Most of our time this last week has been spent working on the boat. A few of the items on our to-do list are a result of heavy use of the boat over the last 9 months, but most are improvements that we have always wanted to make but didn’t have time. For example, Dallas just replaced our old, worn-out lifelines, the wire ropes that encircle the boat and prevent man-overboard. Being a catamaran, we have more than 50 meters of lifelines in 10 different pieces. Instead of going with the swedged fittings at the ends, he created his own using thimbles and Nicopress-style crimps. One end of each lifeline was shackled, and the other end lashed. Not only was this a cheaper option, but it should be easier to inspect the condition of the lines now. The others were covered in white coating and taped, and there was quite a bit of rust and cracking underneath. Now he is tackling the steering system, which is turning out to be a nasty job…

Lashed end of a new lifeline. Note the white jellyfish in the water. They’re everywhere!

Meanwhile I’ve been doing some deep cleaning and general maintenance of things like winches, cushion covers, and cabinetry. I’m not handy by any means but find that tasks are much easier the second time around. Of course I’m also cooking and taking advantage of the opportunity to get whatever my heart desires from the grocery store. I’m getting used to driving the car on the "wrong side" (as people who aren’t from here like to call it), but when I’m alone, I invariably approach the left side of the car only to find that there’s no steering wheel there. I told Dallas about this, and he one-upped me–he actually got in and sat down in the passenger’s seat the other day!

Cleaning and lubricating the parts of one of the six winches

When we are not working, we are talking about work, so it feels like we are back in the U.S.! Actually, we do a lot of that, but we’ve also had some recreation such as jogging on the very nice beach here, finding some good local music at an Irish pub nearby, and hanging out with Martin from S/V Anima who arrived on Sunday.

Checking out nearby Mount Maunganui

Anima arrives!

Tuesday night Martin fixed us an excellent Austrian meal of wiener schnitzel of pork (apparently it is Austrian law that restaurants must specify if they are not using the traditional veal), baked Camembert (for Dallas), and potatoes. Last night we had him over for a traditional (at least in my family) lasagna dinner followed by a brief (by our standards in the Pacific islands) jam session. It adds a lot to our quality of life to have to a friend around, particularly someone whose company we both enjoy.

Das wiener schnitzel ist sehr gut!

Dallas and Martin have several common interests as well. They have spent several mornings exploring the complex of marine stores that are part of the huge industrial park here. (Dallas says that they have everything from a mill for exotic timber to a foundry for metals.) They also found a local basketball league to join. Would you believe that while shooting around the other night, Dallas met an American who also went to KU! Perhaps we can join him in watching the #1 Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament in March if we can find a broadcast somewhere…   

It feels like Christmas in July now that summer weather has set in. We’ve had a nice break from the rain, and the temperature has been hanging out around 75-80. I am looking forward to spending some more time on the beach this weekend, but I’ll be sure to take some sunscreen. The ozone layer is much more depleted here (up to 10% at some times of the year!) due to our proximity to the Antarctic ozone hole. It only takes a few minutes to get burned!

Well, sunny Tauranga has been anything but so far.  It’s rained every day we’ve been here.  We’ve heard some bad rumors that this is going to be a rainy summer due to El Nino, but hopefully they aren’t true, as we’re missing the sun.

Another overcast day with our marina on the right and Mt. Manganui in the background

We’ve started making a few repairs, but have mostly been doing a little exploring, waiting for some sunshine, and trying to get caught up on e-mails.  Lauren’s been doing a lot of cleaning and has started gluing together the various wooden strips of door and trim pieces that were knocked off during the last couple of months.  We did finally eliminate one big item yesterday by buying a car (or caaa) as it’s called here.  Using trademe.co.nz (NZ eBay equivalent) we bought a 1996 Honda Accord with about 120,000 miles on it for only $1400 US from a teacher who’s moving to England.  The car was in Rotorua, so we had a nice cheap, afternoon bus ride over to Rotorua.  We left from downtown Tauranga, which is a nice little shopping and nightlife area within walking distance.  We’re still not used to shopping, especially for designer clothes at designer prices, so we mostly just walked around for a while after changing the US AMEX traveler’s checks from Bora Bora at the bank (FYI, traveler’s checks have a better exchange rate than cash).

