december 2008

tuesday december 2^nd 2008 (opua, new zealand)

Success! We spotted the Cape Wiwiki light at 2AM yesterday morning. A couple hours after that we were in the Bay Of Islands waiting for the sun to come up so that we could make our way safely into Opua harbor. While we were floating around out there waiting for a little bit of light to guide our way, another boat called us up on the VHF. They were about a mile away and waiting for the sunrise too, and like us they had just finished their passage from Tonga. The difference is that they left Tonga in their old vintage wooden mono-hull back on November 5^th. So the same passage we had just completed in 8 days took them 25, three days longer than it took us to cross the Pacific. As we chatted they rattled off the laundry list of problems they had encountered including a damaged-beyond-use mast, bad weather, transmission and engine trouble. On two separate occasions they received aid in the form of diesel fuel and food from commercial vessels along the way. It was an impressive story and after hearing it we decided immediately that our trip was pretty good after all.

We pulled up alongside the quarantine dock at 7AM and after securing the boat went about getting things organized. Slapdash usually looks like a bomb went off inside after rough passages so restoring order to the cabin is usually one of our first priorities. It was a cold wet damp grey drizzling morning in Opua but with feet finally planted firmly on terra firma our spirits were high. We visited with the other 3 boats on the quarantine dock that morning and met the couple we had been chatting with out in the bay. The Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine officials came along at 9AM. An hour later we had lowered our quarantine flag and were trying to find a slip at the marina adjacent to the pier. Other catamarans were forced to stay out at anchor after their long passages due to a lack of berths available that could accommodate their wide beams. So it was under their covetous glances that we neatly slid Slapdash into a regular, made-for-mono-hull slip. Chalk one up for our Gemini’s 14 foot beam. Even so, it was a tight squeeze. We feathered her in with only 6 inches to spare on each side; just barely enough room to squeeze our fenders in. It’s only our second time in a marina since we left Florida but somewhere between having our engine conk out and bashing our brains beating to windward for 2 days straight, we promised to treat ourselves to the luxuries that only a marina can provide. Scalding hot steaming showers and the ability to get to shore without the use of our dinghy rate high on the luxury list, and we’ve been doing a lot of both over the past 24 hours.

Of course no significant landfall would be complete without a serendipitous encounter with our friends from Blue Jay. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of boats throughout the dozens of anchorages in the Bay Of Islands. We haven’t seen a concentration of yachts like this since we left Florida, so it’s no small coincidence that Mark and Katie happened to be at anchor no more than a hundred yards off the side of the dock we were on. They were a week ahead of us and ready to head south, but delayed their departure by a day in order to have us over and spoil us rotten with an incredible meal accompanied by fine wine and champagne which came in handy for toasting chance encounters and safe passages.

Our immediate plans include drying out the boat, catching up on our sleep and getting fat by eating all of the food we’ve been fantasizing about. We will dedicate a few days to satisfy the aforementioned priorities before we making our way further South. Our stay in New Zealand will last 5 or 6 months due to the South Pacific cyclone season so we have a few big decisions to make regarding our immediate future.

Location is the first priority. We need to find a place for the boat that’s cheap, has easy access to marine services, and some good facilities for us like showers, internet and laundry. We will probably end up in either Whangarei, Auckland, or Tauranga; all of which are on the East coast of the North Island. Next order of business will be sorting out Jaime’s travel plans. She would like to go home for the holidays and maybe make a little money. The Canadian dollar is about 30% higher than the Kiwi so wages back home will go further, but airfare has gone way up too so we’re not sure yet how and if it will all work out. Another option we are considering is to apply for work permits here and put in a few months each to beef up our war chest. The sagging world economy has taken its toll on us too, and we would like to make enough short term cash to save us from having to sell off any investments at a big loss. We also need to buy a car, get third party insurance for Slapdash (you can’t stay at a marina in NZ without it) and get to work on all the boat projects we have lined up. Oh yeah, and explore New Zealand!

