New Zealand......so long, it's been GREAT to know you.....

"There is nothing  --  absolutely nothing  --  half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.  In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter.  Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it.  Whether you get away, or whether you don't;  whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular;  and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

-  Spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows, a children's book by Kenneth Grahame


Well, it's been quite a hectic past couple of months (sorry for lack of photos, just hasn't been time!!!).  We arrived back to New Zealand from Australia in March, to find all was good aboard Bravo, much as we'd left her.  Felt like a castle after living in the rooftop tent atop Tojo for the previous 9 months in Oz !!!  We figured just a few projects to wrap up in the boatyard, and we'd be good to splash and do a bit of coastal cruising around NZ.  Funny how it happens, though.....one project seemed to lead to another, we enjoyed the camaraderie of friends in the boatyard, and the next thing we knew, it was early May.  The southern winter is now nearly upon us, and it's nearing our time to depart this fantastic country.

Heading back to the water

So we launched one lovely autumn afternoon, waited for the tide to rise sufficiently, and slowly made our way in the fading light to the Whangarei's Town Basin Marina.  Figured just a bit of shakedown of systems on our complex (perhaps overly so) little starship, and we'd be waiting for a weather window to depart for Vanuatu.










Alas, we were quickly reminded once again that boats are happiest when in the water.  Bravo had been on the hard for nearly 2 years, (save a 2 week romp in the Bay of Islands) and the testing of several systems requires that we be afloat.  Water-cooled refrigeration compressors, generator, watermaker (desalinization machine) re-plumbing and pump, engine cooling, lithium battery system tweaking and monitoring, start battery charging system, even rewiring the running lights would all now clamor "me next" as the Bravo crew engaged in a daunting game of system Whack-a-mole.  Seemed as soon as we'd fix one issue (oh, say, tearing out the entire refrigeration system and installing a whole new one when the old Glacier Bay system unexpectedly failed us.....an expensive and several day long project), another would take it's place demanding attention.  We couldn't get the time, as the rest of the cruising yachts were doing around us, to simply work on voyage preparation.  Rigging, charting and route planning, stowing gear, provisioning of food, spare parts, and basic maintenance tasks like filter, oil, and coolant changes would all have to wait.  And this with our 2 year T.I.E. (Temporary Import Entry) expiring on May 31 (already extended for 6 months due to Cindi's accident).  (Means either take the boat out of the country, or pay the taxes and duties to officially "import" her into NZ.......$31K in Bravo's case.......Ruh-Ro).   Stressful?????  You betcha.

Bravo tugging at the docklines to head back to sea

We missed a major weather window for departure about a week ago.  Twenty boats from Whangarei and over FIFTY from Opua up north left for the tropics last Saturday.  Customs had 'em stacked up like cordwood waiting to clear out.  But at last earlier this week it was time for us to take another baby step.  We sadly bid our goodbyes to many friends in the Whangarei area, and turned Bravo down river for the two hour motor to Marsden Cove marina.  All systems were working beautifully, and we tucked into our slip here at Marsden with a bit of a feeling of melancholy, but also a sense of accomplishment of a major refit and refurbishment of our home.  A boat is always a work in progress.....there's always "The List".  But Bravo's never been better, and knock-on-wood, is ready to go voyaging again.  Hopefully the same can be said for her crew, who are feeling a bit rusty in the ways of the sea!!!

Leaving New Zealand is proving to be quite emotional.  With the exception of our 6 months in Fiji and 9 months spent recently in Australia, NZ has been our home for the past 4 years, one of the longest times that either of us have spent anywhere in our 60+ years.  We've done a fair bit of exploring, including a couple of trips down to the south island, some great hiking, wonderful opportunities for photography, and, yes, a huge amount of boat work.  We've faced some really trying times here, especially around Cindi's injuries (which have fully healed at last!!!!!).  But most of all, we've had a great time getting to know the Kiwi people.  We've made several close friends here, and have found the people of this small island nation to be some of the most down-to-earth, capable, and easy going folks anywhere.  Frequent calls of "git 'er done", "she'll be right, mate", and "if man can build it, man can fix it" kept our spirits up when they sagged a bit.  We can't say when, but we're sure NZ will have a place in our future.

