30 June 2023
Hi Everyone
Welcome to the first update of 2023, better late than never, and our first blog post.
This is, hopefully, an easier format for me to post on than facebook.
If you want to check out any of my previous newsletters from face
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It has been quite some time since I last did an update.
The past 7 months have just flown by.
We left Isis on the hard in Australia and flew back to NZ for 3 months on the 17 December, Dave returning to the UK for family Christmas as sadly this would be his Dad’s last Christmas at home as his Alzheimer’s had progressed and he had to go into a care centre in the new year. I had Christmas in NZ with my kids, Sidnie and Sam, and Mum and Dad.
It wasn’t quite the time we had planned in NZ.
Dave returned from the UK very sick after a bout of covid and ended up at the hospital. I came back from a great New Years at Waihi beach with my brother Del and his family, to pick Dave up from the airport on the 4th of January and wanted to take him to the hospital straight away as he looked so bad. However, he was very tired as he had not slept the entire last leg of the flight and had spent most of his time in the toilets coughing, and so I took him to his brother Jamie’s place, and he went to bed. After 3 days of no improvement, in fact getting worse I took him to the hospital where they managed to get his temperature down and get some steroids into him to help him to breath better. Chest x-rays revealed severe inflammation of his lungs and he was sent home with an inhaler and prescribed rest.
This meant we didn’t get back down to Waihi beach as planned and that our camping trip was delayed by about a week while he recovered.
We finally got away camping and had a great time with Sidnie and her friend Simon, visiting Cape Rianga and driving 90 mile beach and the sand dunes. Sam arrived a couple of days later and he fished off the rocks and we took the small fishing boat out as well. We caught fish both times and so were eating very well. Our friends Paul and Ben joined us for a few days too and there was plenty of surfing and fun. We were up in the far north in Rarawa, an idyllic spot, and thankfully Dave’s health kept improving although he wasn't anywhere near his usual fitness.
We were very disappointed as we had planned to camp for at least a month while we were back in NZ but the weather was not good in the North Island and so 9 days was all we got.
Back in Auckland the weather hit hard and there was severe flooding. The Coromandel, Waikato and the Napier/Gisborne area were also hit very hard, with a lot of homes, farms and orchards being destroyed.
Sadly several lives were lost also. It was a very sobering time and made us realise just how at the mercy of mother nature we all are, on land or on sea. We were lucky to be staying at my sister Trina's place and were safe from any flooding, although just down the road houses were flooded and the roads were closed.
Floods over and a break in the weather, we got to have a great long weekend away to Kawau Island with my sister Trina and her partner Gav on Gav’s yacht. It was great to be back on the water as we were missing our yacht life. Kawau was great and we had a lot of fun, a couple of walks with great views and a pretty epic bbq breakfast on the beach!
We next made our way down to the Coromandel to Whangamata to watch Dave’s god daughter Poppy compete in a surf competition and have a weekend with friends Ben, Helen and family. Again, the weather wasn’t great and our plans to go on to Whitianga, to visit friends Kathy and Phil, were cancelled due to a pending cyclone. The rain and wind started on the Monday morning and on advice from Kathy and Phil we decided instead to make our way to Waihi beach to Del and Andreas bach. We were lucky to get to Waihi before the slips on the Karagahape Rd and we rode out the cyclone Thankfully Waihi beach was not hit too hard although the sand dunes on the beach were pretty much washed away.
We then heard sad news that our little village of Piha in Auckland had been hit badly with slips taking out houses. Sadly, some good friends lost their entire home while a couple of others had their homes deemed unsafe and red stickered. The road was closed due to slips and crevices, and the village was isolated. Other friends in Muriwai, Tania and Drew who had spent time with us in Fiji, also had their home red stickered. Several homes around them were destroyed by slips and over 100 homes were red stickered in the area, and sadly a local fireman lost his life. It was a very sad and a scary time for many and we felt helpless.
Almost 6 months later Drew and Tans are still not back in their house as is the case with many who have been affected.
We spent the rest of our time catching up with family. First off to Cambridge to visit my brother and his wife Andrea and our niece Chiara. We had a great time and went to a great local brewery, cycled to Lake Karapiro and had a lovely dinner out with pretty fab cocktails.
We then flew down to Dunedin to see my sister Jodi and Nathan. They had both taken a couple of days off work either side of the weekend and we had a great time, visiting Brighton beach and Tunnel beach, checking out a local brewery just north of Dunedin at Blue Skin bay - Otepoti. We also had a great night out catching up with cousins and as Jodi and Nathan practically live on the golf course and are keen golfers there was a wee bit of golf played.
