Hello All,
I had a moment today that I thought I might share. It was moving day. L Dock is having some maintenence done and we have relocated while they spruce up our pier. One of the unique things about living aboart a yacht is the ease with which you can move your home. Today I fired her up, put the bike on deck and took the dinghy and here we are in a new spot with new scenery. We are just one dock over on K-dock. A few years ago I moved from Lake Union to Shilshole in Seattle which felt like a major move. All I had to do was take my hose and my bike and I was off to a new neighborhood. Here is our new spot next to some yachts for sale by our neighborhood yacht brokerage.
Cheers
Eric

Hello All,
Less than a week now until I set foot in the US for the first time since 2010! After a brief visit to San Francisco for a wedding (and watching some Louis Vuitton Cup) I will head up to Washington State. I am really looking forward to seeing you all and catching up on the last few years. Mom and Dad are having a party at the house before I leave and you are all welcome to come and hang out. The last few months have flown by in New Zealand and with just a few more sleeps to go Ill be back in the Pacific Northwest before I know it.
Cheers,
Eric

Hello all,
A windy and rainy day here in auckland as the North island gets run over by a low. Perfect time to blog. Yesterday Amy and I got New Zealand drivers licenses.Having New Zealand licenses saves us $1000 dollars of insurance deductable if we are in a crash. All you have to do is show up to the DOL (they call it the transit authority here) with your overseas license, passport, and proof of address and they swap it right over. That is after you pass the eye exam. It is supposed to be a distance vision test. You look into a box and pretend you are looking far away. 12 letters should be seen but as hard as I tried I could only see 8. That was a fail and I had to run down the street to the optometrist to do an actual distance vision test which I passed. He filled out a special NZTA form and I went back to the DOL and got back in line. After a solid 20 minutes in line I got back to the counter with the same lady. After examining my form she informed me that the optometrist had not properly stamped the form and she could not accept it. It was now 12:25. The original guy had closed at 12:00 and was gone and the DOL closed at 1:00. Amy got back in line for me and I got some training in running through the streets of Takapuna searching for another optometrist. In the end I got another eye exam and they understood my predicament and were fast. I got back in time and our licenses are in the mail and we are excited to see our pictures and feel that little bit more Kiwi.
Cheers
Eric

Well, it's official... The work visa application has been approved, and I can now proudly call myself project manager for Brosnan Construction! I hit the ground running while still dusting off the cobwebs, shining my shoes, and oh yeah, building an entirely new Kiwi construction vocabulary. Terms I am used to using like "punchlists" and "rough-in boxes", come across like I am speaking in tongues. Similarly, I stare blankly when workmates ask me about the "ATC" or "reo". It's always fun to learn new terms as a tourist, but when it's your job to speak correctly, the stakes are a little higher to try an not sound like an idiot. That said, it's been a blast diving into the Kiwi construction industry, learning new systems every day, building relationships, and slowly growing from greenhorn to guru. The biggest challenge at the moment, is learning to manage my time-off more effectively, as time with Eric is now more precious than ever. While our days off rarely coincide, we make the most of the moments we do get to share together... like cooking a big breakfast, or watching the All Blacks stomp on France. We are both incredibly grateful for our jobs and for eachother, and working out how this current chapter shall run, has been as fun as the chapter itself.

Hello All,
We just got back from an epic weekend on the boat. We made it out to "Izzy" bay on friday night after a short motor in mill pond conditions. The next morning, after a leisurly breakfast, we decided to sail around Motutapu to an island we had never been to before, Rakino. Rakino is Northeast of Rangitoto and Motutapu and Northwest of Waiheke but pretty close. There are two good bays on the west side of it. Pictured is "Woody Bay" which Secret Agent Man has all to her self. Amy and I walked on the ridge road and checked out most of the island. It is all private and there is only 16 people living there. I would guess there are more in the summer because it is beautiful and very close to Auckland. We got back to the boat in the late afternoon and easily caught a choice snapper for dinner. We did almost get blown out of the bay in the early hours of the morning Sunday which was a bummer. The forcast was for NE 20 kts (045.) I didnt hear a squall warning on the radio that evening and we got hit by a big cloud. It blew hard fort a while from west of north. I heard a report of 330 degreese from Channel island. SO it was anchor watch time for me in the wee hours of the morning while Amy slept. There were no dramas though and later that morning the rain let up for our trip home...
That is until I was turning the boat into her slip. We were comitted to our docking maneuver when we got hit with a torrential rain squall. Luckily we had our Musto foulie bottoms on but as we tied up the boat it rained really hard and we got soaked and had a nice laugh. It was nothing the diesel heater and some hot soup couldnt fix and we have another epic weekend on the boat in the middle of winter.
Cheers
Eric

West Bay on Rakino Island with a couple of boats at anchor.

Dinghy exploration of "Woody Bay" on Rakino. Secret Agent Man in the background.

Sailing North up Rakino Channel

Old Car.

New Car.

I got rear ended a while ago driving home from work. It was'nt my fault and they totaled my car which was a bummer. Luckily the other guy was fully insured and his insurance company was cool. They payed me $1000 more for it than I had paid, and we got a rental car while they were deciding wether or not to write it off. I also learned how to take the bus to work which is easy. I ended up getting another Subaru. This one is nicer and newer. It is also a legacy has a four cylinder turbocharged diesel engine which gets the equiveland of 50 Miles Per Gallon of diesel (5.7L per 100Km). Amy got a car too. It is a tiny Peugeot 206. She also got a job which is a big deal. More on that later...

As the foiling program progresses and Secret Agent man begins to foil aerodynamics becomes an issue when it wasnt before. At the speeds we will be doing the aerodynamics of the rig, the dodger, solar pannels, jerry cans, etc. becomes critically important as we progress up the speec curve. Here I have made a sunbrella fairing inbetween the mast and the halyard bag to decrease windage.
Chears,
Eric

Boom Vang and Halyard bag with aerodynamics package installed.

Hello all,
There has been some high calorie confection this fall onboard Secret Agent Man. My latest attempt was "Mommy Cookies" which were a cherished treat and staple food of childhood. Unfortunatly they do not have shortening in New Zealand so I had to improvise. I ended up usind too much butter and sugar and my mommy cookies melted like the bad guy's faces at the end of Indiana Jones. They still tasted good though so I scraped them into the muffin tray and we had Mommy Cookie Crumble for desert. Below is amy with some cinnamon roll pancakes from breakfast out at Islington bay last week. She is stoked at the moment. My job is going well and we are just getting into winter. It has been rainy and windy out. It is nearly dark when I get home at quarter past five but I still have time for a run if I want. Secret Agent Man is fine and sporting a new cover on her boom vang thanks again to our sewing maching which continues to pay for itself.
Thats all for now..
Eric

Amy with cinnamon roll pancakes.