Lets name this post; Finally!!

We are leaving. The forecast has spoken and the low pressure that has kept us one week too long in Whangarei is now heading off. Same goes for us.
250 kg of food, 90 kg diesel, 1,5 kg worth of tools, 130 litres of water and 150 kg semi-intelligent man is all piled up, stacked away and more than ready to leave.

FIJI; HERE WE COME!
(We hope)

Leaving New Zealand

We are about to leave New Zealand pretty soon. The weather looks like it will clear up enough for us to leave on Sunday.

Finally I'm leaving this country where I've spent the last year of my life. If all goes according to plan I will not be returning for some time; who knows, maybe never. It is not without regret that I leave. I've made a lot of good friends here, and I've met a bunch of interesting people. I've come to enjoy the culture here; nowhere else in the world (except Finland) have I seen people too drunk to start their own vehicles, only to be helped in the procedure by their good friends. I've improved my English greatly while living here; I've learned to include "cool", "sweet" "cheers" and "aye" in even the shortest of sentences. I've enjoyed some great scenery and some not-so-great fish and chips.

All in all I'm glad for the time I've spent here, and it is a bit sad to leave. I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had here. All those drunk nights at the Jeff's Joy campground and the runs down the Rangitaiki River. I'd like to thank The Auckland Uni Canoe Club (AUCC) for that, and for all the other
places we paddled and drank together. I will not forget the close calls on the river or walking out from Jeff's Joy run in pitch black through logging fields for 6 hours because we didn't make it down the river because night fell.

Ed, Owen and Ash: thanks for the trip up Mt. Cook, it was awesome and probably the best view I've ever had. We should meet to climb some other mountains some day! Also thanks to the rest of the people at AURAC!

All the people I've spent time with at Uni; thanks for being entertaining, young and good looking!

ANSA Auckland: We will meet again "home" in Norway, thanks for all the great parties and trips together.

Thanks to Vanessa for being my flatmate my first half year here, and for cooking me great food all that time!

I'll miss all the nights spent in the back of my campervan, but alas; he's gone now, you can probably pay him last respects at Pick-A-Part. Oh, just got sidetracked, well, anyway, thanks to all the people mentioned, and to those I've met along the way, but forgotten to mention!

Cheers!

Skipet

SKIPET

Liberty heter båten vår. Hun er en gammel glassfiber-dame som fyller 50 år i år. Hun er tegnet av Wirth Munroe og bygd I USA I 1959 av Crystaliner. Modellnavnet er Arco 33. Hun er 33 fot, eller 10 meter, lang, største bredde er 3 meter og hun stikker 1,5 meter dypt med senkekjølen oppe, 2,5 meter med kjølen nede. Hun er langkjølt og kutter-rigget, dvs. at vi har mulighet til å ha to forseil oppe samtidig.

Skroget er lagd i massivt glassfiber (ikke noe moderne sandwich-konstruksjon her i gården!) og er 28 mm tykt. Vi har ikke rullefokke-system på forstaget, som er veldig vanlig på moderne båter. Dette betyr at vi må fram på fordekket for å bytte seil, uansett vær. MEN det betyr også at det er én teknisk ting mindre som kan bryte sammen og bli ødelagt på båten.

Seilgarderoben består av, i tillegg til et splitter nytt storseil; genoa (original fra 1959!), jib, yankee, stormfokke og kryssfokke. Vi har også en gennaker som vi forhåpentligvis lærer oss å bruke en dag.

Annet utstyr seile-nerdene kan ha interesse av er 2 CQR anker (25 og 35 pund), et stokkanker, 45 meter ankerkjetting, elektrisk ankerspill, SSB radio, VHF, Yanmar 2 sylindret 18 HK motor (ny i '96), to-blads propell, Monitor vindror, Avon 6manns livflåte, Avon gummijolle, nødpeilesender. Vi har med oss 40 liter ferskvann i en fast tank foran i båten, 115 liter til i 5 plastdunker i aktre lasterom. To av sistnevnte kan kobles på ferskvannssystemet slik at vi vi har på det meste tilgang til 90 liter ferskvann «i krana». Vi har også 40 liter diesel på tank pluss 70 liter til på kanner. Dette er nok diesel til at vi kan gå for motor i ca. 5 dager i strekk.