We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary while in Auckland having a lovely night out at The Sugar club up in the Sky tower. It was hard to believe that 3 years prior returning from our shortened, due to Covid, honeymoon in Huahine and the subsequent events that followed was where this crazy idea to buy a yacht and pursue this dream began! Definitely worth celebrating!!
We had house hopped around family in Auckland, staying with my sister Trina, my cousin Stacey, Dave’s brother Jamie’s place and I’d spent a few nights at Mum and Dads and Sam’s flat while Dave was away in the UK. We also spent a night out at Piha once we were able to drive out there, it was so nice to see our friends out there. Dave got in a few more surfs and his lung capacity was improving each time.
And so, after sleeping in I don’t know how many different beds, a couch and an air bed, the last couple of weeks were upon us. We spent it trying to catch up with as many people as possible, getting some NZ admin wrapped up, catching up with Sam and as much as possible and doing final farewells with Auckland family including a lovely farewell lunch with Mum and Dad.
We arrived back at The Boat Works where the boat had been stored.
While we had been away the boat had been moved to the work area and some of the work we had booked had been started. And when I say some, some was about it! The new sails had been fitted and a new sail bag which looked good, the engines were only partially serviced, and we learnt that the mechanic had ‘forgotten’ to order the new head gasket!! A part we were then to wait over 2 more weeks to arrive. The clears and covers around our helm and cockpit had been started but they had missed putting 2 windows in, the antifoul had been done but not the sail drives and on top of all that the boat was a mess, dust and dirt had been walked into the boats surface and the mechanics had managed to spill oil everywhere around the back of the boat. We were devastated as we had worked so hard before we left for NZ and the boat had looked great.
We learnt a lot from this first haul out, but mainly never leave the boat while work is being done. You literally have to be there on site to constantly chase people up and checking on the work they are doing.
And so, we spent roughly 4 more weeks in the work area amongst the dust and fumes while parts arrived, and work got finished. We tried to make the most of the time getting jobs done on the boat, which included our new logo. That was a blessing in disguise as the signage company informed us that they could also replace the window covers for us, so we booked them to do that a couple of days before we were due to get lifted back into the water. As the guy was putting the final cover on the windows, he discovered that our starboard side back-room window was about to fall out!! It caused a bit of a panic as we were due to go back in the water on the Monday and this was Saturday morning. Dave rushed around trying to get someone to fix it but because it was the weekend no one was available, so after talking to a couple of people, getting advice and consulting u-tube he fixed it himself. We held our breath as we went back in the water Monday as the window was still being held in place with brackets. Another lashing of silicone while we were on the dock and by Tuesday morning Dave was happy with his repair! He did a great job! Thankfully the suggestion was made about the window covers or we may have been back in the water going up the river and lost a window which would have been a whole lot worse. There are silver linings if you look for them!
We celebrated Daves Birthday while we were at Boat Works. He had been working so hard on the boat I wanted to treat him and so booked him a 'pamper session' at the Boat works barber. He had a 1 hour massage and a full on, steam towels and all, beard trim. He arrived back at the boat looking very happy and very handsome. We then drove up to Tamborine Mountain to a little restaurant we had found there, before we left for NZ, to celebrate. It was so nice to glam up and get away from the dust and grime.
Finally we were back in the water we didn’t quite know what our plans were but had thought we would head up and try to get to the Great Barrier reef, however it was not meant to be. On the first part of our journey up the river the engine alarm was sounding on the Starboard side, and we had water coming into the engine bay – something was wrong! So, we turned around and headed back to Boat Works. The mechanic came on board, did some 'mechanic stuff', and seemed to think he had sorted it. So off we went again, but the problem sadly was not fixed.
We had to carry on this time though as we were needing to get to Scarborough Marina, Moreton Bay where the boat was booked in, and I would be staying while Dave went on his surf trip to Indonesia. We were on our second day heading through the river system when we hit a sand bank right in the middle of the channel! It was a bit of a Really!!!, what else can go wrong moment. It wasn’t too major apart from the fact we were positioned pretty tightly between 2 markers, the wind was up to 25 knots, and we were worried we’d get pushed onto one of them, so the call was made to the coast guard. When the coast guard arrived, they were a bit surprised we had hit sand where we were as we were definitely in the channel, but sand moves and as we learnt moves a lot in those areas; And this was a lot, the chart was showing the depth at 2.4 metres, and we hit at 0.7, quite a difference. The coast guard helped us move off and we anchored safely for the night and donated $100 to the coastguard.
We continued the next day, having a nice sail all the way to Scarborough Marina.
Dave left for Indonesia on the 24th of April, and I was all set up at the marina for a couple of weeks.
