On the move

After a few delays we have finally left our home port for an extended holiday on Kabuki. Our start was not auspicious as it was a Friday (apparently bad luck to start a voyage on a Friday) and raining, but hey we like to buck the trend. We only motored sailed out to Monroe Bay in the Whangarei harbour, where we anchored up and got our sea legs for a few days. We then sailed out to Taurikura Bay in the outer harbour ready for the wind to change to south west, a favourable breeze for heading north. Friends of ours also were heading north at the same time, and we were in a quandary over the weather, as there was a cyclone predicted to drop down out of the tropics and head for NZ. But that was a nearly a week out, so we decided to head north and take our chances.

We headed north on Tuesday the 7th of February with an expected South Wester, but this did not fill in so we motorsailed all the way to the Bay of Islands, ending up beating into a North West wind in the afternoon. Luckily we met some friendly dolphins on the way to welcome us north.

Our first few days were lovely, but then it was time to prepare for that dreaded cyclone that was going to hit on Sunday 12th. We motored up to our mooring in Opua thinking that we would stay up there for the storm, but things had changed and a bigger boat was on the mooring next door, this was swinging way to close to our boat and would only get worse in a storm, so we left to anchor out. We found a spot in Uruti Bay near Russell and set our Spade anchor with 120 feet of chain on a snubber through a block on the bowsprit. We pulled out a bigger Spade anchor to deploy if required in the blow. We took down all our covers, but left the dodger up, and then hoisted our dinghy up on deck in her usual spot in front of the dodger. We were set for the big blow.

The Big Move

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.

Down at the boat

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