Anti-foul Week

We were only back for a few days after our car trip up North when John announced that he had booked our boat in to be hauled out of the water at Dockland5 in Whangarei the following Monday. The purpose of this is to enable us to clean, sand and paint the hull ( 3 coats) with a marine anti-foul paint. This should be done annually but it has been a good 18 months since last done so it was overdue and we were concerned that it could be a big job.

So we sailed down to Whangarei last Saturday (14th June) with another boat from here that needed new clears -- Nigel and 'Fred' (Winifred) with their new acquisition 'Holo Malana'
We arrived in good time and tied up at the Dockland5 jetty for Saturday and Sunday nights - very windy and rainy and the water slap on the hull kept us awake.

Very tired when we got hauled out first thing on Monday. 'Whanga-rain' really poured it on us all day and we got wet through. Mud everywhere.
They water-blasted the hull while still in the sling (as in picture) and we were relieved to find that it was in pretty good shape.
The propeller and drive shaft were pretty crusty and we had our own mussel farm growing on the bottom of the keel.
It did not take them long to set us up in the yard.
Check out the new back steps.
Still raining so we made the purchases we needed for the job hoping to get onto it next day.

But it rained so I visited a cousin of my father who is 90 and in a Whangarei Nursing Home. She was a very young 90 and we had great fun talking about the family.
Next day John got the sander out and quickly got around the hull - thankfully it only needed a smoothing over. The black dust was awful so for once the rain was a relief because it washed it away.
The first coat of paint went on after that - more rain but John managed to get another coat on one side later in the day. Also achieved was that the propeller and drive shaft were cleaned up and treated with 'Prop-Speed'
Next day we managed to finish it all --between showers so it ended up mostly John painting while I seemed to be continually wiping away water before it ran down the hull.
We were put back in the water first thing next morning - Friday - so by 8.15am we were motoring up the Whangarei Harbour towards the Heads and Tutukaka. Not the best sea for a pleasant sail but made good time - 1pm arrival - by 1.30pm we were eating pizza at the marina fast food place.
A clean hull & prop do make the boat perform better so it was good thing done. Weather is worsening again but we are now warm and dry and can use the taps on the boat again.

Visit to Hokianga Harbour

The week before last we decided to do the trip up North that we had been thinking about for ages. It has been some years since we have been there and it was time to have a few days off the boat. It is not really far to go from Tutukaka and we got to the mouth of the Hokianga Harbour in just a couple of hours, stopping to look at the giant kauri, Tane Mahuta, ( Maoris call it 'God of the Forest') in the Waipoua Forest on the way.
It is supposed to be 2000 years old.
The first view of the Harbour Entrance was quite spectacular with the waves breaking over the bar and the hills of sand dune on the other side.

We dropped down into Omapere and looked for somewhere to stay the night, choosing the hotel in Omapere which used to be a hotel in the 1800's and is now part of the Copthorne Chain. It is a delightful old building done out with kauri. Some of the original furniture is still there. Our room was in a new annex built to fit in with the style. Just a lawn
separated us from the beach . Here is a photo of the sunset from our deck.
We were told that in the 1800's the tall ships had to wait weeks sometimes before they could get over the bar safely to take timber to Australia so the hotel was well used then.

The Hokianga Harbour was the area where four of my Great Grandparents settled upon their arrival in New Zealand and where both my parents went to school. Great Grandfather Magee from Ireland taught at 4-5 schools in the area and Great Grandfather Pearson was a Methodist Home Missioner. I therefore thought there might be some information about them in the local historical museum. There were certainly folders there for the families but the only information they had seems to have come from my Aunt Dorothy Pearson. I shall be doing what she did and give them some photos and information for the folders. I did have some gain from other family folders that married into our family.

We found my Grandparents Magee old home in Oue - they would not recognise it with the additions and the bright blue paint and garden changes. Other cottages and the Oue School are no longer there. In Rawene it was the same with the Grandparents Pearson home. Their old farmhouse was pulled down by a later owner because he had a problem with "squatters."

