It never really stops. Today we learned the super strong (cough, cough) Harken backstay adjuster has a broken roller bearing. Sounds like a defective part, but companies rarely cover these after more than a year and it’s about 4 years old. But a bearing like that should never break!

Ann did a huge boat clean up, emptying drawers and cabinets and spraying for mold and drying everything out. Huge!

I picked up our new outboard propeller. That should help a lot in the comfort department.

We’re waiting on some other parts as well. A year’s worth of wear and tear costs money and time.

Hopefully we’ll get to do some touring tomorrow, but we also have to clean up the dinghy. Inflate it, hose it out, etc. It also has a damaged tube that will need some professional care at some point I think.

Oh, and I got a quote for new sails from Doyle/New Zealand. Not too bad. They have a 25% off special right now because this is the off season down here, so we’ll see on that. Charisma’s current ones are 25 years old so she’s gotten good wear out of them. Maybe time for new ones that will be more trustworthy in a storm.

Seems like there are a lot of those 😉

But, that’s the reality of living in a boat that really sails. There is a lot of wear and tear. I’m fairly convinced that a month of cruising takes about a year’s toll of regular day sailing (the kind where you sail on weekends) on a boat.

Anyway…today we did the following:

-Ann took out all the cushions and laundered the covers and washed the foam. They all had saltwater on them and would never dry out unless we could remove the salt. Unfortunately the sun decided to hide behind some clouds so the cushions are not completely dry – here’s hoping for a sunny day tomorrow! -Ann cleaned all of the shelves on the port side of the boat. This is the side where the chainplate keeps leaking so mold and mildew can be a problem. So all shelves and the shuttered doors got a good scrubbing. -Ann did laundry -I bought some boat parts that we haven’t been able to find. Fairly trivial but very important stuff that we haven’t been able to source in Polynesia like clevis pins and cotter pins. -Had a rigger down and he did an end for end on the main and jib halyards and put new splices in them. I can splice, but for such an important splice I wanted a pro job -I re-did the tag line on the yankee jib. There was a 3/16 wire. It was fraying and I didn’t like how it chaffed the headfoil when it furled, so I changed over to Dyneema which I spent a couple hours putting two splices in (Ann says they look very professional and she watched the do-it-yourself YouTube video so she should know). It’s much softer and won’t damage the headfoil as much. -The rigger and I took off the backstay adjuster. We have a Harken mechanical adjuster and about the time we left Mexico it jammed. I’m guessing the grease inside mixed with salt and just created a glue, but will know tomorrow after the rigger takes it apart. I would have done it, but it takes a specialized tool that I didn’t want to have to fabricate for just one use when for 30 bucks (the cost in time he’ll spend opening it) I can get him to do it.

I think we did a couple other things but they escape me for now. More stuff for tomorrow. The dinghy motor is getting a new prop and I’m getting a block and tackle rig so I can haul myself up the mast. I need to change the steaming light and in general want to be able to go aloft when need be. I’m also going to have the rigger do a “one hour inspection” of the rig. They were offering this for $30. I’m going to get him to go to the top and come down inspecting all the swage fittings to make sure none are failing.

OK, enough techie boat talk for now. I WILL at some point write up a “what works/doesn’t work” bit, but for later.

Ta ta for now.

Yesterday was a rainy, cold day. Today the sun shone brightly. Seems appropriate here in Opua as we await the arrival of the sailing vessel Adventure Bound. Adventure Bound is the sailboat that went to the rescue of Windigo, the boat that rolled in the storm coming from Tonga. To go to their rescue Adventure Bound had to turn into 50 knot winds and bash back north. No easy task in that storm.

They stayed nearby Windigo until the large container ship and ultimately the New Zealand Navy could rescue them. The detour cost not only time, but equipment failure too. We hear that their wind vane was damaged in the high winds and waves. The cruisers gathering in Opua have patiently tracked Adventure Bound’s progress (through two more gales!) and are very excited about their arrival. We have just heard Adventure Bound on the VHF making their way to the Q dock. Cruisers are family and very supportive of each other. A welcome card was signed and donations were gathered from cruisers as well as local merchants to help Adventure Bound with repairs as well as to tell them how proud we are of them. The boat yard has offered a free slip for a week. The local grocery store has a bag full of goodies. There are boat cleaning services and even two nights at a local hotel awaiting them.