It’s amazing how quickly life’s mundane realities catch up with you as soon as you stop moving.

wednesday december 3^rd 2008 (opua, new zealand)

Our insurance agent doesn’t take debit, or as they call it here EFTPOS (electronic fund transfer point of sale), so we needed to walk the 6 kms into Paihia to get some cash. It was actually quite a nice walk, it afforded some nice views of the bay, and there’s a bar at the half way point where you can get a burger and a beer for 6 bucks. It was so that we would have been happy to walk back as well, but for safety reasons we decided to hitchhike instead. The road between Opua and Paihia is a narrow two lane affair. It snakes around tight blind corners, leads up steep hills, has numerous ravines on either side and as I’ve already mentioned quite picturesque. When you add it all up the posted 50kph speed limit actually seems pretty generous. The Kiwis don’t think so and treat this stretch of road like a rally car course. Every car screamed past us with gears tearing, breaks smoking, and engine red lining. Many a time we were forced to take a blind leap off the side of the road into a ravine followed by a shower of rocks and debris, it was that or end our story as Kiwi road kill.

Paihia hasn’t changed at all in the 10 years since my last visit. In 1998 I spent a month hitching my way around the islands and stopped for a couple of nights. It’s still a typical summer resort town with scores of cafes selling ice cream and specialty coffees, storybook-looking souvenir shops, and fanny-pack-wearing German tourists. The hostel I stayed at was still there, we stopped in for directions and I showed Jaime where I stayed.

After a few hours of walking around we got a ride back to Paihia and called it a day. We retired onto the slapdash with pizza and a six pack of Tui. Ah, the good life.

friday december 5^th 2008 (urupukapuka, new zealand)

Apparently New Zealand let Dr. Suess name their islands up here, I just hope they weren’t paying by the syllable:

We are anchored in Urupukapuka Bay on the southeast side of Urupukapuka Island. You know, just south of Waewaetorea island and around Kapurarahurahu Point? In the morning we will pass Mahenotiti, Tawiriwiri, and Motuwheteke islands before we spot Rakaumangamanga hill and leave Mahenotapuku and Motukokako to starboard as we set a course towards the Hen and Chicken Islands.

saturday december 6^th 2008 (whangarei, new zealand)

We are nestled into our marina in Whangarei. After stops in Russell and good old Urupukapuka, we left the Bay of Islands yesterday and made the rainy passage south overnight. Whangarei (pronounced feng-array) is about 10 miles up a river from the ocean. The marina is so busy that they have us tied up alongside another boat. In fact every spot is stacked two boats deep. Now whenever we want to get to shore we have to crawl over the deck of another boat. It’s a little odd but our next-door neighbors seem nice, and we’re just happy to be secure and stationary with no reason to move the boat again in the near future.

So Jaime has booked her flights up and will be going home for the holidays next week. I’ll be staying with the boat apart from some time in Auckland for a potential house sitting gig. Today we’ll apply for work visas and take advantage of the nice sunny day to attempt plugging up a couple of our wearisome leaks.

monday december 8^th 2008 (whangerei, new zealand)

A chance encounter with our buddies off of God Speede led to a windfall. They are leaving the boat and heading back to the States to work for the season which means that they had to clean out the fridge. The loot we inherited included all of the four food groups; beer, sausage, Ramen noodles and cheese. I’m a happy guy. They also happen to be flying out on the same flight that Jaime’s booked on. They’ve rented a little van to move boat stuff into storage so I’ll drop them all off and then return the hooptie back to Fanga-Whangarei in the process saving them a 300 dollar drop-off fee. So it works out for everyone; Jaime’s transportation to Auckland is officially sorted, God Speede saves a few bucks and I’m set up with a bounty of meat products and fine malt beverage. Good plan Fred.

