Westsailing Bum

Dinghy Dilemma

2011-12-02T16:20:00.007+13:00

Milligan,Whangaroa.

“She’s a hard road finding the perfect Woman, Son.” So the Southern Man in the Speights beer commercial said. Well the same can be said for a Dinghy/Tender. They come in all shapes, sizes and configurations; inflatables (either rigid or soft bottomed) fibreglass, moulded plastic, wood, aluminium or folding. Your choice of dinghy will be governed by your wants, needs and abilities, and of course the size your Mother vessel. But even then it is not a simple task to choose, as different people have differing ideas as to what constitutes a good dinghy. An example of this is my partner Paul and I. Paul really enjoys rowing, I enjoy being rowed around, Paul enjoys balancing on unstable objects, Me ……I DON’T. So our dilemma has been to find a stable, load capable, row-able expedition dinghy for when we are cruising on our 32ft yacht.

Over the years we have owned a number of dinghies. The first (in my experience) was a fibreglass 2.8mtr Seabird sailing dinghy, a good rower and load carrier, but way too big for the deck of our 32ft yacht. A few smaller fibreglass dinghies followed, but free board was not so great. We ventured into aluminium, with a 7ft dinghy. This sat well on our cabin top, under the boom, but was very skittish and light. Then after much trial and error we thought we had found the one… Milligan came into our lives

Paul purchased it off Trade Me, and we ventured down to Auckland to collect it. Milligan is a 7ft fibreglass clinker style dinghy, very pretty to behold. We named her Milligan because the previous owner had engraved their name “Milligan” all over the place. She was heavier than the aluminium one, but still lovely to row and fitted on the deck perfectly. But her pretty looks belied an inner demon, exposed during our first six month cruise. Milligan was not a great load carrier; her lovely sheer and diminutive size meant low freeboard and minimal leg room. Long expeditions with the outboard, led to cramped legs and wet groceries/washing etc. Milligan was also very unstable, as I found to my detriment when boarding the dinghy one day after work. Luckily the laptop and I did not fall in, but a bruised ego and a swollen knee were the outcome. So after a summer cruising with Milligan we decided to look around for another dinghy. After much bleating from me, Paul gave in and bought a 2.6 mtr Java inflatable. Yeeee Haaaa, it was great fun, even Paul got his kicks out of zooming around with the outboard. Yes, it was stable, could carry big loads, didn’t bang on the hull in the middle of the night, but try rowing that puppy in a stiff breeze. We couldn’t win.

Fatima,Ranfurley Bay, Whangaroa.

Back to Trade Me we went, and a few days before Christmas 2010, Paul found a John Wellsford designed “Tender Behind” for sale. Paul has always admired the design, and we have had the plans for this dinghy for about 6 years, but Paul has never had the time to build one. So we jumped at the chance, and on Boxing Day it was another trip down to Auckland to collect her. “Tender Behinds” at 7ft 4ins are tubby little pram dinghies in the “Nutshell” style, with high freeboard. They can be configured as a sailing dinghy if wanted, but ours does not have the centreboard case installed. After much discussion we decided to call her “Fatima”. The name brings to mind rubenesque belly dancers, cavorting across an ocean of glittering veils.

So Fatima was installed on the deck of our yacht Kabuki. She fits perfectly between the mast and the dodger, and over the gas box. We can lift her on and off the deck with ease, using our main halyard and attached bridle. Fatima came with old style bronze rowlocks, which at first we were going to replace, but we have become attached to them after 6 months use. Being a pram dinghy with a bluff bow, rowing into a chop is not great. But she is still enjoyable to row and scoot around on with the outboard. Our outboard is a 2hp 4 stroke Honda, which we find is plenty big enough for our requirements. Fatima’s load carrying capacity is pretty impressive, her high freeboard makes for a drier ride, and the flatter wider bottom means she is a very stable little craft.

The only downside is she is heavier than “Milligan”, being made of plywood and glassed. We could install dinghy wheels on to the transom, but we are a bit traditional and find they are ….What’s a nice way of putting it?........UGLY. Because of this we have ended up in some sticky situations. Like the time we got caught at Coromandel Township, up the very tidal creek on an outgoing tide with 40 litres of water, a bag of wet washing, groceries and the outboard, trying to get back to the yacht and move to a better anchorage before a gale came through. Oh the joys of cruising.

Just to let you know, we have not done away with “Milligan”. She has gone into early retirement in our backyard, being such a pretty dinghy it is hard to part with her. We do have one more dinghy; Skody is an 8ft 4inch fibreglass clinker style dinghy, she is lovely to row, but has low freeboard. She lives on the jetty down at the Town basin, waiting for us to escort her out to Kabuki. She is shabby and moth eaten, with a smattering of graffiti from the local youths. Life is very hard down at the dinghy dock. Skody has been sunk, set free, filled with mud, battered and taken for a joy ride. The “Seabird” sailing dinghy that I mentioned at the beginning of this article?; Well she is called “Fatty Boom Bah”, she has found a home with our Son and His wife, we appear to have passed on the sailing bug to them, poor deluded individuals.

Haul Out

2011-11-05T16:33:00.006+13:00

Paul and I had Kabuki hauled out at Riverside Drive Marina here in Whangarei on the 30th September. We had a list of things that needed doing, check the rudder pintals and gudgeons for play, fix a bent bow roller, cetol our teak caprails etc, remove some dodgy bogging and replace with epoxy filler etc, etc, etc. Our plan was to be out for 4 weeks, spring is not the best time for doing a haulout though, as the weather can be pretty changeable. This year we were lucky, we had a series of 6 reasonably fine days to do the painting and filling. The other jobs were not so weather dependent, removal of the rudder being the big one.

We had no real idea how heavy the rudder was going to be when detached it from the boat, so fortunately we conned a friend into helping out. Thank goodness we did, the rudder would have

been about 90-100 kg, the lads (Paul and Womble) bravely put it on our little trailer for a trip home to our carport. The top gudgeon (see photo above taken after Paul had filled the hole with epoxy) on Kabuki had received some wear over the years, from the bronze pintal, also the top bronze pintal had worn as well (see photo right). Paul proceeded to fix the gudgeon using a length of Aluminium pipe the same diameter as the pintal, he applied grease to the area of the pipe that would be inside the gudgeon, wrapped over that in black electrical tape, slid it into the gudgeon with bluetack/plasticine placed around the base to stop the epoxy running out and hold the whole lot in place. He then poured epoxy resin into the resulting gaps and left it to set. When set he cut the tape off the pipe where it had not been greased and slid the tube out, the tape peeled off the epoxy without to much bother. We then had a new pintal made out of bronze (pretty aye).

The next step was putting the rudder back on the old girl, we had tried

to dry it out a little before we did this, but with not much success.

Womble our old mate was called on again for the re-install, Paul used a block and tackle hung from some trestle type scaffolding beside the boat. I lifted the rudder with the block while Paul and Womble guided, pushed, tilted and jiggled the rudder into place. It went like clockwork, we did a dry run fit first before the final installation. See the photo of the boys with the set up for the rudder lifter ( Occupational Safety & Health may have a bit to say about it).

So after that task was done, morning tea was called for, and then on with the other projects. More on them later.

Cruising Helmsman article

2011-10-13T16:27:00.005+13:00

Earlier this year I had an article published in the Cruising Helmsman Magazine in Australia, I thought I would put it on my blog for anyone to read. If you are not into composting toilets then get over it. Here it is..........

Installing a Composting Head

Here in New Zealand the issue of sewerage release into our waterways has been a controversial topic for many years. Not only for city sewerage management systems but also for local and visiting boaties. Maritime New Zealand states that "Sewage may not be discharged within 500 metres from land, or in water less than 5 metres deep". It is a given that you do not discharge in an enclosed waterway. But no checks are carried out on boats and their sewerage management systems by Maritime Authorities(well they have never checked our yacht). Some Marinas seal your head on checking in, but they are a rare bunch. How much longer will it be before stricter measures are bought in?

The sewage management options for Boaties are pretty limited. Holding tanks have been the go for many years, but in reality who actually uses them? And if they do, where do they pump-out the effluent? Not everyone wants to take a run out to sea to empty a holding tank, and pump-out stations are few and far between around the New Zealand coast. Lectra-san units, Macerator's, or gas heads ??? To our way of thinking they seem complicated, prone to breaking down, and reliant on large amounts of electricity or gas. On our Westsail 32 Kabuki, we have a fairly simple electrical plan, with no desire to be running our engine every time we flush.