It ended up being a busy couple of weeks. I had to complete studying for and sit my short and long range radio exam. One more day of study and I was ready to sit the exam. I was very happy to pass with only 1 question wrong. I then had to apply for our MMSI number as we have never had one and a new call sign as the one the boat had had was cancelled by the previous owner. That all completed I then ordered our PLB's for our new life jackets ready for Dave to set up with our new data along with our new epirb. I was ticking things off the list.
I’d sussed out the buses and was all ready to head out to Spotlight to purchase some curtain fabric, I’d been wanting to replace all the boat curtains since we got on her.
But before that began I ended up spending a couple of days chasing Dave’s luggage with Qantas, as he had arrived in Denpasar, but his surf boards hadn’t! Qantas were a nightmare to deal with. It took them a week to locate the boards and send them on to Denpasar, then there was a hold up getting them sent to Padang, and when I say hold up, they literally weren’t going to send them on. After emails from me and finally a call from the boat charter they were going to send but it was too late, so the boards sat at Denpasar airport and Dave spent the whole surf trip without his boards which was very disappointing for him. Qantas took no responsibility and we found out that missing baggage is classed as ‘delayed’ for up to 21 days and only then you are able to claim for it being lost. Thankfully there were a couple of spare surf boards on the boat, so Dave still got to surf, although I imagine it's just not the same not having your own boards.
Meantime after buying 14 metres of fabric and lugging it back to the marina, I was sewing up a storm in the saloon. It was a challenge cutting the fabric on the small floor space, but I got there. Next, I was back on the bus to spotlight, an hour each way, to get the new curtain tracks. I got some odd looks on the way home carrying 9 x 2 metres tracks on the bus, but they were lighter than the fabric, so I wasn’t bothered a bit. I then unscrewed all the old tracks and got the new ones screwed in. My few handy man skills did me well and the new tracks were up. All that was left to do now was hemming the curtains which proved a challenge in the saloon as on a boat there are no straight lines and so the hems had to graduate, but after a couple of 3 am nights, determined to get things finished the new curtains were done in all the bedrooms and the saloon and I was very happy with the end result. Although I was also very happy to put the sewing machine away for a while.
I had a great girl’s weekend on the boat with 2 friends from NZ, Erin and Dani who now live in Brisbane, and we celebrated Dani’s birthday. It was so nice to have them aboard, even if it was in a Marina, and to catch up with them both.
And then before I knew it Dave was back, and my list of jobs was just and only just ticked off before he arrived. Radio course completed and passed, New MMSI number and callsign applied for and received, curtains made, chrome polished and rust stains removed, money sorted for Vanuatu and the Solomons and a bit of computer updating was achieved. The time had flown by.
We left Scarborough a couple of days later and headed back down to the Boat Works, back to the mechanic. The boat had to be hauled out for a night and fingers crossed this time the problem was fixed. By now we felt like we had spent most of our time in Australia in the Boat Works! We got back in the water and then had to decide what our plan was.
If we headed up towards The Great Barrier reef now, we would then be leaving things a bit late to get to Vanuatu and beyond this season. Did we want to spend another whole year in Australia? The answer was no. So, we decided to make a plan to head to Vanuatu as we were really missing the islands and cruising.
And so south we headed to South port where we could check out. I had done quite a lot of provisioning while in Scarborough and more when we went back to Boat works as I got a car for a few hours which always helps when shopping! All we had to do was a bit more provisioning, get our paperwork sorted, plan a route, and look for a good weather window.
And while Australia had been mostly about working on the boat we did get to do and see some pretty amazing wild life, we got to experience Fraser Island which was great, as well as Brisbane city which we loved and we saw some very pretty sunsets.
We made the decision we would stop off in New Caledonia again to break the trip up, a decision which paid off.
We decided to hire a weather router, a guy we had heard of through friends. We thought it would be good to have a bit of advice and he would give us weather updates and set waypoints for us every day on passage.
We left Australia on the 23rd of May at 0930 after customs checkout, and after having a lovely start with dolphins swimming on the bow and sailing along nicely, the top sail car blew and basically our main sail was useless! Here we were 30NM and 5 hours out from the coast of Australia and we had to turn back. We were very disappointed. We contacted customs and they said they would null and void our leaving papers and we could do it all again when we left again.
Luckily Dave managed to find a guy who could cast us some new cars, they were done by the Friday, and they were great, Dave was very happy. After going up the mast and doing a bit of track maintenance Dave got the new cars all fitted, we hoisted the sail and hey presto things were all fixed and we could be on our way again. Another silver lining too, I got to go and spend a night with my friend Dani in Brisbane and pick up a parcel from her which she had been going to forward to us in Vanuatu.
With everything fixed, parcel picked up we were on our way again. New Cal here we come take 2!