Fanga-Whangarei advertises their walking paths pretty heavily. The city counsel has obviously put a lot of work into the trails and paths around town so this morning Jaime and I decided to exercise our land legs a little and check one of them out. We felt like Hobbits coming back to the Shire. It was beautiful. A little river snakes its way through glades past forest and flowers. What really caught our attention though were the ducks, they are everywhere. There have been hundreds of ducks at every stop we’ve made in New Zealand so far. On the way into Whangarei we sailed through a flock of hundreds, they were just floating around in this big group a few miles off shore. This is all charming and probably paints a pretty wholesome picture of the place until you consider the inevitable. Just like the rest of their air borne cousins, ducks shit. Our decks have collected an international variety of bird shit from over 70 degrees of the earth’s latitude; blues, greens, and browns. Thanks to the swarms of Kiwi ducks we can now add green to the list.

tuesday december 9^th 2008 (auckland, new zealand)

Jaime packed, and I filled up the propane bottles. They actually have a spot to fill propane beside a row of pumps at the gas station so filling our tanks has never been easier. Talking the station attendant into filling our beat up tanks was another matter. We bought them before we left so they are only a year old, but to work out a boat year for a propane tank you have to multiply by ten. Jeff (God Speede) and I convinced him that if we wanted to blow ourselves up that it’s our own business and the guy finally conceded. I’m pretty sure they are structurally sound (guess we’ll find out) but I’ll need to do something about that rust.

By 2PM we were ready to roll. It’s about 2 hours to Auckland and much like our first experience with NZ roads these ones were also narrow, windy and only 2 lanes but it’s a beautiful and scenic country. Not being dissected with huge noisy freeways probably helps to keep it that way.

Once in Auckland Jaime and I found a room at the Queens Street hostel. We got one of the last ones available because there’s a big concert in town by some singer who’s name I have no idea how to spell. It sounds like “highly minnow”.

We dropped our bags off and hit the streets. It felt great to be back in a big city after so long. We met up with Jeff, Fred and Ang for dinner. Auckland has these great little kiosk clusters where you can get pretty much any kind of Asian cuisine imaginable. The one we ate at had Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Japanese just to name a few. There were at least another dozen or so, and a bar in the middle of it all called Alley Cats. Somebody there had a good sense of humor.

Check out Auckland’s big sinister Santa. It’s over three stories tall and looks like it’s made out of paper-mache or something. It has a creepy face with wide set beady little eyes, a flat nose and bright red lips. The index finger on its huge right hand slowly wiggles back and forth which frankly, looked a little obscene to us.

When we got back to the hostel we found an old guy in our bed with a hooker. In fairness we’re just assuming that she was a hooker because he was old and wrinkly and she was young and tanned but I’ll go ahead and continue referring to her as a hooker. Neither of them had luggage of any sort, and he also tried to hide her under a blanket which we feel lends some evidence to our assumption. Our room had obviously been double booked, but since this guy was likely paying by the hour he clearly didn’t have time to go and sort out another room. He had just moved our bags into the closet and got busy with his lady of easy leisure probably thinking that his hour would be up by the time we got back anyway. The funny thing is this whole time the girl just stayed there partially hidden under this tiny blanket. It was pulled it up over her head like an ostrich might try to hide, and she just laid there with her head covered and didn’t move or say anything. Awkward? Yeah. We worked this all out, grabbed our bags (he was wrapped in a towel) and headed down to the front desk.

The guy at the desk was devastated. We didn’t really care though, nothing was missing from our bags and as long as they had another room for us then no-harm-done. He fixed us up with a room and then invited us back down to the bar, our tab would be on the house. A funny story and an open bar tab. Good deal. We didn’t see old wrinkly or the hooker again, probably just as well.

wednesday december 10^th 2008 (auckland, new zealand)

We were about to flick the lights off in our new hooker-free room last night when we realized that neither of us have and alarm clock. We searched through our bags to try and find anything with an alarm. Cell phone? Nope. Ipod? Nope. Watches? Nope. Jaime went down to see the guy at the desk who said that he might be going jogging in the morning and if he did he would get us up on the way out. Not all that reassuring when you have been guzzling free beers all night and have an international flight to catch early in the morning. Needless to say we didn’t sleep all that well. One of us would wake up at least every 20 minutes thinking that we had overslept. Fortunately -or unfortunately depending on how you look at it- the combination of a late night and an early morning meant that this didn’t have to go on for very long. We met up with the other travelers and headed for Auckland International.

