guess there's nothing to say a blog has to include photos.

What's happened on the good ship Irrepressible since the last post? Well, there has actually been quite a bit of progress on a few long running projects.

To start with, the forward cabin bathroom is finally finished after many months of on again, off again work. Even if I say so myself, I think it's turned out really well and has transformed that area of the boat. The final step was to install a holding tank (for the uninitiated, a holding tank is a tank that untreated sewage goes into until you're in an area where you can legally dispose of it). It's not that we actually intend to use it (they're revolting things that end up smelling like, well, sewage I guess), but more and more the authorities are requiring them to be fitted as a pre-requisite to entering a marina. So, we're now legal even if we don't use it.

Another project that I finished recently was refurbishing the aft bathroom. Previously the shower drained into the engine bilge before being pumped over the side resulting in a smelly bilge in hot weather so I built a new shower sump under the shower floor which now pumps directly into the sea. Much better. I also removed the toilet, fitted a new set of gaskets and seals, painted the bathroom and put it all back together. So now we have two nice shiny, sweet smelling bahrooms.

While all this has been going on, Doreen has been remaking all the squabs (upholstery) in the saloon. While they were all in very good condition, the design of them made sitting on them quite uncomfortable so they have all been pulled apart, the foam inners all recut and reshaped, the material recut to fit and then sewn back up again. Quite a major job in the confined space of a yacht but the end result is much more comfortable seating.

In between all the work I went away for a few days on a friend's boat, up to the Cape Brett area for a few days fishing, plus the usual weekly (when the weather is good) day fishing trips.

Doreen, as you might have guessed is fully occupied with her family research and frequently away visiting rellies or scouring libraries and museums. Yesterday was her birthday and I drove her down to Warkworth and left her at the museum / genealogy centre there while I carried on down to Auckland where I spent the day browsing chandleries! All in all, a very pleasant day.

The tenants who have been in the Blenheim house since we moved onto the boat moved out at the weekend and we've just heard today that new tenants have signed up for the next 12 months and move in next week. From that you may infer that our plans are to stay on the boat for at least another year. Hopefully by then the property market will have picked up a bit and we'll probably consider selling the property and buying something up here close to Tutukaka.

And that pretty much covers the news for the last couple of months. It doesn't sound like much when condensed into a few paragraphs but we do seem to be quite busy most of the time.

Till next time..................

FEBRUARY ALREADY

2009-02-07T17:11:00.010+13:00

How the time flies when you are having fun.
We had a quiet Christmas here at the marina at Tutukaka and on Boxing Day headed North with another couple on their boat who berth opposite us. We didn't go far - spent the night at anchor in Whangaruru Bay.
Next day we started off early to travel to Whangaroa Harbour but developed engine overheating problems so sailed to nearby Whangamumu Harbour and the boys had to get dirty in the engine room. At first there appeared to be nothing wrong but eventually found that seaweed had got into a bend in the water intake area. The joys of boating !
It was not all bad. We girls fished and we were treated by a pod of dolphins coming into the bay and making a spectacular show-off display of themselves. There was stil just time to get to Whangaroa so we went for it and got into the West Arm at around 7pm.
We had a very pleasant time up there. A lot of boats from "E-Street" (our wharf finger) at Tutukaka Marina arrived, not really planned that way but it was good to see the New Year in with the people we know. Everyone gathered on "Divine Decadence" - the huge yacht that is tied up at the end of "E-Street" usually. They had people with dive gear aboard so there was no shortage of scallops, mussells etc.

We came back for a few weeks because I had an exhibition at the Matapouri Hall (next bay north of here) that I wanted to go to which was done by a friend who belongs to the Geneoalogy and History Societies. Really well done and I met some of my fellow Clements descendants that she grew up with and who live around about. On the right is one of them - my second cousin Jeanette who showed her old family photos at that table which were mostly about timber milling in the area in the early 1900's.

John had to attend a Marina Management Trust Meeting (yes, he got elected onto it) which was a week after that. By then others were also coming home to Tutukaka.

In the meantime a couple of Australian friends Bob and Sandra Sutton arrived back in NZ after having had to return to Australia so that Bob could have an operation. A friend of theirs, Jim, flew out from Australia to join them. After a week at Great Barrier they called into Tutukaka on their way to the Bay of Islands but only stayed a night because we decided to go north with them after insisting that they see the Whangaroa Harbour before sailing back to Australia. They thought it looked like Jurassic Park and enjoyed the fishing - they are very keen fishermen. We went back to the Bay of Islands with them and put the anchor down at a different bay each night. We spent one day ashore at Russell where we had lunch at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel (very old).
Erin and Ivan caught up with us and we all enjoyed a very pleasant evening on board their yacht "Masada" (bigger than the 'Queen Mary' !) with the guitar and ukelele singing everything from Waltzing Mathilda to How Great Thou Art.
We left them all the next day because the weather forecast was not great and we wanted to get back before rather than after the bad spell.
Suttons are now waiting for the right weather across the Tasman Sea to sail back to Australia and will clear Customs at Opua.

The Suttons yacht "Ray of Sunshine" with Jim at the wheel and Bob in the red shirt in
Whangaroa.

So now the boats of "E-Street" are all settled back in their usual berths and life is getting back to normal. Ken has managed to erect the hard-top to his boat that he has been making for some time now so the "Tutukaka Thinking Mens' Drinking Club" can sort it all out in some shade.
Here is John and Ken arranging the agenda before the others arrive.

Season's Greetings

2008-12-24T11:38:00.010+13:00

Well it's that time of the year again. 2008 has come and nearly gone and it seems only a short while ago we were up in the Bay of Islands last Christmas.

It's been an interesting year, our first full year on the boat and we've escaped relatively unscarred (mentally and physically). We've learnt a lot, mainly about how expensive being self funded retirees is but also about living together (reasonably harmoniously) in a confined space. All in all it's been an enjoyable year and we have no plans to return ashore in the foreseeable future. The fishing has been one of the highlights for me and we usually return with a good feed.

The last few weeks have been quite busy with Doreen off on family research trips to the Hokianga in the North and Auckland in the south. As for me I've been building the bathroom in the forward cabin. It's been a long process (I started it about six months ago) but it's now virtually finished other than a bit of painting and I must admit I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

We received a lovely Christmas Hamper from our daughters the other day (thank you girls), also some very nice Christmas Cards made by our Essex grand-daughters plus their school photos, all of which now have pride of place in the saloon.

Well it's Christmas Eve today, all the shopping has been done, the boat provisioned and fuelled and all being well with the weather we'll try and get away on Boxing Day. Most people in the marina will be away so Christmas Dinner will be just the two of us on board (roast chicken) but I'm sure we'll be thinking of you all.

So it only remains now to wish all our family and friends a very happy Christmas, a bright and prosperous New Year and may 2009 bring all that you would wish for.

Voting Day in New Zealand

2008-11-08T12:21:00.012+13:00

Today we did our civil duty and went out and voted at the local Ngunguru Hall. All a bit low-key really after watching how America does it on TV.

We have been back for a few weeks now from Brisbane but we have been keeping our heads low because we have been quite unwell with the Brizzie-Bug that we thought we had escaped. But no, the nose starting going the second day I was back and now John has it as well. He says - on I have no idea what authority - that it is mutating quite rapidly. It only started out as a boy-cold, then went to woman-cold and now that it has got to him it is full blown man-flu. I'll fix him - I shall make him go to the Doctor.

Two of our immediate boat neighbors have gone into Whangarei to have their boats out of the water for work to be done. It all seems so quiet and open with them gone. One lot is due back today but the others could be away for months with serious hull problems.

We managed to achieve something that so far we have only been talking about. We decided that the Ford Escape was not the right sort of car for us with all the running around that we do, especially with the cost of fuel these days. So we let it go and have replaced it with a Suzuki SX4 which is the model up from the Swift. There it is in the picture. Very nice and very comfortable and uses a little less that half the petrol.