We finally stopped in for a beer in one of the pubs and saw what must be one of the best game machines ever.  It’s called Catch-A-Cray.  Cray is short for crayfish, which is what lobsters are called here.  The game is just like the ones in the US where you move a claw over a pile of stuffed toys and try to get it to grab one for your girlfriend, but in this case, instead of cute stuffed animals, there are lobsters in a tank of water.  If you’re lucky enough to get one, it’s deposited into a chute at the corner of the tank and then drops out onto the floor!  I’m not sure whether the local pub is setup to cook it for you or whether you just take it home in a to-go box.  Before you decide that Kiwis are unrepentant sadists, I should note that there’s a sign on the game that says it was designed by someone who works closely with the SPCA and that there are features like double glass, special lights, etc. that render it stress-free for the crays.  A couple of guys tried it while we were there and it works the same as in the US — you put your money in ($3 NZ), center and lower the claw, and then the claw starts to lift your cray of choice but won’t hold onto it.  At least they don’t have to worry about skinny youngsters sticking their arms in and pulling out prizes for free.

Catcha Cray

The ride to Rotorua confirmed what we’d read and seen a bit of in the Bay of Islands — New Zealand is a largely agricultural country.  There were lots of fields — kiwi fruit, a corn field, and lots of some sort of vine-type plant that I’m not familiar with.  There were also lots of very tall, trimmed hedges separating land into various sized plots.  Dairy cows and sheep were pretty common, but there were also a few beef cows, and a herd of deer.  Rotorua itself is supposed to be the 2nd most popular tourist destination in NZ.  Some call it Roto-Vegas, but we didn’t see anything in our brief stop that even remotely resembles Vegas.  It does have natural hot springs, a big lake, lots of outdoor activities, and an ever-present sulfur stench (rotten eggs).

The car sale itself is pretty hassle-free here.  You change ownership at the post office for $9 NZ.  Both the buyer and seller fill out a form and they could also do it online up to a week after the sale.  The plates are tied to the car and never have to be changed.  There is a fairly reasonable licensing fee/sticker that can be purchased in 3, 6, or 12 month intervals.  The big difference here is that the car has to have a fresh WoF (Warrant of Fitness) every 6 months, which is a bit more comprehensive than inspections back in the US (can include things like having to replace shocks or tires).  Insurance is not mandatory, although we’ll price liability insurance just in case.  The car looks pretty good for the price, although the seller was a little nervous when he handed me the keys, which seemed a bit odd.  Turns out I’d forgotten to pay him and he wasn’t sure if he should say something or if I’d transferred the money to his bank account.  Finally he said something which was great, because I’m absent-minded enough that I was about to drive off in the freshly transferred car with his $2k NZ in my pocket.

Our caaa

Driving back on the wrong side of the road with roundabouts and Friday evening traffic we haven’t seen let alone driven in for a long time was a bit of an adventure, but it went pretty well.  We did have a bit of a shock when we stopped at the gas station (of course the fuel warning light was on when we pulled out of the driveway) and a fill-up cost $85 (about $US 4.5/gallon). The hardest part was just pulling out into busy traffic after having not done it since March.  When you’re not used to it, cars seem like they’re going so fast that you’re wondering how people do it, but I guess they think the same thing about sailing hundreds of miles offshore.

The boat has to have a WoF as well from an electrician to be able to plug in to shore power, so we haven’t plugged in yet.  We have a heavy 3000W 220V-to-110V converter that we’ve lugged all the way here, but so far the solar panels and wind generators have done pretty well.  We got a little low on electricity last night after several calm, rainy days, but we actually had to cover the panels to keep the battery voltage down last week in Russell after several sunny days as we just don’t use that much electricity.

The staff is incredibly friendly, but being in a slip is still feels strange

It’s a wee trek to the head & showers

The rest of the passage to Tauranga was slow-going but pleasant. The local weather forecast had called for light winds in the morning that were supposed to fill out to 20 knots (gusting to 30) in the afternoon, so we sailed downwind using just the jib for much of the day, waiting in vain for the strong winds. We finally gave up and set the asymmetrical spinnaker in the early evening, and our speed increased to a whopping 3-4 knots.

