The Sailing Adventures of Dave & Joanne on "Pied A Mer"

Geoff, Raewyn & Linda came that night and we all went out for dinner at the restaurant already mentioned and then I went back to their place for the night and Linda and I caught the Naked Bus to Manukau City, Auckland the next morning so I could pick up our car and pop top caravan which was at friend's property. Dave and Don left that morning early to head off for Tauranga, spending the Saturday night at Mercury Island and arriving in Tauranga late on the Sunday afternoon.

Since arriving back in NZ life has been full on and 3 days after arriving back in NZ we headed off down to the South Island with Don and Linda, drove to Wellington in our car where we spent two nights with daughter Rachel and family, then crossing over on the ferry to the South Island, picking up a rental car at the ferry terminal and heading down to son Cameron's at Sefton, just north of Rangiora. On the way we stopped and met up with Fran & Ernie and had a fabulous lunch at the St. Clair Vineyard.

Next day the four of us joined Cameron at the Lyttleton Farmer's Market at Deans Bush and we all had a great morning there. We kept grand daughter Scarlet with us and did a bit of sight seeing in Christchurch while Cameron went home and then came back with Melissa and the other two children and we met in Red Suare to do the walk around Red Square looking at all the buildings that have been destroyed by the earthquakes. From there we all went to a new micro brewery that had recently opened up for dinner and a drink.

Don and Linda headed off he next day for a quick tour of the South Island and Dave and I spent a few more days down with Cameron and family before flying back to Wellington where we had another three nights with Rachel and family and were at Daisy's Mad Hatter tea party to celebrate her 4th birthday. Arrived back in Tauranga on 18th December, with Don and Linda arriving back to us on 23rd December.

At this point think I will stop the Sailblog and may continue with a Blogspot blog but will keep those on my email list and on Facebook posted on that one.

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Vessel Name:	Pied A Mer
Vessel Make/Model:	Beneteau First 456
Hailing Port:	Tauranga, New Zealand
Crew:	Dave Booker
About:	Joanne Booker, wife, first mate and hand brake!!
Extra:	Our first venture into sailing was in December 1980 when we purchased a 10'6" sailing dinghy and launched on Lake Waikere at the back of our farm at Ohinewai. Cameron (6) & Rachel (4) were forward hands and Joanne, 7.5 mths pregnant with Leith was used as ballast against a stiff breeze. Then [...] in 1984 we bought a Farr 7.5m trailer yacht called Sound Reason and joined the Waikato Yacht Squadron. With a growing family we soon needed a bigger yacht so in 1989 we bought a half share in a Raven 31 keeler which we kept in Pineharbour Marina, Auckland. For many years it has been Dave's dream to sail off shore so in January 2003 we purchased Pied A Mer which had been bought by a NZer who had been living in Guam, from an American doctor. We spent the next 15 months doing a refit on her and then in May 2004 sailed to Tonga, then on to Samoa, Wallace Island, Fiji and back to NZ. 2005 saw us in Fiji for 4 months and then sailed back to NZ. 2006 was spent back in NZ as Dave had to have a hip replacement but we did do a cruise down to Fiordland and Stewart Island for 3.5mths in Dec 2006 to early April 2007. June 2007 we sailed to Vanuatu and then on to Bundaberg, Australia where we arrived the end of October 2007. More