Frustrated!!! (With the weather!)

Well, we are still here and, apart from a brief trip down the harbour and back tomorrow and Tuesday, we are likely to remain in the short term. We need a minimum of 3 days of southerly quarter winds to get clear and to give you an idea of our weather problem here is the forecast for the next 7 days as at 1030 Sunday the 8th.:

Sunday NW-W-SW 10-15 knots clear

Monday W10 - E10 clear

Tuesday E10-NE15-20 rain

Wednesday NE25-N30-NW35 rain

Thursday N20-NW10-N20 clearing

Friday 13th!!!!! We wouldn't go today anyway!! NW15-NW25-W25 rain then clearing

Saturday NW20-W20-W25-20-SW15 rain clearing - at last a glimmer of hope if the SW or any southerly for that matter stays around for 3-4 days.

We live in hope.

Watch this space.

Still weeatherbound!

Another update. We are watching the weather daily - mainly on the Metvuw site which gives detailed weather maps up to 7 days in advance. Every time we think we see a period of southerly quarter winds developing there's another low approaching with more northerlies! Very frustrating.  So, our departure date at this stage remains uncertain. We will probably go to the BOI to clear out of there but even that is subject to change. The alternative is to clear directly out of Marsden Cove. In the meantime we are doing last minute jobs and watching the weather!

Cheers,

Jim and Jean (Gina)

Weather bound

Hi to everyone,

When we went to the Whangarei Farmer's Market last Saturday (the 23rd.) we genuinely thought that it would be our last visit for the foreseeable future - at least until next February when we return to claim our pension - if there's anything left by then after this current profligate rabble in Wellington have sold us all to the Chinese!!! However, here we still are and Jim went to the market again this morning to stock up again on the necessities of life. Mahoe Cheese, Harncroft Tamarillos, Waima Organic Meat, Ohaeawai Eggs to name but a few. The Farmer's Markets establishing all around the country are providing consumers with a real alternative to the bland, mostly chemical based supermarket fare. Long may they flourish. 

Jim had experience of the Kerikeri Farmer's Market prior to 2008 and has enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Whangarei Market on a regular basis since. We always banter with some of the characters that man the stalls. Henry with his Macadamias (he is also our friendly mechanic who keeps the trusty Hyundai going! - Allied Motors), Tracy who is Vietnamese and with her NZ'er husband sells delectable salad greens (this is Jean talking here!!), Alan and Marie at Mahoe Cheese, our friends who sell kumaras from Dargaville and with whom we always have some very risque conversations - to do with kumaras you understand!, and Mrs. Joosten from Otaika who is in her eighties and never misses a week at the market and who sells delicious chutneys, jams, etc. Then there are all the other stall holders who are there winter and summer and in all weathers. We well remember a dark morning one winter a year or so ago at about 6.30am when we wore our wet weather clothing to combat the elements. But it's always been worthwhile. After the market we usually repair to a local eatery - either Caffeine Cafe opposite what used to be Len Adams Service Station (now a drive-in drycleaner) where Jim's brother Alec tearfully lost some of his pet lizards when their container fell out of the car about 50 years ago! Memories, memories. Either that or we would go to Bob's Cafe just up Bank St. where our friend Sara works as a chef. Creamed mushrooms on Ciabatta toast is a favourite.

Talking of Sara, we must make mention of her and Hamish who have been such a help during our stay here in Whangarei. Hamish is a stainless steel engineer and fabricator who has done some work on the boat and who works out of their rural property. They very kindly allowed us to live with them when Jim first came to Whangarei on the boat and we have had many happy times with them. The last time we had a meal at their place we provided a leg of lamb and Jim cooked it and roast veges in their oven. Hamish made the gravy and it was delicious! We have just had a bookcase made to go in the forrard cabin and which has proved invaluable in freeing up space previously occupied by said books. We took it up to Hamish and Sara's and varnished it there. It is now installed and looks marvellous.

