Farewell Whangarei!

First, we’d like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us out over the last many months both in Whangarei and from far away. Family and friends have visited, bringing packages and hugs, local friends and fellow cruisers have cheered us up through the endless slog of boat work, and many of you have sent us messages of support through blog comments and privately. We’re preparing to be a tiny speck on the ocean again and we will not feel alone out there because of all of you.

As we prepared to say farewell to Whangarei, our final large project was installing the dinghy davit. These stainless steel lifting arms took months to fabricate (due to delays in Auckland), but we’re very happy with the design and fit on our stern. We put together the three main pieces, and drilled holes in the stern for the mounting brackets. We re-ran our old lifting lines and made a few other minor adjustments to block locations and strap lengths. This new set up means we can smoothly raise and lower the dinghy off the stern without the struggle of pushing and shoving it around all the other gear attached back there. The way the lines are run also means it can be a one person job now instead of requiring both of us. We’re very excited for this upgrade that will have a positive impact on our daily lives at anchor.

As we planned for our time in New Zealand, our list of boat projects grew from a few main items to a long list resulting in a mini-refit of the boat. To summarize, here are the main projects we’ve completed to upgrade our boat and keep her going strong for years of continued cruising:

• Sandblast the hull
• Repair blisters
• 5 coats of epoxy barrier paint on the hull
• CopperCoat on the hull (1 coat resin, 5 coats copper)
• New anodes on propellor shaft, propellor strut, and propellor.
• Re-grease the Max-Prop propellor
• New rudder bearings
• Rudder repair for blisters, crack around rudder post, and wear grooves on rudder post
• Sand and refinish interior teak
• Replacement of hatch screens
• Rebuild the hatches with new gaskets, acrylic, and hinges/handles
• Refinish the built-in freezer frame and lid
• New foam in the seats of all our cushions plus new cushions for the nav station
• New bimini with clear roll-down sides to block rain and sea spray
• New stack pack to cover the main sail
• New 145% Genoa headsail
• Reseal the deckplate above the rudder post
• Reseal multiple windows and chainplate covers
• Reseal the hydrovane bolts (cause of the constant leak throughout the passage from Tonga to NZ)
• Replace old bolts at mast collar (prone to fail) with new duplex steel bolts
• New stainless dinghy davit
• New stainless grill mount
• Rebuild grill with new parts
• Install new portable fridge/freezer where generator used to sit
• Relocate teak board for scuba tank and diesel jerry can storage to starboard side
• New anchor chain
• New custom machined bow roller
• New cockpit chairs
• New leather covering on the wheel
• New Sirocco fans
• Replace circuit breaker in forward shore power inlet
• Install 3 new 240-volt international outlets
• Replace rose joint on auto-pilot ram
• New stainless steel anchor locker drain valve
• Clean and greas Hi-vent for the PSS shaft seal (previously salt clogged and not functional)
• Install chafe guard on halyards
• Replace various cabin lights with LEDs
• New mattress cover and pillows
• Clean windlass parts and wiring
• Replace oven gimbal mounts
• Replace over-pressure valve on water heater and fix plumbing leaks
• Fix hinge on helm seat
• Install folding pad-eye on foredeck
• Install new exhaust ventilation fan in engine compartment with ducting to transom to remove heat
• Engine maintenance: valve adjustment; barnacle buster descaling; coolant replacement; oil change; filter changes
• Inspect standing rigging
• New drinking water filter

We took a final weekend trip to Auckland where we caught up with some Kiwi cruising friends and their new puppy. We enjoyed the crisp autumn air as we strolled along the waterfront, through a few neighborhoods, and the city rose garden. We did a last round of shopping, and most importantly bought dry ice to refill our soda stream bottles so we can enjoy garbage-free bubbly water!

Our last week has been busy, with an unknown deadline. Prior to departure we have been watching the weather closely to see whether we wanted to head up to the islands directly from Whangarei. A handful of boats, including some we know, took off at the first available weather window to head north. Many of them were hammered by the conditions, limping into Fiji or Minerva, with stories of extremely rough passages and a variety of broken rigging and other mishaps. We’ve been told by locals that the first window is always the worst and that we should wait for the second or third or fourth window. As we looked for our opportunity, we’ve been passage planning, provisioning, preparing food for the passage, and buying as many spare parts as we can stow. We also sold the car! We’ve reviewed the boat to make sure she is ready to head offshore. Mark hoisted Kris up the mast to inspect the rigging, and we reinstalled offshore gear such as jacklines, preventers, the bowsprit, and the hydrovane. We topped up on diesel and water, and un-pickled the watermaker (bringing it back online and flushing the biocide preservative out of the membranes). We enjoyed our favorite restaurants around town, and Kris delighted in finding fresh oysters for sale from a roadside van. We celebrated Mark’s birthday by taking a break from preparations to enjoy gelato for lunch, and a delicious Vietnamese dinner followed by cupcakes. After over 5 months in Whangarei, we plan to depart tomorrow cruising under the bridge as it lifts one last time for us. We were prepared to leave New Zealand straight out of the gate from Whangarei, but a massive low (and potential cyclone) was forecast to form over Minerva Reef right when we would have arrived. So, as we often do, we changed our plan. We’ll cruise around coastal waters and wait for a good weather window to get us north to Minerva Reef and then Fiji.

Next Stop: Coastal cruising to the Bay of Islands, New Zealand