Work. Work. Work.

S35 Degrees 43.57 Minutes
E174 Degrees 19.79 Minutes

Another new experience (not work)...mooring the boat to pile moorings. This is sort of like parallel parking your sailboat. There are three straight, long rows of wooden pilings spaced apart 12-16 meters or so in each row. We are located in the center row about ten pilings from the back. You bring your vessel to the pilings and snug between two – one on the bow and one on the stern of the boat. We have less than a meter on each end and you tie lines to a ring that is around each piling. This ring floats up and down with the tides (which can be as high as three meters.) It is like a parking lot of floating boats. We use the dinghy to get to shore and put the dinghy and outboard up on the boat each night as there isn't a lot of room between rows to leave it in the water.

The work has begun. One week here and we have already gotten lots of projects underway. At least we have made lots and lots of calls to vendors for services. This is the busy season in New Zealand – so woodworkers, mechanics, sailmakers etc. are all swamped with projects. We've had three folks come and look at the cockpit floor project – now waiting for prices and timetables. The mainsail is off and at Doyles' Sail loft for a re-cut (under warranty). A mechanic should be here on Thursday to look at the Perkins starting issue. We have connected with phone, internet and banking. More "boat" cards are being printed and we're in search of a used bicycle. We've bought some warmer clothes as its mighty chilly here – even in New Zealand summer. Luckily all the stores have big sales on winter clothes! Plus we get the daily routine stuff done – grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and laundry! Not bad for one week's efforts!

Besides the non-stop work effort, we have had some fun reconnecting with old friends that we hadn't seen for awhile. We went to a great Thai restaurant for Thanksgiving with some friends from NZ and Oz., We've taken some long walks – the walking trails around Whangarei are really nice – there is a long loop that crosses three bridges and is really nice.

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