Blog 1. Thursday 17 April 2019. Whangarei
Alcedo
David Batten
Wed 17 Apr 2019 20:39
Unfortunately, although the last of last year’s blogs did get written in the airport at Aukland, it disappeared into the ether instead of arriving in either the draft or sent mailbox. So now just over a year later, we are back in Whangarei and on the boat, which has been quietly haemorrhaging money with the purchase of a new keel fin, refit to the rudders and all the internal work that had to be done once the keel was refitted as well as boat yard fees. The keel fin looks really smart in its new copper coat and with its extra anode and the bulb has been smartened up and antifouled.
Now we are afloat and the keel has been up and down successfully and the water has stayed out of the boat. Much relief and celebration. The new echo sounder and log seem to be working but we have yet to test the new Garmin forward facing sonar system that we are installing - hull fitting done but wiring to be completed. More money but we hope it will give us more chance of missing unchartered reefs.
Today’s job is to reinstate the generator, another unplanned for expense, which celebrated the idea of doing some charging by refusing to start. So an engineer for an afternoon or so later and a new exhaust elbow coming from Aukland later, we are hoping to have it working this morning. The sails are on, the rigging set up and safety equipment in place and with just a bit more “filing” to do, we will then be off down river and heading for Opua in the next couple of days.
Having trouble downloading photographs from the iPhones at the moment, so here are some birds instead (only joking).
The view from the boat in the yard toward Whangarei Heads
The Heron we saw regularly from the boat
The oyster catchers on the quay we are tied up to at the moment.
Alcedo
Sent from my iPad