(posted by Marge)

Land ho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8 and a half days later we're here. Despite some mild setbacks in speed on the last night thanks to the leaky radiator, we slapped a bandaid on her and kept on trucking! We arrived at the entrance to the Brisbane harbor around sunset last night only to realize we had another 40+ miles winding in and out, up and down the harbor/river before we hit the customs dock. Pulled in about 3 in the morning. Its now a little after 7 and the customs officials have already come and gone. Waiting on quarantine and soon Trevor and Alli will be here as well. Got some packing to do here onboard, pick up the rental car, say a very bittersweet goodbye to Dosia, and we're off. Stay tuned into the blog as we attempt to get lost on land and thanks for following us along!

Oh silly me. What does a new radiator cap cost these days? Ten bucks? I wouldn't know. I don't have one on board. I have a used one that came off the exhaust manifold when I first got the boat. I decided to bring it along as a spare. I put it in a ziploc and tucked it away in a hole and there it sat unused for 4 years of sailing. On to the irony...

I'm sitting in the companionway on nightwatch, shift one (8-11pm), watching an episode of "Breaking Bad" on the iPod when I get a big whiff of coolant. "Hmmm...that's odd. We've been motoring for hours and I haven't smelled any coolant before," I said to myself. Having learned that when an odd noise, or vibration, or smell occurs on a boat there's probably something that needs immediate attention, I went on the hunt. Opening the engine room I notice a splatter of green towards the back of the engine. Uh-oh I think, a leaky hose. Access to the major components of the cooling system on Dosia is through the starboard cockpit locker so I closed up the engine room door and headed outside. Upon opening my shiny, newly painted, bright white cockpit locker I was greeted by what looked like a green explosion on top of my battery box immediately beneath the engine's cooling expansion tank. Great. Why is there coolant leaking/spraying out around the cap? Throttle back, engine off. After 13,000 some miles on Dosia, 96 miles from the finish line, a radiator cap that has never given me a single problem decides to bust and my only spare is an older, rusty, slightly less leaky one. It is functioning enough to give me 1500 rpm's with an occasional spit and dribble so I can't complain. But I can sit and wonder how something so small can know exactly the right time to break. We were on schedule to make it into Brisbane mid afternoon tomorrow with plenty of time to check in and get legal before the weekend. Now, at our measly 5 knot pace, we're hoping for a night arrival tomorrow. Boats are freakin hilarious.

(posted by Marge)

Birds have become an intriguing species since I started doing passages. Here we are hundreds and hundreds of miles from any solid piece of land and there they are just flying around. I mean...what the heck are they doing way out here!?! It baffles the ever living tarnation out of me. I can't make the assumption that there's not a whole lot to see on the big open blue cause things are probably totally different from their perspective. I bet if we had the view they did then passages might be a little more interesting. Nonetheless, don't they get tired? Don't they get bored? Aren't there plenty of fish to feed on right next to a coast where they can go take a load off and eat their meal perched on a palm tree? I just don't get it...

Still their company is welcomed as long as they aren't taking a different kind of load off on our boat, if you get what I'm saying. They dive in and out around the sails and before you know it they are as bored watching us as we are watching them and off they go. If only we could communicate, I bet they'd have some pretty intriguing stories to tell...

And on that note, day 6 of mission "Delivery to Trev & Alli" went well. We spent the day enjoying some pretty awesome weather and we can definitely feel the difference in the temperatures between here and New Zealand. I spent the afternoon cutting out recipes from what I like to call "sophisticated and intelligent reading material," otherwise known to Drew as "trashy, celebrity, gossip magazines." Sometimes I wonder whether my love for them is equal to, less than, or far greater than the loathing he feels for them. We are currently in the process of drawing up a bargain deal stating if I am never to purchase another gossip magazine that one day we will in turn purchase a king size bed. Something I desperately want so, naturally, Drew has no interest in having one . A deal must be reached. That IS how you get what you want in a relationship, right?

Drew whipped up a stir fry for dinner last night that was so good it'd make you want to slap somebody. We've had to back our watches and clocks up two hours in order to coincide sunrise and sunset with night watches. Hopefully only 4 more of those as we greet day 7 with 364 miles to go!

(posted by Marge)

You know those times where you sit down to write an email, a blog post, what have you, and just feel like nothing you have to say is going to come out interesting? That's how I felt yesterday. Not a whole lot to tell. The passage continues to go well and we, along with our parents, are grateful. Yesterday we posted our best day yet and from 8 PM Saturday to 8 PM Sunday we covered 167 miles. That's good. Real good. Two great days of sailing have left us in a good position. Granted we keep up speed there is a possibility we may be able to pull in on Friday but lessons learned from all passages prior, you never get your hopes up too much...

