Delivery part 1

It started raining AFTER we were tied up to
our berth. Win! 

Well here we are safe and sound in Auckland. It took two days with light winds and a few hours of motoring but we made it. Now our crew are at a concert and Garth and I are alone in our snuggly little boat listening to the pitter patter of rain outside. I love the sound of rain, but I can't help worrying that it's getting in somewhere. I doubt very much that our boat is an impenetrable fortress.

When we got on board in Whangarei our bilge pump had a hard time pumping out all the water which had gotten in during the crazy weather they just had, and the head (bathroom) was totally full of water. That's where our mast comes down, and water always finds a way of getting into the mast. Usually it empties itself into a bilge somewhere, but our boat is special. It just builds up on the floor of the head which doesn't have any drainage as of yet - so we had to pump it all out by hand. Actually when I say we I mean David, so cheers for that!

Looking aft as we loaded stuff onto the boat - Garth refused to sit still for a panorama

When we got on board we also found out that the hot water isn't hooked up, the taps in the sink don't work at all, our lights were more broken than we thought and there's no door to the toilet (as the only girl, I'm the only one who seems to care about this). Before we went anywhere the boys spent some time fiddling with the engine to make sure everything was in working order. We cleaned out all the water then hunted around the boat to find out what was on board. It turns out there's a lot and all of it is useful for something, I'm sure. I just have no idea what.

The boys playing with the engine

We found a cockpit shower, which is fabulous because I can cross that off my list. It's also our only supply of water because the taps don't work. So to get water we have to hold the shower over a water jug, get somebody to turn the pump on, fill up the jug, turn the pump off and use jug water for everything. This is annoying. After the boys left this afternoon Garth managed to fix the taps, because he is fabulous, but we'll still have to fiddle around with the water system when we get home. Hot water would be nice. I don't think that so many things not working is a bad sign - they probably have the water set up how they do to make sure not a drop is wasted down the sink.

Remember how I was worried about getting onto a boat and not knowing what it had on it or where that stuff was? That was a legitimate concern. The fridge was full of towels and paint, and it took Garth about 10 minutes just to find a can opener. Mind you, most of the cutlery drawers are filled with tools. I'm ashamed to say that tools make me happy - there's tools and pipes and random things shoved in every little compartment. This means the previous owners knew how to fix things and exactly what to do with 7 different tools that look exactly the same to me. It looks like they loved this little boat and looked after it really well. I'd be more worried to find 3 drawers of useless cooking implements.


Yesterday we motored a lot of the way, which was dissapointing, but we had to be in Auckland by today and we weren't making good enough time to do that going at 2 knots under sail. I was exhausted because it was day time and I was awake after only a few hours sleep (I work nights at a bar), so I ended up feeling a bit shit sitting on a boat all day rolling over the swells. I lodged myself in between the lifelines and the cabin in the middle of the deck and napped most of the day. If anybody feels the need for a daytime nap on a yacht, this is definitely my favourite place.

Garth made us dinner while we were under way, because he is amazing. We stuck the boat on autopilot and ate in the cockpit under the setting sun, which was really lovely. We anchored in a nice little bay near Kawau island after dark, which was pretty cool because we got to follow the lights in. It's probably a bit nerdy to get excited about lights, but we've just finished our Boatmasters course and it's exciting to be sailing along knowing what all the lights mean and where they are on the charts. I'm so so glad we did the course before we brought our boat down.

As we were anchoring I discovered there was phosphorescence in the water, which is the one thing I was really really hoping we'd see on this trip. I've never seen anything like this in Australia, and it's seriously awesome. I missed out on swimming in it at New Years last year and I was really excited about the opportunity to play with sparkly stuff. I think it's a form of algae that glows when the water is disturbed so when you throw something in the water there's lots of little glowing dots everywhere. When you're motoring around in a dinghy, the wake is really pretty because there're little glowing waves rolling out behind you. If you get a bucket of water and throw it over the side of the boat, there's a trail of glowing dots after it. It's kind of like fireworks in the water and it takes me a long time to get bored with it!

So of course we jumped in. I wish I had pictures, but it's too hard to photograph (but I found some here and here and here and here). It's something everybody has to do at least once in their lifetime. Closer to the waters edge where your arms are moving there's thousands of little glow in the dark dots around you as you're moving. Under the water where your legs are, it's like a blue aura is surrounding your body like something out of an alien movie. I loved it a lot.

Our first sunset on Heartbeat

Before I went to bed I was reading the bumfuzzle book (which is a great read btw, there's not that much sailing jargon in there and a lot of interesting travel stories). I've read most of their blog, but felt like reading about sailing while I was sailing. Terrible, I know. As we were going to sleep, there was a continuous crackling noise like somebody rustling something or like light rain. I ignored it for a about half an hour, and then I realised it wasn't rain and wondered what the hell was going on. Then it clicked when I realised I'd just read a bit of the book where the Bums had experienced the exact same thing - they said it turned out to be barnacles attaching themselves to the bottom of the boat. Garth said it might be fish nibbling on the bottom. Either way it was a bit freaky, and it made it worse reading the book - he described it as crackling bacon and then that was all I could think about.

Pulling up the anchor at dawn

We woke up to the sunrise this morning and sailed all day, making good time and arriving at Gulf Harbour at around 1pm. There was a nice amount of wind and it was a picture perfect day of sailing. Mike managed to find us an electrician to fix our nav lights, everybody helped shuffle more food and gear aboard and then we were all alone.

And we're sailing before I had time to get dressed

Sunrise at Kawau island

Garth getting stuck into the sink

So it's been a really awesome day. After Garth fixed the sink we passed out for a few hours, got dinner and then passed out again. The boat seems to be in pretty good order now for the rest of our trip, which hopefully should take about 4 or 5 days.

So far, I really love this lifestyle. I keep bumping my head and everything is cramped, but just chilling out in the sun and lounging around on the boat has been fun. I really love other cruisers - everybody is so friendly and nice. It's a cool feeling hanging around a marina knowing you're meant to be there - I'm so used to sneaking around and staring at the boats and then heading home to my cosy house and bed. I like wandering around in my gumboots like one of the cool kids, instead of hiding under an umbrella and staring.

The wind is supposed to pick up to 35 knots tomorrow, so I'm not sure we'll be going anywhere. After sailing in Wellington that much wind doesn't really worry me, but it's a solid 10 hours at 6 knots until we can anchor again, and we don't want to get stuck if it picks up much more than that.


Love Monique

David pumping water out of the head

David thinks the compass cover is a hat...

Mike thinks it's that way

Rain