Projects and Road Trips!

We’ve been securely tied up to the dock in Whangarei for one month and we’ve stayed busy with projects, visiting friends, and driving places! Much of our time has been spent clearing out storage spaces, cleaning, updating inventory, and getting rid of things we haven’t used and therefore have decided we don’t need. We pulled in the jacklines and preventers to keep them out of the elements while we’re not sailing. We also gave the deck a good scrub down. The last time we used soap and brushes on the whole deck was in March in Mexico. A few other low hanging fruit projects are wrapped up as well, such as troubleshooting a minor VHF/GPS problem, cleaning the bilge, dropping off our image stabilizing binoculars for repair, making dentist and doctor’s appointments, fixing a small leak in one of the v-berth cabinets, and a handful of other things. One important project we completed was pickling the watermaker. It was our first time ever to pickle it. We brought it back to life a month before we sailed out of Seattle and have been using it consistently ever since. Pickling the watermaker allows us to stop using it while preventing the growth of bacteria in the system. It’s a relatively straight forward process where we mixed sodium metabisulfite with water in a 5-gallon bucket and pumped that solution in to the system so that it can sit in the membranes. Then we flushed the pumps with reverse osmosis purified water as the chemical solution can degrade pump components. Given that it was our first time, we had a few delays. Mainly we learned that the selector valve dedicated to the pickling process was misaligned. When the selector valve was in the water-making position it worked fine, allowing the pumps to do their job and move water through the system. When we rotated the valve to the pickling position, the pumps were not able to pull the pickling solution from the bucket into the system. Sigh. After troubleshooting for a while, we determined it was the selector valve causing the problem. After taking the valve apart and fiddling around with it, we learned that the valve handle interface to the ball inside the valve was stripped. We were able to get a temporary fix to manually realign the ball inside the valve and move forward with pickling. We then ordered a new valve to replace the temporarily fixed one and called it a success. Until we un-pickle the system, we will fill our water tanks with our hose and filter using the dock water.

We’re enjoying the opportunities to buy new supplies that were not available in the small Pacific islands such as a new 3mm wetsuit for Kris (replacing one that was 18 years old), a cruising guidebook for the areas we plan to visit in the coming year, a new remote for the TV, a new colander, and a few fans to replace and upgrade those that are failing. Speaking of purchases, we bought new anchor chain! Our original plan was to regalvanize our existing 300 feet of 8mm (5/16″) anchor chain. We don’t know the age of the existing chain as it came with the boat. Though we are fairly certain that a previous owner already turned it end over end. Obviously the first 100-200 feet of chain get the most use as many anchorages do not require us to play out more than 200 feet of rode. One way to prolong chain life is to switch which end plays out first (turning it end over end). Regalvanizing is another way to prolong chain life as long as there has not been too much metal loss. We pulled all the chain off the boat with the plan of loading it into our car and driving it to a shop in Auckland for the regalvanization. However, upon pulling it onto the dock we noticed some areas that looked a bit too worn out for reuse. The generally acceptable metal loss on a link is less than 10%. Any links showing 10% or more metal loss should be taken out of service. Upon closer inspection using a wire brush to remove rust and calipers for precise measurements, we learned that roughly the last 50-100 feet of our chain had multiple links with 10% or more metal loss. We weighed the pros and cons of regalvanizing versus buying new chain. Most of our chain was good enough to regalvanize so we could get some more time in use without needing to replace it. However the remaining part of our chain would need to be taken out of service meaning we would either need to add new chain to the old “good enough” section or live with only 200 feet of regalvanized chain and add additional nylon rode to achieve the same length. The other more expensive route would be buying all new chain and recycling all the old chain. Ultimately we decided not to throw good money after bad. If we had regalvanized and added additional rode, we would likely still be replacing the whole chain in a year or so given the metal loss we noted on the “good enough” section. Finding the right chain for us took a bit of time and research. We ultimately found an Italian-made brand (MF) we are happy with and purchased 300 feet of 10 mm (3/8″) galvanized chain. Having solid ground tackle is a crucial part of staying safe while out cruising. We’ll sleep well knowing our new chain is in excellent condition.

We’ve taken two roadies, as roadtrips are called here. Our first trip was to The Big Smoke (aka Auckland) for a weekend. The Big Smoke is not smokey at all – just a reference to historic manufacturing we’ve been told. We enjoyed being in a big city particularly for the food and shopping! We ate Thai food three days in a row. It was nice to be able to try on shorts and shirts at multiple shops. After 18 months of cruising, some of our clothes are just plain worn out. Mark was able to get his laptop repaired (that failed 6 months earlier in French Polynesia) by an experienced electronics shop specializing in replacing individual components on circuit boards. This helped avoid a much more costly board replacement and the shop was able to preserve all the hard drive data. Auckland is very walkable with rolling hills throughout. We spent a few hours at the New Zealand Maritime Museum that has excellent displays on traditional voyaging canoes from throughout Polynesia as well as the modern racing and boatbuilding industry of New Zealand. And not surprisingly, docked right outside were our two favorite Polynesian voyaging canoes, the Hokule’a and the Hikianalia! We enjoyed city night life with a live band one evening and a drag show the next, along with bars that are open until 4am!

Our second trip was a North Island loop down to Hawke’s Bay on the east coast and the Waitomo Caves in the center. We pulled out the camping gear for Hawke’s Bay. After 18 months stored under the v-berth, we’re happy to report that the tent still works great and our camping pads still hold air! Hawke’s Bay is roughly 8 hours south of Whangarei. We spent two days visiting wineries in Hawke’s Bay which is the oldest and second largest wine region in New Zealand. The first day we drove around and the second day we biked around. They were experiencing a bit of a summer cold snap in the low 20s C (70s F) so it was excellent camping and biking weather. The region is known for its merlot, syrah, savignon blanc, and chardonnay. Our boat wine cellar is now well re-stocked. About 10 minutes after we packed up our tent to head out it started pouring rain. We lucked out there! Then we were off to the Waitomo Caves about a 4 hour drive to the northwest. We went on an awesome tour of the caves, dressed in 5mm wetsuits, hard hats with lamps, and thick rubber boots. We were traipsing through the underwater river at times leaping backwards off waterfalls, wading through knee deep water, and floating peacefully on inner tubes through the deep parts. But the real draw that brought us there was the glow worms. Thousands of bright blue glowing worms light up the cave roof. It’s like looking at the stars on a moonless night in the middle of the ocean. It was a truly incredible sight. Incredible. There are glow worms in some other caves and even some forests around New Zealand so we’ll be looking for more opportunities to see them again in the coming months. We spent an extra day near the caves, hiking to a waterfall and hiking above ground at the caves. On our trip back north we stopped in Auckland for lunch with Mike, a friend from Seattle, before his flight back to the US.

Meanwhile in Whangarei, between those two roadies and projects, we spent time with Mike on the front end of his visit, celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas with friends, and hiked to the Whangarei Falls. Whangarei is a lovely little town with a lively marine industry (great for boat projects!), lots of grocery stores, a farmer’s market, good restaurants, and friendly people. We’re happy to be here and look forward to ringing in the New Year here among friends.