There was quite a bit to see around Cape Colville. The first thing I noticed was the awesome size of Mount Moehau, as revealed between two layers of clouds. Then there were the random, football-stadium-sized rocks and larger islands obstructing our path, and when the sun came out, the green forest ridge of the Coromandel Peninsula. We also had an close encounter with a small whale (Dallas saw its fin, but as usual, I only heard it) and had several dolphins swim around the boat. It is common for tourists to pay good money while here in NZ to go out on charters to try to catch a glimpse of dolphins, so it feels especially fortuitous to see them when we aren’t even trying.

The hazards were well marked on the charts

 Dallas and I split the night watch into two shifts. He took the first shift through the hazard-ridden area. Naturally, just after he maneuvered us through the “hole in the wall” (a narrow passage between two large rock formations a mile or so off the coast) and just before I came on at 2:00 a.m., the light winds died altogether. After an hour of wasted effort to get the spinnaker to fill, albeit under beautiful, moonlit conditions, I took the liberty of firing up an engine. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but at this point, both engines malfunction on a semi-regular basis. I think we’ve mentioned that the port engine is hard to start for some as yet unknown and potentially serious reason, while the starboard one seems to have a minor electrical problem. The bright side is that once started, both of them work well.

No wind to fill the spinnaker during the night

A beautiful sunrise with clouds hanging out atop the distant islands

 The engine problems provide some indication of the state of the boat as we limped into Tauranga Bridge Marina. Between the starboard trampoline hanging down, the ripped sail cover, the missing paint along the boot-stripe of the hulls, and the algae already starting to form along the waterline, Pura Vida has more wear-and-tear than most of the other boats here at the marina. I suppose these are battle scars that demonstrate how far we’ve come and in what conditions we’ve been, but Dallas and I are both really looking forward to trading them in for some improvements in terms of both function and appearance. It seems like all of the resources we might need for this are available here (especially once we have a car), and the staff at the marina are extremely friendly and helpful.

Hailing the marina to announce our arrival to Tauranga Harbour

The city of Tauranga seems to have a lot to offer in terms of recreation as well. It is considered to be the hub of NZ’s aquatic recreational activity, which is perfect for us. There’s also a town center with plenty of pubs and restaurants, although it’s not quite as close to the marina as we would like…Dallas and I had our hearts set on finding some authentic Mexican food after going without for the last 9 months, but after finally pulling ourselves away from the unlimited hot water and internet (two of our favorite creature comforts are back!), it was almost closing time for the restaurant we found online, so we literally jogged the 2.5 miles to the restaurant in our jeans and flip-flops. I have to admit that as the sweat dripped down my just-washed-and-primped face, I was feeling a little sorry for myself, but that all changed when we arrived at the restaurant in time to eat their incredible food. I think it would have been delightful even if we’d had Mexican food recently, but since it had been so long, it was mind-bogglingly good. Dallas thoroughly enjoyed his food as well but ate more than his share of the extremely spicy green chili (habanero?) salsa–much hotter than we are used eating to back home.

Today I made my way back to the town center area by bicycle to the grocery store. It was a nice, quick ride, although I was a little concerned about getting a ticket for not having a required helmet. (My helmet didn’t make the cut when we down-sized last year.) Guess I’ll have to figure out where to buy one soon.

Grocery shopping is probably pretty mundane for those of you back home, but as with the Mexican food, after going without for so long, it is much appreciated. Not only am I not accustomed to having so many choices of foods (or should I say any choices) having been in the islands, but there are also many products (e.g., curries and soups) sold here that we don’t have back home, so these had to be examined and considered. I was definitely the slowest shopper (probably not a first!), the girl staring at all of the varieties of bread while others quickly grabbed their bread of choice and hurried on. Pedaling back to the boat in the rain with food loaded into my backpack, bicycle crate, and the plastic bags hanging from the handle-bars, I must have looked pretty funny, but I have come to enjoy being conspiciously strange in a strange land. Saying that, I will really enjoy traveling in the comfort of a car once we find one to buy!

