ANZAC Day in Wellington

Chaffers Marina (Wellington, NZ)

Saturday 25 April 2020

It’ll be a short blog tonight, I promise.  ‘Cos as John Denver sang all those years ago … “all my bags are packed, I’m ready to go …” and I really do need to get a reasonable night’s sleep.

The ban on community gatherings meant that Anzac Day was unlike any before.  In a way, every individual was their own mini commemoration service, as people were encouraged to stand in silence at 6:00am.

The official instructions were summarized as follows:   

Anzac Day public events cancelled

In response to COVID-19, there will be no public events to commemorate Anzac Day this Saturday 25 April.

Instead the nation will mark the anniversary by standing together apart with virtual services and online events.

Here in the marina, the Last Post played out from nearby loud speakers and there was a surprising number of folk standing in the half-light of their apartment balconies, or on the nearby pavement.  It was definitely a low-key affair, without the activity and focus of a parade, or formal Dawn Service.  So, if you didn’t get a chance to hear the Last Post today, here’s a link to a story of a chap who reckons he’s played it maybe 400 time …

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/auckland-bugler-performs-last-post-on-anzac-day-to-dead.html

I didn’t take this photo, but it’s representative of many places around the country.

The wind got up in the night and by 5:30am it was playing havoc with the halyards high up on the mast – bang, bang, bang …

It was on my list of tasks, along with a range of other things, to make sure, as best I can, that Chimere will be well behaved over the next 9 months.  In the case of the halyards, I loosened them right off and attached the loose end to the foredeck near the dinghies. Then tightened them up with the winch.  They are now well away from the mast!

The mainsail halyard I completely removed from the top of the sail and then attached it down on the deck before tightening it up as well.

The tarps on the dinghies were lashed down more securely.  Additional tarps were wrapped around the winch and halyard brakes at the base of the mast, as well as the anchor winch up front.  The zip on the mainsail bag along the boom gave up the ghost some time ago, but it was never a problem when we were using the sail everyday.  So I spent an hour stitching up the bag, making sure there is no way the wind can rip it apart. 

There’s also the problem of birds.   Much an’ all as I like our feathered friends, as much as the next person, when a boat is a bit quiet for a time, they notice. Particularly as winter leads into spring for some reason.  And from experience, I’ve found that any opening into the sails, or under tarps, becomes a prime nesting target.  Now, if it was an albatross that needed a place to raise its young, I’d probably consider stepping aside for the duration, but seagulls, mynas, sparrows and the like, are not welcome. I don’t roost in their trees, so I don’t think they should nest on my boat.

Keith and Christine popped by this afternoon to say farewell and we also went for a walk around town … the bits I didn’t see yesterday.  I must confess, my feet were starting to feel a little tender after my treks of the past two days. Keith also dropped off the suitcase Adam kindly lent to me, which was great. Thank You!!

Good news on the travel front is that I’ve had no phone calls from Air New Zealand in Auckland … so it looks like I’m go for launch, at 10:45 tomorrow morning.

A New Zealand man I’ve got to know, after first meeting him at a Rotary International function in Port Vila several years ago, sent me a link to a plane-tracking website.  Here it is here …  https://www.flightradar24.com/

I had a look a short time ago and I could see just two planes currently flying in New Zealand airspace.  One on its way to Los Angeles, the other to Shanghai; but still on the ground

So if you have a look at 10:45am NZ time tomorrow, you will hopefully see NZ420 heading from Wellington to Auckland – with me on it, although that won’t show up on the website.  If I carried my gps transmitter in my pocket, you’d be able to see me, but I don’t think they like that sort of thing.

Just in case there are “issues” with the flight, I’m aiming to get to the airport early tomorrow, to give me enough time to hire a car and drive to Auckland, if necessary.

I’ve just checked the status of the flight and it is displaying the word “Scheduled”, which is definitely better than “Cancelled” … so lets hope it stays that way.   

As promised, it’s a short blog tonight.  And thank-you to those who’ve pass on encouraging comments about the daily blog – or at least, mostly daily – over the past three months.   I’m imagining that the further from the boat I get, the less I’ll have to write about, but we’ll see,  or sea … si?

Of course “boats” come in all shapes and sizes, fulfilling a range of purposes … some purely pleasure, others at the commercial end of the spectrum

Here are two such examples, moored on the same Row as me. And yes, the first one is a hot tub, with an electric motor … and it’s not what you’d call an “all-weather” craft, really …

This craft, on the other hand is a piece of New Zealand history, dating back to 1892 and a testament to the resilience of Kauri

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rona_(1892)

Smooth seas, fair breeze and ANZAC Day in Wellington

Rob Latimer