May 2023

Date: May 2023

Position: Whangarei, New Zealand

Captain Bonzo here with an update from Ari B!  For those of you who don’t know me, I am the Captain of Ari B, a multitalented stuffed dog, that speaks 5 languages, has sailed half way round the world and barks orders. I also write the newsletters for Alex and Carla.

So, for the last 18 months, we have been reduced to work, work and more work, but at the same time a lot of friendly interaction with the local community – that’s why we travel – and it was an interesting change from our “normal” cruising live, which is intensely filled with other people doing what we are doing – and that’s great! What is even greater, as we realised in Fiji, is to be immersed in a circle of local friends and be treated as a local friend. Priceless. We became members of a wine club organised by Christine Bradley and enjoyed some lovely evening at various members houses, and wine tasting trips to local vineyards. Thank you to all the fabulous friends we have made for making us feel so welcome – you know who you are!!

In the meantime, we completed the seemingly endless task of refitting Ari B, and for the ones interested, let me tell you, that the list of items not touched is MUCH shorter than the list of jobs taken on. We have a new underwater ship, new paintjob, new galley, everything revarnished, bathrooms refurbished, new taps, soft furnishings to name but a few things. And then the things you don’t see: new lithium battery installation, new solar, engine and generator overhaul, new watermaker hydraulic hoses, chainplate inspection, bilge repaint… the list goes on. We’ll leave it at that, but it nearly broke us - in more than one way. The team at Norsand Boatyard were fantastic and did a fabulous job. Extra special thanks to Peter Palmer for out underwater ship and Aaron Wilkinson for the hull respray. There are some photos on the website.

BUT, here we go – after 18 months ashore we launch – much to the trepidation of the crew – over 100 underwater connections have been redone. How many leaks will we have?? Launch day comes, the crew is nervous, but only has to contend with a leaking speed log, which was replaced in short order and after anxiously checking the whole boat back to front at least 6 times, we are considered watertight, start the engine and leave the slipway – what a feeling!!

We headed out into the bay to spend a couple of days in the water, test systems, run the water-maker (also totally rebuilt) and make sure everything works and after 36 hours in the water we find a tiny leak – about a litre worth of water, but it entered through the stern gear past the propshaft (interestingly, that was an area we actually didn’t do any work on…) – and regardless of the amount, no one was prepared to tolerate it. So we had to lift back out. First we had to find someone who haul us. Although Norsand was out first choice, there are tide restriction and they are also super busy so we had to find another yard. After phoning round all options, we had no choice, there was only one yard who could lift us the next day.

So, out we came again, only to find that the lifting straps had managed to scratch and damage our brand-new underwater coating. Well, the yard fixed it, but it meant we had to stay on the dry for an extra 5 days to allow it to dry.

With extra care on the straps we then lifted back in to continue our sea trials, only to find a deep scratch on our brand-new paint job a couple of weeks later. It was hidden by a fender. Unbelievably, the yard had managed to damage all of our brand-new exterior and Alex’s scream when he saw it was heard in all of the town! This would never have happened at Norsand. Kevin and his slipway team are brilliant. Fortunately Aaron, who had done a fantastic job painting our boat agreed to come and fix it while we were in the water, so 4 days later we were scratch free, but what a palaver!

We then moved into the town basin marina in the town centre to get the boat ready for extended cruising and sell our car, only to find it with smashed windows and damaged locks one morning. Annoyingly only 3 days before we wanted to put it up for sale. The repairs will take time, and the first weather window that seems to present itself at the end of this week will be missed due to the car issue.

Feels like someone doesn’t want us to leave and to top it off, it’s been raining for 2 weeks pretty non stop. Grmpf.

In any case, once we are able to leave, the plan is to sail to Tonga via the famous Minerva reef, an anchorage in a reef in the middle of the ocean without any land. Sounds pretty cool and Carla is excited as the lobster hunting there appears to be very good 😊

Some other exciting news is that we now have a Starlink dish that Alex has 'modified' so it fits nicely onto the post where we used to have the wind generator installed. That means we will have full internet whilst at sea!

So once again our deepest thanks to all you lovely NZ people who have made our stay so special, thank you to Norsand Boatyard (highly recommended) and our deepest gratitude to Christine Bradley, who’s hospitality is one of a kind and made a refit of these proportions possible – we couldn’t have done it without you and Bob’s workshop! And thank you to Matilda and Diesel for taking Carla on regular walks and playing silly buggers with her, and Charlie for nighttime cuddles.

We’ll let you know via facebook when we are heading off so you can track us via our website if you wish https://www.sy-arib.com/track-us, otherwise we will be in touch again from a new country, until then

Ari B out

In Town Basin Marina, Whangarei