We also looked about for an old roomy van so that we could store our stuff in it and that John can use sort of as his mobile workshop or for carting large and dirty things. It was a nuisance having to go into Whangarei to get things we wanted from the storage shed. It looks quite smart in the photo but it is fairly rough. However, it goes well and has a Warrant of Fitness.

Our friends the Boyles are back from their trip to the Islands. The boat went through Customs last Tuesday but they are staying at Opua for a while so will catch up with them later. We won't be going anywhere until these colds are gone. Have also just heard that the Goings have just left Tonga for home.

Another achievement is the Radar finally getting fixed. Two months ago 20 metres of new cable was ordered from Japan (all under Warranty) and finally this week 10 metres arrived ! By this time the original serviceman had left and the person that inherited this had to go all the way back to Whangarei to pick up the forgotten bits plus a junction box so that we did not have to wait another 2 months for the right sized cable. Good to have that done at last.

In Brisbane

2008-09-05T15:31:00.009+12:00

As usual it's been a while between posts and as usual I haven't really got any good excuse other than laziness.

Anyway, here we are again in sunny Brizvegas. Well, it's sort of sunny now and then, yesterday it poured with rain all day and the odd shower again this morning but on the whole it's a much better proposition than what we've been putting up with in NZ for the last three or four months.

We had an early departure flight from Auckland (Tuesday week ago) leaving at 6.10am which meant a midnight departure from Tutukaka. The drive down was good though, hardly any traffic and we arrived a good three hours before the flight left. We were met at the airport by Zane and Liam who seemed to remember us from our last visit in April. He hadn't changed much, just a bit bigger and a bit more livlier.

Angela was at home feeding James Sydney when we arrived and our arrival seemed to go completely unnoticed by James but I guess he had other things on his mind.

(I seem to be having trouble getting these photos where I want them today but I'm sure you get the drift).

Life has settled into a pretty orderly routine over the last week or so. Doreen spends quite a lot of time in the laundry and amusing Liam and my jobs are to cook dinner and take Liam to nursery school on Thursday and Friday. In between we've managed a couple of trips to Chermside with Ange and James and had a nice BBQ at the Masons last Sunday.

OK, I know. I'm on a diet now.

A quiet moment.

A noisy moment.

A busy moment.

All things considered, things are humming along quite smoothly and we're really enjoying catching up with everybody again. This weekend is Father's Day and the Knight's, Masons and Warren families are all meeting up at the Victoria Park Golf Club for a Father's Day breakfast tomorrow morning.

Another Storm Coming

2008-07-29T10:27:00.007+12:00

Well we survived the big storm of a few days ago and are now battening down the hatches again for another one, due to arrive this afternoon. Apparently the next one won't have quite such destructive winds but is likely to have more rain than the last one.

The last storm slowly built up over Saturday morning with the barometer steadily falling to an incredible low of about 969.

The winds were quite impressive with a peak of 86 knots (160 kmh)at the harbour entrance. The windspeed meter on the the boat peaked at 62 knots (115 kmh) which was more than enough to keep us on our toes and keeping an eye on the ropes.

The reason I was out on the jetty in the photo above is that our TV satellite dish had just been ripped off the pole. The wind was so strong it broke a weld on the bracket holding the dish up.

Apart from the weather life goes on pretty routinely. There are always jobs to do on the boat and what with fishing usually once a week and helping friends with jobs on their boats I manage to keep reasonably busy.

Julie arrived safely in Auckland on Saturday and (weather permitting) we'll go down to Auckland tomorrow to pick her up.

Well that's about it for now, the rain has set in so I might just watch a DVD or two. Doreen is in Whangarei doing whatever it is she does in there so the boat is ALL MINE for the day!

Storm Warning

2008-07-26T05:50:00.005+12:00

	Issued at: 4:37 am 26 Jul 2008 NZST
	Valid to: 11:59 pm 26 Jul 2008 NZST
	Forecast *STORM WARNING IN FORCE* Easterly 40 knots, rising to 50 knots this morning. Tending northerly this afternoon, becoming westerly 55 knots at night. Sea becoming very high. Northerly swell 6 metres developing. Poor visibility in rain, with some heavy and thundery falls.
	Outlook Outlook following 3 days: Rising early Sunday westerly 55 knots, easing to 35 knots at night, and to northwest 25 knots on Monday. Becoming Tuesday northeast 25 knots, rising late Tuesday to southeast 40 knots. Very high sea easing late Sunday. Heavy northeast swell developing, easing Sunday. This is what we woke to this morning on the Met Service website! A large tropical depression has been moving across the Tasman Sea from off the Queensland coast (thanks Zane and Ange) for the last few days and we''ve all been watching it closely to see where it is going to hit. Seems we've scored lucky and the target is Northland! Forecast is for storm force winds and torrential rain for about 24 hours. A satellite image shows clear skies over New Zealand and a large storm front approaching from the northwest Yesterday we doubled up on all the ropes, tied down anything that could move and went to bed to wait. Woke up this morning at 3am to hear the wind howling, the rain raining and the waves slapping on the hull like thunderclaps. Well, smallish thunderclaps. All this and it hasn't even arrived yet. The main event is due around lunchtime today. Anyway, we dozed for a couple of hours then when we couldn't lie there any longer we got up at 5am. The joys of living on a boat. Julie is due to arrive in Auckland tonight at around 11pm I think. If the storm hasn't passed by then I'm picking her flight may be diverted further south. Hopefully it will have passed though. That's it for now, I'll report later if we survive!

Anti-foul Week

2008-06-21T15:33:00.006+12:00

We were only back for a few days after our car trip up North when John announced that he had booked our boat in to be hauled out of the water at Dockland5 in Whangarei the following Monday. The purpose of this is to enable us to clean, sand and paint the hull ( 3 coats) with a marine anti-foul paint. This should be done annually but it has been a good 18 months since last done so it was overdue and we were concerned that it could be a big job.

So we sailed down to Whangarei last Saturday (14th June) with another boat from here that needed new clears -- Nigel and 'Fred' (Winifred) with their new acquisition 'Holo Malana'
We arrived in good time and tied up at the Dockland5 jetty for Saturday and Sunday nights - very windy and rainy and the water slap on the hull kept us awake.

Very tired when we got hauled out first thing on Monday. 'Whanga-rain' really poured it on us all day and we got wet through. Mud everywhere.
They water-blasted the hull while still in the sling (as in picture) and we were relieved to find that it was in pretty good shape.
The propeller and drive shaft were pretty crusty and we had our own mussel farm growing on the bottom of the keel.
It did not take them long to set us up in the yard.
Check out the new back steps.
Still raining so we made the purchases we needed for the job hoping to get onto it next day.

But it rained so I visited a cousin of my father who is 90 and in a Whangarei Nursing Home. She was a very young 90 and we had great fun talking about the family.
Next day John got the sander out and quickly got around the hull - thankfully it only needed a smoothing over. The black dust was awful so for once the rain was a relief because it washed it away.
The first coat of paint went on after that - more rain but John managed to get another coat on one side later in the day. Also achieved was that the propeller and drive shaft were cleaned up and treated with 'Prop-Speed'
Next day we managed to finish it all --between showers so it ended up mostly John painting while I seemed to be continually wiping away water before it ran down the hull.
We were put back in the water first thing next morning - Friday - so by 8.15am we were motoring up the Whangarei Harbour towards the Heads and Tutukaka. Not the best sea for a pleasant sail but made good time - 1pm arrival - by 1.30pm we were eating pizza at the marina fast food place.
A clean hull & prop do make the boat perform better so it was good thing done. Weather is worsening again but we are now warm and dry and can use the taps on the boat again.