We had a pretty good 5-day crossing. We saw whales breaching on the first day which was just amazing, and Dave got the sails set nicely and we were sailed through the night, averaging 8 knots. We are loving these new sails! The wind died the next morning and we then motor sailed all day and through the night. We did try putting up our new code zero sail or screecher as some call it. Everything seems to have 2 names on a yacht, does my head in!! On putting up the sail, as it filled with wind the back block blew and all heck broke loose. We managed to get the line under control and with the sail flapping around, replace the block and get the sail out again. It didn’t seem to make a lot of difference to our speed, and we weren’t really sure if we had it set right so we decided to bring it in as the wind was picking up. We had never furled it in before and it didn’t go that well! Actually, it was terrible, and the sail ended up wrapping backwards around itself. We took it down put it in the bag and decided we’d go back to it another day, that was quite enough drama for one day. We definitely need to practice more with that sail!
The next morning, I was on the early morning shift and as the sun rose the water was like a mill pond. It was so beautifully breathtaking. I’d never seen anything like it. The only movement in the water was the ripple at the back from the boat. I could see the clouds reflected in the water and the colours from the sunrise were so beautiful. In that moment I decided that however rough it got, however seasick I was, however hard it felt at times, it was all worthwhile just to have moments like this that make you feel so happy.
We saw whales again on the horizon later that morning, lots of waterspouts so we think it was a fairly large pod. We were getting closer to them as they disappeared, our hope they were swimming away from us not toward! Later in the day Dave was thrilled to see a sunfish, sadly I was asleep and missed it.
The wind came back around 3am the next morning and we got the sails up again and we again were humming along. Unfortunately, the sea state was quite messy, and I was seasick in the night and so Dave had to stay at the helm while I slept it off.
We had a hard time with sleep this passage, neither of us getting into a routine and both struggling to sleep through the day for any length of time. On the last night I was seasick, I think dueto the messy sea state, which meant poor Dave didn't get a lot of rest. We were glad we had decided to break the journey and stop in New Caledonia for a rest.
As the sun rose on the 1 June, we could see land and were very close. We arrived into Port Moselle at 1130, had bio-security come aboard and sign us off. We rinsed the salt of off the boat and started getting things cleaned. By 3pm Dave wanted to go and get dinner – I made him wait until 4pm and we were going to have an early dinner and early night. Well, we ended up bumping into our friend Andrew from Askari, who had also just arrived from Australia. He went to get Carolyn to join us and then James, Gin and Dan from Uhuru and their friends Jamie and Gareth came and joined us and so it turned into a bit more than dinner and a quiet night! The beers were keeping Dave going but after he ordered number 5, I suggested we should get to bed, Carolyn and Andrew were also fading and so we called it a night. By 2030 we were in bed and almost asleep.
Our time in New Caledonia was brief, we had a lovely party on James’s boat where we met a few more people from sailing boats, we had a nice afternoon out on the beach watching Dan windsurf and chatting with Jamie D who had sailed with Uhuru from NZ. We cycled our way back to the marina via a couple of bars, a fun day out.
Dave found a guy to look at our rudders, they had been making a vibrating sound. He was able to take them out while the boat was in the water and take them away for some servicing. He arrived back the day before we were leaving with them all repaired but minus the guy who dives in and helps put them back in, so Dave had to get in the water. He wasn’t too keen due to the talk of the shark attacks that had happened close by, but he didn’t have a choice. My 5kg weights were used to weight the rudders so they could be lowered into position. It all went well apart from one of my weights falling off and dropping to the bottom. Dave wasn’t staying in any longer to retrieve it and so having just got weights t workout with while in Australia I was now one 5kg down. But the rudders were back in and repaired.
We checked out of New Caledonia on the 8th after and made our way down the island anchoring in a couple of bays and left through channel on the 10th at 0400.
Whoop Whoop, we were on our way to Vanuatu!! We had decided to sail to the southernmost Island of Tanna and had got approval to check in there. 34 hours later at 1400 on the 11 June we arrived. We motor sailed for the first 12 hours and then sailed the rest of the way, again doing a good average speed, our new sails really make this boat a lot faster, Dave is very happy with them. I was feeling a tad seasick again which was annoying, and after watching a big pod of small spinner dolphins swimming on the bow for 10 minutes as we approached Tanna, I lost my stomach! So close to the end but ah well that’s sailing. Hopefully now I will start to get me sea legs again, fingers crossed. As we got closer to Tanna, we could see the smoke rising from the volcano. We are very excited to be here and start exploring.
I’ll leave it there for now. Update on Vanuatu coming soon.
Take care everyone!
Tracey and Dave
What a fabulous window into what you are doing. So many challenges you are getting through it's tiring to think about. So very very cool. On to the next adventure guys - much love.
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