Pictures from Russell, Home Port, and Roberton Island

I am finally getting around to posting a few pictures from our first week in New Zealand. Some of these are from Russell where we spent the first weekend visiting with Roz and Holger who make their home here on board Melody when they are not at their farm near Whangarei Heads, 'Home Port'. Others are from Home Port and the last few are from Roberton Island in the Bay of Islands where Ladybug is currently anchored. 

Holger discusses rigging issues with Chris 

This is the policeman's house in Russell. It is a historic home, built around 1860. The giant Moreton Bay fig tree was also planted around this time.

Cruise ships visit the Bay of Islands, anchoring off Pahia

View out over Russell to where our boat is anchored 

Hedgehogs are a frequent sight in New Zealand

This Tui is enjoying the nectar in flax plant flowers.

Chris taking a leek in Roz's garden at Home Port. Actually she gave us 2 leeks to take home.

Roz has looked after cows ever since she arrived as a girl in New Zealand from Australia. Samson and Delilah are her latest.

We visited briefly with Jo and Rob in Mcleod Bay Their health center and B&B is nearing completion and should open next year.

There is an underwater trail as well as one to the look off at Roberton Island. Jan and Rich from 'Slip Away' climbed the look off trail with me. 

Panorama from Roberton Island look off.

The look off has spectacular views in all directions

Matthew from 'Rock and Roll Star' arrived at the top shortly after us.

The island is rich in wildlife including parrots, oyster catchers, and bees.

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Boat Projects in Paradise

The winds have been light for the most part of the week we have been in New Zealand and the skies sunny. Rani with her knack for timing, has left this fair land in summer and returned to the darkest days of December to visit British Columbia where she has work lined up at a Pharmacy in Parksville. I will remain on the boat, working through the list of projects (about 40 at this point) and making her ready for a passage next season. I plan to do this work in various bays around the north end of the north island - Bay of Islands, Whangaroa, etc. I Will post pictures and descriptions of what I find.

Projects completed so far include cleaning 4 years of surface rust spots from the 'stainless'steel, taking off the running backstays, which had hairline swage cracks and bringing these in for replacement, a rig inspection (mentioned in an earlier post), removing the cockpit level anchor light and wiring in the mast-head anchor light after putting in a new LED bulb.

The price of 12 volt LED bulbs has fallen dramatically since we left in 2008. Back then I looked at replacing 25 watt anchor lamp with an LED bulb and the cost was $50 (Canadian)! It is now about $13 (Canadian) even in New Zealand where boat bits are expensive on average.

Removing the wiring for the cockpit light that I put in shortly after we bought Ladybug proved to be a chore. When I installed this, I did a very good job of tying off the wire and feeding it neatly through various bulkheads and lockers. This meant I had to remove everything from our 'closet' - the large quarter berth where everything that does not fit in a locker is stored - spinnaker, spare genoa, inflatable kayak, etc. This allowed me to wash off the staysail, which had got salty on the last passage and re-stow various pieces of gear that usually lived under the berth. The wire snaked through the lockers under the quarter berth, then into a book closet and finally through a bulkhead into the area under the cockpit.

In the process of crawling into the lazarette via the cockpit locker - a feat worthy of Houdini because you have to squeeze between the steering column, 2 cockpit drain hoses, and a bulkhead - I noticed the automatic bilge pump hose hanging in mid air. Its end had perished and When I touched it, it crumbled into fragments. I presume this is due to years of exposure to heat from the sun. It is in such an impossibly inaccessible place that it rarely gets looked at. I must have crawled in and out of this space 6 times, broken up by a 1.5 hour rowing trip into the marina area for new hose and a joiner in order to fix this. Thus a one hour long project escalated into a day long ordeal.

I am in Russell today and will do some grocery shopping before heading out to the Bay of Islands.

Good News about the Rigging

We had a rig inspection done today by Hamish from Cater Marine and he gave us a clean bill of health. He assured us that the light ripples in the tapered section of the mast are the normal results from the welding process. The mast taper is produced by cutting a section out of a straight mast and welding this mast section back together with multiple passes. The heat from the welding distorts the aluminum producing regular waves.  Hamish also told us that the rigging looked to be very well done and in good shape as well as being a little over-sized for our boat. We were very relieved to hear this!

We are having new running back stays made up because we found hairline cracks in the swages on the old ones. Once these are back in place we should be good to go.