Lat: 36 18.086′ S
Lon: 175 21.989′ E

We had plenty of wind on our way to Great Barrier Island. Some good sized seas built up, but we were going with them, which makes all the difference. After sailing by Poor Knights Islands, we passed right between Sugarloaf Rock and High Peak Rocks. I have no idea what sugarloaf means, but it was apparently popular when English geographical names were getting dished out here in NZ, as there’s no shortage of sugarloaf features.

Sugarloaf rock to starboard

We generally never ever come into a new place at night. It’s a common rule among sailors as there are just too many hazards that aren’t on the charts (mooring buoys, anchored boats, etc) or are charted poorly, or have been added since the chart was made. However, we were making such good time that we were going to get in at 1:30 am, a couple of hours before moonset. With the bright moonlight and the selection of a protected cove off of an open, deep bay to anchor in, we decided to give it a shot. Of course, right as we started to enter the mouth of the bay the moon went behind thick clouds and we noticed that there was a light fog in the bay. The light from the 800,000 candle power spotlight we were going to use as our "headlight" just reflected off of the moisture in the air instead of letting us see what was in the water ahead. Luckily, the wind was blowing the fog into the opposite reaches of the bay, so it cleared up a bit as we motored into Nagle Cove. We managed to anchor in a safe place with only one close call with a mooring buoy.

The next morning we woke up to the sound of sheep that were grazing on the hillside. Great Barrier is a rugged, verdant island with large, calm bays surrounded by towering ridge lines. The mountains are generally covered with a variety of trees, but some have been cleared for grazing and are a bright, rolling green among the darker green of the forest. Small steep-sided rocky islands are spread along its western coast. After breakfast we did a bit of work, topping off the water in the batteries and troubleshooting the nav lights. They drew over 20 amps when I had turned them on the night before (shorted out somewhere, really need to add a fuse) and so we sailed with anchor and steaming lights on instead. The problem turned out to be a short in the red port light that toasted the wiring and melted part of the plastic packaging. It may or may not be repairable, so we’re short one of our nav lights for tonight’s sail.

What 20 amps looks like the next day

Next we motored over to Forestry Bay, which is a small, quiet bay next to the "metropolitan" Port Fitzroy bay and started work on the steering. It’s been on the list for a while and we were hoping to work on it later, but the wheel was making a loud squeaking sound most of the way down and it was getting hard to turn, which is hard on the autopilot (our most valuable piece of gear aside from GPS). We debated disconnecting the wheel and just using the autopilot (attached to the rudder quadrant) and the emergency tiller or just hand steering the last 24 hours, but decided to have a go at servicing the steering instead. Unfortunately, servicing the steering wasn’t really a high priority for the boat designer. The pieces I needed to get to were basically at the top of a narrow, arm-length, chimney-like shaft with a greasy chain hanging down in the top half of it. Driving out the locking pin just wasn’t going to happen without cutting an access hole under the compass, so I settled instead for a couple hours work in getting the wheel and hub off. The aluminum hub really didn’t want to let go of the stainless shaft and key. For any boaters out there, PB Blaster works wonders, but any stainless/aluminum interfaces really need to be coated with something like Tef-Gel or Duralak to have any hope of coming apart in the future. Luckily, all the banging, PB Blaster, and WD-40, as well as some dry lubricant sprayed into the shaft/bearing crack seemed to do well enough for now. The squeaking stopped and it’s much easier to turn the wheel.

In the midst of several frustrating hours trying to disassemble the steering

After all that fun, we headed ashore for a nice tramp (hike) to a waterfall on one of the many tracks (trails) here on the island. The NZ DoC (Department of Conservation) is really second to none in terms of the number and quality of tracks they maintain throughout the country. This one gave us a nice walk through the forest and eventually lead to Port Fitzroy. Even though the NZ anchorages book we found made it sound almost like a major metro, none of the three "restaurants" were open on Sunday and the general store was already closed, so we had to settle for a nice walk back to the boat and a great pasta dinner at sunset. With the cold nights here, we’ve started closing up the boat before Lauren cooks dinner so that the heat from the stove warms the boat up enough to make it comfortable until we dive under the blankets.

