Ruby Slippers

We arrived last Friday - sorry it has taken us a while to post.  The wind and seas were on the nose the whole trip here, and we were very glad to arrive safe and sound to Opua, in Northland New Zealand.  I was going to kiss the dock when we came in, but there was bird poop all over it…

We have done a little exploring - New Zealand reminds us so much of early spring in the Pacific Northwest!  It is chilly, with a promise of warmer days to come.  There are many evergreens, with some palm trees thrown in for good measure. 

We are researching the different areas of the north island to find the best place to haul our boat for a bottom job.  There are quite a few choices, but less for a boat our size and depth.  We will stay in Opua until we find the right spot, then move our boat and get to work shining up Ruby Slippers.

I am taking a quick detour home to Seattle to see my mom and sisters.  I hope someone else on the boat keeps you all updated in my absence!  ~  Jeanna

about the lack of new updates to our website!  Sorry.  We made it to New Zealand and were so happy to be here, we just started having fun without a thought of sharing it all with you!  There will be no more of that – we promise to keep you in our pockets at all times.

I (Jeanna) went home for a couple of weeks in November to see my family and friends, and purchase many new books, DVDs and boat parts.  Now I know what a pain it is to come visit us and have to bring all that stuff with you.  Jim and Molly and Jessie had Thanksgiving with some New Zealand friends and went diving for scallops.  The water is much colder here than anywhere we have been in the past year.  In fact, the weather in general is much like Seattle in early spring – cold, windy, and rainy.  The locals all say that they haven’t seen a Christmas season as cold as this one – ever. 

We bought a used car (cheap) and have been touring the northern tip of the north island.  There is a long beach on the west coast called 90-Mile Beach (although everything else is measured in kilometers).  You can drive the length of this beach at low tide, if you are so inclined.  We tried it for about 10 minutes and got bored.  It is much prettier by road.  At the top of the beach, there are some huge sand dunes.  We rented boogie boards and hiked up the ski slope-high hill and boogied down.  The climb up took about 10 minutes, and the ride down took about 45 seconds. 

 I had bought a tent at REI when I was home, so we went camping after our dune experience.  A six-person tent is just big enough for the four of us.  They have “Holiday” parks all over New Zealand, where you can pitch a tent or park a camper, close to showers, kitchen and usually, a lake.  It costs about $45.00 per night for the privilege of using their grass.  There are no other options – land is all owned privately or by the government.  A Motel 6, with only the barest of creature comforts, is $125 per night.  Things are pretty pricey here on this little island.

It has been nice being on a dock, with unlimited water and power, but we are getting antsy to be “out and about” again.  We anchored for a couple of nights this past week; it was great to see gorgeous mountains and no boats in our “yard”.  Jim and Molly dove for more scallops – they came up with 99 of them!  Jessie and I opted for warmer entertainment, baking cookies. 

Molly and Jessie went camping this week with the same friends who had them over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We will pick them up at the campsite on December 23^rd, and make our way down the coast toward Auckland.  We will be at some remote (hopefully) island for Christmas.  We hope that your Christmas season will be filled with joy and relaxation.  Life flies by pretty quickly, so take time to savor each day!

It’s been a while since we have posted pictures, so there are several new groups in the media gallery.  Happy Holidays!  ~  Jeanna

Ours was very nice. We were underway, heading down the east coast of New Zealand. We anchored in a couple of beautiful bays, but it is very shallow on this coast. We bumped the bottom twice at low tide, and had to keep moving the boat to higher water. We cooked the full-meal deal – turkey, and all the trimmings. It is a bit of a challenge on a moving boat, but everything turned out great. I was thinking how much easier it is here than it would be in Tonga or one of the other South Pacific islands. Groceries are so plentiful and fresh here – just like in the states. I don’t think I ever saw a turkey in the South Pacific! Well, I can think of a few boaters that fit the description…

We are now moored in Gulf Harbour Marina, near Auckland. It is a first-rate facility, with some nice hikes and parks close by. We have an appointment to haul the boat out in early January, to paint the bottom, wax the hull and do a little maintenance. Got to keep ol’ Ruby Slippers sparkly!

