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16 December 2013

Everything Seems Ticketyboo (So Far)

We had beautiful weather the first day back on our boat, so we sat out in the cockpit and enjoyed the sunshine and the views. These are the pile moorings where we currently keep our boat. You can see Wynyard Quarter and the old siloes from our cockpit. Great views of Auckland and the city lights at night as well. And that's another Raven across the way - just like our boat.

Scott got back to New Zealand last week and, as predicted, the first thing he wanted to do was go check out our boat so we could make sure she is ready to move onboard and begin full-time cruising at the end of the month. We've started going through our list of things to check out and, so far, generally everything seems ticketyboo, which is great considering she has been tucked away out on the pile moorings all winter. 

When we got to the dinghy racks, we found that our dink was quite deflated but it was easy enough to pump her back up and, most importantly, she has stayed inflated. Our next task was to row out and make sure the boat was still there. And she was. So another tick off the list. And even better, no one had broken in and stolen anything! The engine started right off the bat and seems to be running okay. Which is great because the last thing we want to do is to have to put any money into fixing pesky little things like engines, especially as we'll be selling our boat at the end of the New Zealand summer.

We took the boat out of the water on Saturday to clean her off and make sure everything was okay down below. She didn't have too much growing on her, the sacrificial zinc didn't need to be replaced and we were in and out of the Floating Dock in no time. After filling her up with water, we then headed out and bended on the headsail and had a nice little sail. (Yeah, I didn't know what "bending on the sail" meant either. It is just Scott's fancy talk for "putting on the sail".) 

On Sunday, we patched up the mainsail, started moving some stuff on board and did a big clean outside and inside. We found that the boat smells a bit musty and there is some mildew inside. We were a bit surprised about that as we don't think the previous owners had a problem with that, but it isn't anything a good cleaning with vinegar and bleach can't fix.
We've still managed to find time for some fun - Scott has already been out rum racing and we managed to sneak in a pint or two at the pub near our marina. Fingers crossed, everything else goes okay and we'll move onboard in the next week or so and be off on our cruising adventure!

 


This is Swashbuckler's (or Swashies as some folks call it), which is a local pub and restaurant near Westhaven Marina. It is popular with boaties, marine industry workers and corporate types who work in the nearby office buildings. While Scott and I lingered over our Steinlager beers, the poor corporate bods looked uncomfortable in their nice work clothes and kept checking their watches so that they could scurry back to their cubicles on time. I must say this life of an unemployed vagabond on a boat sure beats the old corporate life!

4 comments:

  1. Oh how exciting. Everything is coming together. Is break ins a problem at your marina. Apparently there has been a few out here too.

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    1. Our boat neighbours in the marina told us that break-ins have been a problem in the past out in the pile moorings, but we haven't heard of anything happening recently. The marina staff are pretty good about doing regular patrols and thankfully nothing happened to our boat over the winter.

      It is looking good so far - all systems seem to be go!

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  2. "I must say this life of an unemployed vagabond on a boat sure beats the old corporate life!" Looking forward to that part myself. As soon as I return to our boat, I know I have a list of items to work on.

    I think you guys did it right starting with the smaller boat first. Kind of wondering what I'm getting myself into starting with a 38 foot catamaran. ;-)

    -Mike
    http://ThisRatSailed.blogspot.com

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    1. I actually think you might be right having gotten a bigger boat. At least you'll have room to put stuff. Our 26' is seeming awfully small once you start to move stuff on board for full-time living. Hope you're enjoying your new cat! Cheers - Ellen

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