Today was the epitome of laziness as we had our first rain of the trip. Cooped up inside for most of the day, I snuggled into my little nook in the pilot berth while Drew vegged out on the couch. We watched several movies in hopes of passing the time and as always, the motion of the boat rocked us gently in and out of quick cat naps. Pre made lasagna did the trick for din din although I haven't felt exceptionally well today so Drew took down most of it. Constant teeth issues continue to plug at me on a daily basis and despite the nagging I try my best to keep it amongst my teeth and not let the annoyance spill out in the form of me taking it out on poor Drew. Another lesson to be learned...procrastination when it comes to your teeth does not in fact pay off in the long run.

As my boat monkey snoozes next to me, I'm watching the GPS, while keeping a lookout on the horizon for any traffic, and we have 520 nautical miles to go, HOPEFULLY, 7 more night watches a piece. We'll keep plugging along!

Many, many months ago I posed this question on the http://www.cruisersforum.com website (I'll link the post as soon as I get to land). Which place do I chose for arrival and which to store the the boat in NZ while we visit the states? I got a lot of great answers, many of which led me to choose Opua as our entry point. Now that I've actually sailed into and out of NZ I feel like I can throw in my own opinion for the upcoming (and rather large I hear) 2010 Pacific Puddle Jump Fleet. I'll be bluntly honest with my opinion and it will hurt a few feelings out there.

Opua is not my favorite place on Earth...that's for sure. For those of you planning on joining the All Points to Opua Rally, I don't recommend it. You arrive in this nice marina and at first, you're feeling great. You check in and go ashore to check out the rally event schedule on to find out that everything costs at least $15. You figure, why not, and go to get some cash only to realize there's no ATM at the marina. No problem. You'll just walk into town and hit the bank. Where's the closest town with a bank? Oh, that would be Paihia...an hour plus hike away. So you settle for a cab and ask the marina office to call one for you. Huh? What'd you say? Twenty bucks each way? But it's only 3 miles down the road!?! So you head back to the boat and turn on the radio for the morning net. You wade through some attempted humor for a few minutes, listen to some guy yell at all the new arrivals for using the wrong VHF frequencies to chat, and then that same guy reads a weather forecast that's already repeated 20 times a day elsewhere on the VHF and loops continuously on WX station 8. A bunch of people call in and thank him for this and you are confused why. After listening to all this, the most awkward radio net in the world, you deduct that the Yachtie Shuttle run by one of the locals is a decent option. It's $6NZ but you go on his schedule and are therefore stuck in town for a few hours even if the only reason you went there was to get some cash. On top of all this, you decide to get a night at the marina to get some internet work done and wash the boat. After paying a premium for the marina (12m slip for me was $33NZ compared to $24 in Whangarei and $16.50 in Kerikeri), you log on to the internet only to find out that 1gb of transfer, enough for a few iTunes songs and to watch 5 youtube videos of your new nephew, costs $45 dollars and the company charging you for this access is owned by NO OTHER THAN THE GUY WHO ORGANIZED THE ALL POINTS TO OPUA RALLY!

My recommendation. Check into Opua and unless you broke something on the way that needs an immediate fix, leave Opua. Anchor out at Russell or behind Motumaire Island off Pahia. Go to the bank, use the internet, hit the store, grab some meals and then go out and see the Bay of Islands. I do have to comment on the few things that made Opua nice. The burgers, the seafood chowder, and the eggs benny at the Marina Cafe are awesome. Bob, the American who works in the most expensive chandlery I've ever seen, Cater Marine, was the super helpful. And Melita, at the Marina Shop, who sold me a liability insurance policy I needed for keeping the boat in a marina, was great. I also have to add the disclaimer that it's only by word of mouth that I heard the guy who organized the rally runs Pacific Wifi. I didn't have time to check my facts on that but will as soon as we get to OZ.

I also have some thoughts on Whangarei, where we ended up storing the boat while we returned to the states for a month. But I'll save those for a later blog post. All in all, my official opinion is this. Don't make set plans to remain in any one place in NZ for the season. There's good cruising to be had and absolutely no reason to sit around on your boat in a marina or at a mooring. If you're only planning to drop the boat off somewhere and travel by land to the South Island or head back home for a few months, anywhere will do. Find the cheapest and stick it there. I would look somewhere like the Kerikeri Marina in Doves Bay, or the marina in Tutukaka, or on the pile moorings at Kissing Point in Whangarei where we kept Dosia. $120NZ/month isn't bad when you're only looking for a parking spot. These places don't offer much in amenities but who cares when you won't be there to enjoy them. Don't fall for the hype!

(posted by Marge)

All's well aboard. We officially went an entire 24 hours without turning on the engine. Guess we found those winds they'd been promising, huh? We averaged a solid 6.5 knots all day yesterday and on my watch last night I woke Drew to see if he wanted to pull in some of the sails because we were doing close to 8.5! We did slow it down a bit which is my preference at night.

Starting to find the rythym that normally comes after three or four days. You get into a pattern with the night watches and stuff and the time just ticks by. I haven't showered in four days though so my hair and underarm's are starting to really bug me. If it stays much the same as it has been for the past 72 hours then hopefully we'll get to take some showers today!