This issue had been a topic of contention for Paul and myself for years, and now that we plan to live on-board again we have decided to take drastic (some may call it fool-hardy) action. After much research and nagging on my part we have invested in a marine composting toilet. Looking on the Internet I discovered three brands of marinised composting toilet, Sun-mar, Nature's Head and Airhead. They are all produced in America, and apart from Nature's head, have been around for 10 years or more.

We decided on an Airhead composting toilet as it had good reviews on the Westsail Owners Forum, and it was more within our price range. The Airhead consists of a solids/composting tank with agitator, topped by a bowl with a collection bottle for urine. A paper bowl liner carries the solid donation to the composting tank through a trap door. The bowl is designed so that urine flows into the collection bottle. A 12 volt fan, provided to aid the venting system, draws moisture from the solids tank to assist the composting process. Coir peat fibre is used as the base material in the solids tank, with the aid of some compost starter. The whole unit is made of roto-molded heavy duty resin, with a standard toilet seat fitted.

When it came time to purchase the unit, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was an Australian based distributor for the Airhead. "A Better Way to Go", a company based in Richmond, Victoria was able to supply the unit to us here in New Zealand. The supplies for the unit, paper bowl liners (coffee filters) and coir peat bricks are available here in our little home town of Whangarei. We did get a few questions from Customs about the unit, not to mention the odd looks at the Catering supply store.

Removal of existing head:

The first step for us was removing the old head and associated pipes, pumps, seacocks and holding tank. This was a job we did not look forward to, but it had to be done. As our head had not been used for about 5 months it was a little less offensive than it could have been. Removal of the toilet pan was done by Paul one evening, this involved cutting pipes to extract the unit from the boat. The next step was removing all the pipes associated with the holding tank, pump-out system, and also the unused wash-down pump (down-sizing our electrical systems). It is amazing the amount of pipework a 32 ft yacht can have stuffed up into hidden cavities.

The hardest part came next, removing the holding tank. Upon inspection it became obvious that we had two options:

1: rip the forward berth apart to remove the tank in its entirety.....or............

2: cut the tank in half.

Option 2 was chosen, I was nominated to clean the said holding tank before cutting commenced. This job was not as bad as expected............but then I am of a sunny disposition. Paul proceeded to cut the tank using a grinder, but reverted to the trusty hand-saw after second thoughts about the dust. It was just as well we did cut it in half, as we would not have got it out of the boat in one piece.

Next on the list for removal were the two thru-hulls associated with the toilet system. Our Westsail was built with Groco seacock's and thru-hull's, they have an expandable rubber cone instead of a ball. The seacocks and thru-hulls had been in place for 35 years, Paul was worried they would need to be ground out of the hull. But with a bit of ingenuity, He removed them without a hitch, see my blog "westsailingbum.blogspot.com". Next came patching the hull where the thru-hulls had been. This was accomplished by Paul with help from the Fibreglass expert at the yard to do the fairing. We have gone from having 7 thru-hulls down to 5, the less holes the better is my thought.

Installation:

So then we had the fitting of the throne, a fairly simple procedure. The Airhead unit fits onto the existing head plinth without any need for re-building. The existing holes in the cabinetry accommodate the exhaust fan hose. The place where the old wash-down pump was attached to the bulkhead is perfect for the Exhaust fan, the wiring is right there as well. We only had to install a new vent through the hull just under the rub rail and attach the brackets that the Airhead sits into. The Airhead unit is pretty much the same size as our old head, being perhaps a little higher and coming forward an inch or so more.

Bonuses:

1.We now have this huge locker up forward where the holding tank used to be, how long will it take to fill that?

2. The removal of the old toilet system has eliminated the ever pervasive toilet smell that lingered on my side of the forward berth. I have a feeling the pipes and holding tank where porous.

3. Peace of mind, I know that I will feel more confident about our toilet arrangements, I was always worried about blockages, leaks and flooding (yes I did nearly flood the boat once).

Tested:

We managed to put the unit to the test over the Labour Weekend holiday. We soaked a Coir Peat brick in 4 litres of water until it expanded to a soil like consistency (this took about 4 hours), this was then placed into the solids tank. We then commenced with the "donation" process. No worry about too much toilet paper, no pumping, and no smell. Admittedly it was only 3 days of use, but we have been down to the boat everyday since and the system is quietly composting away.

I know that this sort of system is not suitable for everyone, as some of us are more sensitive about our bodily functions than others. Paul and I have already had experience with composting and composting toilets, so we perhaps are a little bit ahead of the field. I believe it always pays to keep an open mind about new idea's, or in this case old idea's re-invented.

After this was published I did an online update on the magazines website, and answered some questions, see below.

http://www.mysailing.com.au/news/composting-toilet-passes-the-test

Hope you enjoyed your foray into composting toilets. :-)

RAK's randon acts of kindness

2011-08-31T13:41:00.002+12:00

In the "Leader" (a local rag) they are talking about RAK's day coming up soon. I think it is a great idea, apparently it has been happening for the last 6yrs. On further reading I was surprised to find that the random acts of kindness they espouse tend to involve money. Some examples are, "buy someone a coffee", "gift baskets", "travel" etc.
Since when did a random act of kindness become a thing of monetary value, are we all so busy that we can no longer take the time to do RAK's, do we find it less time consuming to fork out some money instead.
To me a RAK is a gift of your time, your talent or your smile. When was the last time we stopped to help a "Little old Lady" across the street, that is an RAK. When did we last take time out to chat to a perfect stranger waiting in the same queue. When did we last go and share a special talent that we may have, with others who may enjoy that talent. When did we last smile at someone who looked like they were having a bad day. When did we last say hello, how are you, to someone and really mean it?
I myself will try to go into RAK day with an outward looking view. I will try not to be so wrapped up in my own world, and look out for any opportunity to do a non-monetary random Act of Kindness for someone out there......... so watch out any little old ladies.

catch up time

2011-08-03T19:50:00.003+12:00

Well hello at long last, I have been really slack on the blogging front in the last 6 months haven't I? We are now back working earning more "Freedom Chips" for the coming summer. Paul is down in Christchurch assessing earthquake damaged houses, earning good money but being away for 3 weeks at a time. I am doing a 5-6 week stint for the Whangarei District Council assessing rate rebates. We are hoping to both finish up work in September and then pull Kabuki out of the water for Her yearly scrub up, then we will be off again on another 6 month jaunt.
Meanwhile Kabuki sits forlornly on her pile moorings waiting for the summer to arrive. We have moved back into our house for the winter (it can be a bit cool and damp on the boat), so it is nice to have the niceties of life again, but I can't wait to get out on Kabuki again and sail off to some quiet anchorage.
Thats all for now, catch up again soon.

Welllllll!!!

2011-04-20T11:23:00.003+12:00

So it has been quite a while since I did and update, in that time we have sailed up the coast to Whangaroa Harbour, then sailed down in fits and starts to the Coromandel Peninsular.We did an overnight sail and ended up becalmed in the Hauraki Gulf in the midst of Dolphins and Whales feeding. We visited Coromandel Township and ended up with the dinghy nearly stuck in the creek as the tide went out. We got caught in a Sou-westerly blow, anchored on a lee shore on

Waiheke Island. We have sailed in near Gale force winds on numerous occasions, and then the other occasions it was calm (you can't win). After going through that we decided that perhaps we aren't quite ready to do the offshore thing. Are we prepared to put ourselves through constant motion for 10-12days, are we ready for sleepless nights for days on end???

We went back to Whangarei for 3 weeks to await the birth of our Grandson Korban, we travelled down to Whakatane to have a hold and some Grandparent time. That was at the end of March.