Our job: present the gift to Bruce and Marcelle on behalf of the cruisers. This has kept us near the marina all day. The local TV station has had a camera man nearby ready for the big arrival. We hope to be able to go to Q dock and pull in their lines. Time will tell. A quick side note: Adventure Bound is also a Tayana 37. Bruce, from Adventure Bound, says he wants to change their name. He told us that the very first time we met them in Papeete. He thinks it is a ridiculous sounding name and when he can afford to, he intends to change it. On the radio a few days after the storm, he reaffirmed this stand acknowledging that who wouldn’t want to be rescued by ADVENTURE BOUND?!?!? Perhaps if they had been named Tinkerbell their services would not have been requested. I think we should come up with the top ten new names for Adventure Bound! Evening update:

Adventure Bound has arrived in New Zealand to the loud cheers of many fans at the yacht club. Bob took the TV camera man and rowed over to the Q (Quarantine) Dock with the champagne and bag full of good wishes and donations. Many people were concerned that this “infraction” of Q dock rules (only Customs officials are to have access to the boats on the Q dock) would land Bob in trouble with the local authorities. Bob was confident that an apology to customs officials (if any could be found on a Sunday) for pushing the rules after the fact would be appropriate. As of this moment no apology is needed. Customs are no-where to be seen until Monday morning. Bruce and Marcelle were thrilled with the goodies and happy for the welcoming hug that Bob represented.

Now the heroes sleep comfortably tied up to a dock for the first time in 19 days.

Entering the cave

Town of Pahia near our marina

Today we got away from the boat for a while and took a road trip inland to our first real sightseeing trip. We went to the “Glow Worm” cave. Sounds cheesy, yes? But, it was a fantastic tour.

First off the cave itself was huge and deep and beautiful. This was a guided tour, but with a twist. The cave is on private property, so the family runs the tour. They are very respectful of the land, so the tour is low key, but very informative. The cave itself has been dated to 100 million years based on the size of the stalagmites inside.

Then there were the glow worms. Little worms about 3 inches long. They live in their larval state for 10 months during which time the tip of their tail glows. Anyway, once in the cave, the highlight was the guide turning the lantern off several times as we moved through the cave whereupon the entire ceiling of the cave glowed with bluish green spots. It looked like the milky way on a clear night. Amazing.

So now we’ve done our first road trip. Our other news was we bought a car. It’s a Mitsubishi Mirage. Since we’re here for about six months, transportation is necessary, especially since we’re going to tour the countryside while we’re here. There’s a service called Cars for Cruisers that sells used cars and then guarantees to buy them back-less $2000-after the six months. So for a little over $300/month we have a car to tour the country. Nice!

So, we didn’t get up until 1000 this morning. Turns out the passage took a bit more out of us than we thought. We’ve heard that from some others too. We’re pretty close to getting back up to speed though. Our final two days coming in were with little sleep. It’s often that way on the end of a passage as you get near a coastline. This was compounded with the fact that the weather was deteriorating a second time during the trip. We ended up in a second front the last day. Rain, wind gusting to 35 knots, etc. But at this point we were nearing the coast so we had to keep alert. Neither of us were able to get much sleep as there was a lot of traffic during the day and into the night. Big ships coming down the coast and intersecting with our course, so a lot of radar work watching them and deciding how best to avoid them. Not too easy since we were intersecting at a fairly narrow angle.

Customs in NZ was fun. The folks are really nice but they take everything. NZ is very careful about what they broadly term “bio-hazard”. This includes growth on the hull as well as anything that might be able to grow and compete with native plants and animals.

Customs itself was pretty easy, although at the end of the meeting the customs guy casually asked if we had any pepper spray or other such product. We did have some bear spray (since you don’t need a license in the States) and he said we’d have to give it up. It’s illegal here. So that was our first confiscation. Then he left and said quarantine would be by the boat soon. After about 20 minutes the quarantine guy came in and went through his list with us. He was very nice, but just held a garbage bag open as he went down the list; honey (“that’s Mexican honey, in the bag”), meat (“in the bag”), vegetables, bananas (“in the bag”), eggs, onions, garlic, ginger (“bag, bag, bag and bag”). Pretty much stripped us of anything fresh. Garbanzo beans, and popcorn were the grains that were taken. We had seen rice, lentils and such on the list but he didn’t ask for those. Funny how they manage to make it seem like such a nice experience while at the same time taking all your fresh stores. The Kiwis manage to do everything with a smile. It’s a very pleasant place with wonderful people. But the one stop check in (all on the Q – Quarantine Dock) was a nice change from roaming all over new ports looking for the necessary officials to check us into their country.

New Zealand looks just like Petaluma, only farther.