Rawene sort of looks the same and the hospital appears to be still functioning. The graveyard over the road has been tidied up and the council keeps it tidy and mowed. Last time I went there it was a terrible mess so that was good to see.

We visited another Clements/Magee descendant - my 2nd cousin, Dick Curtis, who has been in Oue farming on part his father's property and part former Pearson property. He thought I was Clements looking and I thought he was.

I hope this has not been too boring this time but I enjoyed my nostalgia trip and researching famly history is a hobby that I enjoy. I have met some nice fellow descendants with more to see yet. We enjoy the talks about our common history and share the photos.

Doreen

Taking the Pressing out of 'Irrepressible'

Here we are after a long gap between updates again. Truth to tell is that we have taken a while to settle back into our routine (of sorts) since we returned from Australia and get back into those projects that we had started before we went. In other words we have just been plain idle and have had nothing interesting to write about.
However, we have been good just lately and things are happening again in the effort to make the boat as pleasurable as we can to use an live on. I suppose this posting is a report on that progress.

We are very pleased with the new sail covers and the colour which does a lot more for the boat than the green did. Under all those other covers are the dinghy (forward deck), the generator (aft deck) and the dinghy motor and barbeque ( either side aft rails). There she is radiating all her new found glory.

Putting the new bog on the blog - here a picture of the new enclosure, with a picture of the other side. As you can see, any visitors sleeping in the forward cabin won't have the problem of their pillow falling off the back of the bunk into the toilet any more. It is all operational just needs painting or covering with formica or something.
I shall have to shorten 2 squabs a little now and tidy up the covers.
No problem.

It is great having the curtains all finished. It makes the living areas much more homely but the best thing is that we now have privacy when it is dark and the lights are on.

We have been out since the new sails were installed. They are better and the it doesn't look like we forgot to iron the sails any more.

Oh, the SSB Radio needed attention. When our friends the Boyles on 'Nutcase' left for Fiji we thought we would talk to them each day and track their progress but it was not to be. It needed servicing and we have just got it back - John is putting it back where it belongs. Too late for talks with the Boyles though - we got a text to say that they have arrived in Suva after 9 days so they did well. Arrived in 40 knots with the sea anchor out. We texted back telling them we were enjoying our Millpond here. Bonus for me with the radio needing to come out was that the aerial tuning unit had to come out as well - from my wardrobe - which gave me more room. John had to put it back somewhere else.

Someone called Tom and a companion have just arrived - I thought for the freezer but they are climbing up the mast. Turns out it is the riggers putting up an inner fore-stay that can take a sail. We don't need it - in fact we got rid of the inner furler because it was a nuisance with the headsail at times while tacking but apparently this can be clipped away. But it seems that it is a requirement to go Category One which is a requirement before Customs will let you out of the country, so forgive me if I sound a bit worried.

About the freezer, it seems we needed to put some goo in somewhere (John did that) and it goes better and we don't have to run the motor so long to get it down now. But we really want the option of using shore power for it while we are tied up so that we can go away for a few days without having to empty it. Apparently there is a plate of some sort that can be inserted to achieve that. At present we have to run the motor for a bit each day to keep it freezing.

We still have not had the boat out of the water to have its bottom scrubbed.

In the meantime I have been continuing my search for knowledge, photos etc. with the ongoing family research. Now that we are in back in the pioneering great-grandparents area I have been seeking out fellow descendants and with one set of G'Grands ( the Clements) having 16 children who all survived and the others (Magees) having 8 - there are plenty of us.
I was rewarded last week with a second cousin sharing her photos with me - unfortunately had been bent but at last I know what my Great-Grandparents Magee look like. They came from Ireland and seeing he taught at a native school at one time I often wondered if those native children had Irish accents.

Next week we plan to do a car trip around the North looking up more fellow descendants and visiting some of the old places.