We have since left Whangarei and headed out to Great Barrier Island, the sail was great with a fresh North Wester picking up as we came near the Island. We sat out a bit of a westerly blow, andwhen the wind went to a northerly quarter we sailed round to Whangaparapara Harbour. We scaled Mt Whangaparapara 309mt, we walked to the Kaitoke Hotsprings pictured, (water was bath temperature, we had a lovely hour long soak) and came back via the Tramline Track, used to carry Kauri Logs during the early 1900's. On the way back we had a swim at the Kauri Falls picture below, beautiful place but bloody cold water, Paul called it a blue nut moment. Paul scaled Mt Te Ahumata, and went looking for a silver mine, but failed to find it. We then hightailed it back to Fitzroy Harbour . We proceeded to sit out first a Nor-Westerly blow and then a Sou-Westerly gale with winds up to 50knots. Was pretty spectacular apart from the gusts (williwaws) that shoot down the valleys around Great Barrier, not a lot of chop but we were buffeted from side to side with the blasts.

Tomorrow we are hoping to walk up to Mt Hirakimata (Hobson), the highest point on the island at 621mts. Paul is really excited as it will be the highest Mountain He has climbed so far, I am not so excited as I am not a mountain goat like He is. But, I am always there to support Him in any way I can, I just hope He remembers this when we get near the top because I may need the support.

On the fishing front we have caught 2 Kahawai, and 2 buckets of Mussels, not great but OK for us. Yesterday we caught some hotschips and pork chops at the Port Fitzroy shop. Anyway that is the round-up of what we have been up to since February, cruising around, being BUMS.

Waitangi Day

2011-02-07T13:46:00.002+13:00

Well Paul and I are still anchored up in the Bay of Islands. Paul has got 4 more days of work, and then we will be free again. We spent the past weekend anchored over near Paihia and went into the Waitangi Day celebrations at the Treaty Grounds.
For those of my followers who are not from New Zealand, Waitangi Day is the commemoration of the signing of the Treaty between the Europeans and the Maori back on 6th February 1840. It is the only celebration that New Zealand has as a whole for our National Day. In the past I have never gone to the celebrations because of the controversy and protesting that occurs during the event, and the media bias toward Maori made it feel more of a Maori event.

But I am so glad I went this time, and I will endeavour to go in the future, as it is NEW ZEALANDS national day, and this encompasses all NEW ZEALANDERS. I was proud of both sides of MY culture, both the European ( "Beat the Retreat" by the Navy, Ray Woolf and Dame Malvina Major) and the Maori side of MY culture ( Waka Karakia, Kapa Haka, and the Waitiangi Festival at the Marae). In someways it is a shame that I have to split it up into European and Maori, but unfortunately in New Zealand there is no "New Zealander", you are either a Pakeha (white) New Zealander or a Maori New Zealander. There may be many Maori who disapprove of my view, but this is my blog.
Anyway we moved back over to Uruti Bay, and will remain anchored here until Paul finishes work on Thursday. Then we will see where the wind takes us.

A Bumpy ride

2011-01-29T12:06:00.002+13:00

Well we have been on the yacht for two weeks now and during that time have only managed to sail up to the Bay of Islands. We left the Whangarei Harbour on the 19th and sailed straight up to the Bay anchoring in Parekura Bay. We then sat out our second Gale at Dicks Bay, the wind turned to an unfavourable quarter overnight on Sunday the 23rd so we upped anchor and motored to Uruti Bay near Russell.
On the 27th we went over to the Kerikeri river and anchored up, and did the trip up the river in the dinghy, beautiful day good lunch. We then hightailed it back to Uruti Bay on Friday to sit out Cyclone Wilma. It rained all day Friday as we sailed over from the Tepuna Inlet, the wind did not get up as much as we expected. We now are faced with the dilemma of Paul being called back to work, for a few weeks the help train new staff.
We are going to leave Kabuki at Matauwhi Bay, hopefully on a mooring. Paul will be able to travel to and from work from there, I will stay on the boat or have a day in Whangarei. A little bit of a downer, but Paul feels He should help them out, they have been really good to Him.

Anyway just a quick catch up, gotta go

We're off!!!

2011-01-20T14:55:00.002+13:00

Paul and I motored out of the Whangarei Town Basin on Monday morning with the outgoing tide, not a lot of wind so we motored all the way to Taurikura Bay. We anchored up and after lunch went to visit Paul's Dad and Step-Mum, by that time it had started raining and the wind was picking up. Tuesday was a no show, 25-40knots of winds and rain squalls meant a day on the boat. Wednesday morning we packed up and sailed for the Bay of Islands, the forecast was for 30knot Southwesterlies, but we never saw any. We were becalmed a couple of times, and it took 12 hours to cover 60 nautical miles. We arrived in the Bay of Islands at about 7.45pm and anchored up in Parekura Bay.
Today we sailed over to Dicks Bay in preparation for a Southeasterly gale and rain for the next few days. Bloody typical isn't it, as soon as you go on holiday the weather packs up on you. We don't really care, just as long as we are away on the boat.

My Family

2011-01-11T16:17:00.005+13:00

Well this blog has always been pretty much about our yacht Kabuki and our travels. For a change I am going to boast about my family.

On Saturday my Step-Son Jason got married to his beautiful lady Tash, my son Xavier was a Groomsman and my Step-Daughter Hollie was a Bridesmaid. Paul and I were very proud to see them standing side by side with their brother on His big day. I have added a photo to show off my family, from the left is ,Paul (my partner) , Hollie, Jason, Xavier and myself. The other photo is of course the Bride, Tash and her new Husband Jason, and that bloody photographer who was always getting in the way.

The wedding was beautiful, it was a lovely sunny day, with family and friends present. Tash made a beautiful bride, and we are very pleased and proud to welcome her into our family.

Anyway enough of that.

Holiday wind down

2011-01-06T08:25:00.002+13:00

Well the holiday period for Paul and I has been relaxing but busy. We celebrated Christmas lunch with my Parents our son Xavier and our neighbour Jean. We then went visiting other family.
On Boxing Day we went down to Auckland to pick up a new (second hand) dinghy that we bought off Trade Me. We think it is a John Wellsford design "Tender Behind", this is a dinghy we have liked for a long time. It is plywood glassed over, and a pram configuration. We are hoping to get a centre board put into it at some point, and then we can install a mast and voila, a sailing dinghy. It fits on the deck of Kabuki, under the boom, without a millimetre to spare. It is a very stable dinghy in the water, but does not row quite as well as "Milligan" our previous dinghy.
We now have 4 dinghy's, two fibreglass, one plywood and the inflatable. I think it is time to downsize our dinghy fleet.
Paul and I managed to complete the rest of the stocking of the boat, we only have the fresh items to get now. It has stowed away really well in our starboard settee locker, prior to this trip Paul had ropes and spares in that locker. We were able to move things around in the stowage department after we removed the holding tank in the bow. Now storage is a bit easier.
We managed to get Kabuki's registration number on the hull, but I think Paul has committed a big faux pas by putting "New Zealand" above the Rego number.
The wedding happens this weekend, so we are looking forward to that. We got caught up in wedding preperation last night with Jason and Tash doing the last minute organising from wedding central, our dining table.
Anyway only 12 days before we take off, it seems to be taking forever to get here. Paul has had to go back to work this morning to do some quoting. But hopefully He will be home at lunchtime. I am off to buy myself a new pair of shoes to go with the new dress I have bought. I think I am a bit odd, as I do not really enjoy shopping for myself, I find the whole thing very depressing.
Cheers for now.

31 days to go

2010-12-15T13:22:00.002+13:00

I have started laying in supplies for our trip, I have been scouring the supermarkets for specials on the items that we want. Not doing to bad so far, slowly building the stores of Red wine and chocolate. As we do not use the refridgeration unit on Kabuki, we have to lay in stores with a long shelf life. We have discovered that we can keep cheese on the boat in the bilges, as long as we buy small packs or cheese with a rind on it. Salami is a great meat substitute, but it has to be real salami, not the luncheon type of salami. The pile of stuff in the garage is growing by the week.
We received Kabuki's ship registration the other day, not quite what I was expecting (thought it would be real flash). Kabuki's registration is NZ 1759.
We have not been down the boat much lately as Paul has developed a skin disorder of some sort, and He is covered in what looks like hives, and they are itchy. It has been quite hot here lately and that makes it worse, so He has been very subdued.
Not much else is happening at the moment, we seem to be in hiatus until mid-January.

Cheers for now.