We said goodbye to our friends from the boat “Coconut”. They have ended their 4-year journey from Norway to Australia. They have already shipped their boat back home and are flying to Norway today. It is a bittersweet time for them; they are anxious to see friends and family, but have enjoyed every bit of their cruising experience. Their children, Camilla and Colin have become good friends with Molly and Jessie. It was kind of sad to see them say their farewells. To think we might never again see some of the cruisers we have met is quite sad. Making friends seems to be accelerated on the ocean; you meet, discover much you have in common, and form a bond very quickly. You might spend weeks together, anchored in the same bay, and communicating by radio or e-mail when you are apart. Reunions are joyous occasions, especially when kids are involved. Then, all too soon, we must say goodbye, most likely for good! We have gotten to know sailors from all over the United States, Europe, South Africa and Australia. It’s been a great cultural experience for all of us.

A funny thing about the way New Zealanders talk is that both “i” and “e” have the long “ee” sound. So, it might be pen or pin; might be ten, tin or teen, might be win or wean, it might be lip or leap. If your teen got a score of 10 on a test, it all sounds the same! We were looking for a store called “meetahteen” that someone told us about; we finally discovered that it was Mitre 10, a hardware store chain. We are slowly catching on.

We hope 2008 brings many adventures to your life, along with peace and happiness!
~ Jeanna

As you can see from the new pictures in the media gallery, we have been busy trying out the waters of the north island.  It is a little chilly, but we’ve managed to water ski, spinnaker fly, ride in the bosun’s chair while under sail, and kayak.  We’ve even done a little swimming!

We spent New Year’s Eve on a 100-foot custom sailboat named Dharma.  We were anchored with them and our friends on Azul for the weekend.  There were scallops (caught by Molly), mussels (caught by Jim), Kingfish and lamb.  The boat is elegant and understated; so many of the larger yachts are very gaudy and brassy.  Dharma looks like a true sailing yacht.

Ruby Slippers is being hauled out this afternoon.  We moved all our stuff into a condo for 4 days.  I was humming “Well, we’re moving on up, to the east side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky-y-y-y”, while carrying all our laundry and food to a lovely condo just a couple of blocks from the marina.  It’s actually been thrilling to use the dishwasher, do 100 loads of laundry (it seems), and take showers without turning off the water to soap up.  I’m sure the excitement will wear off soon, but for now, it’s the cat’s pajamas.  I’ve decided to take all our dishes and silverware, and run them through the dishwasher, just because I can.  Who says we don’t know how to have fun?

We are hoping that the haulout will be painless – just a pressure wash and quick bottom job; inspect all the thru hulls and fittings, change the zincs, buff and wax the hull, and back into the water.  I’m sure Jim would rather be running the Travelift himself; it will be hard for him to be at the mercy of strange, possibly inept boatyard personnel.

We are getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, with the gear shift on the wrong side of our body.  It’s easier for me when there is traffic to follow.  Left to my own devices, I tend to wander over to the right.  I usually just whisper to myself, “Stay left, stay left,” and it has turned out okay, so far. We are planning a road trip to the south island as soon as we get our boat back in the water. All the locals say it is beautiful down there.  We have only used our tent a few times, and are looking forward to really breaking it in.

