Once we arrived on beautiful Barrier Island, we realised there was a rat on board. Horror! We have read stories of rats or mice on board yachts that ended up costing the owners thousands. They can chew the electrics, the fuel pipes, the water pipes. They can be extremely difficult to catch, and if one resorts to using pellets, the carcass often impossible to find will smell for months to come.
We could hear the beast chewing away and scratching all night. In
the morning we found chewed apple and sunflower seeds. We went to the small
general store but they didn’t sell rattraps. Fortunately, the owner gave us his
own trap, which we set that night. We were lucky and the rat (a big one)
wasn’t.
Mike, our sailor friend said: if there is
one there is two. But so far we haven’t seen any further signs.
What a great moment to round up Cape Brett,
our last destination in New Zealand!! It seems we had been thinking of this as
the furthest away point in New Zealand, and here we are.
It is beautiful here, and warm, and easy. We had storm force winds
(that’s peaking 50 knots or more) that lasted five days, rarely dropping below
30knots so we couldn’t get off Dingo. But the wind and rain were warm and it felt
so easy compared to down south. Plus our
riding sail was the envy of the other 8 boats in the bay as they sheared from
side to side endlessly while Dingo sat quiet as a lamb. Rejane
After a few days of cruising the southern
coves and islands of BOI we headed to KeriKeri on the northern part for Easter
and were told the bay we had just left had 40 boats in it that night. It’s quite a change to see so many boats and
we have managed to meet some old acquaintances (Eelco and Mesale of My Lady who we last met in Dover Tasmania)
and new ones Kathleen and Donald of Valhalla.
We then hired a car and went to Auckland to stay with Peter and Kate
of MV Gunner who we had met in Fjorland,
and also to catch up with Rejane’s old mates from Quebec who were over for a
holiday. Austin and Huguette had first met Rejane as students at her riding
school. We took the ferry to Waiheke island where we tramped, ate and caught
up. Austin admired the millionaire architecture on the headlands and, once back
in town, the super yachts in the docks. |
| Daniel, the new crew |
It was then time for us to pick up our crew
from the airport. Daniel is our neighbour from Bundagen and, tempted by tales
of monster surf breaks in New Caledonia, had signed up to crew. His plane
arrived at midnight so it was a sleepy crew that boarded Dingo the next day.
Now after five days shake down cruise we
are poised to check out of NZ, tomorrow sharpish and head out for the 900 nautical
miles to New Cal…….. Jim
PS. 29th April, just arrived to
Noumea after 7½ days at sea. First half of the trip was on a beam reach on a
steady easterly (just great!), then some motoring on calm seas before finishing
with a following southeasterly which had us steer by hand all through the dark
cloudy and wet last night. Tired but happy we have arrived in Noumea.
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| Austin et Rejane |
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| beer tree |
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