Visit to Hokianga Harbour

2008-06-21T14:01:00.009+12:00

The week before last we decided to do the trip up North that we had been thinking about for ages. It has been some years since we have been there and it was time to have a few days off the boat. It is not really far to go from Tutukaka and we got to the mouth of the Hokianga Harbour in just a couple of hours, stopping to look at the giant kauri, Tane Mahuta, ( Maoris call it 'God of the Forest') in the Waipoua Forest on the way.
It is supposed to be 2000 years old.
The first view of the Harbour Entrance was quite spectacular with the waves breaking over the bar and the hills of sand dune on the other side.

We dropped down into Omapere and looked for somewhere to stay the night, choosing the hotel in Omapere which used to be a hotel in the 1800's and is now part of the Copthorne Chain. It is a delightful old building done out with kauri. Some of the original furniture is still there. Our room was in a new annex built to fit in with the style. Just a lawn
separated us from the beach . Here is a photo of the sunset from our deck.
We were told that in the 1800's the tall ships had to wait weeks sometimes before they could get over the bar safely to take timber to Australia so the hotel was well used then.

The Hokianga Harbour was the area where four of my Great Grandparents settled upon their arrival in New Zealand and where both my parents went to school. Great Grandfather Magee from Ireland taught at 4-5 schools in the area and Great Grandfather Pearson was a Methodist Home Missioner. I therefore thought there might be some information about them in the local historical museum. There were certainly folders there for the families but the only information they had seems to have come from my Aunt Dorothy Pearson. I shall be doing what she did and give them some photos and information for the folders. I did have some gain from other family folders that married into our family.

We found my Grandparents Magee old home in Oue - they would not recognise it with the additions and the bright blue paint and garden changes. Other cottages and the Oue School are no longer there. In Rawene it was the same with the Grandparents Pearson home. Their old farmhouse was pulled down by a later owner because he had a problem with "squatters."

Rawene sort of looks the same and the hospital appears to be still functioning. The graveyard over the road has been tidied up and the council keeps it tidy and mowed. Last time I went there it was a terrible mess so that was good to see.

We visited another Clements/Magee descendant - my 2nd cousin, Dick Curtis, who has been in Oue farming on part his father's property and part former Pearson property. He thought I was Clements looking and I thought he was.

I hope this has not been too boring this time but I enjoyed my nostalgia trip and researching famly history is a hobby that I enjoy. I have met some nice fellow descendants with more to see yet. We enjoy the talks about our common history and share the photos.

Doreen

Taking the Pressing out of 'Irrepressible'

2008-06-03T14:21:00.011+12:00

Here we are after a long gap between updates again. Truth to tell is that we have taken a while to settle back into our routine (of sorts) since we returned from Australia and get back into those projects that we had started before we went. In other words we have just been plain idle and have had nothing interesting to write about.
However, we have been good just lately and things are happening again in the effort to make the boat as pleasurable as we can to use an live on. I suppose this posting is a report on that progress.

We are very pleased with the new sail covers and the colour which does a lot more for the boat than the green did. Under all those other covers are the dinghy (forward deck), the generator (aft deck) and the dinghy motor and barbeque ( either side aft rails). There she is radiating all her new found glory.

Putting the new bog on the blog - here a picture of the new enclosure, with a picture of the other side. As you can see, any visitors sleeping in the forward cabin won't have the problem of their pillow falling off the back of the bunk into the toilet any more. It is all operational just needs painting or covering with formica or something.
I shall have to shorten 2 squabs a little now and tidy up the covers.
No problem.

It is great having the curtains all finished. It makes the living areas much more homely but the best thing is that we now have privacy when it is dark and the lights are on.

We have been out since the new sails were installed. They are better and the it doesn't look like we forgot to iron the sails any more.

Oh, the SSB Radio needed attention. When our friends the Boyles on 'Nutcase' left for Fiji we thought we would talk to them each day and track their progress but it was not to be. It needed servicing and we have just got it back - John is putting it back where it belongs. Too late for talks with the Boyles though - we got a text to say that they have arrived in Suva after 9 days so they did well. Arrived in 40 knots with the sea anchor out. We texted back telling them we were enjoying our Millpond here. Bonus for me with the radio needing to come out was that the aerial tuning unit had to come out as well - from my wardrobe - which gave me more room. John had to put it back somewhere else.

Someone called Tom and a companion have just arrived - I thought for the freezer but they are climbing up the mast. Turns out it is the riggers putting up an inner fore-stay that can take a sail. We don't need it - in fact we got rid of the inner furler because it was a nuisance with the headsail at times while tacking but apparently this can be clipped away. But it seems that it is a requirement to go Category One which is a requirement before Customs will let you out of the country, so forgive me if I sound a bit worried.

About the freezer, it seems we needed to put some goo in somewhere (John did that) and it goes better and we don't have to run the motor so long to get it down now. But we really want the option of using shore power for it while we are tied up so that we can go away for a few days without having to empty it. Apparently there is a plate of some sort that can be inserted to achieve that. At present we have to run the motor for a bit each day to keep it freezing.

We still have not had the boat out of the water to have its bottom scrubbed.

In the meantime I have been continuing my search for knowledge, photos etc. with the ongoing family research. Now that we are in back in the pioneering great-grandparents area I have been seeking out fellow descendants and with one set of G'Grands ( the Clements) having 16 children who all survived and the others (Magees) having 8 - there are plenty of us.
I was rewarded last week with a second cousin sharing her photos with me - unfortunately had been bent but at last I know what my Great-Grandparents Magee look like. They came from Ireland and seeing he taught at a native school at one time I often wondered if those native children had Irish accents.

Next week we plan to do a car trip around the North looking up more fellow descendants and visiting some of the old places.

Back in Aoteoroa

2008-04-26T07:26:00.005+12:00

Well we made it safely back to Tutukaka on Wednesday night after a long, convoluted trip from Brisbane. We left Kerrie and Rick's place at 6.00am, caught the 8.45am flight to Christchurch, visited friends for a couple of hours, caught the 6.10pm flight to Auckland, taxi to friend's place at Half Moon Bay, picked up our car and drove to Tutukaka where we arrived at midnight. Brisbane to Auckland doesn't sound far but it takes a bit of doing.

Anyway, enough of our travel issues. We had a great time in Brisbane with all the family, it's unfortunate that we can't do it more often but with everyone scattered around the world it's a bit hard. We especially enjoyed the day a Dreamworld with Chloe, Katie and Liam. (Toby and Sophie had to go to school that day unfortunately!)

Queuing for the Log Flume Ride with Chloe

The boat was all shipshape and pleased to see us back apart from the fact that the batteries were flat and the fridge wouldn't start and one of the water pipes had sprung a leak. Nothing that wasn't quickly and easily fixed though and now we're back in the daily routine of liveaboard boaties.

Yesterday I went fishing with our friend Ken on his launch and came back with a good haul of fish. 20 snapper, 15 trevally, a couple of groper, and 2 coral perch. There were six of us on board and I got first and second prize for the biggest fish.

First prize

Second prize

The weather here has changed markedly since we left, it's now decidedly cooler and the days shorter although having said that I'm still wearing shorts and T shirts. Heavy rain is forecast for the next couple of days so we'll probably be boat-bound for a bit. Actually it's just started as I type.

Birthday BBQ

2008-04-13T10:30:00.004+12:00

Well another year has come and gone with a birthday BBQ for all the March/April birthday people held at Chez Mason last night. The whole Warren extended family was in attendance plus an old workmate from Tait Brisbane.

Food and drink was in plentiful supply (having catered for half of Brisbane) and so another BBQ is planned for today to use up the leftovers.

Family photos were taken just as the light was fading and the children showing signs of becoming restless but with the help of Rick's tripod and a bit of cajoling we managed to get in a couple of good ones.

Two blog posts in two days has got me plum tuckered out. I'm off for breakfast and a nap.

At Brisbane

2008-04-12T12:22:00.008+12:00

Well it only seems like a few days ago that I last updated the blog but on reflection, maybe it was a bit longer. Time flies when you're having fun as the old saying goes.