But for now, we're sitting in Marsden Cove marina, waiting for our weather window for the 7-8 day passage to Vanuatu.  The low pressure systems just keep sweeping across NZ from the Tasman Sea.  Although it's raining donkeys and blowing stink outside right now, it looks like we may get a window to depart tomorrow.  Will be wonderful to be at sea again, especially without the constant internet reminders of the shameful shitstorm underway in the US, led by the SCROTUS and his slimy cronies.

The plan at this moment is to spend the next 3-4 months in Vanuatu, then a month or so in New Caledonia, before sailing down to Australia and exploring until around June 2018.  After that?  Stay tuned!!!

We'll try to post to this blog while at sea via ham radio email.  You can hopefully also follow our progress by checking in at        www.yit.co.nz   do a search for BRAVO

Cheers, mates.......

When you get a bunch of lemons.......

it's time for an icy cold lemonade!!!


Wow, hard to believe a half a year has passed since the last blog post.....Once again, I'd ask indulgence from you, dear loyal readers, but I can hardly blame all of you for long ago abandoning this ship!!!!  Nonetheless, I do see that the blog still gets several hits a day, so at least someone must be out there looking for an update!!! 

So here's what the Bravo crew has been up to.......and where it's heading.......

Happy Thanksgiving crowd!!!

In the last post we mentioned that we were heading back to the US for Thanksgiving. And yes, that happened.....the usual annual fest at the Hawkens Frog Dog Farm in Anacortes was wonderful as always. And it was terrific to see other friends, mates, and family from the Seattle area as well.


But one thing wasn't quite so terrific on this visit. Cindi had been continually bothered by pain in her left wrist, the one that she broke in the fall 6 months earlier. While in Seattle we decided to see an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hands and wrists. He took one look at her wrist, quickly measured angles, and confirmed that she needed full surgery. Rebreak the bone (which had set at a bad angle), do a bone graft w/ a putty of cadaever bone and her own stem cells harvested from her hip, slap on a titanium plate with 10 screws, sew her up and she'd be right as rain!

Didn't seem to be any other options, so she went ahead with the surgery.  Afterwards, we flew back to New Zealand, and she has been a physical therapy fanatic ever since.  We go to the gym every day, and she's been doing 3x daily wrist exercises.  She's even been wearing an electronic gizmo, a "bone growth stimulator", which keeps zapping her wrist, 24/7, with electric currents through electrodes.  Seems a bit like snake oil, kind of like strapping a magnet to your arm, but what is there to lose, and perhaps it will help. 

Unfortunately, on x-rays taken 6 months after the surgery, the damned wrist didn't look like it was healing. The doc in Seattle was useless as tits on the proverbial boar, saying that "his screws" appeared to be holding and "until it hurts, you should be fine with sailing this summer.....and if it starts to hurt, it means the screws are pulling out, and you should come in for more surgery!!!)   Meaning the Seattle summer sailing the light winds in the San Juan Islands near Seattle, not dealing with offshore weather as we voyaged next to Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Palau, none of which are at all famous as Centers of Orthopaedic Excellence.

It seemed like a second opinion was called for.  We found a terrific doc in Auckland, another hand/wrist orthopod, but an avid sailor and kayaker as well.  He was down to earth, frank and open, and not at all of the "holier than thou" school of medicine of which it seems most US surgeons are enthusiastic alumni.  Mr. Foster (that's right, MR., not DR.; even the sign on his office lists him this way!  No white coats here) agreed that the wrist x-rays showed little sign of healing.  But he felt that a CT scan might show better resolution of what could be shadowed by adjacent tendons and the other arm bone.  He got us right into imaging, and within an hour we were back in his office to review the digital slices.  It was more promising, as we could now see threads of calcification starting to bridge the gap!!!  Fantastic!!!  We are now much more hopeful that with time, this may yet heal without another surgery!!!

