Chapter 174: The One Without the Glamour

We’ve tried, I think (I hope) to share the upsides and also the downsides of this whole adventure (debacle) on this blog. Part of the reason is to dissuade anyone else from doing something so obviously foolish. Another part is that so, when we’re in our dotage and I’m experiencing my cognitive decline, we can relive the ups AND the downs. Well, in my case, it will be LIVING them, since I won’t remember the actual experience.

Anyway, this week has been one of the less-than-glamourous times. We’re trying to prepare for our upcoming passage to New Zealand. The 1100 or so miles has the potential to be challenging, with weather conditions that can rapidly change. Kim has convinced herself that disaster is going to strike. Hence, we have a loooong list of things to do to ward off our impending doom. I tend to be more optimistic, which is unlike me. I think it’s going to be fine. However, I’m still doing all the things on Kim’s list because, well, I like being married. So we worked. I spent 11 glorious hours cleaning the hull of the boat. That involved a lot of breath-holding. New Zealand has extremely strict entry requirements. They don’t want any invasive stuff getting into their country. I can understand this. I’m not sure how prohibiting pink peppercorns contributes to the goal, but whatever. One of the things is that the hull of the boat has to be clean. REALLY clean. If it’s not, they make you haul the boat out of the water on arrival and have it washed. So, 11 hours later, the hull is REALLY clean. It was painful. First there was the pass with the plastic scraper. Then there was a second pass with a Scotch-Brite pad. Then there was the pass to clean all the “fiddley bits”. Those are the hard-to-reach areas and bits of metal. That involved a metal scraper and wire brush. Will it be good enough? Can’t say. Boats with clean hulls have been required to haul out. I sent pictures. The jury’s still out. And yes, the cleaning was actually the week before, but I’m still scarred.

We also re-rigged our mainsail to use the third reefing point. The reefing points are how we reduce the sail area in strong winds so the boat does not become overpowered. We can only have two reefing points rigged at once. We’ve only ever used the first and second ones. For this passage, we’re rigging the second and third ones. It involved running lines through the mainsail and inside the boom. And swearing. Always swearing.

Then, we removed one of our portlights that was leaking. Those of you with us from the beginning may remember that at first, nearly all of our portlights leaked and we had to remove them and reinstall them with fresh sealant. Well, one of those started leaking again. We like to try and keep the water on the outside of the boat when possible, so we pulled the portlight out, applied some thickened epoxy to the edges of the opening to smooth it out, sanded it back, and reinstalled the portlight. We’ll see. We did that on Fiji Day!! Fiji Day, October 10th, marks the anniversary of Fijian independence. This year is 55 years! There’ve been a couple of coups in the interim, but currently things are quite stable. Hooray for stable government!

Anyway, we also prepped for failure of our steering system? Why? It’s on Kim’s list. So, we pulled the emergency tiller out of the lazarette and cable-tied it to the toe rail where it’s nice and handy. I also spent a lovely hour down in the lazarette disassembling the autopilot to check for wear. It all looks good! We’re also going to pre-rig our staysail. The staysail is a smaller foresail that we have rarely used but is helpful in higher winds. We’re going to rig it up and leave it lashed on deck so it’s easier to deploy if needed. Because, you know, it’s on the list.

We also replenished our fuel. This involved transferring fuel from our jerry cans to our fuel tanks, then going ashore and refilling the jerry cans. It would have been all perfect except for the part where I overfilled the tank, causing diesel to leak into Kim’s bathroom. Happily, Meraviglia doesn’t have a doghouse. Fortunately, it was a small spill and the smell only lasted two days.

Kim has also been busy prepping meals for the passage. She’s been cooking and freezing meals so we can reheat them quickly and have hot meals without too much fuss. Honestly, I don’t think we prepped this much for the month-long journey across the Pacific. This one should just be 7-8 days.

As icing on the cake, we’ve been dealing with insurance problems. New Zealand marinas require a lot of liability insurance-more that our policy provides. Our insurance company won’t provide any extra liability, so we are scrambling to see what we can find. Boat insurance is a REAL pain-especially for us. Insurance companies don’t like old boats so our options are extremely limited. In any case, we’re trying to figure it out because it would be sort of painful to sail all the way to New Zealand (assuming we make it, of course) and find we have nowhere to park. Is it better to ask for permission or forgiveness? I don’t know. I’m going with a “think positive” approach, which is very unlike me.

In any case, aside from the insurance issue, we’re pretty much ready to go. It looks like we may have a weather window this week, so next week’s post may be from mid-ocean. Assuming, you know…