Getting there!   Tuesday, 09/04/2024

Progress with the outstanding boat work is gradual, but we are getting there! The new sails, which should have been delivered by last week, will hopefully be delivered by the end of this week – the sail guy was here midday today just checking a couple of things. As I write, I have a man on the boat who is servicing the windlass (which operates the anchor chain). We were supposed to be back at Riverside Drive marina in town this week for the electrical guy to start fitting the new autopilot and associated controls, but I’ve spoken to him and his current jobs are overrunning, so he can’t start until early next week anyway. 

So everything is panning out alright, just with delays. Which is pretty typical. As I’ve noted before, the problem is that the guys who are good and come highly recommended are (unsurprisingly) very busy. Does it make sense to wait? Yes. So that makes it all easy. No point feeling frustrated – I just keep my eye on the eventual goal and ignore the short term delays. In the past three years of sailing I’ve become a lot better at letting things just wash over me – there’s no point at all in getting stressed by any of these delays.

I did succeed in turning myself into a gas engineer at the weekend! To run the stove, I have two 4kg gas cylinders. One is empty and the other perhaps a quarter full. The problem is that gas cylinders in New Zealand are not compatible with European ones, so I cannot get my existing empty cylinder refilled. It has been done in third world countries – the gas supplier will find some sort of adaptor or roughly adapt something to fill a foreign cylinder. But rules and regulations are tight in New Zealand, so nobody will do such a thing: I’ve tried. Fortunately my English friends Ian and Laura were here for a few days and I saw something that he’d rigged up. So, having got the necessary spares and a brand new NZ gas cylinder, regulator and 4 feet or so of rubber gas pipe, I cut the existing pipe, introduced a T-joint into it and then connected up to both the European and the NZ cylinders. Simple but effective – job done. Without paying a gas engineer, who probably would have insisted on servicing the whole gas system, in line with NZ regulations, before doing any sort of work.

So, I’m having a relatively quiet life, getting things done gradually. Which is fine. The atmosphere around here is good – I’ve had numerous conversations with people in the marina. Otherwise, I’ve been walking quite a lot and reading a lot too. So it’s been a pleasant enough interlude, and then I’ll be back next Monday at Riverside Drive, much more convenient for all the facilities that the city centre offers. I did go in by car last Friday, with Ian and Laura, so got a few things needed then, plus we had lunch in a pretty good Greek restaurant. That made a change!