03/21/2010, New Zealand
Here are more pictures...Click on Photo Album to the right and see New Zealand Pictures...or click below on this link:
Click Here to see our New Zealand Pictures...
Continuation of Blog coming soon. Its hung up in the editing department now...
| Cruising! |
|
Comments [0]
03/16/2010, Whangarei
Where do I begin? It's been so long since I last blogged.
We did not evaporate off the ocean, we actually did arrive safely in New Zealand.
Leaving Minerva Reef, it was pleasant slow going south with smooth seas. It was so tempting to just do the rhumb line to Whangarei (pronounced Fangerey) on the north east coast. But the guide books say to head south west as the westerly winds fill in with the more southerly latitudes. If those directions are not followed then it is predicted that one would have to tack back and forth to fight into the wind to get to New Zealand. We did hit the westerly mark etched in the guide book and then began our difficult tack back and forth fighting our way into the wind to get to New Zealand. Next time we will head much further west of the way point before heading directly to our New Zealand destination. At most we had consistent 25 knots of wind.
There is an ominous, spooky feeling some cruisers get while sailing from Minerva to New Zealand. It is similar to sailing into the "Devils Triangle" or crossing the Gulf Stream. In history, there have been some bad storms that caught cruisers off guard and wrecked havoc but it is far from an annual event. Talking to local sailors, they grinned when I asked them about all the terrible storms between Minerva and Whangarei. "There has been a bad storm or two years ago. What you don't hear about is all the boats that sailed through with no problems." We don't know of any cruising yachts that had any more difficult of a time getting here than we did....except for the 46 foot, Follow You Follow Me that lost its rudder 40 miles out and had to be towed in..
As soon as we arrived at RiverSide Marina in Whangarei, Brick House was hauled out of the water and the work began. The boat got some new standing rigging to hold up the mast, new bottom paint that she didn't really need, but most of all, she got a new rebuild to the skeg. Patrick did the grunt work of removing fiberglass which delaminated from the foam core and grinding fiberglass from the hull in preparation for the application of 20 layers of assorted types of fiberglass cloth for the rebuild. We hired some fiberglass men to do the important application of the new fiberglass. Patrick did all the final faring and sanding and painting. Patrick labored for days and days with a heavy grinder in hand and shrouded by blue tarps to trap all the sanding dust. He quickly got the nickname "snow white" in the marina since he was always dressed in a Tyvac suit, had white hair, and white dust all over him. Now the skeg is stronger than it ever was. The skeg is the large structural projection in front of the rudder. Without it, the rudder will fall off and it is questionable if the boat would stay afloat. We put one layer, which was the last of our SuperShipBottom antifouling on the entire bottom, and then another layer of the very economical bottom paint that they sell here in New Zealand...probably one of the few good buys left in New Zealand. Economical but it seems to be of good quality copper.
We were astonished by how much boat supplies, food, clothes and other things cost in New Zealand, but bottom paint was actually reasonable- under 100$ US a gallon if you didn't go for American brands.
Working with a local sailmaker here, Calibre Sails, we ordered a new mainsail. The old one was old when we left Rhode Island and like an old set of tires could not be repaired again. We found many of the other big brand sail makers take a sail order then have the sail made in South Africa, Taiwan or someplace like that then turn around and double the price to the customer. We wanted a local sail loft to build our sail, not some Chinaman who does not know what a sailboat is.
One experienced sailing friend installed two Kiwi Feathering Props on his catamaran. At first, the thought of light weight composite blades on a main propulsion propeller sounded like a problem one could buy. The price is half the cost of a conventional bronze feathering or folding prop. While on our road, which I will speak more of in a minute, we stopped in Auckland and visited the home of Kiwiprop. I will spare you all the details but the composite blade of the Kiwiprop, set in a vice, could only be dented when Patrick smashed a five pound hammer on the leading edge. The other stainless steel and titanium components were equally as strong. Before leaving New Zealand we will haul Brick House to install our new feathering prop. Of course our fail proof 3 blade prop will be kept as a backup. The feathering prop will reduce drag and give us another ½ to ¾ knot speed through the water. That may not sound like much but when you are only going 6 knots ¾ of a knot is a large percentage increase. Over some of the long distances we sail, the time savings will be big.