39 days to go

2010-12-07T16:15:00.003+13:00

Paul and I are in countdown mode, 39 days until we head off for our 2 month jaunt along the Northland Coast. We had planned to leave before this, but our Son Jason gets married on the 8th of January, we thought we had better hang around for that. Paul will not be working for all of that period, as his work has a Christmas/New Year break for a few weeks. So we are hoping to get Kabuki out for a few days somewhere along the line.
We are still waiting to get Kabuki's Ship Registration, they have banked the cheque. We got our passports back in record time, Paul's was back in 4 working days, mine took a few days longer (I must be a dodgy character). I was surprised that they rang my quarantor Jean, they asked her to describe me, and how tall I was etc. Admittedly it has been 28 years since I last applied for a New Zealand Passport, I have used my Australian passport since I was about 25.
Was really cool to be contacted by Phil and Brenda, previous owners of Kabuki. Ross the man we bought her off said that her name had been changed to Kabuki, previously it was Windy II. I am quite glad Phil and Brenda changed her name to Kabuki, I would hate to have been Wendy from Windy II. I would really like to find out who built Kabuki from the kit, and what other sailing she has done, time will tell.
I am reading Miles Hordern's book "Sailing the Pacific" at the moment, along with Pete Goss' "Close to the wind" and Bob Bitchin's "The sailing life" (yes I am a book whore, I need to read more than one at a time). They all are very inspiring reading, and Bob's attitude just makes you want to get out there and do it.
So roll on the next 39 days.

Back in the water

2010-11-04T09:31:00.002+13:00

We put Kabuki back in the water about a month ago now. We managed to get everything achieved that we had planned, new chainplates, re-varnish the companionway and drop boards, remove thru-hull fittings, install composting toilet, install new zinc anode plate on hull, anti-foul and polish. Was a busy time, but all worth it.
We took Kabuki for a sail over the Labour Weekend holiday, managed to have a practise with the Monitor windvane self-steering, it went like a charm. Also tested out the new head, was very happy with the performance, but it was only 3 days. It was great to back on the boat and out again, that was the first expedition we have had since March 27th ,when we arrived back in our home port. We are now itching to get out there again, but commitments are holding us back in the mean-time.
Our Son Jason came back from a 6 month stint in Afghanistan with the NZ Army. He came up to visit last weekend, He looked great and it was good to see some of his photo's and video's. He seems interested in sailing, so we may be able to ring a family member into the sailing fraternity, no one else has shown much of an interest so far.
The oversea's yachts are starting to come into Whangarei now, escaping from the Cyclone season in the islands. Whangarei is a great place for them to come as all of the facilities are available within close proximity to the Town Basin Marina. In the past a lot of the clearing in yachts went to Opua, in the Bay of Islands. But clearing in can now be done at Marsden Cove Marina, at the entrance to the Whangarei Harbour. Paul and I enjoy walking the Town Basin Marina, checking out the yachts, meeting the people, and dreaming about our departure next year.
Anyway things have slowed down abit at the moment, we are rounding up items that we need for our Category 1 certificate to leave NZ. All NZ owned boats have to reach a Category 1 standard on leaving the country. This involves lots of money, time and patience in fitting all of the stuff. We are nearly there, only about 20 more items on the list to acquire.

Chain Plate success.

2010-08-29T15:33:00.007+12:00

We have at last got the chainplates back on, there was a weeee hiccup last weekend. The new chainplates, that have been in the bilge since we bought her, did not quite fit the existing positions. All the bottom bolt holes were out by a few millimetres, this meant filling and then drilling new holes. Also we had to get the Capshroud chainplates bent to the same angles as the old chainplates, we only discovered this last bit when we had put on the chainplate and it did not fit right. But after being bent by Terry our local Stainless Steel guy, they fit like a charm.

Pauls fibreglassing efforts on the hull are looking pretty damn professional (well that's what I think). Luckily there is Jurgen the Fibreglass guy at Norsand Boatyard, and He gives the odd tip and encouragement. Next weekend it will be the outside of the hull He needs to glass.

I have now finished work for a while, so I will be getting into a few jobs around the boat. Varnishing the hatchway and around the sink/chart table, then cleaning up the mess that the boat has become over the last few weeks. The Composting Toilet is still sitting in our lounge, right in front of the TV, unused of course. We both want to get it installed but we have other things to do first. The list does not seem to get any shorter.......... the curse of a boat.

Removing the old chainplates.

2010-08-16T20:28:00.003+12:00

Paul bashing out chainplate bolts

Ever since Paul and I bought Kabuki there has been a running discussion between the two of us about replacing the chainplates. At last we (I had a win) have decided to replace the existing 35 year old chainplates. Removal of the existing plates was not quite as fraught with difficulties as we thought. The main problem being getting hands up inside the bulwark space to undo the top bolts. Luckily Paul has a valuable assistant who has the advantage of ......small hands. I never thought my small hands would be an advantage, but there you go.
The old chainplates don't look too bad, we can't find any cracks but there is a bit of pitting. So I am glad we have changed them, it is a bit more peace of mind. Getting the new plates on has been reasonably easy as well, with a well executed ballet of back bending (inside the head locker) and total co-operation by both parties...... Not a cross word was said.
So things are going reasonably smoothly with the haul-out so far, we will see what the next few weeks bring.

Getting Groco Thru-hulls out- Pauls Procedure

2010-08-08T08:54:00.002+12:00

Just thought I woul put on here how Paul actually got Kabuki's Groco Thru-hulls out without to many problems.
First of all Paul ground a flat bar of steel so that it would slot inside the external fitting of the thru-hull, it needed to be a nice firm fit. Once this was in place he attached a adjustable wrench to the end of the steel bar and put a length of pipe on the handle of the wrench to give extra leverage. He then proceeded to undo the thru-hull without to many problems.
We had thought we might have to grind the face plate off, but no thank goodness.

Removal of old Head.

2010-08-01T12:27:00.004+12:00

Paul cutting the holding tank in half in the bow.

Well Paul and Phil (Brother-inlaw) motored Kabuki down to Norsand on Thursday, she was hauled out without any problems. Paul was successful in getting the Groco thru-hulls out. He was actually pleasantly surprised how easily they came off, considering they had been on the boat for 35 years. The task then began to remove all of the plumbing for the Head (toilet), Holding-Tank, and the deck wash pump (which we never use).

We are quite glad we decided to install a composting toilet, as most of the existing pipes for the head were nearly blocked with scale build-up. We are very lucky that we had not had any explosive blockages to date. The whole process of removing the plumbing was not as bad as we had thought. The only bad part was having to cut the holding tank in half to remove it. This meant we had to cut a hole in the top, clean out the residue (yuck) then cut it in half. This was all done without tooooo much discomfort.

We now have a huge storage compartment up in the bow, what to fill it with??????

New Head for Kabuki!!!!!!

2010-07-14T17:10:00.004+12:00

For those of my non-sailing friends out there, a head is a toilet/dunny/little room. Paul (after much persuasion from me) and I have decided to get Kabuki a composting head. We have sourced an American designed head called an "Airhead" from a distributor in Australia. The unit is a bit/lot more expensive than a regular boat toilet, but it eliminates pumping your dump into the sea/ocean/waterways. We have been investigating the composting toilet for awhile, and read a number of reviews on the Airhead, they seem to be well liked by those who buy them.

A composting toilet is not for everyone I admit. I think you need to be quite dedicated to the process of composting your ummm........ waste. But I feel that it is better than contaminating the sea with my waste. I have never been keen on the idea of carrying around a holding tank filled with liquid waste, and using a toilet that is likely to block at the drop of a ......toilet tissue. Admittedly the composting toilet is a holding tank for waste, but at least the waste is a bit less offensive.
The toilet we are getting is available through an Australian company http://www.abetterwaytogo.com.au/ , Check it out it is pretty clever.

Anyway I will keep you posted on the install when we get the unit.

Winter is here.

2010-07-05T15:47:00.002+12:00

Well Paul and I have settled back into our house again. It is lovely being home, but we miss our cruising life. Being on the boat is not the best in the winter, especially when it does not have great insulation. Condensation was a real bummer, we did have a heater which made a big difference but it still was not great.
Paul and I have pulled the sails off Kabuki for the winter, we are getting a few repairs done, and a few changes to the trysail and the main. On the 29th of July we are having Kabuki Hauled out of the water so we can inspect/replace our chainplates, remove a refrigeration plate on the hull, install an anode on the hull, have our new chartplotter installed (the last one died), replace a through hull fitting, and other sundry little jobs that will probably take months. We had the rig inspected last week and things seem to be pretty good up there, apart from having to replace the antenna for the VHF which has serious sun damage.
It will be good to have Kabuki out, as it makes it easier to do things on her. Especially for me as I am not overly confident with our hard dinghy. Even though I have been really brave and gone out to Kabuki on my own.
So preparations are still going ahead, even though it(April/May 2011) seems like a long way off,
it will be upon us before we know it.

