Auckland (pt 3) April 29 2006

Hi everyone.This will be uncharacteristically short as nothing much has been happening!Rose has been gone for about three weeks visiting her new granddaughter inTortola. I'm so jealous--it was actually warm there. She returns today, andI guess Joey and I will have to readjust our diets from junk food and macand cheese to veggies and salads. Speaking of the weather, the Kiwis arereally something. For the most part, it has been very nice here, and it isconsiderably warmer than when we arrived. We thought they were all nutswearing shorts and t-shirts in November, but, in all fairness, it wasSpring. Now, however, it's Autumn, so, even though it is beautiful andabout 70, they're all wearing jeans and fleeces. Must be Pommieconditioning to the "rules"!!!Since our last chat, we recovered from our Hein and Vic hangovers , and Roseand I made a road trip up to Opua to visit Val, a friend from Tortola who isskippering a 60 foot cat for some rich American. Nice boat!! But in typicalnew boat fashion, all sorts of stuff is wrong with it. We spent the nightand had a nice dinner. They've now taken off for Fiji and we'll probablysee them again up there. She's got a whole crew from Tortola flying in to help, so it will be like old home week when we get there. The excitement was the return trip to Auckland.It was just pissing rain, and we thought, in spite of their protestations,we should skip breakfast and be on our way. Lucky we did as only a few of theroads were closed, but by the time we reached Auckland, everything wasclosed up there with major flooding, and people stranded all over the place.The only other time I've seen so much rain was after a couple of hurricanesin the Caribbean!! We've also had some pretty severe fog. On the 11th, youcouldn't see 10 feet in front of you, BUT, lately, it's been absolutelybeautiful (70's)during the day but cold (50's)at night. We did manage torig up a couple of 240V heaters in the boat, as the new compressors for the"in-boat" system had not arrived. Now we have everything working, buthaven't needed to run the boat heat as we have the portable electrics. I amhappy to report that everything is now working on the boat, and we're justwaiting to haul out next week before we depart for Fiji. After a bottompaint and buff and wax job the boat will not only look brand new but withall the work we've done, will be pretty much new. We also had to have ourreupholstery job redone as the fabric was pilling. Naturally we didn't usethe same fabric, but the new stuff is almost as nice and there was noargument about it being a freebie. Nice to win one now and then.Just in case you're wondering what we mean about a brand new boat, here'swhat we have had done here in Auckland (my broker will especially beinterested since he's wondering why my account is dwindling!!): repairmain, repair sail cover, resecure tramps, new windscreens, new cockpitcushion covers, new main salon upholstery, rebuild genset, rebuild scubacompressor, recondition A/C-heaters including new compressors, new A/C water pump, new hatchgaskets, new hatch lexan (waiting to install), new bottom paint, buff and wax entire boat, new deck hatch latches, two new heads, repair watermakermembrane tube and low pressure pump, rebuild all alternators, extensive electrical rewiring. repair second freezer, new radar display, new speedo display,redo patch on dinghy, full service outboard, new inverter, re-tin medicine chest mirrors, rewire solar panels, repair hot water heaters, replace gassolenoid, replace all running rigging, new anchor chain, replace holding tank access panels, service fishing reels, service tanks and scuba gear, service engines andsail drives, change propeller blades, gelcoat repairs, purchase transformer, paint most of the interior, multiple pump repairs or replacements, four new back decks boards, fix porthole leaks, and innumerable other small jobs and a thorough cleaning inside. I've probably missed a few but you get the idea. Whew!! No wonder we're ready for a little R & R in the tropics!On a humorous note, Dr. Tim had to operate on Joey. To make a long storyshort, the boys thought it would be cool to get a BB gun for a littleplinking about and boredom relief. Joey was shooting at a buoy and the gunmisfired, so what does he do? Yep, you guessed it, puts his finger over thebarrel to push down the sleeve that releases the air when firing. Bam,ow!!!, off the gun goes. We really weren't sure there was a BB in there buthe had put his index finger directly over the barrel like he was pointing atit. After a while we figured, uh-oh, there's one in there. Well, it waslike an old western. He bit down on a dish towel and I tried to pull thething out with tweezers. It was right down to the bone on the tip of thefinger--about a 1/4 inch in. Couldn't grab it with the tweezers so Ibasically had to pry it out. Man, that had to hurt!!! Soaked the finger inBetadine, gave him some Cipro, and all is well. The doctor rules!!! I'mstill waiting to use my surgical stapler, though.Joey and I went to see "300" at what was supposed to be Imax. Well, it's not like the other ones I've been to which are basically a huge circular room and screen, but this was a very big screen and definitely the way to see the movie. Still can't figure out why they chose a Scotsman to play Leonides, but we enjoyed the flick.I have to get up at 5AM tomorrow to pick up Rose who, by the way, seems tobe getting over whatever it was. I'll finish this off next week when we'reready to depart.Well Rose has arrived, hale and hearty, and we're scheduled to haul the boat Monday. We'll complete the Auckland saga and let everybody know we're leaving when it's time--about a week or two depending on the weather.CheersTim, Rose & Joe