End of Chapter 2

Well, after nearly three weeks in New Zealand, we are now legal. The boat has been officially imported, duty and taxes paid, and we have a permanent berth in Opua. The money from Canada is here, the debts are paid and we are looking for jobs. The second chapter of “The Adventures of the Good Ship Tarun” can now be closed. We have done a number of repairs and maintenance jobs in the past couple of weeks, namely resealing fittings to stop leaks. It’s amazing how much you find out about your boat when you sail hard to weather for a few days straight. We have sold the Monitor Wind Steering system as we don’t need it for sailing around New Zealand and are in the process of sorting out the re-wiring of the boat for 240 volt shore power.

Other than that, we have been having fun dealing with Canadian Financial Institutions, trying to sort out credit cards, addresses, etc. We think it’s all done but not sure yet. Cathy had her visa card cancelled without notice after having it for over 24 years. Maybe an hour on the phone this morning has probably fixed it. It’s amazing that banks will drop a customer in good standing simply because the card has not been used for a period of time. I guess the banks are more interested in the people who have lots of debt and pay the banks lots of interest. It really brasses me off that those of us who manage our money to avoid debt are penalized by the banks. Other than starting our own bank, we can’t really do much about it except spend time on the phone with ineffectual, so called, “customer” service reps who are trained to say “NO” over one hundred different ways. Every once in awhile you find a person who can actually help you and when you do, please say a big thank you for yourself and all the other long suffering people who deal with telephone support in all it’s guises.

On a brighter note, I am including a couple of sets of lyrics to songs that I rewrote while under passage.

NOTE: The author is NOT responsible for any throwing of fruit, veggies, etc due to the public performance of any of these songs

Tarun, The Ketch Song

(sung to the music of Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot)

I can see her sitting there with her sails a mess

You can see she’s a ship in need of much redress

Sailor, you better take care or you’ll spend all your money making her real fair

Sailor, you better take care or you’ll spend all your money making her real fair

She’s a tough old ketch with a heart of gold

But you don’t really know what the bilges hold

Sometimes I think it’s a shame when I get feeling better when I’m sailing again

Sometimes I think it’s a shame when I get feeling better when I’m sailing again

I can hear every groan that her spares will make

I can see every wave that her bow will break

Sometimes I think it’s a sin when I get feeling better when I sail hard to wind

Sometimes I think it’s a shame when I get feeling better when I’m sailing again

Canadian Farewell

(sung to the music of Jamaican Farewell)

In Sidney town where the old folks frown

And the sun shines sometimes when it’s not raining

I took a trip on a sailing ship

And when I reached New Zealand I made a stop

Chorus

But I’m sad to say, I’m on my way

Won’t be back to Canada eh

My heart is down, my boat is spinning around

I had to leave our rusty bikes in Sidney town

From Halifax to Vancouver

Canadians cry out no more winter

Icy roads and heavy snow

But the beer is better than Mexico

In Alberta they burn the oil

In Newfoundland they fish for cod

In Toronto they make the cash

But on the BC coast we sail and laugh

Settling In

A hectic week to say to say the least as Cathy and I try to sort out our life back in NZ.  We spent Monday night on land with friends of Jan and Tony who have a lifestyle block (18 acres) outside of Kerikeri.  It was very peaceful and a welcome change.  Cathy had her first bath since March.  We looked at cars, bought food, spent a lot of time getting a cell phone sorted out, and had wonderful discussions with NZ Customs regarding the importing of Tarun to NZ.  Despite many good arguments (well I thought they were good anyways) Customs was very clear about the fact that we had to import the boat to NZ.  I argued that we were not residents of NZ as we are still tax residents of Canada.  We were informed in no uncertain terms that as soon as our feet touched the dock we became NZ residents again as we are NZ citizens, we have to import our boat.  They assessed the value based on the purchase price converted to NZ dollars then depreciated at 10% per year for the time we have owned her.  The bill was not too excessive but it still hurts a bit.  I asked if we could arrange a payment plan with the government and the Customs official we were dealing with said in no uncertain terms “The government does not do payment plans!”  We have another 3 weeks to pay before they chain the boat to the dock.  Hopefully our RRSP will get cashed out and have enough remaining to pay the bills.

