Well let me give you a taste of what's going on here in this bay:

One boat has a failed transmission that just grinded itself to garbage, so the owners have just finished to rebuild the gear and they have imported stuff for 5000 USD

One boat was just going to be taken out of the water for antifouling in NZ, the boatyard did not set her up properly and she fell over (the owner was in the toilet when it happened, must be a Spielberg favorite scene). Well the damage took a year to fix so the owners spent another year in NZ. As the boat was being fixed the mechanic thought she needed a cooled fitting around the propeller shaft ( a kiwi favorite?). The couple said yes and he installed it- the wrong way.

So now they are here in the bay with an engine that has been filled with salt water.

In Vavau was a boat that just had gotten a new engine in NZ, wrong level between water intake and outlet,  that had gotten water into the engine- totally messed up.

Another one got knocked down in the same weather that we were out and he got water in the engine, the mainsail ripped to pieces and most stuff on deck destroyed.

Last night we got news that a boat we know has found plenty of diesel in their bilge.

So when I see a boat like this I always wonder what happened to the owner/s

Did somebody get sick? Did they just not get along and gave up?

A small poem from a lonely boat

I'm waiting

Waiting for my skipper.

I'm dancing on the mooring, 

all by myself.

The other boats won't look at me, 

ugly, forgotten and broken.

But I believe that one day, 

he will come back to me.

Fix me up, make me ready 

for the sea.

My last lifeline is the wind,

the wind that turns my generator,

so the pump can keep the water out.

Don't tell anybody,

but Im leaking.

Every hour the pump goes on.

The pump of my life.

The pump that keeps me from drowning.

As long as I float,

 there is a chance,

just one chance...

That he will come back