So being back in the water is nice, but it doesn’t mean that we are finished with work. The priority list is still heavily loaded with must do’s before heading north, so let’s do it.

First priority is to get the sails back up. In order to do so, Reto must repair the lazy bag, where the main sail is stowed when not in use.

In order to do that he has to finish his project “pimp my sewing machine” and luckily it works out well. within a few hours the old Bernina is running well through several layers of heavy cloths. Thanks to new heavier wheals, new belts and a new walking foot (the only thing that was really expensive…).

The following repair of the lazy bag does take a bit longer though. While I do the runs into the supermarkets to stock up, Reto takes more than 3 days, mainly to fix all the holes in the old lazy bag material and also a new zipper has to go in.

After a week we move out of the town basin, not only is it getting expensive but most of all we are afraid that the growth on She San’s bottom will come again.

In the Parua bay we meet up with Lydia and Hannes from the Blue Lilly. How nice to be in cleaner water in a quite bay!

The next day it is finally time to clean up our constant boatyard mess on the boat – Andy and Samuel are coming up from Auckland and want to get to know how living on board a cat feels like.

Next is the service of the winches and again the repair of the wind meter.

After half an hour of disappointment we get lucky hitchhiking thanks to a nice German named Michael. He drives an extra 15 km in order to bring us to our starting point.

We then happily hike over the hills getting some really rewarding views but also some knee pain due to the high number of stairs…

On the other side at Ocean beach there are hardly any cars around but after a few more km luckily a Korean couple picks us up and takes us back.

The next few days Reto has to go another few times up the mast, the wind meter is again not working any more, the radar plug needs protection, a screw in the mast is not holding any more.

The recently purchased tap and dye set is becoming one of the more regularly used tools on board. We cannot imagine how we have survived without it before!

We go back to town to get the last parts, so we can finish a few more projects.

The “reefing from the cockpit” should hopefully work out now and add to our safety at sea.
And not to fall over the lines we have mounted little blue loops to store them away.

A few days of Reto*s workforce is absorbed by an update of the Predict wind app. Reto accepts to get the update done and follows the instructions that first the old app needs to be deleted. “What a mistake” we later hear even from the Predict Wind support. “Well, but your programmers tell the customer to do so!” And for the installation of the new app you need to have the newest version on your computer, otherwise it doesn’t work.

We dedicate almost 30 GB trying to update our computers. No chance, a few days later we give up. Not very sailor friendly, we find.

By sending a file over 3 different devices we are currently hoping that it might work once we are out there…

A last time we have Asma, Herbert, Adam and Sammy from the Maya on board, we eat Swiss raclette (a bit improvised, though…) They soon go back to Switzerland, so we have to start saying Good bye!

On Tuesday evening just before sunset we move out of the town basin, the bridge opens for us at 17.35 and we go to say good bye to our friends with a last BBQ at the Norsand boatyard. See you soon, dear Maya, Robusta and Foxy lady!

On Wednesday noon we sail! down to Parua Bay, we find it too choppy outside. On Thursday morning we had planned to sail to Opua, but studying the weather charts takes up so much of our time that we decide to stay where we are.

There is still another mountain to be hiked, so we do that first, next to all the rest bits on our list.

The Mount Manaia is an important holy mountain of the Maori, but nowadays there is a big track leading up to the pinacles. It is not very exhausting, but the views are great 😉

We finally find time also for the smaller projects and less important tasks.

Another nice walk is leading us out to the Motukiore island, but since we start at high tide we walk out along the road and back over the rocks and along the beach. It works well. Only the last kilometer we find ourselves in the middle of muddy mangroves…

So while one of this weeks fronts is just passing through I sit here with two warm pants and 3 warm sweaters…

But I cannot complain as Reto is outside mounting the new trampoline net, Brrrrr…