Getting Hakura ready for the south sea isles

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Hakura is back in Norsand Boat Yard, Whangarei.

This time to get her ready for a three month sail to Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

What more could there be to do after last year, I hear you say. Unfortunately there are still some jobs to do.

Some are to get Hakura up to Cat 1 safety status as required by the NZ Government for NZ yachts heading offshore.

These jobs include installing two manual bilge pumps, one that can be operated in the cabin and the other from the cockpit. The pumps and their bits are now in though it did involve cutting another hole in Hakura's hull (see photos).

Another area for the Cat 1 was a working SSB radio (long range). I had one that was stuffed so a new one is going in. It will have the ability to send and receive emails while at sea so not getting away from me there. The new radio goes in next week.

Other jobs that needed to be done included servicing the motor, greasing all seven winches (I don't know there were so many bits in one of them and they were really dirty), repacking the stern gland (where the propeller shaft goes through the hull and to say the packing needed replacing is an understatement - no wonder there was always some water in Hakura's bilge), and service the wind vane self steering gear. They are all done now.

Still to do is getting the auto-helm back together and operating. It is almost there except for one small linkage. Hopefully I'll have that on Monday. There is also one seacock that needs work to get it operating.

The next big issue is provisioning Hakura with food and stuff for the trip. There will be lots of tins of tomatoes red kidney beans, chickpeas and other canned veggies. Packs of seaweed rice crackers and peanut butter - Dougie survival food that one. Plus fruit juice, milk and lots of tea. Also need toilet paper, cleaning stuff, sunscreen for a starters.

You might have noticed I have two crew helping me get ready for the leg to Tonga. They are a German couple - Tom and Aileen, who have been working and traveling around NZ for 6 months. They want to sail back to Germany and I am getting them started on their sailing adventure.

They are great to have around and very willing workers when I can find them jobs. I'm so use to just doing it myself. Their english is really good and lots better than some of the texts they have been getting about the van they were selling.

Last weekend we had a fun day of rugby - went to the NZ MAoris v NZ Barbarians game here in Whangarei and then on to a pub to watch the All Blacks play Ireland. They seem to enjoy the games. Aileen did say she enjoyed the soccer crowds in Germany more, though she thought the rugby players where better looking.

Hakura will be back in the water next Thursday and hopefully the following week we will be off to Tonga.

We will be heading straight up to Vava'u the northern part of Tonga to meet up with my older brother and his family.

Oh yes I forgot to say the big fly in the pie is that when I when to register Hakura as a NZ vessel Maritime NZ can back to say she was already registered to some guy who owned her in 1993. I have asked him to cancel that registration so I can do mine. Hopefully he will do his bit this week so mine can go through next week.

Oh well, such is life.

I will do an update just before we leave.

Happy sailing Doug

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Comments

[John]

Going tropo
Looking good Doug - wishing you and the crew fair weather on the blue. Look forward to updates as I do my winter fieldwork around Taupo. Look forward to seeing you in the sunny isles.