A couple hours later I was all alone. Just me and creepy Santa. After a couple of days in the city I didn’t want to go back to Whangarei. It’s a sleepy little town with lots of boxy stores and a big industrial area. Before I left Auckland I checked out a couple of marinas. Westhaven was massive. With over 1500 boats parked here every marine supply store clamors for a spot next to the marina. That’s pretty good news if you don’t have a car and want to work on your boat. Two checks. It’s also right downtown Auckland, the location is unbeatable. Another check. I chatted with the ladies at the desk and they gave me a list of slips to look at. They were private, secure, and here’s the kicker; the same price as our spot in Whangarei. Sold. I booked a slip for Saturday and made the drive North with a brand new plan.

friday december 12^th 2008 (urquharts bay, new zealand)

I had a big bachelors party for one last night. Cleaned out the fridge (by drinking all the beer), annoyed our neighbors by playing Social D and Anti Flag too loud, cooked up a couple of big steaks and buried them with onions and mushrooms. There are worse ways to spend your time, but partying by yourself and taking pictures of your food is actually every bit as lame as it sounds. Once I realized that, much to the delight of our neighbors I went to bed.

When I got up today I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a better party to account for the mess. What a dump. How could one guy do so much damage? I can’t believe Jaime has left me here to my own devices and vices. For the next two weeks I am only going to use one plate, one cup and one fork.

Enough screwing around. Time to put the brand new plan into action. I left at low tide and waved at all the mono hulls anchored outside the channel as I went by. They have to wait there with their deep draft keels for high tide to get in and out. Sucks to be them. As I mentioned before Whangarei is 10 miles away from the ocean. The goal for this afternoon was to get right to the mouth of the channel and find a spot to anchor where I could begin my first solo passage from bright and early.

The spot turned out to be Urquharts Bay. It was really beautiful and seemed especially private and peaceful after being wedged in with all those other boats, or maybe it’s just because Jaime isn’t here nagging me to pick up my socks. Kidding! Just want to see if she’s keeping up on the logs from Vancouver.

They have these huge speed boats in NZ. They cram about 25 tourists into an open bow while the boat screams around at about 300 miles an hour. People pay a hundred dollars or more each for the pleasure of getting soaked while trying not to swallow any bugs or drool on their neighbor while their cheeks flap in the wind. It looks like hell but I guess at least they get to enjoy the passing scenery which would have been reduced to a bouncing blur. Stick your head out of a car window in the rain to see how fun this would be.

saturday december 13^th 2008 (auckland, new zealand)

My original program had me putting in a day, then anchoring overnight somewhere along the way and finishing the trip to Auckland on Sunday. Last night I couldn’t really sleep. The channel was well marked and the moon was full so I decided to just leave. After a cup of strong coffee I pulled up the anchor at about 2:30AM. A half an hour later I was on my way past the last channel marker and on my way South.

After you’ve sailed for a year with another person you inevitably fall into a routine. In this case I couldn’t just go through the routine because “the routine” involves Jaime. So I found myself running things through my head a lot and worrying that I would forget something. There’s a ton of little things to do before you leave and you get used to concentrating on your bits while the other person does theirs.

Also; retrieving your anchor, hoisting the main, going to the fuel dock, squeezing into a tight berth at a crowded marina, brewing a coffee and navigating your way through a channel at the same time are all things that we can accomplish quite neatly as a team. When you are by yourself you can’t just call for a hand. You really have to think things through so that you don’t all of a sudden find yourself needed in two places at once.

Jaime and have spent countless hours beating into 20 knot winds of wind. It’s an uncomfortable routine that we don’t like but it is routine. It didn’t feel very “routine” this morning though. It was dark, it was cold, the waves seemed bigger and noisier than ever and I found myself counting down the minutes to sunrise. The sun came up right on schedule at 6:12 and it was beautiful enough to fuel my optimism a little. It was shaping up to be a rough slog but I was still making good time. By this point I had covered enough distance to make Auckland before dark if I could keep the speed up.