Entrance to Tutukaka Harbour

Actually, I have started to update it several times from Tutukaka but the internet there is quite slow and whenever I've tried uploading photos it has timed out and I've given up. A blog without photos is like a rum without ice, not at all interesting. That's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking with it.

Irrepressible (through gap, 3rd from left, green sail cover)

What have we done since the last entry I hear you wondering? Well, actually, quite a lot although we do seem to go for quite long periods just chilling out in the marina.

Our beach, 100m from boat.

I guess the highlights of the time have been Ange and Zane's visit in March and then a five day Easter cruise up the coast. We sailed in tandem with another couple in the marina and spent a couple of days in Whangamumu Harbour about 25 miles up towards the Bay of Islands and then a couple of nights in Whangaruru Harbour which is about 15 miles north of Tutukaka. The weather was very nice the whole time we were away and we spent the days lazing around in the sun and the evenings slaving away over cold rum, red wine and nice food.

Our jetty. Far end, right hand side, green sail cover.

In between all this we've been steadily working away on the boat getting it up to the standard we want. It's amazing how much there is to do on a boat after you've bought it. All the jobs that have accumulated over the years the previous owners have had it seem to become urgent and there seems to be a pressing need to "put your own stamp on it" and make it your own. Doreen spent a long time making curtains for all the windows, not a big job on the face of it but when you realise there are 15 or more windows and making small curtains and putting up track is as big a job as for house sized curtains (in some cases even bigger as fitting track and curtains in very confined spaces can be quite difficult). We also had a new set of sails and sail covers made, plus new canvas covers for the outboard motor, BBQ and hatches so all in all it's now looking a million dollars, which is only slightly more than what it's cost.

Ange and Zane's visit was a great time. It was good to see Liam again after a year and to see how much he had grown. They had told us what a model child he was and by and large they were right but there are signs that the "terrible twos" are not far away and his need to assert his personality seems to increase every day! Unfortunately the boat didn't have any sails on it when they were with us so we couldn't go sailing but I think they enjoyed their stay nevertheless.

At the present time we're in Brisbane for a couple of weeks. Leigh, John, Chloe and Katie are over here from the UK for a fortnight and it's the first time we've all been together for six or seven years. In fact it's the first time we've ever all been together with all the grandchildren.

We've been staying with Ange and Zane while Leigh and her family have been staying at Kerrie and Rick's new place. Today being my birthday (belated presents or cash can be sent c/o Tutukaka Marina, RD3, Whangarei) we are all going over to Chez Mason for a BBQ and no doubt, family photo shoot. Should be a good night! Yesterday Zane and I went and played a round of golf (crap golf but good fun). The weather is still summery here, lovely sunny days for the most part and temperature today forecast for 27C. No doubt by the time we get back to Tutukaka at the end of the month it will be time to pull out the winter woolies. One of the good things about living on a boat is that you need very few clothes. A couple of pairs of shorts and a few T-shirts sees me through the summer and a pair of jeans and a couple of shirts plus a jacket or two does the winter. I don't think we've used the iron (other than for making the curtains) since we've been living on board.

Well that sort of covers the last few months, what next?

We go back on 23rd April and one of the first jobs we need to do before the winter sets in is get the boat out of the water and the bottom cleaned and anti-fouled. I think we'll probably go down to Whangarei to do that. There are good haulout facilities there and it's much easier than trying to do it in Tutukaka. Then in July there is the possibility of a visit from Julie but apart from those two things we don't really have anything planned. Probably we'll just hunker down for the winter.

One question we are constantly asked is: "what's it like living on a boat?" Well I guess the answer is it's pretty much like living in a house only more cramped. Actually, when I really think about it, it's nothing like living in a house. It is certainly more cramped but you get used to it and learn to make use of every available nook and cranny. One of the biggest issues is storage space (there never seems to be enough). Maintenance is also another big issue. You have to learn to be a diesel mechanic, plumber and general handyman very quickly or you either go broke or sink. Every day brings it's own unique challenges from finding and fixing the latest leak to pulling out engine water pumps and overhauling them. Life in the galley is much the same as in a house only everything is much closer at hand. We have a gas oven with 2 burner hob plus a fridge and freezer. There are two toilets, one shower and a front loading washing machine. We also have satellite TV, DVD player, stereo and well stocked wine cabinet. All in all we're pretty well set up. There are half a dozen or so couples living on their boats around us and we all get on extremely well and most nights get together for an hour before dinner to swap war stories and drink rum. Occasionally we'll have a communal BBQ and most weeks I go out fishing with the guy next us on his 15m launch. All in all it's not a bad life and certainly beats mowing lawns.

Well that's it for now. Hopefully the next update won't take quite as long.

Christmas Cruising

2007-12-31T11:57:00.000+13:00

I note that the last entry to this blog was back at the start of December. I'd like to say that we've been too busy to update more often but the truth of the matter is that we're seldom in range of the internet at other than very slow connection speeds and when we are we are usually so relaxed that we're too idle to do anything.

So, to recap the last couple of months. We finally left Whangarei on 1st December and made the last leg of the trip up to Tutukaka. What started out as a leisurely 4 hour trip up the coast ended up taking about 7 hours as we broke two fan belts halfway up and then spent about 3 hours changing them. Luckily we had spares on board but it's a major job changing them.

We only stopped at Tutukaka for a few days before taking off again up to the Bay of Islands. The weather forecast was good so we thought we'd spend a few days up there. Unfortunately the weather turned pear-shaped the day after we arrived at Russell and we spent the next 10 days waiting for the gales and rain to disappear. The first fine day we high-tailed it back to Tutukaka where we spent a week or so getting ready for the Christmas cruise.

We left Tutukaka on 21st December and headed back to the Bay of Islands where we finally saw Russell in lovely summer weather. Much nicer than the previous trip. After a few days there we carried on north and had an overnight stop at the Cavalli Islands before arriving at Whangaroa harbour about a week ago.

Sunrise at Whangaroa

Whangaroa is a lovely harbour about 30 miles north of the Bay of Islands with dozens of little bays to overnight in and creeks to explore in the dinghy.

The fishing isn't bad either, we had a nice feed of fresh snapper for breakfast on Christmas Day.

And we don't dine too badly on other stuff as well.

There are lots of great bush walks to be done.

And the scenery is quite spectacular.

It's New Year's Eve tonight and we're probably going to spend it at the Game Fishing Club so I'm off for an afternoon nap.

Not sure where we're going form here but possibly further north up to Hohoura before heading south to the Hauraki Gulf.

I trust everybody had a great Christmas and may 2008 be a good year for you all.

Whangarei

2007-11-10T09:03:00.000+13:00

Finally I have some spare time and can update the blog. I note it's over a month since I last was on here but so much has happened it seems a lifetime ago.

Starting at the end first, we have been tied up in the Whangarei Basin right in the heart of Whangarei and next door to Ivan and Erin on Masada for the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, far too many nights drinking rum and playing the guitar with Ivan on his electric organ.

We finally left Napier on 7th October and headed north stopping overnight at Mahia the first night then up to Tolaga Bay the next day. It was quite an experience going across Poverty Bay past Gisborne. The weather forecast was for 25 - 30 knots which was about as much as we would have liked but it steadily built up to over 50 knots with quite rough sea and a 12 hour trip before any shelter...not one of our better days. We anchored overnight in Tolaga Bay then the next morning headed north again and round East Cape to Hicks Bay where we anchored again. Next morning we upped anchor at around 4am and sailed across the Bay of Plenty, past White Island which was covered in cloud and sulphur fumes arriving at Tauranga about 10pm. The next day we sailed up to Whitianga but again the wind got up and the sea was too rough to get into Whitianga so we found a little sheltered bay and waited a few hours until it calmed down a bit then went in.

