Sunday afternoon we went to the Cruising Club for our regular roast – sadly the food wasn’t as good as usual with tough pork, no crackling and miserly amounts of apple sauce. Never mind…. Later on we headed out into Paihia with Karen and Paul to watch some live music at the Thirty 30 bar. We enjoyed being out and about and we had a fun time.
Monday morning I went shopping with Karen into Paihia. Richard stayed on board getting everything out of the cupboards and bilges again in preparation for us to continue with identification of cables. And that was what we did all day….although we did manage to watch a film before we retired for the night.
Tuesday was more of the same. We managed to identify everything apart from a couple which we left in situ. We feel much more confident now that we know where most things lead to and have been labelled – making trouble shooting much easier in future. Late afternoon we headed over to Gigi – Karen and Paul’s 440 Island Packet – and had a wonderful dinner and a really nice evening. Their boat is huge compared to Morphie and absolutely beautifully maintained.
Wednesday morning we received our new panels which had been cut to size – one for the nav station and one for the bulkhead in the aft cabin. Both of these boards had equipment that we had either removed or we wanted to reposition.
So the nav station lost the Iridium Go! unit and the Meteoman barometer – but gained an alarm and switch for using with the Vespa unit; two 12v charging units; one USB to connect the computer to the WIFI bat on the arch; and Richard’s new bluetooth radio (which he is very excited about) and which now means that we have surround-sound when watching films on board.
The bulkhead lost its large Garmin plotter and gained the Iridium Go! and the Meteoman. They do look pretty smart and much less cluttered than before – and the wiring behind is very tidy and labelled. Very pleased with how all this came together.
Thursday we had Hans on board to do the commissioning of the new electronics. He did some soldering of cables for us as we had cut some connectors to get the cables through the tight spaces. He answered a few questions about some spare cables we had puzzled over….and was able to help us identify them. Hans is a great guy although his instructions could be a bit better – he is so familiar with the kit that he forgets some basic stuff sometimes LOL. So we missed a few things but they were easily rectified. And then we flicked the switch and everything worked. Woo hoo!!! We were very pleased that we had managed to do most of this work ourselves with support from Hans. In the afternoon we just lazed around as we both felt pretty tired after all that crawling around in tight spaces….
Friday morning we pulled out all the surplus cables. Amazing at how much stuff we had removed. We also put a mouse line through some tight corners in anticipation of the radar cable being pulled through the mast on Monday…. In preparation Hans took a look and was surprised to find no cable connectors below the mast under the floor in the saloon – the guy who installed the radar just pulled the cables straight through – so it is a good job we don’t have to step the mast as this would have been a real pain in the proverbial.
Surplus cables done we played with our new equipment and familiarised ourselves with the Raymarine plotter and the AIS. We still need to download a few Raymarine apps though so that we can mirror what is on the plotter to the iPad. All exciting stuff. I really like the way the Vesper shows the AIS signals on the iPad….and impressed that it can also do some additional things like an anchor watch with its newly-installed alarm.
In the afternoon we picked up our new dink. We wheeled him to the slip way and I returned to Morphie while Richard rowed him round to our dock.
We have lifted him up onto the arch for now and were delighted by how much lighter he was!! Unfortunately the lifting positions are different – so we need to revisit our system.
We also need to register him (along with all our new electronics) to get the warranties in place but that’s for another day. Later on we took ourselves off to the Cruising Club for a celebratory fish and chip supper washed down with a local Sauvignon Blanc. Very nice!
Saturday morning we awoke to gale-force winds and torrential rain. It was absolutely horrible! So we spent the day tidying cables up and restoring order. We have resurrected the garage so the saloon is clear and we were able to thoroughly clean and polish. After a hard day’s work she came up looking lovely.
This morning Sunday Richard washed the topsides and reinstalled all our furling lines. We have to varnish the rail at some point but have decided that it can wait until later in the season as the wood doesn’t look too bad at the minute. Apart from the new radar and hot water tank we have pretty much finished our immediate boat jobs so will be able to go and explore soon. Woo hoo! Really looking forward to that.
Later on Karen and Paul came over for a late lunch (not a roast today) as they are leaving Opua tonight for another marina further south. This was our farewell for now but we’ll definitely catch up with them at some point later in the season as we move around ourselves. We have enjoyed our time together and we both wished them a good overnight passage.
Bye for now
Jan