Liberty har to køyer i forpiggen som kan lages om til en stor V-køye om det er behov. I kabinen kan vi brette ut sofaen til en til stor dobbelseng. Når vi går vakter til havs bruker vi helst stikkøya i kabinene. Matlaginga foregår på en gretten gasskomfyr med to bluss på toppen.

Liberty er en førstegenerasjons glassfiberbåt, og er utrolig solid bygget. Mye av det originale dekksutstyret i bronse er fremdeles der det ble montert for 50 år siden. Senkekjølen er også lagd av bronse. 200 kg. Av det.

Vi har absolutt tiltro til båten vår, og skulle vi bli nødt til å avbryte turen vår på noe tidspunkt er det neppe sannsynlig at det er BÅTENS feil.

THE SHIP

Liberty is our boat. She is an old fibreglass lady who turns 50 this year. Built in the US of A in 1959 she is an Crystaliner production designed by Wirth Munroe, model name Arco 33. She is 33 feet (or 10 metres if you prefer) length over all, beam (width) 3 metres, she draws 1,5 metres with the centerboard up, 2,5 with it down. Furthermore she is long keeled and rigged as a cutter.

The hull is produced in solid fibreglass and is 28 mm thick (!), built as a tank! She is not equipped with a rolling furler, which means we will have to go up on the foredeck to change foresails. However it also means one less thing that can break down. Foresails include genoa (the original one from 1959!), jib, yankee, storm sail and staysail. We also have a gennaker that we hopefully will learn to use someday.

Other equipment the sailing geeks might be interested in includes 2 CQR anchors (25+35 lbs), a fisherman anchor, 45 metres all-chain rode and electric windlass, SSB radio, VHF, Yanmar 2 cylinder, 18 HP engine (new '96), two-blade propeller, Monitor windwane, Avon liferaft, Avon inflatable dinghy, EPIRB. We carry 40 litres of water in a forward tank, 115 more in 5 plastic containers in aft storage, these can be connected to the boat's watersystem so we have, at most, 90 litres of water accesisble «on tap». We also carry 40 litres of diesel plus an additional 70 litres on jerrycans.

Liberty has a big v-berth up front that can be made into two single berths, whatever suits. The cabin settee can be folded out as another big double bed. However at sea when doing watches we tend to use the quarterberth. We also have a grumpy two burner gas-stove with oven that works most of the time.

Being an old lady (Liberty is produced in the infancy of the fireglass boatbuilding techniques) she is incredibly sturdy; lots of the original hardware like cleats and winches are still on in it's all it's original bronze beauty. (The centerboard is made out of 200 kg solid bronze!). She has had an interesting life of which we only know bits; she has spent years cruising the great lakes in the states, the Bahamas, she has been through the Panama Canal and has spent around a dozen years cruising the Pacific Islands.

We have absolute trust in our ship, and should our little trip fail at any stage it is not likely to be caused by the ship letting US down.

COLD

I get out from under my duvet and spare blankets. I put on my T-shirt and shorts. I continue with my woollen beanie, my hoodie and woollen socks. Still cold I pull the hood up over my head. I then fire up the gas stove to make us some breakfast. Egil is still asleep. I stand for a second enjoying the heat from the little blue flame. Morning mist is floating on the river outside the porthole. Winter is coming to New Zealand. Time to leave now.

STOLEN GOODS

We've left West Park Marina four weeks ago. Since Egil's arrival we have filled our time with boat maintenance, boat modifying, general getting-to-know-the-boat and sailing the boat. Actually both of them; we have learned a lot from sailing our dinghy. Now we are anchored up in Hobson Bay right outside of Auckland. Since we have no clue as to what we're doing we're anchored with two CQR anchors and 40 metres of chain. In three metres of water. But its sweet to get out here to the free zone, that close to Auckland centrum. Just to be safe. We soon run out of gas. I take the gas bottle to a petrol station for a refill. Since I'm on foot I ask the attendants if I can leave the bottle and pick it up later as I'm going into town. Seven hours later I return to find the gas bottle gone. Apparantly some guy in a BMW pulled up and said I had sent him to pick up the bottle.

