Up and Running Again - Well, back in NZ

Vega
Hugh and Annie
Wed 21 Feb 2018 08:57
After three months apparently bobbing around off the coast of NZ (according to the map) I have now updated things to show that in fact Vega has been safely tucked up on the hard in Bay of Islands marina while Annie and I have been in the UK. As ever it was wonderful to be back with family and friends. I had pined for the English countryside, autumn colours, real ale and log fires and was not disappointed. In fact as winters in the UK go this one seems to have been quite wintery with low temperatures and snow. Unfortunately it has also been accompanied by ongoing colds and coughs that we are hoping to shake off with the warmer temperature out here. We are just being hit by a tropical cyclone that has caused damage to Tonga and Fiji en route. It is the second cyclone to hit NZ this summer which is highly unusual.

The one thing I am relieved to have left behind is the ongoing debacle that is Brexit. Every indicator suggests that the UK will be worse off but the government says, whilst trying to suppress them, that we have to ignore all this as forecasts are inherently unreliable. Thank God (metaphorically speaking) I don’t have to listen to May, Davis, Johnson, Gove, Fox, Reece-Mogg and so forth telling us to unite behind a resurgent global UK. These people represent elitism, segregation and inequality which is why they are so determined to take away our rights as EU citizens for free movement and work within Europe and to participate in the wonderful social, economic and political achievements of the EU. The irony is that these same people will also ensure that the majority who think insularity and a pre-EU 1960’s outlook is the way forward will be worse off in ways that, worryingly, that majority is not prepared to recognise and address. When the farming community wakes up to the prospect of up to 50% tariffs on their export produce under WTO rules and the withdrawal of subsidies for growing food, wait for the bleating (from both the farmers and their sheep). When the public sees the consequences of free trade with the likes of the US that will involve the import of GM foods (that in turn will destroy agricultural exports to the EU), legal indemnities for American multinationals from Government controls, much weaker welfare standards on animal food products, the consequences of the loss of EU development aid in areas such as south Wales and Tyneside, the shift of manufacturing out of the UK, the stripping out of long term industrial firms by rapacious London based private equity funds and they too will or should be bleating. And there is no redress; Jeremy Corbyn is ineffectual and low profile on these issues and our 19th Century debating chamber for former public schoolboys will ensure that there is little scope for the middle ground to be represented. Unless the English wake up to this right wing regressive agenda (history is not a good indicator that we will) our children are doomed to a rather bleak and isolated future.
Again, many of you will wonder what this has got to do with sailing around the world. However, it is the political context of our journey. Almost without fail it is the one subject that people from other countries want to talk about and they are concerned to know whether we are for or against leaving the EU before engaging with us. Usually the perspective we are given is one of bemusement and incredulity at what the UK is doing. Less so in NZ from our limited experience as some here still lament the loss of agricultural exports to the UK after we joined the EU. Interesting because all the lamb on sale in Waitrose when we were last in there was from NZ. We refused to buy it because, presumably, Waitrose could source from UK hill farmers - and this before we have even left the EU!!
On the boating front we now have a new gas strut in the vang; new inner/upper shrouds; ground and bushed joints in the gooseneck and vang attachments (to take out the slack caused by wear of the pin slots); repairs to collision damage to the bow and also to the teak gunwhale; a cover for the dinghy when on deck and covers for the hydrovane and Powergen when not being used; an engine service including new fuel injectors. There is a new mast sheave for the spinnaker halyard and a top down furler for the cruising chute that means it can be left hoisted when not in use. Before leaving NZ in November I managed to track down a replacement multi function dial for the plotter. The only snag is that it is attached to a new plotter that had to come with it. However, with its inbuilt bluetooth transmission we will now be able to repeat the plotter display on our iPads and navigate from the comfort of the saloon. A cockpit lookout will still be required of course............ Remaining items include a new sprayhood around the front of the cockpit, a larger inbuilt power inverter to draw 230V from the batteries and new Coppercoat antifouling. At this, the halfway point, fairly major (and costly) service items were inevitable but we hope these will see us through the second half of our passage.
The next leg of our journey will see us heading north to Fiji, across to New Caledonia, up through Vanuatu and the Soloman Islands to Papua New Guinea and then across to Darwin in northern Australia. We thought this might be enough to get us through to the end of the sailing season in October and our next return home. However, the insurance company is not comfortable about leaving Vega in Darwin during the cyclone season and would prefer us to be either further south (Brisbane) or further north (Singapore or Thailand). On balance we would rather take one season to get up to Thailand and not spend two years getting there so it may be we will need to get our skates on. We have yet to do the detailed passage planning that will determine our final decision.
In the meantime we are planning our travels around NZ that will include a month in South Island, two railway journeys, a sleeper van and lots of beautiful scenery............

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