Irrepressible at Whitianga

It blew a gale for the next four days to we stayed there on a mooring before setting off for the Mercury Islands which are a couple of hours off Whitianga. Great Mercury Island where we stayed is owned by Michael Fay but visitors are allowed ashore and we spent several very pleasant hours walking around the island which is quite hilly. The exercise was good though after being on the boat for so long.

The boat to the right of us is our friend's boat, Nutcase.

On the beach at Great Mercury Island.

We stayed here a couple of nights then sailed (motored really) up to Great Barrier Island where we stayed for a week, ducking and diving and trying to find a sheltered bay to anchor in each night. The weather wasn't the best with 30 knot winds most days but we went ashore several times and did a couple of bush walks and had a good look around the place.

Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier.

We finally got away from Great Barrier on Friday 26th October and for the first time since leaving Napier had a really good sail across to Whangarei. The wind was almost perfect for a change and the boat sailed really well. We arrived here around 8pm and Ivan had arranged for us to tie up next to them on a berth which was vacant. We'll probably stay here until the end of the month then move up to our own berth at Tutukaka.

Irrepressible and Masada at Whangarei

Whangarei Basin

Ivan outside shower block

And that pretty much brings us up to the present time. Doreen is away in Auckland at a school reunion for a few days so I have the boat to myself and a bit of time on my hands.

Hopefully the next update will be a bit quicker than this one!

Ready to go (almost)

2007-10-01T16:34:00.000+13:00

I was talking to Bev on the phone this morning and she kindly reminded me that I haven't updated the blog for a little while, actually quite a long while. So, feeling a little guilty I have roused myself to action.

Life continues at a hectic pace with every day bringing it's own unique challenges and one's database of experiences rising exponentially as a result. Mainly we have been busy getting the 101 things we want to do before leaving Napier done. Doreen's largest project has been recovering the squabs (mattress type things to you landlubbers) in the aft cabin and sewing up all the new fitted bedding she wants in there. Yeah, right, sewing on a boat I hear you say. Well look no further:

And as for me, I've been doing what I do best, spending money on new toys and installing them. The big ticket items lately have been a new computer (one that's big enough for me to actually be able to see) and a new solar panel to try and give us enough battery power to run everything without having to run the motor to charge the batteries too often.

The computer is great (I think it's the same as the one Rick bought when we were in Brisbane earlier this year) but Windows Vista gives me gas. It's all very nice with lots of flashing lights and clever gimics but seems slower than XP, uses more memory than you can shake a stick at and seems to have lots of little glitches in it. eg when you close a window in Internet Explorer it tells you IE has stopped working and Windows is checking to find out why. I know why for God's sake, I closed the bloody thing! Apart from that it plays a mean game of Solitaire with very fancy graphics.

We've only got one more important job to do now. We were filling the water tanks the other night, they hold about 600 litres and take an hour or so to fill. We were watching TV and having a few drinks and after a couple of hours Doreen asked if it always took so long to fill them. My response was yes or something similar and we carried on watching TV. After about another hour I thought my feet were getting a bit cold and looked down to see water round them. The long and the short of it was that the top of one of the tanks had split and the water was gradually filling up the boat. It certainly got our attention and put paid to the TV and drinks. I don't think it will be a particularly big job to fix it though and hopefully we'll get it done tomorrow and then on Friday or Saturday, weather permitting we will finally be off on the trip north.

Watch this space for further updates.

P.S Happy 50th birthday to David.

Spring at last

2007-09-03T16:22:00.000+12:00

The last couple of weeks have actually been quite busy, with our friend's boat out of the water and many days of scrubbing, sanding, filling and painting of the hull. It's quite physically demanding work standing underneath a boat and holding a heavy sander above your head while trying not to get blinded or asphyxiated (try spelling that without a dictionary). The good news is that it's all finished now and they are going back in the water tomorrow.

We've also been doing some work on our boat with the new radar unit being installed last week (a bit more of the inheritance down the drain) and today we started getting the sails down and trying to clean them up a bit. They don't look as if they've had much attention for years and were very dirty. We did the staysail today, laying it out on the concrete and scrubbing it with a broom and a mixture of bleach and detergent and it's come up looking like new (well almost). So with renewed enthusiasm, the mizzen is set for the treatment tomorrow, weather permitting. And talking of the weather, it's actually been quite nice the last week or so, temperatures getting up around 20C and lovely sunny days. Even the wind has died down to almost nothing today although it has been gale force for the last few days.

Doreen's current project is making curtains for the boat, no small task as there are at least 14 windows which need doing and being a boat they are not all in the easiest of places to get to to screw up track etc. It will be a big job but worth the effort I'm sure.

I think we'll be in Napier for another three or four weeks and at this stage it looks like we'll all be ready to move north around the end of the month. It's been great living here for the last couple of months but we're both starting to get the urge to move on now.

That's it for now. More in a week or two unless there is any special news.

More of the Same

2007-08-17T08:40:00.000+12:00

I note that it is almost three weeks since I last posted anything on here and I'm struggling to think of much new and interesting to talk about.

As I type, the rain is beating down, gale force winds are expected later this morning and the temperature is hovering somewhere around the 10C mark. Just another day in Paradise.

Actually there have been a few things happening since I last wrote. As I recall, I mentioned that a number of boats had come into Napier seeking shelter. Well one of them was an Australian boat called "Ray of Sunshine" with an Aussie couple from Tweed Heads on board. They are about our age and have been cruising round Australia for the last 14 years. They had just had an eventful trip across the Tasman where they got knocked down a couple of times in a storm, suffered lots of damage and ended up getting blown back to Tasmania where they repaired the damage and then set out again. Full marks for persistence! They ended up in Napier tied up next to us and we got on really with them and have become good friends. We took them to Taupo one day and did all the touristy things like the Huka Falls (they were awestruck!), Craters of the Moon (amazed) etc then drove back over the Desert Road and the Taihape - Napier Road (which I think is known as the Gentle Annie and which we had never been on before). We did a small detour into Waiouru and tried to find our old house which we did eventually but not without some difficulty. The whole area where we lived has had all the houses removed and is now acres of parkland all except for ONE house which has been left standing in the middle of nowhere for some reason and believe it or not it is the very house that we lived in when we got married. Amazing or what!

Anyway, back to the story. The weather finally improved enough for them to get away and continue their trip up North and a couple of days later we heard from them on the radio that they were holed up in Gisborne waiting for the next wave of weather to pass. Having never been to Gisborne we decided to drive up there and have a look around which we did, meeting up with our new friends for lunch while we were there. Gisborne is a two and a half hour drive from Napier over some pretty spectacular, hilly country. Mainly farmland, both sheep and cattle (and lots of goats) but quite a lot of forest and native bush. Similar in some ways to the Rye Valley area near Dave and Bev.

Other than these little excursions we've been pottering around on the boat, finding places to store everything (not easy), fixing things that need fixing and changing things that need changing.

I guess most of you know that Angus Tait died last week. He had been ill with cancer for the last year and in hospital for the last couple of months. I flew down to Christchurch on Monday for the funeral where about 800 people attended (250 of us in the funeral chapel and the rest in the Aurora Centre where it was televised into). He was 88 and his death had been anticipated so it wasn't a particularly sad funeral and it was good to catch up with so many old friends and acquaintances even if it was only for a few hours. I stayed with our friends the Atkinsons near Mona Vale and flew back to Napier the next day.

Our friends Graeme and Sandra are due to leave Picton on their boat (Nutcase) in the next day or so and when they get to Napier will be working on their boat for a couple of weeks before we all head off north. Hopefully the weather will have improved somewhat by then.

More weather

2007-07-29T07:22:00.000+12:00

Well the rain and wind went away for a few days and we actually have had several days of nice sunny weather. I even managed to get into shorts for a few hours yesterday! However, another round of gale force winds and heavy rain is due to descend on us this afternoon and last for several days. There was an influx of boats arriving in the marina yesterday all coming in for shelter against the coming weather so it looks like it's going to be a miserable few days.