Weather forecast is still looking good for the next four days and by late Monday/early Tuesday we should know for sure what the tail end of our journey is going to be like. About 475 miles away from our current position lies Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs so there is always the option for us to stop there if the weather turns. I always hope that timing wise it works out to pass reefs such as these during the day, just from a safety stand point, and to be able to just truck on by. At that point in the trip, you're more ready to just get it over with than anything.

More tomorrow! Here's to the winds keeping up...

(posted by Marge)

Let's see...we cooked fresh lobster for dinner, had a pleasant convo with a sea turtle about the East Australian Current, and I got a mani/pedi. Oh wait...those were day 2 dreams! A pleasant and calm day at sea, however, so my reality wasn't much to complain about either. We're pluggin' along. Again we sailed under spinnaker all day yesterday averaging anywhere from 5 to 5 1/2 knots. The past two nights it's been as if someone flipped a switch as soon as it got dark and the winds just disappeared. Personally, I enjoy a calm night at sea but no winds means I'm not getting to Australia any faster, thus we have a problem; We motored through it again last night and woke this morning, day 3, to winds from the East that are currently pushing us along at a gratifying 7 knots.

Back to the shelf for me again as I burned through an entire book yesterday. My Sisters Keeper. Complete tear jerker. At sea we can't afford for me to be tearing through our rolls of toilet paper so today perhaps I'll go for something with a bit more humor!

(posted by Marge)

After a gut bomb breakfast of eggs benedict ("eggs benny for breaky" in NZ talk) at the Marina Cafe yesterday morning, we were ready to haul tail. Customs arrived right on time, fueling up was quick and easy, and we were headed out of the Bay of Islands by eleven o'clock. Had a really, really nice day of sailing up the coast of New Zealand under spinnaker. The only hard part about dinner was Drew having to decide which of the pre made meals he wanted. We went with chicken casserole, green beans, and thus, dinner was taken care of. That's my kind of cooking underway! Right before sunset a pod of dolphins came by the play around on the bow a little bit. We were able to get some great video of that and I assured Drew they knew it was our last passage for a while and wanted to make it memorable (I haven't had great luck seeing dolphins throughout our trips).

We rounded the North Cape while on Drew's watch, motor sailed for much of the night as the winds died out when night fell, and are now headed towards the Three Kinds Islands. We'll leave those long behind us in our second day at sea and for hundreds of miles it'll be just us, the water, and any visitors that might pop up along the way!

(posted by Marge)

After nine days at sea we are finally sitting still again. It feels very, very nice. I have officially completed my first 1000+ mile passage. We arrived at the customs dock around 7:30 this morning. I cooked up the last pound of bacon we had on board, as well as the rest of our eggs, as they would have just been confiscated by quarantine otherwise. Confiscated bacon!? There is no room for that phrase anywhere in Drew's vocabulary. He took much pleasure in being able to devour almost the entire pound without me being able to scold him or tell him he had had enough. The quarantine official was very nice, yet very thorough. She got a few goods off of us...some mayo, wild rice, fresh cucumbers & onions. Nothing that can't be replaced very inexpensively. Then it was time for the customs officials as well as the drug and bomb dogs. With a cup of bacon grease sitting on the counter, neither pup seemed too interested in their job at hand! By 9 we were done and by 9:30 we were safely in a slip. Ahh, fresh hot showers...

A quick lunch with our buds Alan & Rina and we're back on board so Drew can get some sleep. He's seen very little in the past 48 hours. Naturally, the last two days of the passage had to give us a little run for our money but we made it. I was tossed across the hull last night by a wave and felt a pop in my knee. A little swollen today but I am still able to walk on it. Hopefully it is just a little sprain or something and nothing major. Give that a few days to rest and then we'll start making some decisions on our route to Whangarei, which is where Dosia will stay while we head home for the holidays! That's all in due time thuogh. Right now...that other couch is looking pretty good...

(posted by Marge)

Had a pretty rough night last night which entailed absolutely no sleep for Drew. Throughout a twelve hour time frame which started about 8 p.m., we only went about 12 miles. Can you say frustrating? The winds shifted, Drew adjusted. As soon as he was adjusted, they'd switch again. He was none too happy when I finally came to about 5:30 this morning. After about seven more hours of the same battle things finally started getting back on track a little after noon today. Although I can't technically see it, I can envision the finish line not far away. We found the angle against these southerly winds we'd been fighting for the past 30 hours and although it's still bumpy, we're glad to be making progress again. 68 more miles to go. One more night, obviously assuming all goes well this evening. I'm gonna go ahead and take the high road on this assumption and say that between the hours of four and six in the morning we will be arriving at the entrance to the Bay of Islands. When our parents break from their daily routines and schedules tomorrow for lunch they will be able to breathe a little easier knowing that we are safe. So will I. New Zealand. Neither of us can even begin to believe it...

# end
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