Day 7, Year 2: Still On Track for Thursday Departure
Date: Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Weather Today: Foggy Morning, Mostly Sunny Day with a Few Showers
Location: Opua, New Zealand

One thing about keeping a daily log is that it is a constant reminder that we only ‘think’ we know what we will do tomorrow. Things change–constantly. Last night I said I would be finishing the sanding and painting in the aft bathroom, but somehow I never got there today. We did get up bright and early and were able to make successful Skype calls to our health care provider and my former employer to check out the Medicare situation for Mark and to find out why every health claim that has been submitted for us in the past few months has been rejected. Somewhere along the line there was a survey we were supposed to fill out, but since we only get mail about every six months, it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. Without the completed survey, no claims could be processed. The young man we talked with was very helpful and said payments would be sent out in two to three weeks. Since we had every possible kind of health appointment while we were home in January, there are many offices that will be very happy to see those payments.

I then started cooking spaghetti and taco sauce to can and freeze. About that time, Mark decided we should take the boat into the dock to fill up our water tanks. We were at the dock at the same time as Cynthia and Tim of Arctic Fox, and Cynthia asked if I would like to go to Paihia with her to do final grocery shopping. She was borrowing a car to take her son Cameron in to get a new pair of shoes. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, so as soon as we got the boat back on the mooring, it was off to Paihia. I took one of our two propane tanks to fill (the other one is full) and filled a grocery cart. Cynthia, Cameron, and I ate lunch at a little Chinese restaurant and then returned to Opua. By the time we got back and I got all of the groceries out to the boat and put away, it was time to fix dinner. No work on the bathroom today, but at least the major shopping is done. Note that I didn’t say that all of the shopping was done. There’s always something else we need.

Sylvie and Doug of Windcastle came out for dinner. We had tacos and spent time catching up on each other’s lives. Sylvie and Doug are beginning to think that they might not get all of work done on Windcastle in time to cruise this season, so this might be the last time we see them for quite some time. I’m not even going to venture saying what we might do tomorrow. If we are definitely leaving on Thursday, we will say some goodbyes and then we’ll do what needs to be done. We do have the windlass back and need to install that tomorrow, and if we are going to take showers on our passage to Fiji, I guess I’d better finish painting in the bathroom. Oh, yes. Then there is the huge pot of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator. That will have to be processed. And who knows what else might pop up on the radar screen?

070501 Day 7 New Zealand–Opua