About our elderly

2010-05-24T17:06:00.003+12:00

Well being Un-employed is pretty cool, I think I could do this for awhile. I don't think Paul would be too impressed though, so I may have to actually go out and look for a job soon. I have applied for one job, but not alot of effort went into that.
On the subject of jobs/employment/remuneration for employment, isn't it a sad old world that a smart mouth Lawyer from Auckland gets paid $600 bucks an hour, and the carers for our elderly and children get paid between $13 and $18 and hour. What has happened to our society where we value profit above care. Are we the advanced culture where we institutionalise our young and elderly, or are the cultures that cherish there young and revere their elderly the advanced cultures.
Profound thoughts from the mind of a woman who has institutionalised her own mother and father, and feels very guilty about the whole thing.

Things come to pass

2010-04-30T10:01:00.002+12:00

Well my job did not last very long. Activities Co-ordinator at a Resthome is a great job, lots of fun and you meet some wonderful people. But unfortunately it was not the job for me, I felt out of my depth, anxious, lay awake at night worrying about the residents. Even after only working there for 4 weeks I was growing attached to some of the Residents and it was quite hard to leave.
I want a job with no complications, no "shit" to take home, a job I can leave at work.........
We are still living on the boat, Autumn is rearing its head at last with cooler mornings, but so far it is not to bad on board. We have to row in to the toilet/shower, but the dinghy pontoon is only about 30ft away. We are both feeling quite comfortable about living aboard, Kabuki really feels like home now. But then we have been on her for 7 months now.
Xavier turned 18 on Tuesday, He is now legally able to purchase alcohol (some daft bugger lowered the drinking age), it just made me feel old, old, old.
Anyway I am off to scope out employment opportunities.

Going Home........Booo Hoooo

2010-03-30T15:47:00.000+13:00

Photo: Kabuki sailing out of the Bay of Islands, Cape Brett in the distance.

Well after trying out the commuting thing from Opua to Whangarei for 2 weeks we decided to up anchor (drop mooring) and head back to Whangarei. Paul was having to start work at 7am so it meant He had to leave Opua by 6.15am, and then He wasn't getting home until 7 pm. It was just a bit much.
On Friday the 26th we left Opua at 5.30pm and did a night sail back to Whangarei, unfortunately the wind which was supposed to be SouthWest was more south and was pretty much on the nose. But we managed to sail till about 2am on Saturday morning, then we had to start the engine when the wind died. By the time we got to Whangarei Heads the wind had picked up so we were able to sail from the Heads to the Basin.
As we left the Bay of Islands a pod of dolphins came and played in our bow wave, at last I was able to get a video of it (after many failed attempts in the past). It was a lovely night to start with, but the clouds came over later obscuring the stars. We arrived in the Whangarei Harbour on the outgoing tide, so we sailed slowly up the harbour getting stuck in the mud of the channel near Ray Roberts Marine, funny thing was that we had been in 4.5 ft of water then it deepened to 6ft and that is when we got stuck, go figure. We were being a bit cheeky trying to get up at low tide.
So here we are back on our mooring, and life returns to the rat race pace again. Have we done the right thing in coming back? Who knows................
Is this the end? ...............No

Moored in Opua

2010-03-12T10:25:00.003+13:00

Paul and I returned to Opua after spending a few days out in the Bay. We visited Paradise Bay on Urupukapuka Island, and it was paradise. Lovely clear water, white sandy beaches, fish galore under the boat (baby Kingfish). It was a lovely way to wind up our BIG adventure.
We have now moored up in Opua, preparing to start work again. Paul starts on Monday 15th and I will not be too long after that.
One bit of news is that Paul has at last succumbed to buying me an inflatable dinghy. If you are not aware, I have a long running love/hate relationship with our 6ft 9inch clinker style fibreglass dinghy called Milligan. Being only just under 7ft Milligan is very light and skittish. A number of times I have nearly ended up in the drink, and I severly bashed my knee on another occassion. I had suggested getting a inflatable, but Paul was dead against them as they don't row well.
Long story short, we purchased one yesterday (I wore him down). We put the outboard on and had a bit of a blat around. THEN last night Paul did a rubbish run in the new dinghy. Next thing I know He is blatting all over the place, with this huge smile on his face. Yes....... my Paul is a rev head under that traditional Yachty Facade.
Any way the other news is that I have been offered the opportunity to apply for a job at Seaview Resthome in Whangarei as the Activities Co-ordinator, 20 hours a week Monday to Thursday. Paul is hoping to only work Monday to Thursday as well so it would be perfect. I will be off for an interview on Monday, so we will see.
Anyway our yachting adventures will still continue as we continue to explore the Bay on our long weekends (thats if it all pans out).

Whangaroa and Tsunami........

2010-03-02T15:03:00.000+13:00

Up the Canyon, near Lane Cove Cottage. Whangaroa.

Paul and I spent a lovely evening at the Whangaroa Gamefish Club on Saturday night, we had anchored of the township of Whangaroa. We did a load of washing, a bit of shopping for fruit & Veg and had showers. At 2am my Mother called (we had signal) to warn us that an earthquake had occurred in Chile and a Tsunami was supposedly coming. We got up and listened to the latest news on National Radio, the Tsunami was expected at about 7am. So off we went back to bed, but we got very little sleep.
At 6am we were up and listening to the radio again, we decided (Paul the skipper) to head out to sea, and spend the day sailing back to the Bay of Islands. This meant we were leaving Whangaroa 2 days earlier than planned, and the sea conditions were not in our favour. The forecast was for Easterly winds 15knots, and a 2 metre easterly swell, all well and good unless you want to go in an easterly direction.
Needless to say the day was a wee bit rumpty, and the sail was not the greatest. Eventually we motorsailed from the Cavalli Islands to the Nine Pin, we then turned off the engine and hoisted some more sail from there to Opunga Bay. We did not see any sign of Tsunami activity/surging, from all reports any activity was reasonably handled.
So we are now on a mooring at Opua, we are going to rent the mooring for a few months and keep Kabuki up in the Bay. Paul is having to go back to work on the 15th March. I will stay on the boat in Opua and He will commute from Opua to Whangarei for work each day. This has all happened earlier than planned, as one of the guys at Paul's work left unexpectedly.
We still have nearly 2 weeks before we need to get serious again, what a bummer.

Whangaroa Harbour morning mist.

Whangaroa Harbour

2010-02-27T15:08:00.002+13:00

The Cavalli Islands looking back towards the Bay.

Paul and I arrived in Whangaroa on Tuesday 23rd after spending to nights at the Cavalli Islands. We sailed out of Opunga Bay in the Bay Of Islands, on Saturday 2oth we had a lovely sail to the Cavalli Islands. We anchored in Papatara Bay and spent two rolly nights there. The Cavalli Islands are really lovely islands if you are into diving, fishing or shell collecting. We went for an explore over the island, but decided to get out on Tuesday morning as the swell was building to 2 metres and it seemed to be coming right into the bay.

We had a rumpty old sail to Whangaroa Harbour, but snagged a lovely Tuna on the way. Paul was going to take me out for dinner for my birthday, but we flagged that idea and feasted on freshly caught Tuna. We both really like Whangaroa Harbour, it has amazing scenery, lovely anchorages, fresh water, washing facilities at the Gamefish Club, and a restaurant and cafe.

We went for an explore up the Canyon yesterday, and found a waterfall at the head of Rere Bay. We did not get a chance to explore the waterfall as the tide was wrong, so we will have to go back oneday. Today we are availing ourselves of the facilities at the township of Whangaroa (washing, showers later, water and dinner) the anchorage is a bit rolly but it is worth it.

We are thinking that it is time for us to start heading back toward home. Paul may have to start back at work earlier than expected, but we still have a few more weeks left to us.

Xaviers visit and beyond.