But our 1 year extension to our New Zealand visas, granted due to the accident, expire in mid June. And the post-cyclone cruising season is upon us, with most boats already departed to the tropics. We don't feel that it would be a really smart idea to risk rebreaking the weakened bone in a fall aboard, especially hundreds of miles at sea.

THE NEW PLAN

So, where does that leave us?  

Well, remember that pitcher of lemonade??  We've decided that rather than risking the wrist with passagemaking, especially in remote regions, to take a new direction for adventure.....  After our current 2 week sea trial cruising the Bay of Islands of northern New Zealand, we'll store Bravo back on the hard in NZ (in the same boatyard that we've lived for the past 1-1/2 years!!!) and fly on June 5 to Melbourne, Australia.  Stop in and visit former cruising mates Deb and Don of s/v Buena Vista.  

We had originally fantasized about finding a suitable off road Unimog like this bad boy:

These rascals are the holy grail in the subculture of international off-road adventurers, but they're just a bit (like $200,000) over our budget.

Instead, we've found and purchased an old beast of a Toyota LandCruiser, a grizzled outback veteran fully equipped for stream crossings, rock hopping, and desert storm, and with a roof rack and a roof top tent, we'll take advantage of the southern winter (the dry season in northern Oz) and head out to explore the Australian desert and outback for the next several months.  Searching for Crocodile Dundee!!!  What could possibly go wrong?????   Stay tuned.....


Our 2 year permit to keep Bravo in NZ expires in November, at which time she must either leave the country, or be officially imported, paying many thousands of $ in tax and fees.  Not good. 

The plan is to leave our truck in Oz in October, and fly back to NZ.  Cindi will get new scans, and assuming all is good, we will sail Bravo over to Australia.  Possibly via New Caledonia. Put her in a marina there, and continue to explore by land until roughly April, when we'll sell the truck (original owner wants to buy her back!!!), jump back on Bravo, and explore the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef, before departing Oz in early June, likely for Indonesia and SE Asia.

So that's been the change in plans. The pitcher of lemonade, if you will.......It's been a frustrating and disappointing last year and a half, as we now watch the international cruising fleet depart without us from New Zealand for the second time. But we're excited about the new Oz adventure in front of us to explore some of the really remote regions of the Australian outback, Tasmania, and the inland deserts for the next year, before resuming our water borne lifestyle once again.  Our 1 year visas for Australia have just been approved, so we'll be good to go in about 2 weeks!!!


PAST 6 MONTHS

What have we been up to for the past 6 months, anyway, besides dealing with Cindi's recovery?  Well, for one thing, Bravo's projects continued to take up most of our time.  Now this next bit may get a bit.......ummmmmmm.......ok, BORING for you non-geek types who have managed to read this far.  Sorry 'bout that, but it's what we do when not out cruising.  

Electrical:  The lithium battery project proved to be a challenge.  Working with electrician Scott, we designed and installed what we think is a state-of-the-art lithium battery bank.  As we learned, changing over from traditional lead acid batteries is not simply swapping like-for-like.....rather it required a full rethink of all systems even remotely related to batteries and their charging, monitoring, and use.  We installed a BMS (Battery Management System) more typically used for electric vehicles.  It sends the 12 individual cell parameters (temp and voltage) to a computer brain, which monitors and can shut down either charging or loads via large relays to ensure the safety of both the batteries and the boat.  It reads out via Bluetooth all of the battery info to an Android phone app.  Sweet as!  If anyone has questions re: the installation in more detail, feel free to email for the good, bad, and the ugly.

One of three modules of 4 cells, w/ cell monitors attached

Testing and programming each module before installing

Getting all of this to work properly was not for the faint of heart.  Due to firmware and software growing pain issues (the system is designed and manufactured by some genuinely bright engineers who happen to be in Lithuania) it took a while for all of the components to play nicely together in the same sandbox.  New voltage regulation and battery capacity monitoring was required.  Some systems need work arounds to deal with the different voltages and charging algorthms.  But, knock-on-wood, things seem to be working very well at this point, and we're really enjoying the benefits of the lithium world, mainly amazingly fast charging, and deep level of allowable discharge.  We can now utilize approximately 80% of our 600 amp hours, instead of the 35-50% we were able to use before.  Also, the batteries stay at approximately 13.2 volts for most of their discharge cycle, which makes all electronics and motors very happy.