Now back to the subject of the pesky weather! It's Saturday evening and there is a storm warning out for Brett and a gale warning for Colville. Great!!! In addition there are warnings for heavy rain over the next 36 hours. So we have battened down the hatches and checked the mooring lines. We have had winds predominantly from the north over the past week and it looks like continuing. Not much good when that's the direction in which one wants to sail. However, there is a glimmer of hope for later in the week - it all depends how long is the weather window. Ideally we need 3 days of southerlies to blast us clear but the pattern recently has been to return to northerlies after a short time. The weather guru, Bob McDavitt has said that conditions won't improve until mid May to provide the conditions we need. New Zealand is a very hard place to leave!!! We have very mixed feelings about leaving Whangarei where we have both been involved. Jim mostly with the boat when she was at the Norsand Boatyard having her extensive refit carried out by their shipwright Noel Barrott, and Gina who lived here with her neice, Jo and worked in charge of a local rest home. There are many memories here from our earliest times in 2008 when we babysat a small rural property at Otaika to living in the flat at Norsand. Subsequently we've lived on the boat, both in and out of the water - living on a boat on the hard is a challenging experience, especially when trying to get work done inside and out. We both felt quite emotional a week ago after leaving the market as we thought it would be the last time (ridiculous we know!) but as we've already said it wasn't to be. Maybe today will have been the last time.

Our plans are to sail to Noumea as it's the closest of the island destinations and then to go to Vanuatu. One needs to plan passages on the basis of prevailing winds (in this case SE trades) as there is not a lot of point in beating into it if one doesn't need to. Having said that, it will happen no doubt from time to time in spite of the best laid plans. Then we plan to decide whether we return to NZ for the summer or go to Australia (northern NSW or Queensland). The disadvantage of that is the exchange rate which at the moment is some 27% in Australia's favour but the advantage is that we will then be that much closer to a jumping off point for Darwin, Indonesia and Malaysia the following year. We would sail up inside the Barrier Reef, around Cape York into Torres Strait and the 800 miles further on to Darwin. We need to be in Darwin by July to join the Sail Indonesia Rally and it would be difficult to acheive that from NZ, especially given the capricious weather patterns one encounters down here. But, like all plans this is subject to change so stay tuned to our website www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com Once we have left NZ the best email address to use is ZMQ5985@sailmail.com as we won't be able to access Yahoo unless we have internet access.

Watch this space!!!

Cheers and lots of love 

Jim and Jean (Gina)   

 

 

  

Preparations for departing - finally

So much to talk about we hardly know where to begin. Since being re-launched we have been working on the boat and provisioning and re-stowing. This latter is no small task as it invilves stowing many stores and equipment and recording in the minuteist detail their whereabouts on the boat. A fair proportion of the stores are stowed under our bed in the forrard part of the boat and this involves the complete dismantling of said bed to load whatever is necessary. Thankfully this phase is now largely behind us. We have painted the coachroof and re-varnished the cabin coamings. We are getting a bookshelf made for the forrard cabin which will free up some other much needed stowage. That hasn't been finished yet and we then have to apply at least 3 coats of varnish which we are hoping will not unduly delay our departure. We also have an AIS receiver which gives early warning of commercial shipping in our vicinity.and we have been having trouble with the aerial. We fitted a temporary aerial and went down to Marsden Point to eyeball ships at the wharf and see whether they came up on our receiver. Glad to say all was well and we have now replaced the old masthead aerial which we are hopeful will solve the problem. Trials and tribulations and nothing with a boat is straightforward; it all takes so long to solve problems. But touch wood (and there's plenty of it round here!) all is now well. We had a visit from Keith (Jean's brother from Wellsford) and Eileen on the weekend and that was a pleasant interlude. At least they now have a visual appreciation of the boat. Our Swiss French friends, Michel and Marie-Ann have another double ender similar to the Tiare except that she is only two thirds of our size. They built her themselves and they have a house on the island of Elba (where Napoleon was first incarcerated) which they also built themselves.They sailed here from Europe about 3 years ago and have since been re-fitting the boat in between returning to Switzerland to be with family. They are now ready to leave to head back to Europe and will be sailing tomorrow. We hope that we may cross paths either in New Caledonia or Vanuatu later this year. They are in their mid sixties and are great people. We feel humbled to have met them. We haven't been anywhere yet (!) and have still met wonderful people; those who cruise the oceans are a special breed. Well, we are about to depart. We intend to leave Whangarei just after Easter and spend 7-10 days regaining our sealegs on a leisurely cruise to the Bay of Islands. Once we are there we will be clearing Customs at Opua and setting sail for Noumea as soon as we have a suitable weather window. Watch this space!!