2008 will bring the Rard family back home, and back to life on land.  Mostly what I hear from cruisers who have ended their journey and are back home, is that their friends are just busy living their own life, and they weren’t all that interested in the cruising details.  That’s okay. Those who are curious have been following along on the website, and we will have our pictures and memories to sustain us.  I wish every sailor could have an opportunity to go to sea, even for a short time.  There are many lessons to be learned from nature, not the least being, it’s worth exploring!    ~Jeanna~

After a year and a half in the warm tropical waters, the prospect of a haulout was making me nervous.  We had rubbed some of the paint off the keel in Newport Harbor, Oregon, gotten tangled up with a float at Cocos Island in Costa Rica, and have been in the mud numerous times in the shallow rivers and marinas in New Zealand.  With some of the bottom paint missing, I would dive and clean the bottom regularly, but the paint seemed soft and  I was not sure about  it holding up to the pressure washer at the boat yard. Luckily, the Pettit Trinidad we applied at the Anacortes yard held up very well.  Only the abused parts of the hull had any missing paint.

After a quick wet-sanding (two days!), and a new coat of paint, we are back in business.  I am looking forward to not having to do my weekly bottom-cleaning job.  While we were out of the water, I changed the thru-hull valve and added a scoop to the water maker inlet.  Now we can make water even when we are sailing over 7 knots.

I disassembled the Max prop, cleaned it, and inspected it for wear.  After over 1000 hours, it still looks new inside.  I reset the pitch from 22 degrees to 24 degrees to put a little more load on the engine.  We have been running the engine at about 2200 rpm for fuel economy and just haven’t been in that much of a hurry.  Now, max cruise rpm (3000) seems like a hectic pace.  At 2200 rpm in flat water, we were motoring at 7.5 knots.  The new prop setting should increase that to 7.6 or 7.7.  Doesn’t seem like much when you are on the freeway going 70 mph, but after 15,000 miles (nautical) it adds up.

With everyone pitching in, the entire boat is getting a good coat of wax, and all the shiny parts polished. The sun down here is intense, and when the clouds part and the sun comes through, anything darker than off-white gets so hot you can cook your dinner on it.  This is the first time we have had weather reports that include UV index, and the forecast is always “extreme”.  You can get burned to a crisp on a cloudy day, so skin cancer is the number one cause of death in New Zealand.  I think driving on the wrong side of the road is next.  So anyway, the gel coat needs all the protection it can get.  Applying the wax must be done on the cool cloudy days or early in the morning.  I noticed the dinghy is starting to get sun damage, so we have to cover it up when not in use.

The out-of-water work went so well that I jumped right into next set of  projects. We tore apart  the nav station and added a few electronics; an autopilot control head for the nav station, and a graphic display in the forward cabin. (This is so I can see the depth sounder and GPS position when I am asleep). We repaired the wind point/wind speed unit at the top of the mast. Jeanna is now happy, as the wind speed is her favorite instrument, as long as it stays below 20 knots.

With so many gadgets plugged in the onboard computer, we  ran out of USB ports, so we added yet another hub and reconfigured everything to run more smoothly and much faster. Skype is one of our latest additions. While we are in range of wifi, this saves a lot of money on overseas calls. Tomorrow I will load-test all the batteries. This requires disconnecting 12 batteries and testing each one individually. I know I have at least two bad batteries in the system; finding and replacing the bad ones will get us back to 100% of our storage capacity. While we are in the battery compartment, I am adding Blue Seas heavy-duty isolators to replace the duo-charge system that failed. This will allow us to automatically charge multiple battery banks with multiple alternators, without manually controlling the system.

I continue to add little up-grades and convenience items to the boat. I keep finding things I think I can make better.  One day it will sail itself, and I can just sit back and relax. Oh, wait - it already does that!  We are having a great time in New Zealand.  Although the water is not as warm as we are used to, it is loaded with good stuff to eat. With all the sheep to keep the grass mowed, the whole country looks like a golf course.

 I will be back home in Seattle for the boat show, January 25 thru February 4.  I have a big list of things to purchase while home.  To our disappointment, everything is very expensive here in New Zealand. I can’t buy 110 volt tools any where, and my number- one tool, the cordless drill motor, is getting fussy.

Stop by the boat show and say hi – I’d love to see you there!  Check out some new pictures in “For Sailors Only III” in the media gallery.      Jim