Other projects we've recently completed include:

• New navigation station
• New B&G instruments, including forward scanning sonar
• New VHF radios and antennas
• New wifi router and hi-gain antenna
• New upholstery, both interior and cockpit cushions
• New mainsail and yankee headsail
• New roller furler for the staysail
• New prop shaft, cutless bearings, and PSS seal
• Reinstall the rebuilt rudder
• New stereo (this is an important one!!!)
• New dodger and bimini
• New series drogue and attachment chainplates

All projects have proven to be great successes, albeit not without a couple of teething pains discovered on sea trials over the past couple of weeks.  More on the sea trials in subsequent blog post(s).

In an effort to quickly get us caught up and back into the blogging mode, here are just a few vignettes of the past 6 months.....

Other than boat projects, we've enjoyed our further explorations of NZ's north island.  

We've had a couple of house sitting gigs for kiwi friends away on holidays.  Great opportunity to get out of the boatyard life for a while.  Both were on small farms, so we got a taste of cattle, sheep, donkey, and chicken husbandry (do you Americans remember the TV show "Green Acres".....thought so.....) as well as looking after two great labrador retrievers.  Good fun!












We never grew tired of the constantly changing view from Bridgette and Dave's deck.....

New Years Eve in Auckland with mates Graham and Diane from s/v Maunie

Steak and prawns on the barbie.....hard to go wrong!

Graham shows all symptoms of a successful New Years Eve celebration!

Cruising the Bay of Islands, new sails flying!  (photos of Bravo courtesy of s/v Maunie)

This country of New Zealand and her people are special indeed.  We feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the past couple of years here.

"Here comes the sun, little darlin' "

Apologies to the Beatles, but it does feel great to feel spring blooming here in New Zealand.  Days are long, and the longer "fine spells" are welcome after the winter doldrums.

Life goes on in a rainy boatyard.....not always so glamorous!!!

It's hard to believe it's been 3 months since the last post, but life really has felt a bit like the Kiwi version of Bill Murray's Groundhog Day.  The days blend into weeks and then into months, w/ a fairly regular routine....We're still out of the water, and living in the boatyard.  So the projects continue....boat work till the afternoon, then off to the gym, groceries, dinner and a movie.....repeat....

Cindi's recovery has gone reasonably well.  She continues with her excellent physical therapist, undergoing all types of manipulations and exercises, including acupuncture for both the back (helps heaps) and arm (ummmm...not as much).  The back is much better.  Her arm break didn't set quite correctly, so she's looking into options.  Possibly see a surgeon when we're back in Seattle for Thanksgiving to look into arthroscopic possibilities.

Rugby:  ALL BLACKS, Baby!!!  It's been rugby fever here in NZ, as the All Blacks won the World Cup for the 2nd time in a row (held every 4 years).  In the pub for the final game by 4:30 am to get a seat for the 5am start.  Great game, great outcome for NZ.  A real sense of pride for a little country of 4 million to win an international event like this. Richie McCaw and the boys got the job done in style!!!







Boat projects have grown as we take advantage of our year off in NZ, and the great exchange rate to get work done.  Here's the update (sorry, may be dull, but it's what the Bravo's do these days!!!)

Propeller shaft:  While repacking the stuffing box (important bit that keeps the sea water out of the boat, a good thing), we noticed a fair bit of corrosion of the shaft under the packing, a bad thing.  When stainless steel is wet without oxygen, it is prone to crevice corrosion which can extend deep.  Apparently we've been hauled out of the water so long, with water trapped in the stuffing box but not circulating, that it was the perfect breeding ground for this sort of thing.

