After three weeks of work, the hulls are painted and looking good. I’ve had some extra help this week, which has been a big bonus as my patience started wearing thin back in Phase I! First off, Martin volunteered to fill a few cracks in the gelcoat, most of which were along the waterline. He used 2-part epoxy to which we added some high quality micro-balloon filler that I got from a friend in the boatyard in exchange for a few beers. In addition, Pascal from S/V Jonathan as well as Martin’s crew members, Anne (Dutch) and Fanny (French), all have been extremely helpful this week, enthusiastically volunteering to assist with the priming and painting. As a result, it only took two and a half days to apply the four coats of primer + paint.

Primed and ready for anti-fouling

The roller girls: Pascal, Anne, and Me

I had thought that we were going to use black anti-fouling paint on top of the blue base coat, but after seeing the shade of the blue paint, I decided to take the 14 liter bucket back to the paint factory and change it out for more blue. I think it works well with our green sail cover, bimini, etc.

The winning color combination

For the most part, the remaining jobs to be done while on the hard are pretty straight forward, but there is one exception. We still have some probably very old and stale seawater dripping from the center of the starboard keel, which will unfortunately need to dry out before it can be reglassed…we’re hoping this won’t take more than a few days!

Dallas is trying to leave the various projects that he is currently working on in good standing before leaving California next week. Knowing how conscientious he is, I enjoy reminding him that regardless of where they stand, he’s going to be on a plane to NZ in a matter of days! I am looking forward to introducing him to some of the people and places that I’ve discovered here.

Last weekend I had the chance to take another excursion with my Kiwi friends, this time to the larger (than Tauranga) city of Hamilton for the annual hot air balloon festival. We also stopped by the Hamilton Botanical Gardens, a lot of which is comprised of rolling green hills that Kiwi families use as a playground, picnic site, etc. Many of the plants in the gardens could have benefited from water, but personally I’m happy that it was another beautiful, sunny day to be out and about. I’m hoping the weather will be similarly cooperative this Easter weekend for the Tauranga Jazz Festival.

The Italian Gardens

Proof that I can still be a girly girl

In other news, a tragedy occurred last week that hit home to some extent. A member of the cruising community, Paul from South Africa, set off on a relatively short passage from Tauranga down the east coast of NZ to Gisborne and never arrived. After sailing around the world, he was just making the short passage to relocate in Gisborne where he was to begin working the following week. Unfortunately, he did not wait for a weather window and ended up in some very nasty seas. I had met Paul briefly as he walked his dog each evening around the marina, so I was pretty shocked to learn that he and his yacht were missing. After a week of intensive searching, his steel yacht was discovered near Christchurch, much farther south than the official search radius had extended. The wind vane was still engaged, meaning that the boat had been steering itself, and although his dog was found, Paul was not on board. None of the safety gear had been touched, indicating that he probably just fell overboard. Obviously this story has hit home with many here in NZ, and those of us who spend a lot of time on the water are reminded of the potential perils. There has definitely been more discussion lately about the use of personal flotation devices, the dangers of single-handing, etc., and one can hope that this will lead to lives saved in the future.