Previous blog - the Mair pioneers

Hi again, Just a note of clarification - we have referred to Henry Mair as Jean's (Gina's) "ancestor". While that is true in a general sense, more specifically he was her great grandfather. His father was Gilbert Mair who founded the historic Mair dynasty in NZ prior to 1840. Gilbert Snr. was an entrepreneur who, among other things, operated a Pacific Island trading concern which Henry and another brother Gilbert Jnr. continued. Ironically the Mairs would no doubt have been competition for Jim's great grandfather A.B. Donald who had also established an island trading concern in the late 1800's!! Another of Henry's brothers was Robert who was a farmer and donated what is now known as Mair Park to the City of Whangarei. So, there you have it - another of the many strands of our respective DNA's!!

 

Hi everyone, Thought it was time we posted an update on all our doings. Since arriving back in Whangarei we went to Christchurch to visit Charlotte and her family - Jon, Lucia and now the newest addition, Elsie. We flew down there on March 2nd not sure what to expect in terms of damage etc. Everything appeared normal at the airport and we caught a shuttle to Cracroft. On the way we saw some minor liquification and very minor damage such as block walls having fallen over but nothing else. Fortunately their house was undamaged and the additions which were built by Jon and his father over the preceding months look magnificent. It was very special meeting the newest grandchild as well and we spent some happy times together. We all went out to a local wildlife park and had a great time there. By now Lucia had overcome her shyness with Poppa Jim and Gina!! On the Saturday we were having a cup of tea when a 4.1 aftershock struck. It felt as though a giant fist punched the house from underneath - no warning - just one hell of a bang. Bit unnerverving for us who weren't used to earthquakes but they seemed to take it all in their stride.At another time we drove out to Mt. Pleasant with Jon to visit his brother's house which seemed undamaged but they had left to be with Nessie's parents in Oamaru. The microwave had been propelled right across the kitchen onto the opposite bench! Wouldn't have been good to have been in its way. Other houses in the vicinity  were showing obvious signs of serious damage and many would be written off. Back to what passes for normality in Whangarei and we hauled out at Norsand once more on the 7th. A few small jobs plus antifouling and we are now due to be back in the water on the 25th. In the meantime we went to a Worsfold family reunion at Bill and Bev Worsfold's farm at Kaiwaka. It had been a mammoth effort to organise and offered (for Jim) a great chance to meet most of the family in one gathering. We stayed at Milestone Cottages in Mangawhai owned by an old school friend of Gina's and all in all had a most enjoyable time. We googled the name Worsfold and it appears likely that it had German origins around the 12th. century in England. Vorselde is the German original name and there is still a place in Germany bearing that name. It is now a part of the city of Wolfsburg. All very fascinating the diverse strands that make up our present day DNA. There was some discussion about another ancestor, Henry Mair who had been beheaded in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) sometime in the late 1800's. He apparently also buried some treasure on Suwarrow Is. in the Cook Islands and the island had coincidentally been leased by Jim's family's island trading business (among others at various times) for copra production many years ago when the business had been operating. No treasure was ever recorded however so either it was secretly spirited away or never found - much more likely the latter. It is indeed a small world. We are keen to visit the site of Henry's demise in Vanuatu to see what we can find but might have to keep quiet about the family connection otherwise history might repeat itself!! We'll keep you posted.  In the meantime back in the boatyard and getting on with the chores of getting the boat ready for the big OE. Antifouling (3 coats) and filter and oil changes for the engine. And the boatyard politics again! Nothing much changes we find. Lots to do tomorrow as we are launching the day after and it's already past midnight and blowing and raining a gale from the east. So must away to a nice warm bunk. Hope all is well and we'll be in touch again soon. Cheers and lots of love Jim and Gina (Jean)