Small waterfall along the verdant track

This morning we got up early and headed out through Man O’ War passage to sail the last 100 nm or so to Tauranga. NZ does have some incredible cruising grounds (the anchorage guide we bought lists 400 mainland and island anchorages just between North Cape and East Cape), but coastal cruising takes a bit of getting used to. There are land and boat traffic hazards to avoid, crayfish (lobster) traps to dodge, changing weather to keep track of, and tides and landfalls to time appropriately. Aside from the self-sufficiency aspects, it really does seem more challenging to coastal cruise (especially an area with shoals and reefs) than to make a tradewind ocean passage. The other big difference is that quite surprisingly, I’ve had connectivity for my Blackberry (now loaded with an NZ sim card) the whole way! The simple life is nice, but as Lauren will attest, I do love my Blackberry.

The early morning view back into Man ‘O’ War passage

We were sailing so slowly that these birds didn’t bother to move until we were pretty close

The white dots on the hillside are hundreds of birds

Lat: 35 17.640 S
Lon: 174 27.640 E

Friday morning it looked like our favorable winds were coming in early, so we decided to head out toward Tauranga. We finished up several repairs we’d started earlier, and made some more calls back to family in the US. Since it’s Thanksgiving there, they were gathering together and it was great to hear their voices, especially my cousin Heidi, who’s expecting a baby girl in a week (we’re proud of you guys). Lauren even got to see her Grandma on Skype, which definitely made her a bit homesick. Thanksgiving is usually my favorite holiday, with all the great food and family. Phone calls and Skype aren’t quite the same, but at least we’re in the land of the supermarket, so things on the food front are becoming much more diverse and interesting. We even have brown rice, which was impossible to find for the last several months.

Once we finally finished preparations we weighed anchor and headed out under sail without ever using the engine. That was a first for us and was sort of fun. We had one engine on just in case, but were able to get underway without using it. The boat had a couple signs of not being used for a while; the roller furler was seized up and took a while to free, and a couple of winches are having issues. Lauren serviced all of them before we left, but it’s been a year and they’ve seen a lot of use. Once we finally tacked down the channel and out into the Bay of Islands, the wind started to die on us, so we decided to spend the night anchored at Roberton Island. Roberton Island is where Captain Cook first landed here in the Bay of Islands and is a beautiful spot with two high ends connected by an isthmus with a nice rock and shell beach. After anchoring, we went ashore and climbed the path to a lookout over the bay that was the site of a Maori pa (hilltop fortification) back in Cook’s day. There weren’t any visible remains, but the view was great.

  The dink on the beach at Roberton Island

Pura Vida from the hillside trail

The view from the hilltop

This morning we tried sailing off the anchor again, but there just wasn’t enough wind in the anchorage so we eventually motored to the east tip of the island before sailing behind several small islands and out into the bay. We had lots of wind as we rounded Cape Brett and sailed past Piercy Rock (Cook named the rock, which looks like it has a hole pierced through it, after an Endeavour sailor named Piercy). We’re headed to Tauranga with a planned stop at Great Barrier Island, which is giving us a nice downwind sail. The sun finally came out after an overcast morning, making for ideal sailing, even if it is a little cool.

The famed Piercy Rock, just off of Cape Brett (people actually pay a lot of money to go through the hole on a big cigarette boat)

Virtually every boat we’ve met along our Pacific crossing has showed up in Opua. A couple opted for Australia, but all of the others are here. Just as I was typing this, we heard Dave on the South African Wharram cat Dragon calling customs for arrival check-in. The most interesting arrival we saw was a 70 year-old single hander on a 36-foot boat. He was clearly having trouble putting one foot in front of the other and we learned that he had just arrived after being 44 days offshore from Raiatea direct to Opua. We didn’t get the full story, but it’s no wonder his landlegs were slow in coming. We still aren’t fully adjusted ourselves. We’d rather be at a beautiful, quiet anchorage than tied to a dock in town. Seeing "fashion" again is taking a bit of an adjustment as well. Aside from a few American honeymooners in Bora Bora and some Kiwi tourists in Aitutaki, we haven’t really been around westerners our age for a while. Going into town at night wearing some warm clothes we dug out of our berth and a foul weather jacket to keep warm makes a funny contrast with the fashionably dressed backpackers and tourists. Atoll wardrobes (shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops with that distinctive Salvation Army flair) don’t seem to be in high demand here.