Wellington and North

Ken arrived back after having had -30C temperatures but having had a wonderful visit with Calgary family for three weeks.
He enjoyed meeting Grace our newest Calgary family member—soon to be passed by her new brother/sister due in June. Grace is a very happy baby who enjoyed Papa’s visit as did her mom and dad. While Ken was there Aaron finally was accepted to the Calgary Police Dept. which is has been his dream so celebrations were had by all. He starts his training on March 21st so we are very happy for him.
They are excited about the new baby and Ashley is looking very pregnant.
Amy and Rob and family are also doing well and enjoyed Papa’s visit.
Alora in grade 11—wow 16 years old and 5 11 tall!! Isaac continues to be the master of the Lego building competitions and is almost as tall as Amy and soon to be taller than Papa. Amy is doing well in her nursing course and is almost half way through. It has been a tough slog for the family as they do the perpetual juggling act but the end is in sight and they will reap the rewards.
Mike was there for a short time in between field trips. He is enjoying his job and condo and is playing the dating game—hopefully he will find “the one” in the not too distant future. We are hoping he will join us in the next year or so in our travels.
Meanwhile I remained on the boat in Wellington moored close to my family.
Kristen and Kyle have settled quickly and the kids are in Kindy. Kyle got a contract job in 8 days and is already being interviewed for permanent jobs with more responsibility. They are renting a house close to a beach, with a pile of trendy shops and restaurants and are 15 minutes from downtown Wellington. They may move to live on higher ground as Kristen is spooked by the Christchurch earthquake and later the Tokyo one. Wellington is sitting on a huge fault and they are predicting “the big one” in the not too distant future. Within 500 years that is!! If it comes with a tsunami they would be washed away. They are enjoying this beautiful city and I hope the weather does not continue to be too nice or they will never return to Canada.
We had been having wonderful summer weather until Ken came back when it turned windy and cold---I no longer take responsibility for the weather which I have been blamed for for years. Fortunately it settled and once again has become sunny and warm.
We finished off the boat projects now having solved the alternator issue and the freezer is working again. The engines have got new filters and a new main bearing seal.
We had a last minute flurry of dinners with family and friends. Ken had brought back the DVD of Canada’s Olympic hockey games where both the men and women won gold. Harvey watched the men’s game with Ken and I think by the end could follow the puck.
We have developed an amazing social network in Wellington, it our 3rd summer now and we really feel comfortable here.
Dentists and doctors were visited and we now headed once again out of Wellington harbour to sail up the east coast of NZ to Auckland.
Once again Cook Strait performed for us and we had 30knots of northerlies which died as we got east.
We headed up the coast with little wind motoring and motor sailing when we could. We received the tsunami warning as we headed north—ironically last time we headed north from Wellington we had the tsunami warning from the earthquake in Chile; sadly this one was for the earthquake in Japan which was even more horrific.
The safest place for a boat to be is actually at sea but we thank all of you for your concern. As we travelled past Gisbourne we picked up cell coverage and had numerous messages from concerned friends. Our strange lifestyle perplexes most people and they have no idea where we are or how such things will affect us. Just for the record when we do these passages we do not anchor nightly and continue sailing all day and night with one or the other of us “on watch”. We also travel with a VHF radio on and get regular updates on weather and any other relevant issues.
We had been having problems with our port engine which was vibrating badly and blowing out smoke. This did resolve itself as it probably had some air trapped when the filter was replaced. However, when Ken went down to check the other engine he found that the new seal was leaking and we had lost about ¼ of our oil. The belt had broken as well so it was not making power and the raw water pump was dripping!! So much for leaving Wellington with everything in good working order!!
Ken replaced the belt and we do have a spare pump on the boat but Phil, our mechanic from Wellington has offered to drive to Tauranga to replace the seal.
We continued motor sailing up the coast and decided to go the extra 18 miles to the Ranfurly Banks, the renowned fishing spot off East Cape. The weather which is often blustery had prevented us going there last year. This year however the winds were calm and we managed to get there early morning just as the tide was slack.
Wow, I caught a big blue cod and a big snapper and Ken caught a big kingfish, all in the space of an hour. We saw schools of fish on the surface and I saw a huge grouper chasing them. It was amazing, we have never seen as many fish in one spot. It made up for all of the fuel we had had to burn with the motor sailing on our trip as I am sure it would have cost many hundreds of dollars to have paid to come out here. It is very remote.
As Ken threw the entrails over the side the battle was on between the gulls and several enormous albatrosses—incredible.
As we turned to finish rounding the Cape to go to Mount Manganui we picked up favourable winds and were able to sail at 6 knots with no engine running—perhaps our luck has changed.
Another slow night but finally we made it in to Mount Manganui where Bruce and Alene are waiting for us to share a fish and chip dinner tonight.
Phil the mechanic will be here in the morning and we can hopefully be on our way with no immediate issues in a couple of days.