Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Journal Entry January 18, 2007 - “Get your tongue out of my ear mate…”

Author Scott

They say sailing around the world is really all about fixing your boat in exotic places. This past month has sure lived up to this viewpoint. We have settled into serious project management trying to get all of our final projects completed prior to leaving New Zealand. Our days start around 0730 as we try to drag our carcasses from below deck to meet the boat contractor(s) of the day. Once they arrive they make themselves at home removing our treasures from lockers, lying tools around the boat, and generally creating chaos aboard starship. Yacht tradesmen seem to have a psychic link to predict when the other tradesmen (who are usually missing in action already) will show up out of the blue, creating a impromptu work party, with each of the workers dancing to stay out of each other’s way while they issue taunting insults to each other. The other day we had two workers squeezing through the hatch to the engine room, ribbing each other about who had whose tongue in whose ear… The days are full of supervision, decisions made on the fly, and quality management, leaving us exhausted by noon.

Around 1630 the workers depart and Pam and I start the process of post nuclear cleanup, just so we can have the boat tidy for the next day’s onslaught of worker cyclones. When we aren’t managing boat work we have been trying to sell items on Trade Me, New Zealand’s version of Ebay. So far so good, not only are we downsizing all of our extra gear, but we will have our PhD in Kiwi‘s shipping techniques before our departure.

We have also had a few special events in recent days. First, there was the Intergalactic Holiday of Pam’s 45th birthday (can you believe she is a full five years OLDER than me). We were fortunate to have a visit from our friend Gill who we meet in Nuku Hiva last year. Gill is a Kiwi (now living in Utah) and she was visiting New Zealand. We had a nice visit which included our indoctrination to the experience of eating the finer quality of meat pies that are consumed by the truck loads in New Zealand. When Gill found out that we did not like meat pies she was shocked and determined to introduce us to the genuine savory pies loved throughout the county. We found adequate specimens at an Pahia bakery and had a lovely picnic lunch grazing on steak and cheese pies in the grass – mooooooo. Gill also introduced us to lime milkshake, another Kiwi specialty. I like the lime and Pam is not too keen.

Finally, the other headline news event in our lives is the addition of two kittens that have turned up and captivated the entire marina. Christine and Phantom (both female) are gray tabbies and I must admit they are really cute. Pam has been known to spend hours each day with the kitties. If Pam didn’t have a fear of kitty overboard I am sure we would be making our first ark acquisition. Otherwise, life has fallen into a nice cruiser routine. We have our Tuesday night cruiser dinner at Reva’s, Sunday BBQs, and many new and old friends to talk with about sea toilets and the best way to keep a cabbage fresh for a few more precious days.

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