It's been a while since our last post but that's about to change. We always said we wanted to be out cruising by summer, but delays here and there have meant we're still in the marina. Steve finally finished up his job a couple of weeks ago - I picked him up at 4pm on a Friday, and we were out of the marina by 5pm. We spent til Monday evening out, and only came back because they were forecasting squally thunderstorms, plus we had contractors booked to do work on the boat on Tuesday. The squally thunderstorms never arrived, and the work on the boat got delayed.

The next excuse was that Steve had meetings, plus a couple of days away with work - which is great that he's got some work for himself so quickly after leaving the company he was with and going out on his own.

We were hoping to get away straight away once he got back, but 3 days later we're still here. There's been all the last minute jobs to complete - new anchor and more chain, kayak tie downs, move the shore power from the anchor locker (silly place for it) to the cockpit (far better place). That required removing timber, glueing in new timber, fibreglassing, etc. we also needed to commission the watermaker - we thought it would be a 10 min job, but as always, it takes 3.14 times longer than you think (coulson's pie rule).

We also needed to service the engine, plus a whole bunch of other jobs.

It's 5.50pm on a Friday and the engine is all done, and we're knackered. The cold beer is going down nicely, we may yet get the watermaker going tonight, but we'll definitely be leaving the marina first thing tomorrow morning as we have to be in Coromandel for Monday for another job for Steve.

It's been a long road, but we must remember that it's the journey, not the destination - and dropping those dock lines is the hardest part :)