Back in NZ and there is work to be done

This cute little fellow is a welcome swallow. It is native to Australia and self-introduced into New Zealand in the middle of the twentieth century. They are not bloody welcome on our boat.

This is what three months of swallow shit looks like…

We arrived home from the UK on Thursday lunchtime. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning were spent cleaning up the thick of the bird crap. In the afternoon, Nigel took the boat to Marsden Cove marina (a 20 minute sail) while Sue drove the car around (a one hour drive around Whangarei harbour). We then spent that evening and all day Saturday doing a radar operators course that we had booked several weeks earlier when it seemed like a good idea. Jet lagged and shattered, what else would anyone do? It turned out that the conclusion of the course was a two hour written exam – we had no idea! And, as yet, we have no idea of how successful, or otherwise, we were. So some time after 6pm on Saturday, we wearily trudged back to the boat for another fun day cleaning and preparing. Sunday brought more boat cleaning with visits from Dan and Eryn and then on Monday morning the boat was hauled out ready for two weeks of work – which, as is the way of boat work, turned into four.

So Taihoa is really just a trailer boat – as long as you have a big enough trailer.

First job was to take the mast off so that the boat could fit into ‘the shed’ for the anti-foul ‘coppercoat’ that we were unable to do outside last year. So she really can be kept in the garage – as long as you have a big enough garage!

First image is the boat going in. The second is her coming out with the new bottom paint that is supposed to last ten years. Brent, in the overalls, was very proud of his work which also included repairs to numerous ‘nicks’ and cracks in the gel coat.

While this was going on Nigel was busy replacing our misbehaving fridges with some sleek stainless steel, 12v, drawer fridge/freezers. At the same time Sue was studying for her Marine Restricted Radiotelephone Operator’s Certificate. She can now operate our SSB long range radio while Nigel is only licensed to operate the VHF short range radio. So if we are a long way from land you can only talk to Sue.

The second reason for the haul-out and the reason that we were willing to have the mast removed was that all the standing rigging needed to be replaced. This is all the stainless steel wire that holds the mast in place. Insurance companies insist that this is replaced every ten years.

While the boat was in the shed Mark the rigger had been busy replacing all the rigging while Nigel took the opportunity to polish the stainless steel. Once she emerged from the shed it was time to call back the crane to put the mast back.

Finally we got back in the water on a Friday morning. Nigel and Daniel had left our house at 6:30am to get to the boat for 7:30 for some last minute hull polishing before a 9:30 splash.

After a final hose down and quick tidy up they had the boat back on the mooring in Taurikura by midday.

Sue and Dan then headed off to Dan’s house to meet the builder and confirm the location of all the electrical sockets, switches and light fittings while Nigel mowed lawns.

We have found time for a few walks in amongst the frenetic pace of retired life.

We hope that is all the work done for a little while at least. Now it is time for a break. But not exactly a relaxing break! Sue has our bags packed and we are writing this having driven to Auckland to spend the night at Dan and Eryn’s place ready for an early morning flight to Fiji where we will joining a yacht as crew to sail back to New Zealand.

More on that soon…