Refit time - Norsand Boatyard - 35:44.3S, 174:20.8E

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Wed 19 Feb 2020 08:10

We came back into the Hatea River two weeks ago and spent a night anchored in McLeod Bay so that we could walk the trail up to Mount Manaia.  These volcanic peaks dominate the approach to Whangarei and Sarah has been wanting to see the view from the top since we first came here.  On the Tuesday morning we got up relatively early to tackle the climb before it got too hot.  It was still a very sweaty ascent and we were impressed by the dedication of the Maori who used to leave the remains of their important Chiefs on top of the rocks on this sacred mountain.  They didn’t have the benefit of the nice footpath with wooden steps, created by the Department of Conservation, to help them get there.

Mount Manaia from our anchorage in McLeod Bay

The oil refinery and docks at the entrance to the Hatea River and the coast south towards Auckland

Looking west across our anchorage and up the river towards Whangarei town.  You can see some of the sandbanks that you have to navigate to get there.

Parua Bay (just visible on the right of the previous picture), where we have often anchored on our way up or down the river.

When we got back to Serenity we lifted the anchor straight away and headed up the river on the rising tide, getting to the town just before high water to tie up in almost the same place as when we were there before Christmas.  While in town we began making inroads into the never ending jobs list.  Phil finally found the problem that had been causing most of the engine issues – air getting into the fuel system at a leaky joint.  He also identified what he believed were a couple of faulty fuel injectors and that diagnosis has now been confirmed by an engineer.  Sarah started at the front of the boat rubbing down and varnishing and has completed the woodwork in the forecabin. 

Serenity was lifted out yesterday and we are going to become landlubbers for a couple of weeks.  We have hired a car (a nice little Toyota Blade from Rent a Cheepy (yes, really)) and tomorrow we are moving off the boat and into an Airbnb a couple of miles from the boat yard.  This will allow us to progressively move things out of different cabins as we work our way through varnishing. This is going to be a fairly major refit and we have booked to be in the yard for a full month.

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10