We decided to continue sailing to Indonesia and beyond, because we had hoped that the boat would sell in New Zealand ….that didn’t happen! S**T! So we found it necessary to take AS to the yard and have her hauled out of the water for general maintenance and several coats of bottom paint. Ron decided to install two solar panels since we inadvertently fried our batteries by under charging them over a long period of time. This is the second time this has happened! Hopefully the solar panels will fill in for what the generator doesn’t do. Ron was busy with the installation of the solar panels and I was in charge of bottom painting the boat. Ron did all the taping of the water line and I was ready to begin the painting. We crossed our fingers for no rain and the work began. After all was said and done, we had applied several coats of bottom paint and an extra ones around the water line. Ron had the solar panels installed and was continuing to refine the installation. The max prop had some galvanic corrosion on it so that presented another project. We had to send the prop off the Whangarei to a prop shop that did a wonderful job in getting it restored to the best of their ability. Job well done. We installed the max prop and pulled the blue take off the waterline and we were ready to be launched back into the water. That left us one week to shop, watch the weather, cook for the passage and find places to store all the goodies we purchased. Job was completed in less than a week and we left New Zealand on April 28, which was a Tuesday, and had a rip-roaring ride to New Caledonia. It would not have been our first pick of weather but what was coming ahead didn’t look as good so we decided to go for it. It took some adjusting as we had been on a mooring for the last six months so it took a day or two to find our sea legs. All went well and we arrived in six days with lots of wind, rain and sea water coming over the cockpit comings. EXCITING! We are now anchored in a harbor of refuge that is one of the jewels of New Caledonia named Isle de Pins

It is now time to clean up the mess, find a place to do laundry and relax.

Once we get to Noumea we’ll have access to the Internet and try to catch up with our correspondence

From the Crew of Always Saturday