Up she rises (not)

Phil Martin

We went to heave up the anchor in Ngawhakawhiti Bay and clunk. Forty-five minutes later we'd recovered it by hand and that was both a good exercise and good exercise! Turns out a stud to the up side of the bi-directional motor was fractured, had been arcing, and had finally burnt through. The windlass has gone ashore to Phil's workshop.

Windlass motor corrosion

It's a bit hard to imagine the incident that could have started this. I mean, it's just of academic interest now, but what on earth? Everything about the windlass design protects it from water ingress seeing as it has to live on the foredeck. Weird. Fortunately, Lusty & Blundell have a replacement motor and gearbox in stock.

Christmas 2017

Mohitos!

A = Ketu Bay, Snug Cove, Xmas Day
B = Ketu Bay, Onion, Boxing Day

A fine day in Ketu Bay if you exclude
the rain, the cloud, and the wind

Good fishing

Pusser's Rum decanter

Xmas shenanigans

(spot the dog)

Poppy opening her presents from Pinot and Sam

C = Ngawhakawhiti anchorage, Wednesday, Thursday

Orion in Ngawhakawhiti Bay

Namaste dropped anchor nearby

D = Hallam Cove, Friday

Grape Escape in Hallam Cove

We were on board for ten nights, from Thursday, December 21st to Saturday, December 30th and went back to Picton on New Year's Eve. We spent four nights in Snug Cove (Friday - Monday). Grape Escape came alongside Christmas morning and we had breakfast together. We moved to Onion on Boxing Day when the forecast suggested it was going around south-easterly. Wednesday we avoided cabin fever by steaming down to Tennyson Inlet where we caught up with Dion and Sarah on Nightingale. We were at anchor in the southern arm of Ngawhakawhiti Bay for two nights and then steamed to Hallam Cove where we met up again with Grape Escape. The trip was defined by the south-easterly breeze and generally changeable weather. We logged 89 nm.

Haul-out 2017

Havelock Slipway

Hauled out on the top of a 3.2 m tide. Sitting upright and well-supported. The paint has held up well, it's two-and-a-half years since she was painted at Salthouse. The hull was pretty clean, just a few mussels on the keel where the blocks were. Fitted an additional transducer on the port side just forward of the cooling water intake, this is so the Furuno mfd can be dedicated to display the depth the whole time, and to fish-finding. We have an upgrade kit for the bowthrust; beautifully engineered propellors replace the quite basic standard ones. We're going to follow the advice of the O brothers and the Chris McMullen article and leave the anodes off. The bottom paint is Carboline Sea-Barrier Copper Black and we used about 22 litres. It's an Altex product.

Jetstream

Take-In Bay

Back in Take-In Bay. It's just 15 sea miles from Havelock, it's sheltered from most quarters, and we love the view. Neap tides this weekend and the fishing a bit slow, but even so Sue caught a very respectable Kahawai which I turned into fish curry. 

Favourite views

Take-In Bay looking west

Canterbury Anniversary

Well, you never know your luck. Regular old weekend up the Kenepuru. Two caught within minutes of each other. One went back, the other was well legal and became breakfast for two. Caught on bare Wasabi hooks on the last of the flood at dusk. 

Amazon Malta

It was good to see Amazon lying to admiralty buoys off Manoel Island Yacht Yard, Malta. She's looking in good health and the berth is ideal for her. Four of us — Stephen, Sue, Jack, Nina —  sat around on Sliema strand looking at her for a while, all of our lives shaped in some way by this venerable old lady; she is 132-years-old this year.

Mackerel and bacon

Mackerel and bacon

This year, so far, we have to steal every day we can. Logbook is kind of empty, diesel tanks are kind of full. Some people call it bait fish, but we love mackerel. You have to be patient and mind the bones, and it really is delicious. Catch it at night with the underwater light and tiny wasabi hooks. Here is Sunday morning breakfast on the Kenepuru in perfect weather: sunny, mild, and calm. 

Three winter projects

With mainly inclement weather, short days, long nights, we've been using our weekends to make a few small improvements: fuel transfer system; aft deck cctv; better dinghy chocks.

Fuel transfer system
There was a tank balancing pipe that was quite useful, but it had a tendency to block with crud and water at its lowest point where it passes underneath the shaft. We started thinking that if we installed a pump and a filter and some change-over valves we could add some useful functionality: fuel transfer between tanks, only to having to use the filler nearest the fuel jetty, and trapping water and dirt. It just felt like it would offer more control than simple gravity balancing. It's a 14 litres/minute gear pump, and an off-the-shelf Ryco filter. Gregory Engineering of Picton made up the panel, and we fitted it over two weekends.

Aft deck cctv
Seeing out the back isn't too good, especially since we fitted the clears. We've installed a car reversing camera that looks out over the aft deck. The picture is really clear.  It helps when we're backing out of the berth; it'll be handy when we're fishing; and it'll be good for keeping a lookout for traffic coming up from astern.

Higher dinghy chocks
When it rains the dinghy fills up. There's a perfectly good bung at the back with a mushroom valve. So we've built the forward chocks up to tilt the boat up at the bow. It helps when we're washing mud out of the bottom of the boat too.

Anzac Day cruise

Camp Bay, Bulwer

Duffers Reef

Johnson's Barge

Departed Havelock 1620 planning to go on Putanui North but it was occupied so we pressed on, just saving the light to Maori Bay. Quiet night and the morning dawned with thick fog typical of the time of year. Fog lifted and by 0930 we departed Maori Bay, by 1100 rounding at Maud Island and by 1220 all fast to PWM782 Homestead Bay Port Ligar. Namaste in company. Sunday we moved round to Camp Bay near Bulwer, Grape Escape in company. Monday we fished inside Duffers Reef and on Richmond Reef but the fishing was slow, got two cod that were keepers. Headed south at 1400 and arrived off Raetihi by 1630. Followed Isabella most of the way. Spent the Tuesday (Anzac Day) at Raetihi and got into Havelock at 1730. Stayed aboard. Beautiful autumn weather the whole five days.