Letter from New Zealand
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sat 21 Mar 2009 19:11
|
Hi Folks,
Well its been a few days since I put finger to
keyboard, its mainly been on a sanding block and a paint roller since we docked
down.
For those boaty people amongst progress so far
report is as follows :
Keel has been sanded down, it was not as bad as we
thought with minor patches of cast iron showing and no corrosion, we have bared
the metal , shinny of course and primed the iron, four coats of interprotect
paint all over, then Lyn has filled the patched, people ask are we racing
! no just doing a proper job !
The prop, and rope cutter have been removed and
cleaned up, we are having this new anti foul treatment applied before we go in
the water to keep the marine growth off the shaft and prop , it seems everybody
here puts it on .
Lyn has struck the new water line , it even higher
than last time we docked down about 4" at the front and a foot at the back,
where our arse keeps burring in during passage, it like a farm everytime we
arrive anywhere and requires lots of scrubbing at anchor .
The main hull has been half abraded ready for the
anti foul, Micron Extra is the choice here so when in Rome do as the locals do
!
Old echo sounder , cut out and a new hole prepped
for the new one . . . we are replacing the echo pilot one with a raymarine one,
it can be plugged into the existing system with no extra instrumentation req
.
On Wednesday the scaffold arrives, we are having it
all the way round the hull, then its Awgrip time, the hull is really in good
shape after 14,000 , nm which in UK boating terms is about ten years worth of
cruising, but the paint master wants to fill the little dings and give it two
top coats of paint so it a all tip top for another ten years, I must say that
unlike most things in the marine industry, Awlgrip does what it says on the tin
!
Oh and one last thing, all the hull valve openings
, cleaned and antifouled right up to the ball valve, the oysters here grow
prolifically and after two months we had the little buggers growing in all the
inlets to the size of a old penny , not good on the cooling front .
Well that enough about that , I picked up a
international telegraph ( Tory graph) paper, its the first UK newspaper I have
read since Martinique, the good old British press, I'm surprised anybody
in the UK isn't on some kind of anti depressant, I felt like topping myself
after reading that lot, yes we all know it bad but at this end everybody has a
positive approach, I know were are only the size of an English county
in terms of population , but with a land mass 1000 hectares bigger than the UK ,
export food and not much else, but a least the kiwi spirit is "well its here , it happened what can we do ...
whilst the government here has changed to a Tory
type one, I suspect the same will be happening in blighty before long, they have
taken positive steps to do something, a plus point with a small country is that
it doesn't take long to get the ball rolling, it seems by reading the paper that
Gordon , Mandy and Cpt Darling, have done a lot of talking but no action, I
guess by the time the buggers have got it through a parliamentary committee the
ship will be right up the rocks, just in time to hand it over to David and Geff
, who seem to be talking the talk, they must be bloody mad, or I suspect stupid,
if they cant see the books are so cooked that even Jamie wouldn't touch them
with a barge pole, but the power lust is stronger and they cant wait to get
into Gordens little Pandora's box of tricks .
If what is happening here is anything to go by, if
you work for one of the many labour type special needs orgs, ie 25 k a year for
handing out daft schemes as a consultant then I suspect your days are numbered,
they all got axed here within thirty days of government
change.
But as I'm in need of therapy and Prozac after that
read I don't think I will be reading the Brit press for a while, out here in the
colonies winter approaches down under and its time to get out the electric
blanket so I'm told by a higher authority, cant see why we are in Autumn and its
still in the 20s in the day time .
Keep your chins up folks and don't believe all that
crap you are being fed by the press, the good old blitz spirit must prevail
somewhere !
The Opua Noah's
|