We have had a great time participating in the All Points Rally in Opua. We have been to seminars on sails, diesel maintenance, epoxy and fiberglass, lithium batteries and downwind sailing so far. I would never have thought that I could find seminars on these topics interesting, but when you have to be so self-reliant out at sea or in some location that has no technical support (basically the whole Pacific) you need to be able to fix things. Sometimes they get a little boring and I feel like nodding off especially after a sausage sizzle lunch. We have also been busy socializing and going to free sausage sizzle lunches, free BBQ dinners, a free pizza and comedy night and after the comedy show we did the quiz night at the Cruising Club and won it in the last round. We were coming third and 4 points down and the last round was brain teasers and we got a perfect 10 out of 10 and won the quiz by 1 point. We thought that was pretty cool and we all won a free drink as the prize.

We attended the bus trip to Kerikeri and it was a lovely day out visiting the Stone Store, Waipapa Retail Centre, Kauri Wood Workshop, Makana Chocolates and the town of Kerikeri. We have spent time socializing each day with everyone and last night we had an evening on Ta-B with about 20 others and did a sing along with the Irish boat and one of English boats playing guitars, tin whistles and ukuleles. It was so much fun. I am just so amazed at some of the cruisers as they have been sailing for many years and some are well into their sixties, seventies and eighties. I met the solo sailor from Double Angel who is well in his seventies and he was telling me of his future sailing plans as he heads up to Asia, then into the Red sea and then wants to go up the Baltic Sea. One of the boats near us is a Scottish boat called Enchantress and the skipper is seventy and he was up dancing and singing last night. I asked him how he has so much energy, as Neil had left Ta-B at 9pm to go to bed as he was tired. He said he gets tired, but he intends to live and enjoy each day to its full. A great attitude and one so common among cruisers.

Then you have the other side with boats that have young couples with small toddlers on board or families with three or four kids all living on a boat much smaller than ours. They cope so well and the best thing is, they have the most well-adjusted, educated and self-confident children I have ever met. At the comedy night, some of the families with kids got up to tell jokes or do skits and the kids stole the show. The children were between 5 and 8 and performing in front of close to 100 people did not faze them at all. All the children we have met are so confident in speaking to other adults, have so much to share about their experiences and they can swim, snorkel, sail, canoe, navigate, wind surf, drive dinghies, fish, kite sail and do more activities than either Neil or I can do. Fortunately there are a number of family boats so the children also get to socialize with other children and the best part is, they are mixing with children from everywhere. As a teacher, I have often wondered how children would do being away from formal schooling, but I can now say that the quality of education these children are getting is superior. It is easier now doing home schooling than it used to be, as you get sent the course material and program that the children need to follow. They only need to do one to two hours a day and they learn more than a child attending a whole day of school, where there are so many interruptions. Most of the children we have met are well above their school age and they have the added advantage of experiencing different cultures and learning how important it is to problem solve, have patience, tolerance and determination as many virtues are tested in a sailing environment. A big change for me, as I have always considered formal schooling the best option.

We had a lovely day yesterday catching up with Matt and Karol, Neil’s longtime friends that live in Russell. They caught the car ferry over for a visit and will come again for dinner on Tuesday night. They lived on a small boat with their three young children for 12 years and so know what the cruising and liveaboard lifestyle is all about. Matt is also an electrician and helped us out with a couple of things while here. He noticed we had an issue and insisted in having a look. I had booked an electrician to look at the toilet pump on Tuesday and Matt found the problem to be hair caught inside the pump. How the hair got inside a pump we don’t know but the problem is fixed. He also isolated our bilge pump issue and the problem with that is that it needed to be cleaned. We had an oil spill into the bilge a while ago and it seems that the oil had got into the bilge pump float switch and was stopping it from moving properly. After a good degrease/clean the float switch is working again. Now when the electrician comes on Tuesday, our list has been reduced to one or two things.

We have lots to look forward to this week with more seminars, dinners and the popular sausage sizzles. We are also hoping that many of our friends will arrive later this week as there was a large number of them stuck at Minerva reef waiting for a weather window. I hope they can leave and get a good passage. Unfortunately and it is extremely frustrating for me, is that being in a marina we can’t get the radio net. There is too much interference. The problem is most of the net controllers have arrived and are in a marina and so Balvenie is finding it hard to get someone else to do the net with them. I am not able to hear the radio at all otherwise I would do it for the next week while there is a large contingent sailing here. I feel really bad that I can’t be of assistance as having the radio net was so important to me. I am also looking forward to seeing Balvenie as they will complete their circumnavigation of the world when they arrive. What a fantastic achievement. It is also Mark’s birthday next Saturday, so hopefully they are here by then, so we can all celebrate with them.

Today, we are doing odd jobs on the boat, I am writing my blog and I am anticipating the taste of the lamb roast I will hopefully have tonight at the Cruising Yacht Club in Opua. It is the Sunday roast night and they have had roast lamb the last 3 week, so it might change they said and not be roast lamb. For us who arrived this week, we are keeping our fingers crossed for lamb, as it is almost impossible to get lamb in the Pacific. Even though I love roast pork, we all have said we had lots of pork so we are looking forward to lamb. What ever happens a good roast is always yummy!

I did feel good yesterday when I saw Jonas off Alma arrive, as he is a young solo sailor sailing a very small 27 foot boat. He got caught in the last front, and is relieved to be here. We are all still looking out for Sparrow as that is only a 26 foot boat and I just hope he will get here safely very soon. Both Sparrow and Alma left a couple of days after us from Minerva. I am also looking out for Gene and Bill from Out of the Bag as they flew back to Fiji from NZ to bring someone else’s boat back to NZ after they got their boat here. Crazy, is what I think, but I know Bill loves to sail and doing this trip doesn’t faze him. I hope it goes smoothly for Gene as I could not imagine getting here and then doing the trip again so soon. They have left Fiji, so they should be here by the end of this week. Next weekend could be a big weekend with catchup celebrations, the end of the rally and the start of farewells as we all have to move on. That will definitely be a very sad time for me, as many of the people we will say goodbye to, we have spent so much time with them this year and we may never see some of them again.