We broke the ties...to the pile moorings anyway. The Whangarei Town Basin Marina is a great place to spend a few months while doing boat projects. The staff there is incredibly friendly and helpful. The showers and laundry facilities are convenient and tidy. It is in walking distance to groceries, stores of all kinds and lots and lots of boat stuff. It borders on the lovely Hatea Loop – a walking path that takes you about three miles, over three bridges and by some beautiful parks and sculptures. Plus we had probably the best spot on the pile moorings. We could just push off from our boat in the dinghy and make it to the dock (that became the daily challenge – to get there without picking up the paddle)...and if we ran a double hose, we could fill our water tank from the nearby faucet so we didn't have to carry jugs for water.
We made our way down river, under the fish hook bridge and are now at anchor in Urquharts Bay. Over the next few days we'll make our way to Kawau Island on our way to Auckland to meet our incoming guest Sue. There is a storm offshore – the remnants of cyclone Victor – and the seas are supposedly quite high still. So we'll wait and watch. The next leg is around 50 miles so if we leave early in the morning, we should make it before dark.
The engine, Carl, ran well – the longest run since all the work. With the new thermostat it is running a bit warmer – but that is supposedly all right. We'll do a last minute check with Tim, our expert mechanic, to make sure the oil pressure numbers and temperature are what they should be.
It is nice to be at anchor again even tough it is a grey, breezy day thanks to that storm passing New Zealand. But the clouds at least cooled it off as it was getting pretty hot on those sunny days. The bridge has issues opening on hot days.
This is a nice anchorage and if we get stuck here for any length of time, we'll untie the dinghy and head to shore for one of the nice hikes in this area. But for now, we'll just enjoy the cleaner water and nice breeze at anchor.
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At 1/27/2016 7:16 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°55.49'S 174°34.52'E
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Cricket – and not Jiminy
On Sunday, we went to the Cobham Oval pitch to watch the Otago Volts vs the Northern Knights in a one day cricket match (50 overs). The bowlers, batters, silly ins, silly outs, wickets, stumps, gillies, extras and maidens were all part of the excitement on a beautiful day. You bring your own chairs or blankets and set up comfortably in the grass around the oval to watch the action...and try to understand all the intricacies of the game. This is an unusual game because one side plays defense for the first half of the match and the other plays offense and then they switch. So one team bowls (or what is like pitching) to the other team who bats. The scores get quite high and we watched one Volt score a century (100 runs). The crowd did the polite clap when he reached that mark. It was an interesting afternoon (we'll admit to not staying for the whole game) and we it enjoyed it with some friends. Alison who is British had a better understanding of the game than most of us, so she did a lot of explaining as did some of the folks sitting around us. We have been watching local cricket whenever we can on our cruise – having seen our first match in the Caribbean. Plus we got excited about it during last year's Cricket World Cup when the New Zealand Black Caps were making their way into the finals. Michael's dad was also a fan and we still have the several page explainer he wrote for us on the game.
The mechanic has also been aboard a few more times and he and Michael are getting projects done. "Carl" is getting some tender loving care and lots of small fixes. Still waiting for the results of the blood work test (oil analysis).
Reconnected with some old friends Barbara and Dennis from "LandFall" who went and got married while away – congrats to them. It was a fun evening catching up with them again.
Ula, a Pacific Category 4 cyclone visited Fiji and some of Vanuatu and looked like it was heading for New Zealand. But, lucky for us, it took a turn and just brought some rain – and not even that much here in Whangarei. It did make for a cloudy, grim day though.
Once the engine is all sorted, we'll start making our way towards the Hauraki gulf and Auckland. Good luck to all the "powerball"players in the states. If you win a billion dollars, a nice donation to the Astarte cruising fund would be welcome!
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At 1/10/2016 11:01 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.54'S 174°19.74'E
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The mechanic has also been aboard a few more times and he and Michael are getting projects done. "Carl" is getting some tender loving care and lots of small fixes. Still waiting for the results of the blood work test (oil analysis).
Reconnected with some old friends Barbara and Dennis from "LandFall" who went and got married while away – congrats to them. It was a fun evening catching up with them again.
Ula, a Pacific Category 4 cyclone visited Fiji and some of Vanuatu and looked like it was heading for New Zealand. But, lucky for us, it took a turn and just brought some rain – and not even that much here in Whangarei. It did make for a cloudy, grim day though.
Once the engine is all sorted, we'll start making our way towards the Hauraki gulf and Auckland. Good luck to all the "powerball"players in the states. If you win a billion dollars, a nice donation to the Astarte cruising fund would be welcome!