Calling in a trusted mechanic for a look, he took a quick glance and right away said "I sure as hell wouldn't trust that thing to go to sea"!!!  Not a good thing.  So we needed a new shaft (1.5" diameter by about 9' long), new cutless bearings, and a new dripless shaft seal.  Done!

Rudder:  While working on the prop shaft, we spent a lot of time at Bravo's tail end.  Looking at the rudder one day we noticed a lot of hairline cracks on just the port side.  Grinding off all of the antifouling paint didn't give us a clue.

It ain't pretty work!!! 

Waddaya think.....remember "Back to the Future???

Not sure what the deal was, but it couldn't be good.  A rudder is not something you want to fail when it's blowing like stink in a big sea, which, of course, is when it most likely would!!!  So we decided to remove the rudder and do a bit of exploratory surgery.  Not an easy job.

The rudder lives below our bunk.  So the first thing to do was remove the bed to access the top of the rudder shaft.  Then all of the steering systems needed to be removed before Mr. Rudder would drop down.

Finally, using the jack out of our van, (aka Dirt Bravo) we lowered the beast to the ground.  Inspection proved really puzzling.

Fred Flintstone rudder repairs underway.  See the bog depth on the right.

The port side, with the cracks, had been faired with up to about 1/2" of bog (hard putty used to smooth the fiberglass).  Why?  And why none on the starboard side?  It looked like it had been there since new, over 30 years ago, but hard to say.  And why was it cracking now?  A fiberglass rudder typically has a stainless steel internal frame to transfer the steering loads from the shaft to the rudder blade.  Was this stainless steel giving us it's last gasp??   Do we need a new rudder?????   Ughhhhh.....


We chipped away the excess bog to figure things out.  It took Adam a few days of chiseling, at the Fred Flintstone Academy of Rudder Technology (fFART).  Then we drilled a bunch of holes into the rudder to figure out what the internal condition looked like.  The stainless steel looked ok, but there were some large voids where there would ordinarily be a rigid foam core.  WTF???

The only thing we can think of is that the port side of the rudder was facing the sun for the whole summer. With the black bottom paint it did get very hot, every day.  Perhaps the expansion/contraction of the thick bog finally did it in, causing the cracking.  Until we get a better explanation, that's our story and we're sticking to it!!!

Working with trusted shipwright Kris Dyer, veteran of the builds of the last two Kiwi America's Cup boats, we decided to fill the rudder with expanding epoxy foam, reglass the whole shebang, and call it good enough.  Hopefully this will be the right call!!!

Pencil lines show extent of voids that we probed with a wire

Propped up and ready for foaming

Kris pouring in one of many foam batches

Foam fully filling all the voids

4 layers of biaxial glass all around

Baking the whole rudder in makeshift autoclave to post cure the epoxy

After baking the rudder for about 8 hours (only burned up 1 space heater, and you can see the red water bucket in the background "just in case"!!!) we've been busily fairing both sides.  It's getting very smooth, so we may be ready for a trial fit tomorrow.

Planning the new sail

Other projects include new sails by sailmaker Dave Parr w/ Caliber Sails.  He built our new genoa this past season while we were in Fiji (measured before we left), and now we're having him build a new main, as our old one, after 12 years and MANY miles, didn't look like it had too many ocean miles remaining.

The fabric is plotted by the computer onto the fabric, ready for cutting

Coming together

We're also building a new nav station, as the old one was getting badly cut up over the years by the changing electronics.  The new panel will neaten things up a lot.  Cindi the varnish queen has been hard at work in the shed that we've commandeered, with both sewing and varnish projects.  And we're getting all new upholstery made for both the interior and cockpit.  Bravo's definitely stylin' these days!!!   Summer has finally arrived, it's TIME TO GO SAILING!!!

Another barrel of IPA ready for bottling!!!

We're now off to Seattle for our annual 3 week visit, then be back to Whangarei in early December.  With any luck we'll finish up the projects and be back in the water before Christmas.  Plan is to cruise around New Zealand until May.....stay tuned!