Rather than having a yard sale in Whangarei, people bring their old stuff to an auction every Friday. What a great place to pick up ten speed bikes for $35, a vacuum for $30, back packs for $7. That auction has saved us so much money. Some of the same items we bought, like the bikes and vacuum we will take back to the auction just before we sail out of here. The Salvation Army and hospice stores were helpful in that regard too. We did buy one new expensive tool for the grinding down of the skeg, but I was able to sell it the day after Patrick was done using it for just a little less than we bought it for new. Renting would have been far too expensive. That spawned the idea for other sales. We had a lot of boat equipment packed away which we would never need which easily sold on the local internet "Trade Me" site.
With most of our budget out the window, I set out to find us a good deal on a van that we could put a mattress in and call home for a few months as we toured around New Zealand. Hotels for 2 are a minimum of 60$ per night for a dump, and a car rental was to be at least 500$ per month...adding up to 2300$ per month times 2 months....plus food, fun, gas, etc. If I could find a van that wouldn't break down for 2 months plus, I'd have a chance of selling it at the end and recovering that money...if not, well I'd still be a little bit ahead, especially if I could get a good deal on the van to start with. I scanned trademe, the ebay equivalent here in New Zealand, practically hourly, and had many a seller bring the car or van to the marina so we could test drive it. I went and arranged buy back deals with used car dealers, rode every street looking for "for sale" signs, read the bulletin boards and newspapers on a daily basis. I was on a mission. On a bike ride one day I found it, in front of a mechanics shop and I managed to talk him down 1000$ before I even looked inside the van! Everything else we were looking at was at least 1500$ more, and this van was perfect for us. $3500. Even if it JUST lasted long enough for our tour, and then we left it at a junkyard, we would be 1000$ ahead... The next day Patrick and I test drove it and after a prepurchase inspection, we had ourselves wheels and a vacation home! I started to outfit it with mattress, cook stove, bins for stuff. After a thorough cleaning, and making some homemade curtains for it, it stood waiting for Patrick to finish the final touches on the skeg. By January 12th, we were on the road, and Brick House was moved to a mooring to be a little bit more economical, yet secure, while we were gone. Friends rowed us to shore and we were off.
First stop was a boatyard down the road to bid farewell to our friends Tom and Monique on Zen. They were putting their boat on a freighter named Dockwise to have their catamaran shipped to Ft. Lauderdale. In Whangarei they had extensive work done to it here in New Zealand. They would cruise the Bahamas then head north ...back to Rhode Island. We had a nice lunch with them in town, and then hit the supermarket to stock up some food, and fill the gas tank.
We spent the first ten days tooling around the northern end of the north island. KariKari Peninsula was a highlight for scenery, and the giant sand dunes the size of glaciers at Cape Reinga were amazing, especially sliding down them on boogie boards. Next time we want wider, faster, boogie boards though. We had one horrific night parked in the woods near a river with mosquitoes finding a way in to the van by the back door not being fully shut. No less than 100 mosquitoes in the van with us. It was a hot sleepless night hiding under sheets. Blood was everywhere after that escapade. The giant Kauri trees were neat. They are a hard wood but in size are just a bit smaller than the giant redwoods in California. Patrick enjoyed learning about the Treaty of Waitangi which the local Mauri natives signed to give the British the right to protect these islands from foreign invaders, like the French. In reality the Mauris were the Mauris worst enemy which then left more British for the remaining Mauris to deal with. I am not sure if the Mauris celebrate "Waitangi Day". That would be like the American Indians celebrating Thanksgiving or Columbus Day.
We stopped back in Whangarei after about 9 or 10 days to check our mail, and our boat. After seeing the movie Avatar with our friend Sam on SV Yanti Perazi, we left the next day to go see Auckland. Can you imagine Avatar not in 3D? This is a small town movie theatre.
Auckland was a blast. We went and had dinner in the revolving restaurant on top of the Sky Tower and watched people bungy jump off the top of it right past our window as we dined. We took a tour of the harbor and got off to do a nice hike on a volcanic island there:Rangitoto. One day that island is supposed to erupt and change the landscape of Auckland. We spent a full day in the Auckland Museum learning about the plants and animals, history and geology of New Zealand.
On one busy main street down town, we found a magazine store with US magazines in it including Blue Water Sailing and Cruising World etc. We were able to thumb through Blue Water Sailing and see one of our articles. Then in Latitudes & Attitudes we got to see another article and see how or if the editor at the magazines changed anything. Since we are out cruising, we are often the last to find out one or our articles has been published.
Will be posting more in the next few days as soon as Patrick edits it for me..so check back soon.
| Cruising! |
|