-----
At 1/10/2016 11:01 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.54'S 174°19.74'E
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Thursday, January 7, 2016
Where the Surf Meets the Turf
That's the slogan of the Ruakaka Race Course where we headed on January 6 for a day of fun at the races. It is a big annual event designed for the family that includes horse racing. We have taken in local horse events in various countries and this was quite "uptown" compared to the Vanuatu and Galapagos races! They offered free buses from Whangarei so that made the decision to go easy. Ruakaka is on the water with a beautiful sandy beach. The day was very windy so the surf was quite kicked up. The course was well appointed and we even scored seats in the shade. There is a hillside where hundreds of families set up tents and blankets and enjoyed picnics besides the racecourse. They had silly events like sack races, tug of war,which was local kids against the local Ruakaka "surf rescue" (lifeguards) and jandal toss. Jandals is the NZ term used for slipper/flip flip/tongs/zories.
We went with Sandy and Rankin (the GypseaHearts) and Alison and Randall (from "SV Tregoning"). Though there were no big winners (actually no winners at all except for the Alison and Randall who only made intellectual wagers and won!) we had fun day and another adventure.
More small projects are getting done on the boat as we waited for our mechanic who showed up as planned yesterday. He comes highly recommended by many other yachties and we have been mighty impressed so far. He says all the right things and really knows what he's talking about. He is also a great source of where to get things done in town and where to buy the various hoses and bits we need. The good news is he says old "Carl" Perkins 4-108 is in good shape (so far).. It started right up after not being run for many weeks and has all the right "stats" on the various tests he ran. He did take an oil sample to send off so "Carl's" "blood test" will also tell us more. We wait for those results. The alternator has been pulled and taken to a shop for a cleaning and testing and a new bracket for it will be manufactured. An air filter will be installed as well as a mechanical oil pressure gauge (Two things we didn't have) to help keep the old engine even happier. So that was a pleasant surprise as we expected something much worse. The other good news is that because we were delayed in getting started on the diagnosis, we were getting nervous about our guests that would be arriving in February and March. Now, pending the oil analysis, everything looks good for us to meet them with the boat in Auckland as planned.
We have settled into a comfortable time here in Whangarei. Town is close for shopping. There is a great walking path (the Hatea Loop) that is a great daily walk over three bridges and around the river. Lots of people walking, running, biking, skateboarding, scootering and dog walking use it. There is lovely art along the way – sculptures you can climb on, sit on or run through or just simply enjoy.
We will be happy to be out using the boat and dropping the anchor again after the engine check-up is completed. But for now we keep our fingers crossed and enjoy our time here.
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At 12/25/2015 5:11 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.54'S 174°19.74'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
We went with Sandy and Rankin (the GypseaHearts) and Alison and Randall (from "SV Tregoning"). Though there were no big winners (actually no winners at all except for the Alison and Randall who only made intellectual wagers and won!) we had fun day and another adventure.
More small projects are getting done on the boat as we waited for our mechanic who showed up as planned yesterday. He comes highly recommended by many other yachties and we have been mighty impressed so far. He says all the right things and really knows what he's talking about. He is also a great source of where to get things done in town and where to buy the various hoses and bits we need. The good news is he says old "Carl" Perkins 4-108 is in good shape (so far).. It started right up after not being run for many weeks and has all the right "stats" on the various tests he ran. He did take an oil sample to send off so "Carl's" "blood test" will also tell us more. We wait for those results. The alternator has been pulled and taken to a shop for a cleaning and testing and a new bracket for it will be manufactured. An air filter will be installed as well as a mechanical oil pressure gauge (Two things we didn't have) to help keep the old engine even happier. So that was a pleasant surprise as we expected something much worse. The other good news is that because we were delayed in getting started on the diagnosis, we were getting nervous about our guests that would be arriving in February and March. Now, pending the oil analysis, everything looks good for us to meet them with the boat in Auckland as planned.
We have settled into a comfortable time here in Whangarei. Town is close for shopping. There is a great walking path (the Hatea Loop) that is a great daily walk over three bridges and around the river. Lots of people walking, running, biking, skateboarding, scootering and dog walking use it. There is lovely art along the way – sculptures you can climb on, sit on or run through or just simply enjoy.
We will be happy to be out using the boat and dropping the anchor again after the engine check-up is completed. But for now we keep our fingers crossed and enjoy our time here.
-----
At 12/25/2015 5:11 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°43.54'S 174°19.74'E
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
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