We arrived in NZ on Tuesday morning the 11th. Other than a minor maintenance delay between Auckland and Whangarei, the flight across the pond was uneventful. While we waited for our last leg of our flight in Auckland we emailed our friends Jeff and Melody on Double Diamond to see if they had arrived in NZ yet. They had, and told us to check the weather – there’s a Tropical Cyclone on its way to New Zealand. So we checked the gribs, and sure enough, it’s headed our way – should get the worst of it starting early Saturday morning for about 16 hours.



So while we are doing our normal chores of getting Orcinius ship shape, we are also prepping for some heavy winds and rain. We are on the hard with 9 other boats. Today the guys at the boat yard tied concrete blocks weighing 1 ton each onto the bow and stern of every boat. We weigh about 14 tons already, but it doesn’t hurt to have a little reinforcement! Other than that – all is going great. Orcinius is looking great – this is the first time I’ve gotten to see all the new and improved upgrades to her. The new countertops look great! And the extended stern steps turned out very nice! Other new stuff includes fridges, oven and stove top, washer-drier, and led lights everywhere! Orcinius is looking great! John still had to hook up the water-maker and generator, all of which have also been re-serviced – it’s going to be great getting back in the water to try it all out. So that’s it for tonight – we’ll keep you posted as Lusi heads our way!