Log Date: April 3, 2007

Location: Opua Harbour, NZ

We are high and dry climbing a ladder 15 feet in the air to enter the boat so instead of "living on a boat" we are now "living in a tree house". 

It has been raining cats and dogs - or maybe kiwi's and wild pigs for 2 solid days. Downpour - torrential rain and wind - 3 months of rain in 36hrs!  Susan woke this morning at 5am to a boat in the next boat yard making loud noise. Bam...silence... bam...silence... bam...down goes a boat.  A 47' fast sailboat went over on her side - she was the end boat in the row and toppled slowly into a fence and work shed.

It has been a long dry summer and the heavy rain has made the ground mush and apparently the boat stands unbalanced.  "Not to worry mate" - we have checked our boat stand and the boat next to ours to make sure they are sturdy... more importantly Allan the owner of our boat yard has checked things out and all is fine. It is forecasted that we have one more day of rain and then a cold front will come through. Right now not much else to do.

In addition to the rain, it was so bloody windy last night we were woken a number of times with boat vibrations.  We are repairing our forward stay (one of the wires that holds the mast up) and have taken it off so the mast is kind of free standing.  Whilst this is ok in calm weather - wind gusts sure are noisy as the mast vibrates and the boat sways quite noticeably especially when one is laying in ones bunk trying to sleep - I thought we were back on the water last night instead of terra-firma. Once the rain stops we will quickly get the rigging sorted out and put back together.

Susan is still in the fridge - not that I put her there.  We are replacing the foam and have torn the fridge completely apart - right down to the hull.  We had problems with moisture - we added a refrigeration system after the fact and perhaps did not heed all the recommended guidelines and as a result have had major condensation problems.  Cutting the old foam out was quite a physical chore but fitting in the new foam is time consuming as we don't want any air holes.  We chose to not to use the pour in foam as it has a tendency to absorb water so now we (Susan) are cutting and pasting the jigsaw puzzle of foam back in place. As with all boat work - it is slow. 

Today in Opua they have lost power due to the downed trees and heavy winds.  So there is no power to run the power tools to make the boat repairs.  The main road is closed due to mud slides and fallen trees - it is so bad that people are stuck in town and can't get to their homes, or at home and can't get to town- they indicated that it could be 24 hours before the roads are cleared.

Opua is a wonderful sleepy village in the Bay of Islands that is just remote enough to be very quaint - this is life in Opua and people just accept is - how great is that - "no worries mate".  I just noticed that we are now without water.

Enjoying Life Onboard.

Laura & Susan
SV Mystic Traveler