2010-02-17T11:35:00.002+13:00

We did not make it to Roberton Island until Monday the 8th of February, but we had a lovely day with a picnic lunch on the beach, snorkelling and people watching. In all about 6 charter boats came in with passengers and disgorged them onto the island. The Bay of Islands is definitely the tourist spot to be, especially it seems for the young. Xavier stayed with us until Friday then headed off to Russell for a night, then back to Whangarei on Saturday. Paul and I restocked in Paihia, then headed off to Whale Bay on the Purerua Peninsular for a few days. We did a bit of snorkelling and discovered some really cool caves.

On Monday the 15th we decided to head to the Cavalli Islands, the wind was going to be on the nose but had been predicted to be light.......ha ha bloody haha. The wind piped up to 2o knots on the nose, with a 1.5 metre swell on the nose. After spending most of the day bashing into it we turned around and headed back to the Bay of Islands. On the up side we caught a lovely Tuna for tea. We anchored up near Pipi Bay on Moturoa Island, and spent two nights listening to the generator running inshore at the "holiday home" for the rich and famous. Yesterday we walked around the island (this was something we did about 6 or 7 years ago it was a breeze back then) boy was it hot, we decided that we have definitely aged since last time.

Today we have sailed over to Opunga Bay to get out of a 3 metre north easterly swell that is predicted (this is from a cyclone up in the Pacific Islands). We are holding off going north for the moment until we get a problem with our Propellor sorted. So in the Bay we will stay for the moment.

On the boat with Xav

2010-02-05T16:43:00.002+13:00

Paul and I picked Xavier up from Russell on Wednesday, He arrived in Paihia on the bus and ferried over to Russell. We stayed the night in Uruti Bay and then on Thursday morning made a dash for the outer bay. The wind had piped up even by 8.30am so going around Tapeka Point with a 1.5 metre swell and 20knots was pretty cool.
We made it to Opunga Bay by 10am and had a late breakfast, we have since spent the time waiting for the wind to die down a bit. Tomorrow we are off to Roberton Island snorkelling, hopefully it will be nice weather. Not much luck on the fishing front, perhaps I am not holding my mouth right.

The photo is a sunset in Opunga Bay, the yacht is the Te Tainui. They happened to be anchored next to us so got in the photo.

Life in the Bay

2010-01-28T13:08:00.002+13:00

Paul and I have been mooching around the Bay of Islands, exploring all the historical sights. It is amazing how you can live in a country and never get to see its history/historical sights. You tend to leave all of that to the tourists.
We visited Marsden Cross, the sight of the first Christian Missionary in New Zealand. Then we went up to KeriKeri and explored Kemp House and the Stone Store, the sight of the next Christian Mission. Then on our return to Russell we visited Pompallier Mission the first Catholic Mission. The stories of these Missionaries and the hardships they endured are pretty amazing. The Maori were a formidable race, but they also were after as much as they could get out of the Missionaries ( by the sounds of it mainly guns so they could kill each other). The Bay is definitely the birthplace of our nation, but unfortunately now it is the tourist mecca.
We have now moved over to Opunga Bay to wait out a SE blow, only 20-25 knots but it is nice to find a bit of shelter.

Tall Ships Race, Russell Bay of Islands

2010-01-16T10:52:00.001+13:00

On January the 9th we took part in the Tall Ships Race around the Bay of Islands. We did not officially enter the race, but we sailed the course and ogled all the yachts. We managed to sail around with "Melody" another Westsail, we had a lovely sail and it was a glorious day.
Paul is keen on anything with a sail, and He loved seeing all the Tall Ships, Spirit of New Zealand, Soren Larsen etc. I managed to get some reasonable photo's of them for him. Kabuki sailed beautifully, even though we did have a slow spell in the channel between Roberton Island and Moturua Island. We completed the 15 mile course in about 4 hours, and that was with lots of yacht watching involved.

Since then we have been up to Opua and the Waikare Inlet, done some washing at the Opua Laundromat, shopped in Paihia for supplies. Then wandered over to the Te Puna Inlet for some quiet and recoperation after all that activity. Today we are in the Keri Keri Inlet, and after lunch we are going to visit the ruins of the house of the man who helped build the Stone Store in Kerikeri. Tomorrow we are going to dinghy up to Kerikeri and do some shopping at the markets. Ahhh civilization again.

Russell at Last

2010-01-06T15:17:00.002+13:00

We have arrived in Russell........ hello cellphone reception. We Left Whangarei on the 27th of December, after catching up with Hollie, Jaxon, Tash, and Jason. They had come up to Whangarei for a visit so we managed to get to see them. It was really nice to catch up with them and see how they are going.
We sailed out to Taurikura and visited Pauls Dad, and Brother. Then on Monday 28th at 10.30 pm we decided to do a night sail up to Whangaruru. It was a lovely sail, the moon was full the stars were numerous, we had reasonable wind until about 3am. So we motored into Whangaruru making it in at about 7am on Tuesday. We spent New Years quietly in Whangaruru, getting pipi's, swimming all the usual stuff.
We sailed from Whangaruru on the 1st January for the Bay. We arrived at Urupukapuka in the arvo, very busy , noisy, rolly place. While we were there a pod of Dolphins came into the bay, I bet they regretted that move about 10 minutes later, when they had about 5 fizz boats chasing them around.
We sailed over to The Tepuna Inlet on Saturday 2nd and spent the night at Rangihoua Bay. The next day we went in and had a look at Marsden Cross, the sight of the first Christian Christmas service in NewZealand. The whole area is littered with history, and happenings.

Spent the next couple of nights in Crowles Bay in the Tepuna Inlet, very lovely little hideaway......not. It was a few years ago, but not now.

Today we sailed over to Russell, lovely quiet sail, lunch on the way... and then cellphone and Vodemstick reception......yeee Haaaaa.

Christmas is nearly over.....

2009-12-24T16:48:00.002+13:00

Well the last week has been pretty hectic, with restocking Kabuki, hair cut, vet visit (for the dog) etc. We have at last caught up with ourselves, so it is a bit of a rest this arvo. We are having Christmas with Xavier and the rest of my family tomorrow, then we will be off again on Boxing Day. We have leased our mooring out for 6 months to another yacht, this will help pay for the mooring.
We are both looking forward to getting away, it is so hectic in town, so many cars and people. We had got so used to the quiet life on the boat.

I will hopefully be able to update my blog more often now that I have a Vodem stick, it will all depend on the reception. Some of our lovely bays do not support cell phone coverage.

Week 5 Kawau Island & Mahurangi

2009-12-19T14:54:00.000+13:00

Bon Accord Harbour at Kawau Island is not particularly great in a NW or SW breeze, but we anchored there for 4 days and checked out the sights. Kawau is famous for the old Copper mine and the Mansion House owned by Governer Grey. Paul and I checked them both out.
Mansion house is beautiful, I could not get photo's of the inside but I got plenty of the grounds etc. Some parts of the island is planted in old pine trees which are all in the process of falling down. There is a real problem with erosion on the foreshore were pines are planted. Walking through the bush was lovely, with some amzing specimen trees planted by Governer Grey over 120 years ago.

We had wonderful weather while we were there, and managed to sample the delights of the Kawau Yacht Club Bar.

On Thursday 11th we left Kawau heading for the Mahurangi Harbour. On the way we stopped at Moturekareka Island, and had a look at the wreck of the Rewa, a three masted steel Barque that was sunk there in the early 1900's. There was not a breath of wind and a beautiful blue sky as we mooched around. We motored into the Mahurangi Harbour and headed right up the estuary, following an ever dwindling channel. We anchored beside the channel in about 6 feet of water a low tide. On Tuesday we put the outboard on the dinghy and motored up to Warkworth, this took us about 1 hour with the ingoing tide. We spent the day in Warkworth, doing washing, having lunch at the RSA and doing some shopping. We headed back with the outgoing tide, uplifting Kabuki's anchor and motoring out to Casnell Island where we anchored for a few days.

Monday morning, Roz and Holga turned up in Melody (another Westsail 32), they did the trek up to Warkworth. That night they came over for dinner and a chin wag.
We left Mahurangi the next morning as the wind was going SW, and it was a good one for getting back to Whangarei. So we upped anchor at 6am and headed for home. It was our most boiterous sail yet, we started with a reefed main because the wind was predicted to go 25knots. By the time we got to Whangarei we had only the double reefed main and staysail and we were still going 6.5 knots. We had winds up to 35knots, but on a beam reach so was pretty comfortable. We even practiced heaving too, while we had our lunch. We got into the Nook at about 4 in the afternoon, the wind was still gusting.