I've just read Julie's blog and see the temperature in Dubai was 48C. Does anyone in the Warren family live somewhere where the weather is good?

We went for a sail a couple of days ago, just out into the middle of Hawkes Bay and back again which was good and then yesterday we drove up to Mahia which is about 150kms away right up the top end of the bay. Neither of us has ever been in this part of the country and it was interesting seeing parts of NZ we had never seen before.

Congratulations to Kerrie and Leigh for both finishing and passing your courses. You most both be feeling very pleased with yourselves and should be proud of what you have achieved. It can't have been easy managing a family and studying at the same time. Congratulations also to Liam on achieving the ripe old age of one. Happy Birthday Liam.

Congratulations also to myself. It's two months today since I quit smoking.

Watch this space.

Rain, rain, go away.

2007-07-18T07:55:00.000+12:00

Rain, rain, more rain and strong winds have been the story of our life for the last couple of weeks. The weather here in Napier (and most of the North Island) has been diabolical almost from the day we arrived here. Apart from a couple of reasonable days its been constant rain and high winds.

We've spent the time working on the boat (finding leaks and trying to fix them), going into town for a break and generally sitting around waiting for the weather to improve. Unfortunately, the forecast is for much of the same for the next week. Our friends are in an even worse position, they've been stuck here for four weeks delivering a launch from Tauranga to Picton.

Some of you have already found out that our photosite is no longer working. Photosite advised us a week ago that they were closing the site down and moving all their customers to Snapfish.com. They have done that but it's not so easy to get into and navigate around the site so when new photos are added you'll get an email inviting you to view them.

Well that's about it for now, I'm off to look for new leaks.

More onboard

2007-07-09T18:05:00.000+12:00

Looks like the photo upload is working now.

It's now a couple of days since our stuff arrived and Doreen has worked wonders finding a place for almost everything. There is still a bit to do but at least we can live reasonably comfortably now.

I've spent the last week trying to make sense of all the knobs, dials and switches and fixing toilets and shower pumps etc but I'm slowly coming to grips with it all and should be ready to go sailing in a day or two.

The weather has been really cold the last few days with gales and snow storms sweeping the country. Cyclones and tornados have destroyed many buildings in Taranaki (the other side of the country from where we are in Napier) although it has been reasonably nice where we are.

Well that's it for now, more in a few days.

Onboard at last

2007-07-09T17:31:00.000+12:00

Well here we are, finally ensconced in our new surroundings on the good ship Irrepressible. I've just noticed that the last post was over a month ago on 30 May. My excuse for such slackness is that we were busy looking after a couple of kids in Australia for a month (well, it's sort of true). Actually, we had a great time in OZ, helping Kerrie and Rick with Sophie and Toby while Kerrie was doing day shifts at Redcliffe hospital then a week of (sort of) relaxation with Ange and Zane. It was great being able to spend so much time with them all and seeing how much the grandchildren have changed and in the case of Liam, actually seeing him change over the five weeks we were there.

We were due to leave on 18th July but in the end the attraction of the new life on the new boat got the better of us and we brought the flights forward by a couple of weeks.

Our friends met us at Christchurch airport with our car which they had been looking after and we drove straight up to Picton where we stayed with friends for a couple of days ,tieing up a number of loose ends then got the ferry to Wellington and drove up to Napier. The 30 or 40 cartons with all our gear in arrived a couple of days after we got here and after loading them all on board we stood around like a couple of stunned mullets wondering what we had let ourselves into.

I've just tried to upload more photos but nothing's happening so I think I'll publish this and try a new posting.

Brisbane

2007-05-30T07:39:00.000+12:00

At long last the rushing around is over and we are at last unwinding in Brisbane. The last few days in Blenheim passed in a blur with the packers arriving last Wednesday and getting everything packed and dispatched by Thursday night. Not a bad effort for two young guys. While the packing was going on we stayed with Graham and Sandra who were house-sitting a beautiful house for friends of theirs right on the waterfront at Waikawa Bay. Friday morning we went back to the house for a final cleanup and inspection of the place with the property manager and by lunchtime it was all over. Quite sad really to see the place completely empty and waiting for new people to move into it. The good news though is that they moved in yesterday, are signed up for twelve months and are paying $400 a week which will go a long way towards the cruising budget.

The trip to Brisbane was far from uneventful, we stayed at the Copthorne Commodore near the airport on Saturday night and were up at 2.30am to catch the plane at 6. So far, so good. The drama started when we went through the x-ray machine at the airport. Both our bags were pulled aside for a search and while mine was ok, Doreen's had one or two small problems. The first was the 12 inch carving knife hidden in the bowels of her computer bag. I don't know if you've ever tried to come up with a convincing reason as to why you had a carving knife in your bag but I can assure you it isn't easy. Actually the truth of the matter was that there were a few last minute things left in the house that were to go on the boat and the knife was one of them but try telling that to airport security officers at 5 in the morning. Next the 3 bottles of Q-Tol we were taking for Kerrie were deemed prohibited and were consigned to the bin along with a lecture on the necessity to read the warning posters. The bottle opener with knife attached got a thorough scrutiny but somehow got through and by now I was rather hoping we hadn't accidently popped a stun grenade in the bag and forgotten about it. In the end we got through minus the prohibited items and nothing more than a lecture but it could have been nasty!

Kerrie and Rick and Ange and Zane and the five grandchildren were all at the airport to meet us along with the 75,856 Japanese tourists who had disgorged themselves off of a fleet of 747's at the same time as our Airbus with about 30 passengers arrived. Add all this to the 3 hours on Jetstar Airways with nothing to eat or drink (the menu for the pay as you eat crap they had to offer was only available in Japanese) and by now you will understand I was just a tad frazzled.

Life has taken a turn for the better since then though. The weather has been beautiful (around 25C) and it's been good to catch up with the Australian contingent of the family again. Looking after the children hasn't been too traumatic, they seem to know what they are supposed to do and when they are supposed to do it and mainly it's all going quite smoothly.

Well that's all for now, it's 6am and the starting gun for the getting ready for school part of the day is about to be fired so must away and hide for an hour or two.

More in a day or two.

Ready to go

2007-05-17T05:30:00.000+12:00

The last couple of weeks have been manic, hence the lack of postings on here.

I think the last posting was just before we left for the trip north to look for a boat so I'll try and remember what has happened since.

We caught the early morning ferry to Wellington with our friends Graham and Sandra as planned and were pleased to be in a large ship and not a yacht as Cook Strait was quite rough with a southerly gale blowing. After a brief stop at a marina in Petone to pick up a few bits and pieces we set off for Whangarei at 10am. It doesn't look far on the map but by the time we arrived there at 9pm we knew we had travelled some distance! Still, it was good to get it out of the way in one go. We stayed in Whangarei in a motel for four nights with a couple of day trips to the Bay of Islands, Pahia, Opua, Keri Keri, Tutukaka etc. All places that we hadn't been to for years with lovely scenery and beautiful weather, all the reasons we want to move up there on the boat. We looked at several boats but mostly they were pretty crappy and not what we wanted. On the Monday we drove down to Whangaparoa and met the broker there to look at more boats then down to Auckland for still more. Again, nothing we would buy. On Tuesday we all drove down to Tauranga for the day and looked at another half dozen with the same result. By now we were getting desperate and wondering if we were doing the right thing by packing up the furniture before we had the boat. On the Tuesday night we started the drive to Napier, stopping overnight in a very nice motel in Cambridge and leaving early the next morning and arriving in Napier mid morning. We only had one prospective boat to look at there and luckily the minute we saw it we knew we had found what we were looking for.

The boat's name is "Irrepressible" which some might think is quite apt! It's a 43ft ketch with a huge owner's cabin with queen size bed down the back and with total accommodation for nine people (we'll be taking reservations in due course). It's got all the smart toys like radar and GPS chartplotter etc so with any luck we won't get lost.

