The night before leaving Whangarei, some of the cruising ladies had put together a kind of final farewell knowing that most of us were going three sheets to the wind in different directions. Lisa organized the get together at a restaurant called Nomads. It had a nice second floor eating area with Moroccan style seating on cushions on the floor and some regular tables for those who came too late to get the floor lounge.


Deb and Don - Cute!


The Belly Dance!


Twenty cruisers showed up, some we had not seen in over a year. We all managed to re-acquaint ourselves with each other and then after a couple rounds of drinks each couple told the rest what their plans were for the next year or two. We had picked up Don and Deb from Buena Vista out at Kissing Point marina so when the night was closing down we had to return them to that facility. We all said our goodbyes around 10pm and we were on our way.


Craig Mark Anne Heather


A Couple of Handsome Cruiser Boys!


Heading out to decorate Ann's room for her birthday surprise.!

We left Whangarei but before we did we managed to sell the van/wagon to another cruiser, and spent an hour at the Easter Morning service with our dear friend Ann from Charisma. I don't think anyone really thought we would ever manage to get away from Whangarei. Not that Whangarei is a bad place but if you are a cruiser you need to be cruising. We do love Whangarei and some of the special friends we met there.

As you all know Orcinius has spent the last year and 6 months here in New Zealand. It was a good place for her to get well after the major fractures discovered when we first landed here. Lisa and I have spent about half that same amount of time with the rest back home in Vancouver WA wondering how our cruising home was getting along.

So we pulled away from the dock at about 1045 this morning waving goodbyes to friends and calling the new bridge control for an opening. We knew it was manned as we had heard on the VHF other boats were getting their attention. We proceeded to motor down river and had a pleasant trip down to the bay we took our friends to last weekend.

And so the cruising starts all over again. But first, and before we get to set our first anchor, Lisa informs me that the main or owner's head won't flush. Hell - can't even get an anchor down before "shit happens". On top of that as we are getting ready to deploy the anchor there is a major rain squall heading our way. Manage to get the hook down, set and tethered to the bridle when the sky starts to fall. After the squalls there is no more dust on our beloved Orcinius.

Ok now we have to deal with the head. The bowl is nearly full but nothing will pump out. With a cup and a bucket we mostly empty the bowl. Something must be stuck in the joker valve. We try using pressure from the shower hose, no luck, add a little muriatic acid for about an hour - still no luck and so finally after flushing, rinsing and adding enough water to dilute the excrement to about 1 part per 1000 and mentally manageable, I finally remove the output hose from the head and apply full water pressure directly to the hose to which I finally hear and feel a surge. Whatever was stuck in the joker valve is no longer there and water is free flowing to the holding tank. Put it back together and made sure it was working, cleaned the head and shower, serviced the sump filters and then cleaned myself up a bit. Time for a drink.

While I was waiting for the muriatic acid to run its course, I pulled my light spinning rod out, opened up the snapper bait, threaded a hook and took to fishing. Not much luck, the tide was running out so most of the fish were finding deeper holes.

After all the commotion and the drink I was beat. Laid down on the bed and was out for about an hour and a half. While I am catching a nap, Lisa is down in the head sanitizing the whole thing. After I woke, I took a long, very warm shower and now here I am doing the blog.

So another good thing that happened today was a discovery by Lisa that it is nearly impossible to work an inventory list while putting things away. The discovery was that you need to know how to fit all the stores into the spaces available before you can formulate the inventory and its location. So you can have a list of items and the quantity, but until you find a place for those items you can't really assign the location.
It becomes a three stage process. Make the list of items and the quantity. Find a place the items will logically be stored and make sure it all fits, then pull it all back out, inventor everything that will be stowed in that space, then place it all back in the same space (hopefully!). Frustrating but necessary. The salon looks clean and while we know that the final stowage and inventory isn't quite done, we will be able to eat dinner on an empty salon table.

John