Recovering in the Bay of Islands

The problem with booking a flight months in advance is that it can make you do silly things. Rani leaves on Saturday for Canada, so she has less than a week here to visit with friends and get herself organized for the trip home and a follow-on trip to the UK to visit her family. After our arrival and less than 2 hours sleep we spent a full day exploring Russel with our friends Holger and Roz. The next day we joined them on a drive to Whangarei Heads where we visited their farm at Home Port, did a little work around the garden, and enjoyed their beautiful property, which is set back from the sea with sweeping views of old growth forest. We also crammed in a visit with Rob and Jo (off Blue Moon) who are finishing up the construction of their spa and B&B just down the road from Home Port.

The next day, both our bodies said ENOUGH and we slept in and had a day 'off'spent with Rani trying to organize things for her visit to Canada while I cleaned and polished all the stainless steel fittings on the boat. Do you have any idea how much stainless steel can be found on a typical cruising boat? It took 10 hours of cleaning with an oxalic acid mixture and I still have half the wind vane and several blocks and fittings to do. Then these all have to be polished to slow down recurrence of rust staining. I have a list of 37 projects to complete on the boat and plan to tackle at least 1 a day for the next couple of months. Some are large and some a few hours long - nothing major.

Last year Rani left New Zealand without saying good bye to the friends with whom we had spent a a good part of a year crossing the Pacific. So, this year, we are busy filling the calendar with potlucks, meetings in bars and restaurants, and drinks on various boats. At last count we will try to fit in 6 engagements in the next couple of days. Then Rani has a bus booked from Opua to Auckland where she flies to Vancouver on Saturday evening. I will stay on the boat and work on boat projects while we figure out what we will do next year. 

Last Photos From New Zealand

Following are a few photos from our last weeks in New Zealand.

Possum visits Ladybug in Docklands 5 work yard

I shooed it away, but it came back to see what the fuss was about. Photo taken inside our cabin looking out with possum looking in.

We enjoyed a last weekend with Holger and Roz at their lovely farm.

Fresh veggies - some from the HomePort gardens

Rani picks hot peppers with Roz.

Rat Bag frees herself from the navigation buoy she dragged onto one windy night in the river near Whangarei. 

Annie Hill visited us and I asked her to sign my much-read copy of her fantastic book - "Voyaging on a  Small Income"- our cruising bible.

Annie Hill's 26 foot junk-rigged boat - ''Fantail'' was anchored just upstream from us.

Meeting interesting people

One of the joys of this lifestyle is meeting interesting people along the way. Last night, we had the pleasure to meet up again with friends on "Barefoot" whom we last saw in Tonga. Barefoot is an attractive aluminum boat of about 40 feet. Designed by Greek designer, Angelo Lavranos (who coincidentally lives near here), "Barefoot" was built in Gibsons, B.C., just across the water from Vancouver. Her owners, David and Roslyn are charming and highly experienced cruisers. They like to follow the path less trodden and have just returned from a three month circumnavigation of New Zealand. They sailed as far as Stewart Island, well below the south island, and spent weeks poking around the fjords on the west coast. David fitted out the interior of this boat, doing all the carpentry, wiring, etc. Such a project is not for the faint of heart. It took David four years of hard work, but the results are stunning. The boat is lovely below, finished in a warm figured African mahogany and David's attention to detail is evident everywhere. Even the wiring harnesses, hidden away behind the electrical panel are works of art.

Just before we met up with Barefoot, a woman rowed over to thank us for going to the aid of the schooner that had dragged the night before. She arrived in a little yellow punt and told us she was off the small junk-rigged boat, "Fantail", anchored just upstream of Ladybug. Apparently she and her partner had been on board the junk when they noticed "Rat Bag" heading down the river on her own. Her partner had rowed out into the dark and stormy night to re-anchor the schooner. We got to talking about boats and, because her boat was junk rigged, I mentioned the book "Voyaging on a Small Income" by Annie Hill and asked if she had heard of it. She said, "I am Annie Hill".

Now "Voyaging on a Small Income" is the closest thing to a bible for the type of cruising we do and I felt like I was in the presence of a true guru. We had a good chat about about cruising, Nova Scotia (which she has visited 6 times), and what had brought her to New Zealand. And of course I asked her to sign my copy of her book. Much water has passed under her boat's keels since she wrote the book back in 1993, and we look forward to hearing more when we visit her and her partner for drinks tomorrow on Fantail.

Wet and windy

This time last year we had just arrived in the Tuamotus. Sunshine, clear water, corals, coconuts, and tropical fish, strolling along palm lined beaches. It all seems like a dream now as we huddle under blankets, while anchored in the river at Whangerei. The wind howls in the rigging and rain patters on the coach roof. We curse ourselves for not leaving earlier, but family comes first.

