Another Week Dirfts By

We started the week with another visit to Tony and Helen’s bach in Whangaemu Bay.  We went up Monday morning and came back Tuesday afternoon.  We got to sleep inside this time, but we were prepared wit the tent anyways.  Not much done other than walking on the beach, taking a long kayak tour with Tony on Tuesday and eating well.  They a re a truly wonderful family and we always have a great time with them.  We had hoped to get them out sailing with us in the Bay of Islands but that was not to be as we had not received the parts we needed to complete the refurb on the cooling system.  By Thursday, I was getting nervous about the parts, so back up to Seapower.  Chris called Lust and Blundell in Auckland and they said, yes, they had the parts and would be sent to be received Friday.  Well, no parts Friday morning, so back up to Seapower just before noon.  No worries, they get deliveries all day.  By 14:00, still no parts so Chris calls Auckland and they say, no we did not get the parts and nothing was sent.  They had plain out lied to her on Thursday.  It turns out the parts haven’t even been shipped from the Netherlands much less made it to NZ.  Well, I was less than impressed with Lusty and Blundell.  We have to vacate our berth here this week and need a running motor.  Well Chris’s husband Bruce, the mechanic, offered to build up a hose for us from parts.  Well between the two of us, we cobbled together a few pieces and made a hose to go from the fresh water pump to the heat exchanger that also allowed me to have the thermostat back in the system.  I got it installed, resealed the leaking filler cap fitting and started the motor up.  It seemed OK but after about half an hour, I was still getting a small leak around the filler cap.  Saturday morning, I took the fitting off again and managed to find a way to seal it up properly and got the system leak free, or so I thought.  I started the motor, and noticed an exhaust smell inside the boat.  So, back into the engine compartment to find that two of the hose clamps for the exhaust hose were loose.  OK, I tightened them up and all was fine.   While I was doing that, I noticed the shear pin connected the propeller shaft to the transmission was half way out of the coupler.  It turned out the pin had broken in half somehow.  After a couple of hours of patient work, I got the old pin completely removed.  It would have literally left us stranded and caused considerable damage had we left the dock with it in that condition.  The shaft would have pulled out of the coupling and slide back.  The prop would have hit the back side of the aperture under the boat and probably wrecked the prop and would have definitely gouged a chunk out.  Luckily, once again, we dodged a bullet and it will be fixed before we leave.  Now that the pin is out, I run the engine again to make sure the exhaust is OK and no other leaks have appeared.  It all looks good until I see a small drop of antifreeze on top of the new coolant tank.  I’m looking around and can’t figure out where it came from and I’m thinking, maybe I spilled a drop when I was topping off the overflow bottle.  SoI wipe it up and as I watch, I see coolant seeping VERY slowly out of the top of the new tank, the new aluminium tank.  It turns out that there is a very, very small hole, a fault in the manufacture, in the top of the tank and it weeps coolant.  It will be K until we get to Auckland but now, I have to persuade Lusty and Blundell to get it replaced for free along with the necessary gaskets etc.  Should be great fun.  I really hope I don’t find any more problems with the boat.  In addition to the boat stuff, we have been dealing with government bureaucracy this week.  Wednesday, I decided to call Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) to see what was happening with our 2^nd required appointment that we needed to attend in order to get an unemployment benefit.  The fun started when I called the 0800 number using our cell phone.  The government in its infinite wisdom, does not allow cell phones to call the 0800 number.  It is only useable from landlines.  If calling from a cell phone, you have to call the local number, which means that we pay for the call.  It seems strange to me that the number provided to people who are collecting unemployment benefits, sickness benefits, etc, costs those people money to call.  In NZ it is a calling party pays system.  I managed to get hold of the person who presented the first seminar and her story was that they were really busy and have been unable to reschedule appointments.  My story to her was that all we had was an appointment booked fro Feb. 2^nd , no particular time, just Feb. 2^nd.  As we were going to Kerikeri that day anyways to get groceries, I said I would just go to WINZ and get a time confirmed.  Around 10:00 am, I get a call from the WINZ office in Kerikeri, asking us if we can be there before 11:00 and we could get the application completed.  We made it by 10:45.  We went through the paperwork, answered all the questions and I got to stare in disbelief when I was asked to provide proof of my Inland Revenue tax number that I had provided on the form.  I politely informed our case worker that they had given me the number off their computer system a couple of weeks ago.  No way was that sufficient for them, I needed to provide them with something on IRD Letterhead with my tax number on it.  OK, I remembered seeing something in our files from IRD that I had kept on the boat since 1996.  When I got back to the boat I managed to find the piece of paper that proved that the number WINZ gave me was in fact the correct one, bizarre.  Near the end of our interview Wednesday, our case worked, Hori, told us that we would see the first of the payments into our account Thursday morning.  He was also having problems with his system and couldn’t print out our service agreements, the agreements we had to sign saying that we would actively look for work and how often we had to check in with WINZ and prove we were looking for work.  He said he would mail them to us, I told him we were moving to Auckland next week, to look for work, and he said OK, he would print them out and leave them with reception and we could come back to Kerikeri and sign them Thursday of Friday.  We went back Friday and stood around an almost deserted office (midmorning) and finally someone came out and asked us what we wanted.  Told them the short story about having to sign our service agreements (and drop off proof of the IRD number).  The lady who was asking the questions, went way, copied the IRD number and when she came back, I asked about the service agreements and also what had happened to the money that was supposed to be paid into out account (still not received Friday) .  She went away again, found Hori, had a quick discussion with him, came back to us and said that they were really busy and quite behind so she had no idea when we would see any money.  She also said that Hori would mail us the service agreements next week for us to sign and send back.  I politely (I was trying HARD to remain polite by this time) informed the nice lady that we would not receive our mail as we were moving to Auckland next week.  She snapped back with “You know you have to tell us when you move to which I responded, politely, that we had already informed Hori of this.  She snapped back with “So when are you moving?  I politely replied that it depended on the weather as we live on our boat and were sailing our HOME to Auckland.  She snapped back (she was really not very pleasant) with “So, what type of work do you do?” to which I politely responded that I was an IT and Telecommunications Project Manager and that I thought I would have a better chance at finding work in Auckland, rather than in Kereikeri.  She agreed that was probably true.  So off she went back to speak to Hori, and came back and said, well, you need to call us when you have an address in Auckland so we can mail out the service agreement to you.  To which, I politely replied, that we would certainly do so.  We then politely left.