Marnie

A fabulous couple of weeks exploring the islands to the north of the Vanuatu group. From Port Vila we visited Havannah Harbour - a mere 20 miles where we had a pleasant time with the chief of the village and his family. Onto Lamen Bay on the island of Epi next where there was reported to be a dugong - a manatee with a different tail shape renowned for his friendly nature. There we met up with Joanne and John aboard Feisty (from Oz) and Bungee, Jill and Sue aboard Bloomers (from NZ). We spent a super few days ashore exploring with them and searching for the dugong who was sighted on many occasions, but alas he didn't make himself available for swimming buddy. The overall purpose of our trip was to go to the Rom ... read more

After one month in Fiji, we have visited the areas of interest and clear out from customs in Lautoka tomorrow. The three day passage from Savusavu took us through the Bligh Sea and the Northern Passage of the Yasawa's Islands and into the first most idyllic, tropical paradise, which we had to ourselves for nearly a week. Heavy plant equipment was sitting on the hillside poised to develop the area with hotels and 50 waterfront properties, so the local chief advised. We had arrived just in time to enjoy the natural beauty of the area. Three boats joined us after a while and on downloading the weather the next morning we saw that the weather coming would be directly out of the north and we wouldn't be protected where we were. We loaded the rowing boat, ... read more

Since our arrival back in Auckland we have occupied much of our time with live music at The Bunker, a folk club venue on Mount Victoria in Devonport, which is near the marina at Bayswater and in Ponsonby, another suburb of Auckland. In addition we've been spending our days at the Auckland Traditional Boatbuilding School where we're finishing off a clinker dinghy. The purchase of the said vessel came about after discussions with our friends John and Judy Salthouse, whose boatyard built Marnie in 1985. Judy's brother, Robert, runs the boatbuilding school at Hobsonville Airfield and on meeting with him he advised that the original dinghy to accompany Marnie was built by Snow Waters, a now deceased local dinghy builder who had been their next door neighbour for many years. Coincidentally, the last dinghy he'd been ... read more

After an eight week roadtrip around the US, we are back to enjoy the height of summer in Auckland. We arrived at 05.15 on 21 February having lost a day in transit. It seemed a lengthy flight from San Francisco but we found Marnie looking pretty good after her time of abandonment at Bayswater Marina. At the very least I thought my first job would be a few coats of varnish, but despite the thin ozone, only touch-ups around the cap rail were needed. The plan is to investigate possibilities of new sails, sail covers, davits, sheets, dinghy and outboard, a paint job and new fridge/freezer. How much of this can be accomplished within three months remains to be seen. If not now, then perhaps when we reach Asia. So, the details of our winter whirlwind ... read more