We did have a bit of excitement last night when "Rat Bag", a classic wooden topsail schooner dragged past us heading down the river in a rain squall. I ran on deck and fired the air horn to notify her owners if they were on board. A voice yelled back that he knew that the boat was dragging, but it was not his boat and he could not figure out how to work the anchor windlass. I yelled across that we would help and Rani turned on the engine and we hauled up the anchor. Getting underway was no easy feat in 30 knots of wind with a strong current added in. We motored down to the schooner, which by this time had stopped dragging, having narrowly missed a channel marker. The fellow on board was a friend of the owner who lived nearby and had gone out to see if the boat was ok. Luck was on the owner's side both for having such a friend and for the direction in which "Rat Bag" had dragged, for it appears that her anchor had caught around the same starboard channel buoy that she had narrowly missed.

At this time of year, system after system swirls over the north island of New Zealand, bringing strong northeast winds, which back to strong southwest ones. We will likely leave on the back of one of these lows and run before the wind, north to sunshine and calm seas.

Back in the water

We splashed a couple of days ago with new bottom paint, polished propeller, and new zincs. Due to the rain we did not have time to finish painting the sheer stripe.

There was an area on the skeg (the appendage that secures the rudder under the water) where water had got in below the outer laminate. I peeled this off, dried it out, and relaminated a layer of mat with epoxy and then another layer of thickened epoxy to even things out.

We are currently back in McLeod Bay on a mooring waiting for a weather window and finishing up last minute projects.

A few recent pictures

I thought I would pop a few pics up for a change.

The first is of my little three year old niece Claire whom I visited in Vancouver along with my brother, his wife, and my parents.

My adorable niece, Claire

I visited Sidney on the way back to Vancouver from Victoria.

Public art in Sidney, BC.

Ladybug has been on a mooring in front of this house in McLeod Bay since January.

The new house/yoga retreat that our cruising friends Jo and Rob Woollacott {s/v Blue Moon} are building at McLeod Bay. Rob worked 12 hour days with a local builder to erect this building . It took them just six weeks to get her to this stage {building on a foundation/lower level they had previously constructed}. Wow!

Jo and Rob at Ocean Beach, near Whangarei Heads

Ladybug with sanded and primed bottom. Hauled out at Dockland 5

Haul-out

Those of you who own larger boats already know how much 'fun' a haul-out can be. You get to play with dangerous substances in a dusty boat yard full of toxic noise and air. At night you retreat up a ladder into your boat, where you can no longer use the wash room or drain water down the sink. Needless to say one wants to limit the days spent in such a position.

I arrived early on Monday after motoring from McLeod Bay the day before and anchoring a kilometer down the river. The boat was hauled out promptly at eight thirty on a large travel-lift. They used only two of their six straps to lift Ladybug and place her gently in a strong steel cradle. I was glad to see how robust the cradle was because we had heard that a friend's boat had collapsed with considerable damage when the supports buckled under her.

In the last two days I have sanded the bottom and applied primer to the bare spots and a coat of paint - 2 coats over the primed spots. The bottom was quite fouled with slime and some coral and barnacles but a good power washing took most of this off. I also cleaned and polished the propeller in the hope that it will be less attractive to growth if it is nice and shiny. Other projects under way include painting the sheer stripe and resealing and painting the ice box/refrigerator.

It is time to climb down the ladder and get to work...

Back on Ladybug

I am back on our boat After 42 hours of elapsed travel - flying to Los Angeles, Tahiti, and Auckland, then buses into Auckland city center and on to Whangarei, car to McLeod Bay, and rowboat to Ladybug. The last legs of the journey were a bit tiring as I staggered around with two heavy backpacks and a light one, trying to find bus terminals and buying groceries for a few days isolated on the boat.

Have you ever tried to go shopping wearing three backpacks? I know a little of what homeless people feel now as I pushed my shopping cart, piled high with the packs around the aisles of a crowded supermarket. Later I waited with my packs and groceries on a park bench for my friend Jo to finish work, so I could drive with her out to McLeod Bay. It was dark now and I was seated near the town basin marina in Whangarei. Groups of cruisers walked by, the families avoiding this stranger seated on a bench with all his possessions. One mother, passing nearby, explained to her children about some people being less fortunate than others. I could only smile.

Ladybug had weathered a month of sun and rain and even a storm bringing sixty to seventy knot winds to the bay. Jo and Rob, on the hill above, had a fence blow over during the storm, but the only sign of this on board Ladybug was a few books on the floor and empty water containers in strange places. One port light showed signs of having leaked a little, but the computer fan and dorade vents combined to keep the interior clean smelling and almost entirely free of mildew. In a wet, climate, this is a real concern when leaving a boat completely shut up for so long.

