Big Splash
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Mon 18 May 2009 02:04
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Hi Folks,
Its been a few weeks since my blog, in the interim
I hope you liked the photos of our Panama days, anyway things here have been wet
to say the least, we have been WOW ing for two weeks, at last the sky's cleared
and we went for it, up went the tarps and on went the paint, alas right at the
end the sky burst open, the tarps protected us but although we were on the
down wind side of the dump we got an updraft of damp air and it spoilt the
front, although everybody thinks its good, the master painter however " she
says rubbish " .
The weather then closed in again and we have
decided to stop whilst the goings good, the stern remains flat and awaiting the
top coat, we have decided that next year we will wait until the weather improves
next summer.
Once we had decided to abandon, we
booked the boat travel lift and will be back water on
Thursday the 21st May, then we will pack up and depart on the long trek south,
firstly calling in at our friends in Auckland and then Napier where we will
visit Baz and Jen, Gail is also up for the weekend so it will be the first time
we have seen her in nearly three months, it all seems to be going so fast at the
moment, after the public holiday to celebrate the Queens birthday , yes its a
public holiday here and in Australia we will get back to Wellington and start on
the flat refurbish.
On the yachting front this weekend will be a sad
farewell to our friends on Rhythm who we have shared many adventures with since
we first met in Universal boat yard in the Hamble river, six years ago,
they as you all know set off six months before we left and spent a year in
the Caribbean, the bit we missed as we didn't get there till the following
December and although we had a short but great time in Martinique we finally
caught up with them in the San Blas Islands, since then we have cruised together
through French Polynesia, San Blas Islands, we finally parted in Bora Bora and
didnt see them until we got back to here in Feb and it was great to see them
again.
Another farewell gathering will be Summer Wine, the
little 28ft that has sailed the Atlantic, the Pacific four up with a cat, Mike.
Elona, Finn and Lorie have been a larger than life presence and are a very
popular couple within our small community since Panama, they are off to
Australia along with Rhythm, one bound for Brisbane and the other Darwin on the
other side of the Australian continent.
The other boats who left a week or so ago have
reached Tonga and Fiji and are enjoying the sun and sand after quite a calm
sail North, of the last batch that left we heard yesterday that one
of them sank on route to Fiji some 400 nm and were rescued by a vessel called
Scarlet O'Hara, according to the info we have received is that they hit a
submerged object, the ingress of water could not be stemmed and she sank after a
few hrs, lucky enough the number of yachts going north at this time of the year
are many and the " gods " were defiantly with them .
Anyway the next blog will be from Wellington town
when the sun bird go South to the cold windy
slopes of the capital, back to broad band
communications, no more trips to the car park to get on line, flushing toilets
and showers that don't take a one dollar coin . ... ....
Ah bliss
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