The Crew Starts to Gather

Bay Of Islands Marina, Opua, North Island

Monday 12 July 2021

It rained all day today.  And even when it wasn’t actually raining, it was drizzling, with the wind blowing through at a great rate of knots – literally … lots of knots.  So much so that we were heeling over from time to time like we were pointing to windward.

As arranged last week, my electrical man Chris turned up around 8:30 to finish the job with the two saltwater pumps, and on that front, I can safely say that the day was a raging success.   I now have a fully functioning reverse cycle air conditioning system which is pumping out hot air from two vents in the saloon as I type … working its way to a room, or cabin, temperature of 25 degrees – toasty!

I also have the water-maker back up and running, with the installation of its Onga pump – in the underfloor confines of the forward corridor between the two toilets – turning out to be a little easier than I at first thought; despite the new mounts not lining up with the old.  Not that I had anything to do with it. 

Despite Chris’s bear-like proportions he can reach and twist into the most challenging of places and even when he can’t actually see what he was doing, he fiddled and contorted with his seemingly dislocated wrists to undo, or do-up, or relocate, or drill, this or that.

While he was here, Chris also gave me some pointers on the bilge pump – the thing that is supposed to turn on and pump water overboard if too much of it happens to enter by mistake – which was blowing fuses; not working essentially.  And even I know it’s a bad idea to keep putting in bigger, more powerful fuses. 

In the end, I unscrewed the face-plate off the pump to reveal the impeller, which after 18 months, or so, of inaction (thankfully) had got stuck.  Anyway, after a fiddle and a poke, it was back to working normally again.  Whilst overuse can wear things out, machinery on boats really is a case of … “use it or lose it”.

But the big news today must surely be the arrival of our two new crew members … Matt and Sam.   Both had flown in to Auckland from Melbourne, and then caught the bus for the 5 hour trip north to Opua. 

After initial uncertainty, on account of having spent some time recently in Queensland, our next and final crew member, Harm, looks set to fly over from Melbourne tomorrow, landing at Kerikeri either around 5:00pm, or 8:30pm – depending on the schedule. 

Once Harm is aboard we’ll be a “full complement”

On the practical sailing side of things, it’s starting to come together. 

What is exercising most of my thinking at the moment, however, is obtaining a quarantine-free Travel Exemption from either the Queensland or Victorian Health departments, based on the facts of our situation, common sense and the existence of the so-called, trans-Tasman Travel Bubble; which, unbeknown to me, seems to ONLY relate to “air travel”.

Watch this space!

Smooth seas, fair breeze and the crew starts to gather

Rob Latimer