Go, or No Go! … NO GO bro

Mana Marina (near Wellington)

Thursday 26 March 2020

Yesterday, all systems were GO … for leaving today.  I’d made a booking with New Zealand Customs.  They’d kindly agreed to come here, rather than expect me to sail around to Wellington Harbour  And after completing the planned formalities at 12:15pm tomorrow, I had undertaken that by 1:00pm (1300 hours that is) I would sail away on the high tide; the first small step in the process of getting home.

That was how it was meant to play out, but as you can see, the top of the page says that I’m still located in Mana Marina

As explained in yesterday’s blog, “Decision Time”, the unfolding COVID-19 “situation” has precipitated changes to my sailing plans, with the only remaining options being to:

1. Sail back to Melbourne as soon as possible, or
2. Find a way of securing the boat here and then flying home while I could.

After weighing everything up, I decided to pursue the “sail home” option and since I didn’t like the idea of doing it by myself, my online crew-hunting started in earnest on Monday morning. 

By Monday night, after too much web-crawling and social networking, I had two guys lined up.  They held Fijian passports, but I was assured they both also had New Zealand and Australian residency.

Trouble was, they didn’t.   One didn’t even have permission to still be in New Zealand.  This was pointed out to me by the New Zealand officials, with the warning that … “ it was the captain’s responsibility etc etc”

Anyway, the older of the two guys seemed totally confident that he had permanent Australian residency, and the documentation he provided seemed to be convincing enough for him to be allowed to leave the country.

All was looking good – I had one man set to go, and if I was careful and patient, I was confident we could sail Chimere home, just the two of us.  

In completing the official, documentation side of things, I lodged my Australian Arrival Notification Form with Australian Border Force and a short time later received a response.  And I quote … “… crew member ________ does not hold a current valid Australian Visa”

Well that’s going to be a problem then isn’t it … bro

Good thing we are in an age of fast communications, because in a very short space of time, I was able to convey the news and instead of catching the bus from Auckland to Wellington, my ex-crewmember now re-booked on a bus going back up to Northland.

What started out as being a promising solution to the next leg of the journey, ended up being a sudden and abrupt return to be resigned to sitting this out, like everyone else.

Perhaps the final word should come from the New Zealand Customs official when he wrote … “A word of advice – please be careful about whom you recruit via Facebook, and perform your due diligence on them.”

Suddenly, there was a lack of urgency about anything.  The national “lock down” was starting at midnight, I wasn’t going anywhere, and finding new crew now seemed an impossibility.  I was back to being beached … beached as bro!

As I was about to prepare dinner, Gary gave me a call and invited me around to his and Theresa’s home for dinner. “Kind of a pre-lock down dinner” said Gary.  It was a great night, which set me up for a good night’s sleep after they’d dropped me back around 11:30pm

So, rather than a busy morning meeting my new crewmember and attending to final departure tasks, I was instead sleeping in, dragging out breakfast and contemplating whether I’d sit in the cockpit to drink my coffee or remain in the saloon.

In the end I made the more adventurous decision to sit on the coach house outside and observe the world and the few folk out for a walk  … which you are still allowed to do, even though most people are now expected to remain in their home.  At the time I penned the following …

“… and so the morning of the first day – of New Zealand’s lock down.  The sun came up.  That’s always a good start.  I slept in.  Had breakfast.  Had second breakfast.  Thought about going back to bed.  Had a coffee.  Said hello to a random guy walking past.  The distance from the side of the yacht to the gravel where he was standing being more than the stipulated 1.5 metre minimum … “I was intending to leave back to Australia today” I said as an opener.  “Now you stuck here?” he replied … “yep” says me … “well mate, have my car if you need it, or want to store anything, it’s just over there in the carpark.  I’m on A Row on a wee launch, but if you need the car, it’s yours”

That’s my kind of “lock down” … and the sort of generosity and openness that I used to say was “typically New Zealand”, or Australia too for that matter. And what you hope will emerge more and more from this “foreign viral land” into which we have all now been thrust.

Instead of sitting in a marina berth, as I had been for the past few days, I’m now against the  Cruising Club sea wall.  This was to facilitate an easy get-away after customs clearance.  Well, that won’t be happening, so I moved myself back along the wharf, out of the way … where no one can see me and I can fly under the radar … at least “out of the way” is pretty accurate, because very little is happening anywhere.  The marina, the cruising club office, most things – they are all closed.

After moving the boat further back, I then tidied up a few ropes around the deck and thought … “wouldn’t it be fun to sleep in a different bunk each night” … and this is only day 1?!

For lunch I cooked up a big serving of fish … still got plenty in the freezer … plus chips and salad.  I even stooped to taking a photo of it.  Then I had a nap, before slipping into a 90 minute Skype Sundowner Session with Mike and Robyn Clarke back in Melbourne – next best thing to being there!

Couldn’t bring myself to cook dinner, so I had tinned peaches, banana and ice cream.

I really am starting to run out of things to write.  Hope something interesting happens tomorrow.  I’m really out of material.

Now, I definitely am ready for sleep.

Smooth seas, fair breeze and Go, or No Go! … NO GO bro

Rob Latimer