NZ Land Logs 44, Year 2: S & S Day
Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Weather Today: Bright Sunny Day, High 73 degrees F, Low Temp 53 degrees F
Location: Whangarei, New Zealand
Our neighbor Bob on White Swan pointed out to us today that we have done nothing but “screw and strip” for two days. This screwing and stripping is serious business. Mark has just about finished putting new screws in the teak deck and I have finished stripping the varnish off the handrails. We will be moving out of our slip and on to land before noon tomorrow and our goal was to get the big deck jobs done before then. We think we have done that and are ready for the pull out.
The other major job that I wanted to get done before coming out of the water tomorrow was to buy as many provisions as I could for the next year and get them onboard before being hauled out of the water. Once we are on land, we will have to climb a steep ladder to get on and off the boat, and carrying an extra load is just no fun. Marie of Ranger took me with her to do shopping today, and we are $500 poorer and many pounds heavier. There is still much to buy, but I did get most of the heavy items today. The one thing I didn’t get to do was wash down the exterior of the boat. Doing this on land will be more difficult, so we might decide to come back into a slip before leaving Whangarei. That will give us a chance to do the last provisioning and to do the deck scrubbing that I would like to do. We might not be on a dock with water for another year, so taking advantage of the available water to do a thorough cleaning is important.
There was more boat movement today. Two boats left Riverside Marina and Ranger is back in the water. Nai’a from Nawiliwili, Hawaii has taken Safina’s place across from us. It looks like a lot of people used the Easter weekend as their deadline for either going back in the water or coming out. Businesses here will be closed on Friday and Monday,although some will be open on Saturday. Since most things will be closed, we sure hope we have thought of everything we might need for our work on the boat this weekend.
Late in the day today we had an unexpected visitor. Tom of Quantum Leap stopped by the say hello. He and Bette Lee just returned from the states today and he was great to see them. We went to Reva’s for Happy Hour but then left and went out for a Chinese Dinner with Tom and Bette Lee and Cam and Arnie and family from Jade. Cam and Arnie have two children, Mollie and Nancy, but Arnie also has a daughter from a previous marriage who is here visiting. Arnie’s daughter Charlotte and her husband Simon, along with their four month-old daughter Isabella, all visiting from England had dinner with us. Cam and Arnie know the chef at this restaurant and we got the royal treatment with dinner.
We hope to spend some time with Tom and Bette Lee before they take off on their tour of the South Island. Doug and Sylvie of Windcastle stop by tomorrow on their way back to Opua from Auckland. It is exciting to reconnect with good friends and continue our planning for another wonderful year of cruising in the South Pacific.
Note: Today was our son’s first Passover Seder and below you can see him in his very first yarmuka. His Goldstone grandparents were there for the occasion and we think he looks adorable in the yarmuka.
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| 070403 Web Pics–Sam’s First Seder |
