Tuesday 15 December 2009

Anchored in the Hatea River...

Hi,
This might be our last email before Christmas. Hooray we hear you say!! We have been anchored in the Hatea River, Whangarei (off the Norsand Boatyard) for a week while we dealt with a sail issue and a problem with our engine starting. We have finally traced the latter to a faulty ignition switch and hopefully will have a new switch installed on Friday. What fascinating news we can hear you say. But it is important to us (just like your phone call!!) as you never know when you might need the iron sail. We have had the car at Norsand so have been able to go ashore and do all the land based things whenever necessary; the downside is that we are strengthening the umbilical ties to the land again. Can't have that.
Noel and Litara asked us to break bread with them on "Sina" last Friday and we travelled up there to the marina in our 2.3 metre inflatable dinghy with 2.2 hp. outboard - a distance of about 2 miles further up river. At 3-4 knots that's a half hour trip. We had a very pleasant time with them and then had the return journey down river to negotiate at around midnight - at low tide. Fortunately the effects of the wine had worn off somewhat and, apart from running aground off the old fertiliser wharf we made the journey without falling in or any other incident. There were one or two arguments with the crew as to which channel markers we were looking at - hence the running aground. It seems that the skipper needs to be more assertive!! It happens when the crew has successfully completed a Boatmaster course and they think they know something!! In fact they probably do. Old greybeard skippers need to lift their game!
On Friday we are going upriver again to the Town Basin Marina - this time on "Tiare". We will leave her there while we drive down to Auckland on the 23rd. to spend Christmas with Gina's (Jean's) extended family who are truly international with many members in NZ for the first time in a few years. It promises to be a fairly hilarious time.
Our plans after that are to sail south in and around the Hauraki Gulf and also north - maybe up to North Cape. We plan to do some overnight passages to get used to the watchkeeping routine before we set off seriously for Vanuatu and points north. In between we need to do some serious yachting - none of this poncing about staying in nice sheltered anchorages! Then we are hauling out again late in March for last minute maintenance before the big OE.
In the meantime we hope everyone has a very happy Christmas and we'll not only look forward to hearing your news, but also to further regaling you with ours. "Oh no" we hear you say!!
Cheers and lots of love,
Jim and Gina (Jean)

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