What do two frustrated yachties do on the weekend, when their boat is out of commission ( sail-less).
Well they take their new/second-hand dinghy for a blitz down the harbour with the trusty 2hp outboard. As you can imagine, it was a sedate blitz probably topping 2.5 knots. But it blew away a few cobwebs, and got us out on the water. We managed to get down to Kissing Point. The weekend before during a storm, a boat shed at Kissing Point lost its roof. What a mess....
We also went out to Kabuki and tried the staysail on the Forestay, we are getting a new Yankee made for the Forestay, and we wanted to test the angles of the sheets. We have decided on a new 230sqft Yankee, this will hopefully be able to handle winds above 18knots better than our current larger Yankee. Winds here in NZ always seem to be on the nose and over 15 knots, not good for our big Yankee.
I am still slowly sewing the Mainsail cover, I have been a bit slack/lazy but hopefully I will finish this weekend...... I have a 3 day weekend, Yahoo....

We had our mate Alan over for tea on Saturday, He regaled us with tales of the recent Auckland to Vanuatu Yacht Race. He was part of the crew on Bare Essentials a racey looking yacht from Whangarei. Did not sound like fun to me, these racing boats are pretty spartan on the comfort side. Give me a Westsail any day.
I have just started reading Beth Leonards book "Blue Horizons", She is such a good writer. Beth really brings the cruising life to you in all its dirt and glory. Our Library only just purchased the book, they also have "The Voyagers Handbook" by Beth, coming in the not to distant future, I have already requested that. Some good reading to be expected for the next week or so.

Anyway catch ya round.
Wendy

PS. Thought I would ad a picture of Milligan our dinghy. It only measure's 6ft 9inches, and is a little bit flighty compared to our other fibreglass dinghy. But she fits perfectly on the deck of Kabuki. We have christened it Milligan, as that is the name of the previous owner and it is engraved all over the dinghy. We couldn't really call it anything else..