We were booked on the ferry to come home that night but changed that to the next day so we could stay and do sea trials on it. There wasn't much wind but enough to get the sails up and assure ourselves that we could sail it ok and so we made the decision there and then and committed ourselves to buying it.

Since arriving back in Blenheim life has been a blur of activity, packing the things to take on the boat, a seperate pile of stuff to take to Brisbane and the rest to go into storage when the packers come next Wednesday. In between all that there have been people coming to look at the house (the first ones to see it signed up for 12 months at $400 a week on the spot), organising change of address, trying to sell the cars, cleaning up around the place and generally working ourselves into a highly stressed condition. The end is in sight however and all the big jobs are pretty much out of the way and we're almost ready to go.

Full speed ahead

2007-05-02T06:14:00.000+12:00

Life is gathering pace and there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything at the moment.

The last couple of days were a good example:

Monday morning, drove into Picton to get ready for a delivery of a launch to Wellington. Left Picton at 1.30pm, got about half a mile out of the marina and the motor overheated. Went back into the marina so Graham could fix it. It looked like it would take a couple of hours or more so I raced back into Blenheim to get four new tyres fitted to the Escape. Got back to Waikawa Bay about 5pm, went to the RSA for a couple of beers then to the Crow for dinner. Back to the boat by 8.00pm and straight to bed. Up at 1.00am for an early start because the launch had to be in Wellington by 8.00am for a truck to take it to Tauranga. Left Waikawa 1.30am, arrived Mana (Wellington) 7.15am. Caught the train to Wellington and then waited 4hrs to get the ferry back to Picton where we arrived at 5.30pm. Raced home to Blenheim and caught up on emails and phone calls and collapsed into bed around 11pm.

Tomorrow morning we are booked on the 5.45am ferry back to Wellington and then plan to drive straight to Whangarei where we'll stay for a couple of days looking at boats there and in the Bay of Islands then down to Auckland to do the same. After a few days there it will be Tauranga and Napier then home with only two weeks before the furniture is packed up on 23rd May. Then on 27th we're off to Brisbane for seven weeks. Sometime between now and then we have to organise all the disconnections, mail redeliveries etc plus sell Doreen's car, sell one boat and buy another.Who said retirement would be boring!

We took Dave and Bev out on the boat on Sunday up to Endeavour Inlet where we caught a good lot of fish then went on to Furneaux Lodge where we went ashore for a couple of hours then back to Picton in the dark. Luckily it was a beautiful full moonlit night and with the help of that and the GPS we didn't get lost and dodged several ferries to get back safely.

That's all for now, lots to do and not enough time to do it all.

Two Left Hands

2007-04-27T17:36:00.000+12:00

John wrote the last post and at the time it was perfectly right but things change so much here so quickly that what I am about to say almost sounds like a contradiction - as if the right hand does not know what the left is doing. Actually, we are both left handed and we do sing off the same hymn-sheet, most of the time anyway.
We have decided that maybe the yacht "Blue Heron" is not what we want to live on after all. It is just not big enough with enough storage room. Pity, we have lots have good memories of the time we were on it from Tauranga to Whangarei via Mayor Island, the Mercuries, Great Barrier, and then back down via other side of Gt. Barrier and White Island as far Napier where we had to get off because of bad weather for yachts and rush home for Christmas with the family via the inter island ferry.
We are still looking for a yacht we can live on and have some affection for because I am sure we won't last long on the water if we don't and deep down we don't want to be quitters.
I have to record here that that the person who owns "Blue Heron" has that feeling for her, although not as a live-aboard yacht but does not really want to part with her.
After a lot of research, John's/our experiences on delivery trips ( me the guest more really) and good advice from our long term yacht-living friends we are pretty narrowed down to what we really want and there is not a lot of it out there on the market. In fact there is only one that looks like it.
In the meantime we still own "Wild Thyme" and there is an offer on it subject to the marina management being able to rearrange the boats around them because of the wide beam ( always a Warren/Magee problem) and wondering if ours would fit in their privately owned narrow berth.
What do you do??
Well, maybe you don't have to be a "Southpaw" to work it out the way we have but seeing we are going to Brisbane anyway from end of May for about 6 weeks we have decided to get the household storage people in to take our chattels away and into storage and rent the house of our dreams out to some other people that will hopefully look after it well, and move on to "Wild Thyme" until we fly to Brisbane on 27th May. We are hoping that while we are in Brisbane that the berthing thing will be solved and that we have a new yacht to come home to on the 18th July.
So we are busy getting the house ready - need to paint that wall that took ages to build and plaster and put in some bathroom fan/heater/light units. Apart from the final clean-thru thats all really.
In between that we are looking for our dream yacht.
I hope everyone is well.

Doreen

Easter Cruise

2007-04-16T16:47:00.000+12:00

We're back home again after a very enjoyable 10 day cruise round to Nelson with a detour on the way there and back to Pelorus Sound. It started out as a four day Easter Weekend trip to Pelorus but grew as time went on and none of us wanted to come home. We sailed in tandem with our friends Graham and Sandra on Nutcase which was the first time we've gone away like that and it proved to be a very successful formula.

We left mid afernoon on Good Friday and tied up to a club mooring in a bay towards the end of Queen Charlotte Sound that night. Fishing was good with three nice sized cod going into the fridge. The weather was just beautiful, clear blue sky but not much wind which meant a lot of motoring. The next morning we left about 9am and motor sailed up into Cook Strait, round Cape Jackson and across to Pelorus Sound where we arrived and anchored in a nice little bay about 3pm. Fishing was good again with more fish in the fridge. Sunday morning we moved to another bay across the sound and went ashore for a short walk through the bush before moving on to another bay to anchor up for the night. This one had a one man pub in it so we went ashore and watched the Chiefs v Highlanders Super 14 rugby.

By now we were getting low on diesel as I had neglected to fill the tanks before leaving and were faced with the option of going back to Picton to get some or carrying on to Nelson. We all consulted our social secretaries and confirmed none of us had any pressing engagements so elected to go to Nelson.

To get there we had to go through French Pass, a scary narrow bit of water between D'urville Island and the mainland. Unless you go through at slack tide the current races through at up to 7 knots and can send you backwards so it's important to get the timing right. As you may guess, we didn't and ended up going through sideways but made it through in one piece nevertheless. That night we ancored up just round from Okiwi Bay.

Left early next morning and motored in flat, glassy sea to Nelson where we arrived around midday. We tied up in the marina there for a couple of hours to refuel and restock the cupboards then went round to the waterfront where we anchored about 50 meters off the waterfront drive right in front of the Boatshed Restaurant for those of you who know Nelson. Fabulous views and great weather although cooling down considerably at night time. Tuesday morning we set off for the return journey but by now the weather was starting to deteriorate with gale force winds forecast for most of the country. We got back as far as our previous night's anchorage near Okiwi Bay where we decided to take shelter for the night as the wind was getting up around 30kts. It was a pretty uncomfortable night with the boat bouncing around and quite noisy and at 5am we all had had enough so up anchored and set off back towards French Pass.

The ride up there was quite lumpy and it was a relief to finally get in the shelter of D'urville Island and calm water again with the added bonus of striking French Pass right on slack water. The pass is really quite spectacular, only about 50m wide with big swirling eddies both sides but quite ok to go through provided the weather and tides are good. Once through, we motored back to Pelorus Sound arriving around midday just in the nick of time as the wind suddenly got up to about 45kts and it all got very exciting very quickly. Just before we got to the safety of the bay we intended sheltering in there was one gust of about 50kts which picked Nutcase's dinghy up and flipped it several times throwing the oars into the sea. Both of us spent the next half hour doing man overboard drills trying to recover them. For those of you who know Doreen well, picture this. 45kts of wind, rough sea, spray eveywhere and Doreen out the back on the landing platform hanging on for grim death with one arm, leaning out trying to recover an oar with the other. Madness I say. Anyway, we all survived (even the oars) and eventually anchored up for the night waiting for the front to pass. And pass it did and the next morning we made a 10 mile dash to the other side of the Sound to shelter from the next front which was due that night.

