Almost Off to Vanuatu

Weeks of travail are at an end or so we have declared.  It is truly amazing how much work a boat takes and makes.  There is a saying that the happiest day in a boater’s life is the day he buys his boat which is second only to the day he sells it.  In the Honeymoon stages of boat ownership and initial cruising, The First Mate knew for sure that she would never have such thoughts, but these days she is beginning to wonder.  It is not that she herself is overloaded with work.  Most of the needs of the boat are either mechanical, electrical or engineering which is a nice way of saying that the needs of the boat exists in a nether world of which she has no part. 

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And what has The First Mate been doing all these days?  To the final hour, she will continue to harangue all who will listen, and some who will not, about her miserable Apple computer.   She is finally able to search out the phone number to the Apple store in Auckland.  These stores do not like to give out their real phone numbers, just their toll free numbers which put one into a game of button pushing.  She has learned that one runs through a lot of expensive phone minutes that way.  The technician contacted is baffled, but upon researching his files, he proclaims that the Apple is suffering from wave interference.  She must procure an Uninterruptible Power Source (UPS).  Further research locates several at Dick Smith’s in Kerikeri.  The only problem is they cost a minimum of $200.00, are wired for the 220 current here and weigh a hefty 16 pounds.  “Forget it”, exclaims The Captain.  She perseveres.  Two computer repair shops are contacted in Auckland.  It’s NOISE!  Something in our boat is putting noise into our electric current.  She knew it was the boat, but noise in current?  Is that like static on the phone line?  She is told that she doesn’t have just plain noise either.  It’s rippling noise that is somehow getting amplified.  That’s why the little white box on her power cord is vibrating.  She needs a “Spike Buster”.  A what?  A Spike Buster is a ripple rejector!  Honest, this is exactly what she is told.  A ripple rejector?  She even wrote it down.  “Please … exactly what is a Spike Buster?” she pleads.  It is a little box that is plugged into the socket, and the device to be used is then plugged into the Spike Buster, and, Voilà, noise is filtered.  Her computer will work!  Do you believe that?  She doesn’t.  She is sure someone on the other end of the phone is laughing at her.  Is that a choked guffaw she hears?  But she is given the exact same information from 2 different computer repair companies.  Indian accented, of course.  They must know what they are talking about.  They wouldn’t lie, would they?  Dick Smith’s in Kerikeri has them, too.  They should cost about $30.00.  The Captain will spring for that.  Now to convince him of the necessity to rent a car and to drive the one hour to Kerikeri.

The weather window for our Saturday, May 5th, departure deteriorated out there on the Big Blue.  Venturing into gale force winds is nobody’s idea of an ideal crossing.  Maybe Sunday?  No, it’s getting worse.  We are now set up for Customs to clear us out on Tuesday, 9:00 am.  Our Duty-free liquor order will arrive at 11:00.  An organic produce company will make its last pitch sale to us at 1:00, and then we set sail.  We are now behind schedule and are eating our way through fresh vegetables and fruit as well as other food stuffs.  A final shopping trip is needed which means we will be renting a car, and where will we do this final shopping trip?  Kerikeri, of course.  Dick Smith’s —- here we come!

GOT CREW?  Yes, we have crew! Totally unexpected, but a fun surprise.  The son of some Canadian cruising friends and his girlfriend will be joining us from here to Vanuatu.  We first met our friends, Irene & Barry McPhee, anchored in Dixie Cove on the western coast of Vancouver Island, Canada in 2008.  They were on Lanakai, a beautiful Sabre 40.  We have kept in touch over the years. We knew from Irene that Kai and Megan were signed up to crew on a sailboat for a 6-month passage from New Zealand to Australia and on to Indonesia, but when they arrived and saw the boat, they had grave misgivings about the condition of the boat.  They declined and for the past 6 weeks have been looking for another boat to take them west.  By now, most boats leaving New Zealand that need or want crew already have people lined up, and nothing was found that worked.  Not wanting to leave them stuck in Opua, we offered to take them with us to Vanuatu.  From there, we all hope they will be able to find another crew position to continue on west.

