Christmas is fast approaching and the weather has been magnificent. We are enjoying living at Westhaven the scene is always changing, people and boats coming and going, the pohutukawa trees are covered in red, looking gorgeous even on a cloudy day.


Alan is working hard on Road Runner to get all the new bits and pieces fitted. Jim Pasco is up from Hamilton for a couple of days to help fit new batteries among other things. The thing I like about this project is all the retail therapy I have been getting although some of the Marine Industry can be very frustrating. On one of the few wet windy days (not wasting fine weather work time) we went to Lusty and Blundell, the Raymarine supposed experts, to price a new tiller pilot along with other bits, all adding up to a considerable amount of money. Their service was very poor we almost felt we had to produce a bank statement to prove we were serious. We left feeling quite despondent and confused with no progress made on the RR project. The salesman had even told Alan he was wrong about a tiller pilot that was on their own website, that it wasn't on the website and didn't exist. On returning to Westhaven we called into The Nav Station. Wow what a difference, Will was a breath of fresh air, he knew exactly what Alan wanted and could talk knowledgeably about all the products we needed. We left The Nav Station feeling confident that the RR project was on track again. Will even produced a Raymarine catalogue showing the Tiller pilot "that didn't exist". Just for the record, Lusty and Blundell, it is on your website too! I guess if we had turned up with super yacht written all over us we would have got better service. I just hope all our overseas cruising friends buying marine gear in NZ this summer get the Will treatment not the Lusty and Blundell type. Apart from that glitch we have had good service and it is so handy being here at Westhaven close to all the services we need. It doesn't hurt so much paying lumps of money over to helpful likeable people.


There are lots of things I cant help or don't want to help Alan with so that leaves me free to go for walking around Westhaven, St Marys Bay and Ponsonby. One day I walked across the newish over motorway walkway up through St Marys Bay admiring the views and beautiful houses.



There is one drawback of living in the marina, laundry cannot be hung out to dry, spoils the scenery. The management do provide a good dryer in the laundry however today I realised how many clothes I have that cannot be tossed around in hot air. The marina at Apia in Samoa had the same rules although no one took any notice of the rules. The marina there was falling to bits so a bit of laundry flapping in the breeze was neither here nor there. Today is hot and breezy so I risked a few things out on coat hangers. Clothes on coat hangers aren't really classed as laundry out to dry.. is it?