The next morning dawned fine and calm and after a short excursion ashore to check out the beach we set off for what we thought was the final stretch home. Our travelling companions had different ideas though and being in no hurry to get back we ended up staying on a mooring at Furneaux Lodge at the end of Endeavour Inlet near the outer end of Queen Charlotte Sound. We went ashore to the lodge that night and had a meal, a few drinks and watched the Crusaders thrash the Highlanders, all in all a great way to finish the cruise.
Sunday morning we left Furneaux at 9am and motored back to Picton where we arrived shortly before lunch.

Which brings us up to the present moment, back in the house, looking at the lawns that need mowing and all the other work that needs doing and wondering why.

I think it's common knowledge but in case anyone reading this doesn't know (and assuming you're even remotely interested) ,our boat is up for sale and we're buying a bigger one , packing the furniture up, renting the house out and going cruising for a few years. We hope to have all this done and ready to go by the time we get back from Australia in July. At the moment it looks likely that we will buy Phil Vining's boat (Blue Heron 2000) (see photosite). He's willing to trade our boat as part payment and is flexible with the timing so it's all looking good at the moment.

Home again

2007-04-01T09:56:00.000+12:00

Another trip over and a few more sea miles under the belt.

This one was one of the harder trips I've done with the wind and sea "on the nose" most of the way which meant lots of tacking and quite a bit of motoring. We did get a couple of days of favourable winds though and enjoyed some good sailing, especially round East Cape and from Whakatane to Tauranga.

The fishing was great all the way. We caught a couple of good sized Kingfish (see photo) half a dozen Tuna, three snapper and a Terakihi. The Kingfish and Tuna we caught on a line with a lure trailing behind the boat as we sailed and the snapper and Terakihi on a handline when we were at anchor.

While the winds weren't great, the weather was mostly fine and sunny and we only had rain (and heaps of it) for the last day coming into Tauranga. We made it just in time as the remnants of a tropical storm swept the North Island just as we were arriving with many Northland roads washed away.

Photo is the sunrise as we were coming up to Portland Island at the end of the Mahia Peninsula at the top of Hawke Bay.

After we arrived in Tauranga the new owners of the boat met us and took us back to their house where we stayed for a couple of nights before getting a rental car and driving down to Wellington and catching the ferry across to Picton last night.

There aren't any more trips immediately on the go so I guess I'll have to get used to living at home for a while and doing mundane things like mowing the lawn. I see the grass has had a growing spurt while I've been away.

Good to see you've joined the Bloggers Leigh. Sounds as though the girls are doing really well at school and with all their other activities. It fair wore me out just reading about them!

That's all for today.

Getting There

2007-03-29T10:42:00.000+12:00

Hi from Doreen.
I have just received a text message from John ( 10.44am) "12 miles from Tauranga. Left Whale Island near Whakatane at 6am. 30 knots up the bum. Sailing at 7 to 8 knots all the way."
In reply to queries he said that the sea was very lumpy with 5 metre swells but all right because they are behind them. Sounds almost like they are surfing home, doesn't it? ETA Tauranga about 12.30pm.
The 10/20 to go from Tauranga to Lyttelton has fallen through and they haven't heard any more about the one from Opua so they are coming home - probably by rental car or bus and ferry which seems to be far more economical than flying.

In the meantime I think I have broken the back of the wall plastering job. It has taken ages covering up whoopses and trial and error but I am pleased with it at last. This wall has gone where there used to be a buffet bench jutting out into the Family Room and putting a wall there was to us the obvious thing to do because there was nowhere to put the TV. We think it has made both the kitchen and the Family Room better. Next challenge is getting the coving and skirting right then I can paint it. Have enclosed a photo - not very good for showing it in relation to the rest of the house. I have to sand that plastering now, then I can have a good clean up around that area.

Sailor's Wife Again

2007-03-25T09:34:00.000+12:00

Hi - Doreen here.
John has been away for a few days with Graham on a boat delivery from Picton to Tauranga. Nice boat, a Chico 37 called Sea Hawk. No photos of it yet but John will have taken some.
They arrived at Napier midday yesterday after a very slow and rocky ride. I have just been talking to John on the phone. They had a good night's sleep and the weather is nice so they are keen to get away and head for Tauranga. It will probably take them about 3 days, putting down the anchor at night and taking it easier. John will keep in touch via phone texting - phone range permitting.
In the meantime I am spending time at home having book and clothes sort-outs and intend to make a super effort to finish that wall we put up. It needs more plastering and then coving and skirting and then paint. I really want it finished. If I run out of things to do I shall carry on in the garden which is looking quite good now that it has grown some and all the efforts to get rid of grass-grub, moth, and weeds in the lawn has paid off. It is looking great.

Delivery trip

2007-03-20T18:27:00.000+12:00

This is a quick update between delivery trips. I've just arrived home from one and am off on another tomorrow and have lots do do tonight to get ready.

Delivery of the good ship Lollipop, sorry, Zeehaen, which was sort of like a bathtub with a cabin and motor, started this morning at 3.00am when we left Picton and finished 7 hours later when we tied it up in it's new home at Mana (just out of Wellington). Actually, it's not really its new home as it's going to be trucked from Mana to Auckland and ultimately shipped to England to be used by the owner on the canals there. Why anyone would go to all that trouble and expense I have no idea.

The official description of the boat is "a 28ft displacement launch" but that doesn't really describe it. It is about 60 years old and quite unusual in looks but motored well at around 8 knots and got us there safely.

The weather in Cook Strait wasn't too bad although a bit lumpy in parts.

We only stopped in Mana for a few minutes then caught the train into Wellington, jumped on the 1pm ferry back to Picton and arrived here at 5pm tonight so it was a long day.

The trip tomorrow is a 35ft yacht to be taken from Picton to Tauranga and should take about 7 days if all goes well with the weather.

As I won't have access to the internet while I'm away there probably won't be any new posts for a week or so (unless Doreen gets creative).

I trust all of you reading this who have proper jobs are happy in your work....keep pedalling!

2007-03-18T17:08:00.000+12:00

Woke up this morning at 5am and got up for a cup of tea as normal only to find out a few hours later that daylight saving had finished and the clocks had gone back overnight so it was really 4am when I got up. We seem to have completely lost touch with the real world over the last few months and I had no idea that the clocks were going back last night!

Notwithstanding the early start, it's been a good day for Doreen's birthday. Cards and phone calls from all the family and lunch at the Slip Inn at Havelock with Dave and Bev and Julie. It's been blowing a gale all day but quite warm and sunny. Hopefully the high winds of the last few days will die down soon and we can get in a last bit of nice weather before the summer really ends.

I did a bit in the garden over the weekend, trying to get ahead of the weeds and the lawn which is growing at an alarming pace.

Not sure what the coming week holds but as soon as this current spell of wind and cold fronts is over I'll be off to Tauranga in the Chico 35.

Doreen: Yes, it was a lovely day and I enjoyed my birthday. Thank you all for your good wishes via cards or phone calls.
I recommend the Slip Inn at Havelock for its very nice seafood - it is at the marina.

2007-03-14T08:39:00.000+13:00

Oh dear, big headache, bad aching feeling all over this morning. In short, a king size hangover. Our friends Roger and Joc from Christchurch arrived yesterday and we did some serious damage to a bottle of very exspensive cognac given to me by Tait friends when I left work last year. Seemed a good idea at the time but I'm paying the price this morning.

Sorry but there will be no deep and meaningful posts today.

2007-03-13T10:18:00.000+13:00

As everyone who is anyone seems to have their own blog nowadays it seems only sensible that us recently retired, upwardly mobile, young grandparents should have one as well.

Our lifestyle over the last few months hasn't left much time for emails (a lot of the time we've been out of phone and internet range) but we'll try our best to update the blog whenever we're in port!