Arrival

Arrived back in Whangarei on May 9th after a 38 hour travel ordeal which was punctuated by a dastardly act by our dear friends at TSA. Upon arrival I found they had left an inspection card inside my luggage – fair enough – it was loaded with all manner of boat oddities and a six month supply of tooth paste, deodorant, shampoo, and body wash et. al. packaged in one large plastic baggy so they wouldn’t leak. Until TSA opened the large plastic baggy and then opened two shampoo bottles (factory sealed) to inspect the contents I guess. Ok – still fair enough. What wasn’t fair, and in fact, was downright nasty was that they left the shampoo bottle spouts open and the plastic baggy open as well. The result was that just about everything in that suitcase was coated with shampoo. Our tax dollars at work.

The time since has been spent bringing Iron Lady back to life, finding all the stuff that we so carefully put away last year so we would remember where it was – and didn’t. Then there was changing the oil, filters, zincs and raw water pump on the main engine before embarking on the 2300 nautical mile run to Tahiti, sorting out lots of small issues and getting familiar with the new systems. In our spare time (Steve – our captain from year one is with me), we provisioned the boat with all the staples we would need for the next 4 months for family and guests, placed a monster order with our favorite butcher for meal sized portions of flash frozen meat and poultry to fill our two big freezers. The necessary wine and beer which is simply too dear to purchase in Tahiti (if you can get it and you can’t in the remote places we will be going). Then there was all the other stuff – from bug spray to toilet paper. You really don’t have a feel for what it takes for 5 people to live for 4 months until you procure it all in one go. We certainly did get strange looks at the super market when we arrived at the checkout with two full trolley loads of toilet paper. Hopefully our estimates are all correct – it would be a terrible thing to run out of toilet paper with 5 of us on board – what would I tell the guests – not to mention Deb. More importantly, what would she tell me? I’m full of you know what and a whole lot more no doubt.

I have always been a bit critical about how much stuff Deb buys when she provisions – this will obviously be her chance to get even when we run short of something.

Iron Lady has accepted the lot without a complaint – she simply seems to swallow it up no matter how much we bring aboard.

The boat is currently parked at NZ Ship Repair (we have affectionately named it Ship Despair) just down the street from Circa and close to town. To be fair, a resort marina it isn’t – it is a full on working marina so it isn’t the nicest place to be – so no pictures this time. It is, however, an enormous advantage to be close to Circa. Circa, as usual has been an enormous help in getting things back up and running – can’t say enough good about Bruce and his people.

We have now been here 8 days and the “to do” list is pretty well down to a minimum. Next on the agenda is a local shakedown cruise to put Iron Lady thru her paces and identify and last items that need attention. As soon as the weather breaks (it is pouring down rain) it is our intention to run down to Great Barrier for a few days – about a 6 hour run each way – and spend sometime on the hook exercising the batteries, genset, inverters, water maker and other boat systems that we will rely on for the next 4 months. Not to mention that Great Barrier is a really fun place to go.

Once back, we will put enough fresh produce aboard for our trip up to Tahiti- we will restock fresh fruit and produce in the open air markets once there – bunker the boat, fix any remaining items and head to Marsden Cove Marina where we will clear out when we get a weather window.

More to come.

Cheeers