Fixing Things

Yup, those are actually PINK  sheep (Kiwi sense of humour)

After nearly two months in New Zealand, Calypso hasn’t moved more than a few metres.  With all the things that went wrong around the time of our trip from Tonga, most of the time has been spent fixing things.

The biggest job of all has been the removal of our very leaky teak deck, something we knew would have to be done at some stage and, I guess, that stage has arrived.  Paul spent days simply stripping off the old teak only to find that underneath, the beautiful finished gel coat surface had been sanded right off in order to get a good bonding surface for laying the teak.  Yikes, this now means that the entire deck has to be resurfaced.  Not a small job.  Also, all the deck fittings had to be removed before the teak could be stripped and that meant emptying every cupboard on both sides of the boat and tearing down the internal head linings in order to get to the internal bolts.  I won’t even start to talk about what the inside of our boat looks like right now.  Chaos, turmoil, pandemonium, bedlam etc doesn’t even remotely touch sides.  In short, we’re living in a nightmare of stuff all around us.  Most sensible people would move off the boat whilst such activities abound, but then who said we were sensible.

Almost  All Gone

Before:  The Old Teak

During the Stripping Process

Fairing the Deck Preparing for the Paint

These photos give you a fair idea of what it looked like before Paul started and some of the progress to date.  So far, this has taken five weeks of working at every opportunity.

 

There’s a great facility here in New Zealand, something along the lines of eBay in the States but even better.  It’s called Trade Me and it’s been a godsend for us.  We were able to find a replacement windlass, second hand but in excellent condition and better still, exactly the same as our deceased one so that installing should be an easy task.  With all the deck work going on, Paul was reliant on our inverter running his electric tools but wouldn’t you know it, it died too and we were told it couldn’t be fixed. Trade Me to the rescue again, this time we managed to buy a more economical replacement which isn’t marine grade but will hopefully see us over this period and beyond.

Our faulty autopilot, George, which had caused us such grief on our trip down from Tonga is, with any luck, now working again and is just awaiting sea trials.  And our replacement (under warranty) wind charger has arrived.  This, along with the windlass and inverter are still to be installed but, whenever the sun shines, the deck work takes precedence.

 

In the meantime, while my dear husband remains a slave to Calypso, I get to go out to see the world around us.  Otto and Lilian on Vagabond have bought a car and often take me with them for shopping and sightseeing.  Thank you guys, you have been a real blessing to me.  With them, I’ve seen a fair bit of the beautiful countryside around these parts and am loving it.  

  

Christmas Spread (& these were just the starters)

 They also drove us down to Auckland for the New Years weekend as we’d all been invited to a party there.  Kerri  and Andrew, our friends aboard Mariposa, had arrived ‘home’ so had a super shindig to celebrate the New Year and their homecoming.  For the first time in ages, we slept in a non-moving bed and awoke to a glorious hot shower with endless water!  We didn’t get to see much of Auckland but what we did was certainly quite striking with all the water, harbours and bays around.  It was a great weekend, with extraordinary hospitality and  it was so nice meeting up with Mariposa again.  Previously, for Christmas day, we had a wonderful pot luck celebration aboard Troutbridge.  The food was outstanding and the weather gave up on the wet stuff for a while allowing the sun to come out to play. 

It’s summer holiday time here in New Zealand so we have to be patient when trying to get certain things done.  The Kiwis are certainly into their sailing activities in a major way and have just had the annual Tall Ships Race and The Bay of Islands Race Week which is about to be followed up by another big event this coming weekend.  There must be billions of dollars worth of yachts in this country and it’s fabulous to see that so many are actively used, not just collecting barnacles in a marina.  This also means that one can find almost everything one needs with regards to boat work.  But at a price!  My but this is an expensive country.

But I adore the Kiwi sense of humour e.g. the pink sheep above.  When I went to an ATM at the ASB bank the other day, the message on the screen stated, "Hello, I am your ASB ATM, and  I don't mind if you only use me for my money".  I love it!

PHOTO GALLERY:

Rainbow Falls near KeriKeri

NZ's  Silver Fern

Watching the Races from Russel

The Start  of  the Race

Peter  from Troutbridge with Loraine from Albatross

Kerri  & Andrew 'Mariposa'

New Year's Eve in Auckland

Paul with Otto & Lil, Vagabond

A Magnificent sight  on a Horse Farm

Enjoying Nando's in Auckland (South Africans will understand)

Ducks on Duck

Looking out onto Bay of Islands

Russel Town Dock