Crew is okay.  Where to put them and their belongings is a classic problem!  What happens to all eagerly anticipated free time?  We fill it and look for more.  What happens to a child’s vacated bedroom when he’s finally off on his own?  We fill it and wish for another.  What happens to the 2 spaciously empty berths on the s/v Avante when unoccupied? We fill them and think of a bigger boat!  Not really, but it does often happen that way.  We are not looking for a bigger boat, but we sure have filled those rooms with stuff — cruisers‘ stuff, and now we must make room for our crew.  

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With a bit of judicial juggling and creative housekeeping, we empty out one berth and stuff the other to the gills.  Following suit, Megan and Kai do a bit of housekeeping themselves and send 3 boxes of heavier clothing and gear home.  Advised by Irene that The Captain would not respond enthusiastically, or at all, to the idea of strapping a surf board to the side of his boat, Kai comes up with a solution that will allow the board to be stored under the dinghy.  Kai’s diving gear and 3 spear guns are admittedly a bulky load, but we figure that the spear guns will soon earn their keep.  They get piled on top of everything in the spare berth, and on Thursday, May 3rd, Megan and Kai are welcomed aboard.

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Paradise Bay was where we had spent the first night of our aborted shakedown cruise a few weeks ago.  It was also the place where The Captain fumed and fussed with the bane to his existence:  the 4-cycle Yamaha outboard motor built to California emission standards that choked and stopped on the slightest moisture in the fuel or anything it considers unsavory in its fuel diet.  When the local Yamaha dealer offered to sell us a new outboard for $1000 and a trade in, The Captain could not get his wallet out fast enough. Now, a new 2-cycle Yamaha engine is riding off the aft rails of Avante. 

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The morning dawns grey and windy, but Kai and his friend set off undeterred.  Now that we are out of the relatively dirty water in the marina, The Captain can check out our watermaker which had recently been rebuilt to fix a leak. It runs great with no leaking at all. That is important, because with two extra people aboard, we will be using more water than usual.

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Tuesday, May 8th – 0850 – Weather briefing at the club.  Those who do not mind a bit of ocean bashing can leave tomorrow, but the rest of us will take off Thursday morning.

9:00 – Customs clears all 15 boats and crews out of New Zealand.  Technically, we should all be leaving within a few hours, but thanks to our Rally participation, we have been given a dispensation that allows us to stay until Thursday morning. The catch is that if for whatever reason a boat is unable to leave by Thursday, they must check back into the country and then clear out again on their own — a process that will take at least 3 days.

11:00 – Our Duty free liquor is delivered and packed into the boat with warnings that getting into our new bounty is absolutely taboo until we are officially offshore!

Wednesday, May 9th – We rent a car for our final shopping.  Off to Kerikeri and Dick Smith’s. We are fully provisioned except for vegetables and fruit which we have been eating our way through with the departure delay. 

First stop is Dick Smith’s in Kerikeri.  The First Mate has all her notes with her.  She is out for a Spike Buster. The First Mate is just as skeptical as The Captain that this Spike Buster will work, but she figures that it is worth a try.  It does have an additional use in that it is supposed to keep energy spikes from burning up one’s computer, and these energy spikes are supposedly a problem throughout the islands.  Now we have yet to run into such energy spikes or even hear of one, but having now been assured that they do occur and knowing that it is better to be safe than sorry, she will use this Spike Buster and plug it in whether or not it is the cure-all for her computer. A search of Dick Smith’s website yielded such a thing as a Spike Buster.  She now knows it’s for real.  She just needs to find one.  To her dismay, none of the nice, young salesmen have ever heard of a Spike Buster.  Doesn’t Dick Smith train its people?  Keeping her cool, she pulls out her notes and reads what this Spike Buster is supposed to do.  “Ah-h-h,” they say. “Sounds like you need a Surge Protector.”  Okay, will the thing cancel out noise in the current?  They do not know.  The Captain picks up the box and reads that the device protects against spikes in current and also filters out noise.  This must be what the disembodied Indian voices at the other end of the phone line were trying to explain to her.  They told her that it should cost about $30.00.  That is what this one costs except it is on sale at half price.  How nice!  The Captain is doubtful that it will work, but at $14.99 he is willing to offer up this latest sacrifice to the Apple god.  Anything to make it work for a while and keep the First Mate from bothering him about her Mac.

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