Buy a new gas bottle. We're finally taking some time off from the boat and we're going whitewater kayaking a weekend. Egil gets his chance to see some more of beautiful New Zealand. We're letting out another 10 metres of chain (just to be safe) and paddle our dinghy ashore and leave it under a small bridge. Same place we have left it every day last week. Upon our late return from a great weekend we find our precious dinghy gone!
It's a little past midnight and we are pretty tired. The weekend has been full of physical- and social activities. We have met a lot of interesting people, and especially this old salt that called himself “Captain Morgan” has left the two of us a little worse for wear. But alas, there is no way of returning to the boat, so we spend a miserable
night in the car James has generously lent us so we could get ourselves and the gear home. Off to Warehouse to buy a 99$ childrens play dinghy (Toyworld didn't have any). Our beautiful 10 years old yellow Metzeler dinghy later mysteriously reappears. Someone has tied the deflated version of it to a post on the other side of the bridge. We retrieve the sad remains of our object of great attention and countless hours of repairs for the last month. It
is now clearly FUBAR, or “possibly not repairable within the limitations of ordinary people”. Only one of the pontoons inflate somewhat, the other one has a 10 centimetre cut in it and the floor
leak fast.

WHANGAREI TUNING

Spendingspree and things for free
We came here to Whangarei because a) it's a bit further north in New Zealand and therefore «on the way» for us. b) Lots of people have told us to go here because it is apparently really easy to get «everything» done here, and it's supposed to be plenty of other cruisers you can gather information from.
As we had no dinghy we were forced to check into a marina. There we were quickly dubbed «The Orange Glow» due to our bright orange safety-netting that we've been (very gratefully) sponsored by the Auckland City Council. Thank you Council!

Our slightly more fancy neighbours took well to their new young Norwegian, scruffy and inexperienced cruising colleagues. We had heard lots about the generousity of the cruising community, but what we experienced in that marina was way beyond what we expected! We were showered with freebies from the other boats. As they passed us on their way to the trashbins they always stopped by to ask if we wanted their old boomcover, hatch funnell, solar panel mounts (aka random bits of aluminium tubing), WiFi antenna, their old cockpit cushions, new (!) sailbag etc etc. We got so many more or less useful bits and pieces we couldn't believe it! I guess their generousity might have something to do with our hopelessly inexperienced and dirt-poor appearance.


We arrived with a super-long To-Do list. Included on this list were new batteries (oh my God, the prices!), new solar panel mounts, fixing half a dozen electrical issues, sorting out how and where to stow stuff, fill our diesel-tanks, fill our water-tanks, get a proper solar panel mount and doing The Engine.

This last task ended up taking us almost a week and costing us about 550 $NZ (about et par tusen norske krones). It seemed that the deeper we dug into Good Old Yanmar 2GM20(F), the more stuff we needed to fix, sort out, repair, replace or buy. However now she's running like a dream, and has apparantly accepted all her new parts and fluids.
All the while we were doing boat maintenance we got heaps of information, tips, hints, radio frequencies, software and general help from the other cruisers. They even lent us plenty of tools to do the jobs so we didn't have to struggle with our own (which are limited to three adjustable spanners, 5 screwdrivers (4 philips and one gigantic flat), a multitool, a hacksaw, a hammer and the world's biggest axe (don't ask why, we can't give you an intelligent answer.))
We also took advantage of the vicinity of a supermarket to buy and stow away an amazing amount of supplies.

However yesterday, after 10 days in the marina, our «new» dinghy finally arrived in the mail, and there was no more (at least not a whole lot more) reason for us to stay at the marina. We had a last shower for a while, dropped our moorings and floated down the river to anchor up with the other slumdog cruisers, where we belong.
We are at present discussing whether to stay here until our necessary work is done and the weather breaks, or to carry on to Opua, even further norh, to do the same thing there. We are also disussing whether to abandon our original plan of going to New Caledonia first, or set sail for a a slightly longer first leg, and go to Fiji instead.
All for now, peace out.