On Thursday morning, we motored onto the mooring at the Town Basin, We have come home for supplies (the wine ballast has run out) and to see the family for Christmas. We will be off again after Boxing Day.

The photo is for you Harry Potter Movie fans, I showed Xavier and He recognized it straight away. This is a Pohutukawa near Mansion House on Kawau Island.

week 3 and 4 Great Barrier

2009-12-19T14:26:00.000+13:00

Paul and I anchored back at Smokehouse Bay, it was full and Aucklanders over for the weekend. We had about 30 boats in the bay with us on Friday night. We went in early and showered and did the washing, then spent the rest of the day on washing watch in the gusty breeze. Abercrombie Harbour is a lovely place with many nooks and crannies to anchor in, but most of them are deep and prone to williwaws. We tried out a few different places Ghost Bay, Nagle Cove, Kiwiriki (Two Island) Bay.

On Thursday the 4th December we hired a car and drove around Great Barrier Island for the day. It is a lovely place, but so much like the back roads of Northland that we felt we were not seeing anything new. Windy Ridge up near Mt Hobson was pretty spectacular, with sheer rock faces and views for miles. We managed to use our phone at Tryphena, there was no Telecom reception anywhere else on the island.

On Sunday the 7th December we set off for Kawau Island, lovely sail after we got past Little Barrier Island, with dolphins in the distance.

The photo is Paul doing His favourite sort of fishing, we had put a bottle of bubbly about 30 feet down to chill. I had to get a photo.

Week 2 Great Mercury Island

2009-12-19T13:49:00.000+13:00

We blew into Great Mercury Island on a 25knot Norwester, anchoring in the small mooring strewn harbour. Great Mercury Island surprised us with its size, and its startling white cliff. It is owned by a couple of rich dudes who have ensured that the island is well looked after, and farmed in an environmentally friendly way. The island has quite a few wetland area's that have been replanted, and a huge population of frogs. Everywhere you go you can hear the frogs going to town.
We spent a week at Great Mercury, exploring the beaches which are beautiful. Coralie Bay (pictured) was like a tropical lagoon, with fine white sand. On some of the beaches we found some lovely rocks/pebbles etc. We spotted some nesting New Zealand Dotterill on a long ocean type beach.
We sat out a gale on Wednesday 18th of November, and then headed back to Great Barrier on Thursday with a fresh souwester blowing. The sail back was a bit boisterous as we had a bit of swell from the previous days northerly gale, but the sailing was quick and lively.

2009-12-18T10:04:00.001+13:00

Week 1

Paul and I left the Whangarei Town Basin on the 4th of December. We sailed down to Taurikura Bay and spent two nights, visiting with Pauls Dad and his Brother. We lifted the anchor at 7am on Friday the 6th and set sail for Great Barrier Island. It was a fairly quiet sail to the Hen and Chicks, but once we got past them the sailing became more exciting as the day progressed. We arrived at Great Barrier in a 25knot SW. We anchored up in Kaiaraara Bay at a beach locally known as Hydrangea Bay. We managed to get in lots of bush walking, bird spotting and even a very quick bath in the Kairaara River (it was damn cold).
We walked up to the lower Kauri Dam, this walk took two hours each way. The Bush on Great Barrier Island is beautiful, the Kanuka/Manuka and Nikau Palms are a lot taller than any I have seen on the Mainland. The Kauri Dam was really cool, our pioneering for-fathers were pretty damn tough to build something like that with the tools that they had. The thought of thousands of Kauri Logs ripping down that river when the dam was released gave me the shudders.

The Bird life on Great Barrier is amazing. Kaka's are prolific here, they make a raucous noise as they fly around, but they also whistle. We also spotted a Banded Rail at the Port Fitzroy shop. The Gannets in the Harbour are pretty spectacular, as there is a Gannet colony near the Island.

On Tuesday the 10th we motored over to Port Fitzroy to drop our rubbish off, then we went to Smokehouse Bay for two nights. We availed ourselves of the facilities, doing some washing and having a warm shower. It is a really neat setup, but very well used by the local yachties/launchies.

We left Great Barrier on Friday the 13th of November(not an auspicious day for a trip) picking up the anchor at 6am. We had a glorious sail down to Great Mercury Island, passing the Gannet colony on Mahuki Island on the way. We arrived a Great Mercury at about 1pm, having taken 7hrs to cover 45miles (pretty good for us).

We're off!

2009-11-03T13:32:00.003+13:00

Well at last the time has come to let loose the mooring lines and sail off into the sunset, or will it be sunrise. Paul and I are off tomorrow morning for our big adventure. The last few days have been hectic with last minute visiting, stocking etc. So we a quite looking forward to getting away for a bit of peace and quiet.

We will try to keep the blog going through Internet Cafe's etc. So keep posted.

Cheers
Wendy

Work is over!!!!!!!!

2009-10-28T14:10:00.002+13:00

Well I finished work last Friday, it was a bit sad to leave. They supplied a really nice, completely Gluten Free morning tea for me. Speeches were said, songs were sung ( yes Glenn wrote me a song), a few tears were shed. I will miss my work colleagues and some aspects of my job, but I am not sorry for leaving. We have such an adventure ahead of us, how could I be sorry.

Living on the boat has been pretty smooth so far, admittedly we are still on the Marina berth which makes it sooooo much easier. We move off the berth on Sunday morning (early) back to our pile mooring. Paul will finish work on Friday (yeehaa) and then it will not be long till we go. Unfortunately a Specialist appointment as reared its ugly head for next Wednesday, but once that is out the way... off we go.
The next couple of days will be spent stocking up the boat with supplies, we need to do this before Paul finishes work, as we lose the car then. So we will be able to kiss goodbye a whole lot of money and welcome in a whole lots of cans. Naturally we have already stocked up on the essentials.....Wine.

In answer to your question Carleen, the Solar Panels charge our two 6volt house batteries, which power our lights (mostly LEDS), phones, stereo and laptop. We have invested in an Inverter (pure sine wave) which we use to change the power from 12volt to 230volt. We have discovered that the laptop is a real power drain, so we may not use it too much. We will be using Internet Cafes anyway in our travels. So hopefully I can find them all over the place, fingers crossed.

I will sign off for now, If you want to come and see the boat and you are in Whangarei, we are at the Town Basin Marina on Pier C (near old Vinyl restaurant) 3rd boat on the left.

Afloat at a Marina

2009-10-19T13:29:00.004+13:00

things are going great. We moved Kabuki off our pile mooring and onto a Marina berth on Friday. It was a very smooth manouver. We used a rope tied from our rear pole over to the marina berth pole, and just pulled Kabuki over on the rope (the marina berth Well Paul and I have been living on the boat for 2 weeks now, and was directly behind Kabuki).

Over the weekend we had an open boat, and so lots of friends, family and work colleagues came and checked Kabuki over. Not many of them had ever been on board Kabuki, so it was nice for them to see what we are getting ourselves into. I must admit it was very nice showing Kabuki off to people, we are very proud of our boat. Kabuki's gelcoat looks a bit scruffy in places, but she looks good considering she is 35 years old.

So, I am on my last week at work, winding down, handing over. Making sure that I do not leave my job and leave things hanging for my fellow work colleagues. I must admit I will miss my job, it has been a great experience for the last 6 years, and has really expanded my talents and made me realise what talents I do have.

Paul still has one more week of work to go after me, poor bugger. I will have to find things to keep me occupied for that week. Mind you, I have to stock the boat up before we go, so that should keep me busy.

The photo above is Kabuki (as if you couldn't tell) on the marina, isn't she pretty!!!! Note the amazing sailcover and cockpit cover's, I made all of them except for the Dodger and the back flap cover (blow my own trumpet).

Splash Down..

2009-10-09T11:13:00.002+13:00

Well we went back in the water yesterday, it was a smooth launch apparently. Unfortunately I was unable to be there as I was at work. But Paul managed the whole procedure with aplomb. Mind you the guys at Norsand Boatyard are pretty good at doing that sort of thing (then they would be).
Xavier and David have settled into their place, and we have settled aboard Kabuki reasonably well. So all is well in our neck of the woods. I have today off work, so am catching up on tidying things up and organising things on the boat.
The School Holiday Program is finished for this term. So we will be back into funtime's now at work. I only have two weeks of work to go, I am on a countdown.