Conditions remained unchanged for a good part of the morning, but by 10AM I was close hauled and beating into 25 knot winds. The waves were steep and now constantly washing over the deck. After one particularly nasty bugger pushed the largest amount of water I have ever seen over our deck and into the cockpit I had had enough. Omaha Bay was only 8 miles West of my position and was far enough South that I could cover the rest of the distance during daylight hours tomorrow, hopefully in better conditions. After my turn West the wind was on the beam and with Slappy’s full head and main showing we were flying towards the bay at 11 knots. It didn’t take long for the shelter of the bay to take effect. The waves were reduced to a chop and the wind dropped by 5 or 6 knots. Still doing 10 knots now but without the discomfort of steep seas, this was just plain fun and I may have actually hooted at some point there. I decided to find an anchorage at the Southern side of the bay just to get a little further South and be in a good position to launch from in the morning. Actually, I didn’t want to admit it to myself at that point, but deep down I knew that it was because I wasn’t satisfied with throwing in the towel this early in the day.

Omaha Bay was apparently not named by Dr. Suess, and is about 5 miles across. This gave me some time to relax, have a sandwich, warm up, and second guess my decision to stop for the day. Selective amnesia kicked in and by the time I made it across the bay I was ready for round two. In the grand tradition of single handed sailors I also lost my mind at this point and began referring to the boat as a person. We talked it over and Slappy was game. A few minutes later we rounded Takatu Point and continued South.

I needed to put in a little westing to get to Auckland anyway, so the Omaha Bay excursion didn’t set me back much at all and after a few quick calculations I knew that Auckland was still within striking distance.

One thing about the weather that you can always count on is that it will change. I had been fighting to keep the sails full in variable winds for a couple of hours but by the time I made the Hauraki Gulf it was dead calm and the water slowly began it’s transformation into a sheet of glass. I dropped all sail and cranked up the Westerbeke. We maintained our average and by the time the ebb tide began to flood I could see the Auckland tower which was somewhat deceptive because at my current speed I was still 4 hours away. The time passed slowly but after the cold morning I was happy to just sit up on the deck and soak up the warmth while watching the tower get bigger. The sea lion fooling around in the wake nearby gave me something to talk to besides a boat.

I read somewhere that there’s a boat for every 7 people in New Zealand, and on this sunny summer Saturday afternoon it sure looks that way. I haven’t seen this many boats in one place since we left Miami. You also can tell that this is a country of die-hard sailors. Every single sailboat I saw had a full headsail and main up even though there wasn’t a breath of wind. They were just sitting there waiting for a puff, or maybe having a puff? I’m not sure which but I had already had quite enough wind for one day and just rumbled on past them with the Westerbeke cranked up to 2700 RPM’s. The engine ran smoothly until I decided to switch tanks. I haven’t used the starboard tank since that gooey hairball thing clogged everything up on our last passage, and I wanted to give it a try. Mistake. The engine died within 10 seconds of switching the tank over. Fortunately the clog must be in the line or tank itself because when I switched it back over to port the engine fired up right away, so apparently no funky blockage had made its way into the filters this time. Add one more job onto my task list, tank removal and fuel line cleaning? That should be a treat.

I made my way through the masses and once safe inside Westhaven there was no trouble finding our little slip amongst the hundreds. Marty the deckhand was there to take my lines. “Little slip” is not just a term of endearment. This one is even narrower than the one we squeezed into at Opua but with a bit of fiddling Slapdash was soon snuggled in and secure after a hard day of work.

I celebrated the passage with some cold beers at the local yacht club. A couple of local salty-dawgs took me under their wing. When I was quick enough to actually pay for a beer they made sure that I was charged from the members-only price list. One of them was the commodore so I guess that helped. They gave me the low down on all the local gossip, the right places to go for boat work, and the best places to poach fish.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same day that I left Whangarei in. After a steaming hot Hollywood shower I hit the pillow and in the 7 seconds it took to lose consciousness I thought about all the single handed sailors we’ve met along the way. I don’t know how they do it.

wednesday december 17^th 2008 (auckland, new zealand)

I'm happy to report that NZ has provided us with our first fast and reliable internet connection since Panama. This means that I've finally been able to upload the backlog of videos you've been waiting for. So pour your favorite beverage and feast your eyeballs on this tasty selection. You can find the video descriptions along with all of our previously posted videos by clicking here or by viewing the "aboutslap" dropdown tab.