Settling Into Kiwi life

L'Esprit de la Mer
Dr Chris Bates
Thu 14 Nov 2013 06:31
The low pressure area which stalled to the north
east of North Island eventually stared to move east on monday and with this the
wind backed from south west to south and then south east on tuesday . By this
time we had trackes south to lie south east of Opua and were able to make good
headway towards Opua and eventually set a direct course . The winds also dropped
significantly .
We continued to sail but on tuesday afternoon we
needed to start the engine to recharge the batteries . This went well untill the
engine started to falter and then stopped . We were unable to start again and
this meant that we were with out not only engine but battery power to drive the
boat systems . Not a problem but for a time on tues night / wednesday morning we
had no wind at all . We are a yacht and able to cope with this but innorder to
reach Opua we were to sail inland along the estuary which would become
progressively narrower towards Opua and more and more sheltered and of course
subject to current and tide .
On reaching Opua it is neccesary to more to the
customs pontoon to clear in before moving ton the marina .We knew that this
would be difficult to say the least . We were able to contact New Zealand
coastguard who were very helpful and tried to contact customs to seek
permission for us to obtain a tow in . This
was not forthcoming untill we were within half a mile of Opua when the marina
contact us and agreed to tow us in .We tied to the customs pontoon at noon
.
Customs and immigration were very
quick and we were then towed to the marina and berthed .All very
efficient .
New Zealand is beautiful and very clean .The
Kiwi ´s are a friendly bunch and very helful . The engine was fixed this morning
. It was a fuel line blockage which I suspected but dispite changing filters was
unable to fix at sea. I did spent most of tuesday night working on it . The
engineer this morning eventually cleared air from the system but sucking the
diesel through .
It is nice to be back in the ´first ´ world with
New Zealand meat fruit and wine . It is roast leg of lamb this evening with
cauliflower from the farmers market .Had my first apple for this year . Several
people have offered to lend us there car when we need one and we are welcome in
the yacht club where they have rugby and roast on Sunday ;All Blacks v England =
paradise
ll Blacks England
.
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