Cheers For now.

The Big Move

2009-10-06T10:58:00.002+13:00

Paul and I moved onto Kabuki on Saturday. I had to work on the Library Bus in the morning, and then in the afternoon we moved most of our stuff onboard. Unfortunately the weather did not really play the game and we had to get things up the ladder between showers of rain.
You might be saying "up the ladder?". Yes, Kabuki is still on the hardstand down at Norsand Boatyard. We have to climb up about 12 feet to get on the boat, this is no mean feat when carrying boxes etc. Just as well Paul is very agile and strong.
Sunday was spent tidying up our house ready for the handover, packing up the last of our stuff and stashing it in the roof, and getting the last of our gear back to the boat, again in between showers. But we are now installed on board Kabuki quite comfortably. We didn't even have too much drama with regards to storing all of our stuff.
It was a bit different leaving the house in our Son's hands, but I am not worried unduly about things. Some people may say this is mis-guided, some may say we are completely insane to leave a young man and His mate in our house. But we trust Xavier and feel that the experience will be good for both him and David. I have felt over the last year that I may have mothered Xavier too much, and this is His chance to grow up away from our influence. This is His chance to stretch His wings (how cliche) experience life from the Adult side. I will miss Him, but that is understandable.
So It is not too long and we will be off, I only have 2 and a bit weeks of work left. I am a bit sad about leaving my job, but them's the breaks. The last few weeks will be good, we are finishing the School Holiday program this week, and then we will be back into Funtimes for the pre-schoolers.
Boy can I rabbit on, I will attempt to upload some photo's at some point.

Cheers for now.

School Holiday programme

2009-10-01T16:56:00.002+13:00

Well the first week of the school holiday programme ( well my part of it) is over, and it went really well. I have two sessions, one on Wednesday of 1 hour and I on Thursday for an hour. We do some dancing and stuff, read a story play around. And then we get down to making a craft, Wednesday we made flowers out of different paper etc. Today we made scarecrows out of tubes and icecream sticks. It is really fun working with the kids, they are aged between 3 and 9 years and they all are great.
Sue the Childrens Librarian is a wonder, she comes up with the ideas for the programmes. And then pulls is al together. Today she worked with older children (9 years and over) and made big scarecrows on wooden frames, they looked fabulous. Tomorrow they will be doing collage, but that will only be for the older kids.
We move on to Kabuki on Saturday, I have been busy packing up stuff and cleaning the house for the boys. I can be a bit of a neat freak, and I can't stand the idea of leaving a dirty house for them to take over. This is even though I know that 5 minutes after I leave it will be a BATCHELOR PAD. I will have to keep on saying to myself, " this is no longer my abode...this is no longer my abode........."

Anyway catcha soon

1 week till move.........

2009-09-27T20:44:00.002+13:00

Paul and I did not accomplish as much as we had hoped on Kabuki this weekend, Saturday was a bloody washout ( rained most of the day). Sunday was bloody beautiful so we did get some work done. We installed lazy jacks on the mainsail ( they make bringing the main sail down, easier). Paul painted some skin fittings to protect them from UV's. We installed some drawers in the head ( Toilet), Washed the spreaders on the mast, etc, etc.
We will move onto Kabuki on Saturday ( all going to plan) I am working on the Library Bus until 1pm, but we do not have a great deal to move really. It is more the packing up of our stuff in the house. Unfortunately Kabuki will still be on the hardstand when we move on, but hopefully it will not be for long.

Guess What I bought??????

2009-09-25T17:59:00.001+12:00

Yes........ today I got myself a Bodhran (Bow run), or frame drum. I have wanted one of these for ever, and today was the day. I am hoping that over the next 6 months I will be able to learn how to play both the Bodhran and the Tin Whistle (Penny Whistle). It has been in my mind for some time to get into busking. I love singing and have developed a fondness for singing balads, this is now also encompassing a small amount of folk music. Celtic music is a favourite of mine, so I am leaning towards that sort of thing.

Anyway it is going to be fun experimenting with these new instruments. Hopefully they will fit on the boat along with my guitar and my craft stuff. I think I will more likely drive Paul up the wall with all of my drumming and whistling.
Check this young man out, He basically taught himself. I think He is great.

Cheers For now

The scupper drain blue's

2009-09-16T15:15:00.002+12:00

Paul and I have been working on Kabuki's scupper drains. We are removing the existing bronze pipe fitting, and sealing the scupper hole with a fibreglass tube that Paul is epoxying in. We are going to put the old bronze scupper pipes back in the holes as we like the look of them.
Paul feels that doing this will add structural integrity to the two walls of the fibreglass bulwarks ( sounds like I know what I am talking about eh!)
So these are some photo's of the scuppers, the left one Paul has already added the fibreglass tube inside and epoxied it in. The right one is what we were faced with when we removed the bronze pipes. It is hard to see, but Westsails have two walls of fibreglass on the bulwarks. Below is a photo of the starboard side of the boat. These scuppers were easier to remove and not as messy.

Anyway things are going slowly because we are back at work again, but the weekend is coming and hopefully it will be fine weather so we can get some more work done.

Catch Ya

What is Kabuki?

2009-09-15T20:27:00.003+12:00

Many people ask me that question. Kabuki is a Japanese performing art, generally involving music, dance and acting. The costumes are extravagant, the sets are beautiful. Generally the performances are by men (I think). Kabuki was first created by a woman , but eventually only men could perform in Kabuki.
I have added a you tube video of a Kabuki dance, this is narrated so you understand what is going on in the story.
It is quite a long video, but it gives you an idea of what Kabuki is about.

Down at the boat

2009-09-11T16:02:00.004+12:00

I have been very fortunate to have today off work. So I spent part of the morning doing the Mum thing with my lovely Son Xavier, then we went down to the Norsand yard to do some work on Kabuki.
We are starting to go through all of the lockers on the boat and remove stuff that is not really required. Paul is having a hard time coming to grips with this concept, but after some gentle and not so gentle persuasion over the last couple of months, I think we have come to an understanding............. that Paul's way is right (where have I gone wrong). I am sure we will work this out as two sane, mature, reasonable adults........yeah right..... I wonder if it will come to a wrestling match? oh goody! How long do I have to hold him down?

Seriously, Kabuki was sailed from America a few years ago, and onboard is a lot of stuff that is not relevant for our situation or is old and American( 110v power). We have already pulled off about two boxes worth and that was only in the forward cabin. We will continue through the weekend with other projects, so we will definitely be kept out of trouble.

On the work front Sue the Childrens Librarian has planned an awesome school holiday programme for the end of the month. I will be running some sessions with the 5 - 8 year olds, and Sue will run sessions for the 9- 12 year olds. It is all about growing gardens. This is very appropriate for the tough times we are going through. It should be fun doing the programme, I really enjoy working with the younger children. The programme is based on a book written by Helen Cook called "Get Growing" it is a non-fiction book for children on how to grow their own garden.
http://www.randomhouse.co.nz/data/media/documents/press%20releases/april_09/Get_Growing_PR.pdf

Anyway that's all for now.

Hi di ho

The learning continues

2009-09-09T17:53:00.002+12:00

Well this afternoon I have spent the last 2 hours playing around with my blog. It took me a while but I managed to get a slideshow of photo's going. This web thing can be quite frustrating at times, but when you achieve the end result it is all good. So I hope you enjoy the result.
Anyway Paul has just come home from a hard days slog, so I'd best up and play mother.

New blog

2009-09-08T21:01:00.000+12:00

Well I have been having a bit of trouble so far, but this is going to be my new blog superseding my Sailblog.com blog. Blogger appears to have a lot more features and it is linked with my email account, and my new Picasa Web album.

We have been encouraged at work to look into all of this blogging, twittering and widgeting stuff. After viewing Sue's blog I was impressed with what blogger had to offer. So here I am.

The photo is our little family, Paul (my beloved), Xavier (my son), the old girl (me) and Poppy (our piddle of a poodle). I hope you enjoy my new blog, and the change-over happens seamlessly.

Cheers