I will sail up the river on Sunday and haul out first thing on Monday. Rani will join me when she returns from her niece Sandy's wedding in the UK. As I type this, I can see my breath, for it is now winter in New Zealand. Most of our friends have sailed for Fiji, although I talked with Craig on 'Gato Go' yesterday who plans to sail within a week. I look forward to joining them there in a few weeks.

Cruising under sail is not that expensive until you stop

I often tell people that our lifestyle is not that expensive, so long as we are on the boat, cruising and anchoring at night. All this changes when one enters a port where the temptations are many. Add to that the  need to paint and repair the boat every couple of years and an airfare or two half way round the world, and this whole thing does not look like such a bargain.

I am heading back to the boat today, flying out of Vancouver to Los Angeles and then across the Pacific via Papeete, Tahiti, to Auckland. What took 8 months last year on Ladybug is compressed into a long day. In my bags are spare parts and replacement clothing and shoes to last us for another year or two, hopefully.

We bought an AIS equipped VHF radio so that if I sail Ladybug home on my own, next year, Rani will have some peace of mind. The AIS system provides a warning when commercial shipping is within a certain distance of our boat and sounds an alarm if a collision is possible. Most commercial ships are now equipped with AIS transceivers by law. We held off on buying one of these units because they used to be expensive and required a separate VHF antenna or a splitter. Standard Horizon now makes one for under $350 including the mail-in rebate - with free shipping out of Ontario.

We ordered a new membrane for our water maker. These are quite cheap in the US ($160), but not easy to find in Canada and very expensive in NZ ($450). Ours is a 21 inch long 2.5 inch wide membrane that should allow us to make about 25 liters of nice fresh water per hour. The two old membranes were installed in 2003 and were producing water that was slightly too salty to taste good. I will remove one membrane and pressure vessel from the system to keep things simple and improve the overall water quality. From what I have gleaned from manufacturer's specs, having a second 21 inch membrane in series with the first, yields only 6 liters more per hour at the low flow rate achieved by our electric pump. It also increases the dissolved solids by maybe 15 percent, plus you have the extra membrane cost and the complexity of high pressure (800 psi) plumbing.

The membrane had a tortuous journey from California, via my friend Kurt's house in Northern California and then by 'First Class' USPS mail (which I discovered has NO standard of service!). The membrane took a couple of days to make it to Kurt's house and three weeks to get to Richmond BC from there. If you do plan on using USPS for a parcel from the US to Canada, probably go up a level and pay for tracking and guaranteed delivery within a finite time.

We also purchased an Olympus 820 underwater/tough camera to replace our aging and quirky Canon point and shoot. We hope to take some underwater snaps in Fiji, where the corals are reputed to be even better than Tonga. This model is discontinued, but on sale now at Futureshop and Best Buy and seems like a lot of camera for the money.

Our final large purchase is an 11.6 inch notebook that is just a hair bigger and a lot faster than the netbook we bought a few years ago for Rani. My 5 year old 7 inch netbook has a quirky keyboard and sometimes refuses to turn on, so we thought it would be prudent to have two decent small computers since we now rely on them as our primary chart source. This new computer is fast enough to process our home movies from the Sony videocam and I produced the penguin video on the blog using it. Our old netbooks could not even display the videos from the videocam, let alone edit them.

Video of Yellow Eyed Penguins

Video of yellow eyed penguins at Curio Bay.

Away from the boat

As you may have noticed, we have not posted much in the last month. Rani and I are back in the UK and Canada, respectively. Rani is visiting with her family and will attend the wedding of her niece, Sandy, in May, and I am spending time in Vancouver with my family. We will be back on Ladybug in mid-May, when we haul her out for bottom painting and annual maintenance.

Windigo Update

The yacht Windigo was abandoned on a crossing from Tonga to New Zealand. When we last heard, it was drifting NE from the position at which it was abandoned, so it came as a surprise to learn that the boat washed up on the coast of Australia, well to the west.  Here are a couple of links to articles: ABC Coffs Coast  and NZ Herald

The couple who owned her were surprised that she had been stripped of her valuables before they reached the scene, but this is not surprising. The same thing happened to a friend of ours who's boat was washed ashore during hurricane Jimena in Mexico. I was interested in the issue of ownership of an abandoned boat and this article has a skeleton outline of international law. Interestingly, it seems that the ownership of the vessel remains with its owners even if they abandon it and that this even extends to articles that float free or are jettisoned from a wreck. Unfortunately, in reality one must stay with a vessel or post guards on a wreck to prevent looting or salvage claims.