 

Fw: Sailing and natural disasters

--- On Wed, 23/2/11, Jim Donald <tiare_taporo@yahoo.co.nz> wrote: From: Jim Donald <tiare_taporo@yahoo.co.nz> Subject: Sailing and natural disasters To: iamthekeshman.postbyemail@blogger.com Received: Wednesday, 23 February, 2011, 11:11 AM We are writing this in the aftermath of the shocking news of the latest Christchurch earthquake. The first we knew of it was when we were approaching the Hen and Chicks on our way back from the Barrier and we received a text from Perry's girlfriend asking if we had heard and expressing concern about Jim's daughter Charlotte who lives in Chch. By great good fortune Charlotte and Jon and Lucia and Elsie were on holiday in Blenheim and we have since heard a sketchy report that their house is relatively undamaged. Almost unbelievable condidering the scale of the disaster. So all that was a great relief and it was bizarre listening to the radio news as we were having an exilharating sail in 22knots of wind and hanging on by our toenails!! We had set off on Feb 7th. and had a reasonable sail down the coast to Kawau. We spent a few nostalgic days there visiting Jim's Grandfather's little cottage which sadly is in other ownership and in a sad state of disrepair. We caught a few small (legal!!) snapper and had dinner with Garry on "Berna Marie" a couple of times - once on the Tiare and once on BM. "Berna Marie" has circumnavigated the world twice! An inspiration for us. We also walked from Schoolhouse Bay to Mansion House and back. Then we sailed towards Waiheke and eventually ended up in Chamberlain's Bay on Ponui Is. Very little wind and motoring most of the way. The next day we tried to sail but ended up motoring across the Firth of Thames to Te Kouma which is a great sheltered harbour on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula. We had never been to Coromandel Town before by boat so one day sailed over there which is in a large shallow bay just north of Te Kouma. Deep keel yachts must anchor about a mile from a tidal creek which is navigable by dinghy above half tide so we went ashore once there was enough water and had a fish meal at the local pub which was definitely very less than memorable and stocked up on provisions. A pleasant little town but very geared to tourists and somewhat overdone in our opinion. Then back to Te Kouma and the next morning heading north to Gt. Barrier although with the intention of overnighting along the way. There actually aren't very many possibilities although as the wind was in the east it meant that we could anchor in the shallow bay of Colville where we spent a restful night. We had earlier visited Happy Jack which is an island off the coast but it only has a small anchorage which is sheltered in some winds but can be a trap in others and there was already another boat in there - hence our decision to go to Colville. The next morning ( the 18th.- Jean's birthday!) we set sail for Barrier. Not much wind until we were clear of Cape Colville and then we had a good sail all the way to Port Abercrombie just north of Port Fitzroy. Got in there late afternoon and anchored in Karaka Bay - no mossies this night but we came back a few nights later and they feasted on us right royally. For 4 days we explored the wonderful Fitzroy area and anchored a couple of times in Port Fitzroy itself where we refuelled, got provisions from the store and had a great evening meal at the Port Fitzroy Boating Club - highly recommended.  Then when the weather forecast seemed right we sailed for the 43 mile passage to Urquarts Bay, Whangarei Harbour. It was a beautiful sunny morning when we left at 0730 and the majestic scenery of the Barrie behind us, Little Barrier on our port side and the Moko Hinaus some 7 miles to starboard was as unforgettable as ever. Little did we know  that the worst natural disaster ever to afflict NZ was about to happen. The Hen and Chickens Islands were growing on our horizon all day and as we passed between them we had the text from Tracie which alerted us to the shocking event which had taken place in Christchurch. We anchored in Urquarts and then the next morning came back up to the Town Basin, Whangarei. Collected the car from Hamish and Sara and they very kindly offered us dinner which was great. Still can't take in the scale of the tragedy down south.