We did manage to buy a car on Wednesday.  We looked at and bought a 1998 BMW 318i.  Low kms and a great price.  So now we get to drive around in a red Beemer as befits our new station in life (broke and tied to a dock).

The week has also been filled with free food and social activities arranged by the Opua Business Association.  They put on a welcome to Opua week that included a free seafood supper at the cruising club on Tuesday, a wine and cheese on Thursday, Bangers and Beer on Friday and the final event, a pig roast yesterday with some great door prizes.  We won a nice Garhuer block that we have no need of so I traded it for a 50 dollar voucher from one of the local electrical places.  We need to rewire the boat to 220 so that will be a bit more useful.

Opua, the Final Frontier

We made it to the customs dock at the Opua Marina at 06:00 Saturday morning, exactly when we had said we would! The last day was spent motor sailing in order to make sure we made it early. The wind was predicted to come around to the SE and that would have made it hard going to weather with big seas. Anyhow we made it fine with half a tank of diesel to spare. We cleaned up the boat, Jan cooked us an amazing meal with the last of our fresh meat and veggies. We had chicken and stir fry veggies for breakfast, it was awesome. Cathy pulled out all the questionable food for Biosecurity NZ to inspect and I got all the paperwork ready for Customs. Around 09:00 or so, a lady from Customs (Jo) came on board. She spent maybe 5 minutes with me as there was nothing left for her to do except collect the paperwork I had ready. She thanks us for being so well prepared and off she went. The downside is that we have to se Customs on Monday about importing Tarun to NZ. Oh well, we'll cross that bridge as we go. Next, Biosecurity NZ (Formerly Ministry of Agriculture and Forests) arrived to inspect the boat and make sure we weren't bringing any dangerous foodstuffs in. Helen and Daniela were very nice and when they saw all the food piled up on the salon table they were more than happy. We had everything ready for them, garbage bagged, food listed etc. It pays to make their life easy. They took the fresh food, including the eggs. They did NOT take any dairy products or pasta and the only rice they took was a small packet of wild rice we had brought from Canada. Again, they thanked us repeatedly for our preparation and gave us our clearance. We were free to go. Our marina berth was still occupied but they found another place for us so off we went with Tony waiting to grab our lines. We were tied up by 10:30. After getting squared away with the office we had showers on land (hot, loads of pressure and 4 minutes for a buck). Lunch on board then we piled into Jans' car and off to Pahia for a bit of shopping to replace fresh food and get some NZ cash. First stop was the polling booth though as it was Election Day yesterday. Cathy and I even managed to vote by special vote. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. I figure I managed to sleep about 10 hours in the three days prior to getting to Opua so I was pretty tired
In total we travelled 11224 Nautical Miles from Victoria to Opua from August 2, 2007 to November 8, 2008. We're HOME!

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The Almost There Blog

Well, 50 miles to go. We are motor sailing hard on the wind with double reefed main and half the genoa out in order to point high enough to make Cape Brett. We have been using the motor since about 08:30 this morning. We've had a few moments of fun today, most notably me going up on the foredeck to fix the furling line for the headsail that had almost chafed through. We have it fixed enough to get us to Opua but can no longer unfurl the whole headsail. On the bright side I did provide entertainment for Cathy and Jan as the waves crashed over top of me, great fun. The upside was that I fixed the problem before it became a real issue and I got to do it in daylight. It's always easier when you can see what you are doing. By this time tomorrow, we will have showered, cleared customs and dumped a lot of food that we can not bring into the country. Not in that order mind you but close. The boat is going well and will get a well deserved rest when we tie up to the dock in Opua in less than 10 hours.

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Bolting for the Barn

Latitude : 33? 32' South
Longitude: 175? 12' East
Still charging to weather at 5.5-6 knots. The rule of the day is each 2 hour watch must complete at least 11 miles. Our current ETA at OPUA is 04:00 Saturday morning. The weather should hold for the next 24 hours so we will have a great sail in. Everyone is a bit tired but holding up well despite he 30 degree heel. Home soon!