In the news - New Zealand Conservation

This piece from the Whangarei Times of April 1, 2013:

Lord of the Rings fans are up in arms over the New Zealand Department of Conservation's decision to use over-sized stoat traps to control the increasing population of Hobbits on the North Island. A spokesperson for the department stated that "Despite similarities between our country and Middle Earth, Hobbits are not endemic to New Zealand. They have no natural enemies to control their population. and they compete with native species for both food and space to build their hillside homes."

D.O.C. is using over-sized stoat traps to control the Hobbit population on the North Island.

The Whangerei Times has recently learned that during the filming of The Hobbit, at least eight Halflings went missing from the set in Hobbiton. In the last year there have been more than a dozen sightings of Halflings. Some believe that they may even have crossed the Cook Strait to the South Island, most likely as stow-aways on the inter-island ferries.

A statement posted on the website of the Auckland Lord Of The Rings fan club reads: "Putting Hobbits in the same category as wallabies, stoats, and possums as introduced pests is ridiculous. Hobbits breed slowly and take at least 40 years to mature. At the very least, they [the New Zealand  D.O.C.] should make use of live trapping and relocation..."

Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings films and most recently, The Hobbit, declined to comment.

Mt. Ruapehu - The Dome and Crater Lake

We were determined to bag one more peak before returning to Ladybug, so we chose Mt. Ruapehu in the Tangariro National Park. Well, we didn't actually hike up to the summit of Mt. Ruapehu as it requires alpine skills and crampons, but we did get up to the Dome and Crater Lake. This is recommended as a guided hike due to lack of a signed trail. However, with some directions from the D.O.C. and other avid hikers, we were able to navigate to the rim of the Crater Lake and the Dome Emergency Shelter. We were prepared for adverse weather, carried a good First Aid Kit, a compass and warm/waterproof clothing. There were no warnings of volcanic activity when we checked at the i-site on the night before our trek, so that was a good sign.

Below the Waterfall Express Chairlift, Whakapapa Village

Chris and I went our own way but we both arrived at the same place 

Mist rising from the valley threatens to obscure views of the crater 

Chris hiking on the crater rim

Emergency shelter 

Crater Lake and galcier below us

Beware of volcanic hazards!

Brrrr! The wind began to blow at the dome

On the way back - the dome in the background

Thick ice in this crater camouflaged by covering of silt 

Chris below one of the private club huts on the ski slope

Arthur's Pass and miscellaneous photos

Chris almost caused me a breakdown when he slipped off a rock at Castle Hill, bouldering while I was not looking. As the weather forecast for Arthur's Pass was a bit gloomy, we decided not to hike up Avalanche Peak but continue up the coast towards Nelson. Thankfully, Chris's ankle was not sprained. It didn't stop him from criticizing my driving, anyway!

Castle Hill - Arthur's Pass 

Rock sculptures at Castle Hill

Surreal landscape 

Paekakariki beach at sunset 

Pancake Rocks 

Some places reminded us of home - timber shipping operation at Picton 

Rani in her hot pants at Otaki Beach - Kapiti Island in the background

Organic reflections in a stream

A photo for our friend Chris Mills, a former lighthouse keeper:

 Nugget Point 

Mount Somers, Canterbury Plains

We stayed two nights at the Mt. Somers Domain campsite, a very reasonably priced campground with good facilities located close to the Mt. Somers Track. There are two huts on this track and it is recommended as a two day hike. However, due to lack of time, we planned to see the best of it in one long day. We started at the Sharplin Falls carpark, went up Staveley Hill, summitted Mt. Somers (1687m), crossed the tussocky ridge, then followed a scree trail down to the saddle above the Pinnacles Hut, joined the Mt. Somers Track to the Pinnacles Hut and finally arrived at Sharplin Falls.

It was not an easy hike as the trail was washed out, muddy and slippery in many places due to recent rain, overgrown in other areas and required good footwork and lots of stamina. However, we enjoyed the challenge, the views of the valleys below us and the fleeting glimpses of the snow-covered Southern Alps whenever the clouds drifted away.

View of the Canterbury Plains from Staveley Hill

The clouds are rising from the valley, just in time to obscure the view from the mountain top

Chris, if you look really carefully, you might see Mt. Cook! 

Somewhere over there is a trail down to the saddle, we think!

Limestone rock columns above the Pinnacles Hut

Pinnacles Hut

Rani decided to wash her hair along the way