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Lows, Highs and Wind

Latitude : 31? 41' South
Longitude: 176? 18' East
A long couple of nights and one long day. Tuesday night the shore station we check in with twice a day told us to expect winds rising to 25-30 knots with gusts to 40. Well we prepared what we could, single reefed mizzen, a couple of reefs in the main and waited. Sleep was hard as we were all waiting for the wind. It never got over 20. The seas however got quite big and from astern and by 11:30, after passing through one frontal system and sailing into the second one, I decided to heave-to and wait it out. The boat hove-to well after a couple of tries to get her head through the wind and we sat with the wind and seas more or less on the bow quarter. We stayed that way for about 3 hours until the winds shifted around to the SW and then off we went again on a rhumb line to Opua. We have a heading of 207 degrees true but are generally only able to make 190-195 at best hard on the wind. We slowed the boat down last night and flattened her off to get a bit of sleep and now that it is daylight, I have more sail up and we are back around 5-5.5 knots hard on the wind. The forecast is for the wind to go more west which will help. Hopefully we will make Opua on Saturday as long as we can maintain some decent speed. We are 230 miles away so two reasonable days should see us in.

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Flat is Fun

Latitude : 28? 44' South
Longitude: 177? 55' East
Eerily flat best describes the sea state for the past day. There is a long gentle swell slowly running under the boat with a ripple on top. The big down side is the severe lack of wind. We have been under motor since Sunday but expect the winds to pick up later today (famous last words). We have spent a lot of time pouring over weather maps and analysis charts trying to figure out what the next few days will hold. It looks like we will see some wind as a front passes over us in the next 12-18 hours, but not too much. There is a low pressure system that will affect us but it looks like it will be less severe than we originally thought. It seems to change every day. It does serve to pass the time. We have been eating well, cooked dinner every night and we are getting through our fresh food at a rate that will see us have to throw out very little. We can't bring anything fresh into NZ, and in fact they ask if we are going to dispose of food at sea we do it outside of the 12 mile limit. For some reason that makes a difference. Jan managed to finally talk to Tony last night n the SSB, she had been trying to contact him every night. Other than a ship that passed us between 1 and 5 AM sometime nothing else has happened of note. I did re-seal the aft hatch after finding out it was leaking again when we had all the rain a few days ago. I managed to squeeze out enough sealant from the end of a tube. I can tell we are getting closer to NZ, it's getting colder. Long pants and layers are becoming de-rigour. It will get colder and I suspect that I will have to hook up the furnace again when we get to Opua to take the chill off in the mornings for the next month or so. I'm glad we still have some kerosene on board.

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Killing Dinosaurs

Latitude : 27? 15' South
Longitude: 179? 16' East
Still motoring. We sailed for a few hours yesterday but the winds did not stay and back to the motor. We have a total of 5 days of fuel on board and have now burned around a day and half. Hopefully the wind will come back in soon. It is calm with no real seas and light SE winds. The guy we are checking in with in Opua, Des from Opua Offshore Communications, thinks we will get more easterly winds today, we'll see. We are trying to get south to miss the worst part of low that is predicted for mid week. Not much else happening. Cathy saw a ship the first night out, Jan saw a plane a couple of nights ago, we had showers yesterday, pretty normal stuff. The engine is purring along beautifully and the boat is working fine.

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A Day of Rest

Latitude : 25? 40' South
Longitude: 179? 04' West
Captain and crew are all in good health and spirits and the sails needed a rest so we have been under power since late last night. The wind began easing in the afternoon but we managed to keep 5 knots with all sails up until around 22:00. Oh well, that's why we have all this diesel on board. We have been struggling with the voyage forecast as we jumped ahead of the game and winds are not quite what were predicted. What wind we have is from NE and as we are heading WSW so we have it very deep on the stern. We were, and are, expecting the winds to move to the south which would help us make easier westing. The temptation of course is to follow the straight line from Tonga to Opua, the only problem would be that we would get nailed as we approached the NZ coast with winds on the nose. The plan is to head west until we are almost in line with Cape Reinga and then head south. I asked for an update from Bob McDavitt yesterday but have not yet heard anything. The weather files I have accessed and emails from friends don't seem to show what he is predicting but I won't second guess the experts just yet. As long as we are heading west fine and besides, George is driving and doing a stellar job.
As I write, I am sitting in the cockpit watching the sun rise. Despite all other feelings, the sunrise on the ocean is on of the lasting memories I will take away from this voyage. The swell is actually rolling gently under the boat and all seems right with the world (excepty we only have 4 knots of wind!)

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