January 31, 2008 - Whangarei

The most exciting thing to happen to us these past few days has been the delivery of our regalvanized chain and anchor. Scroll down to the January 15th post to for a reminder of how rusty it used to be. Now it is super shiny. Hanging off the bow, it is almost too much bling for Mata'irea. It makes the rest of the boat look dingy by comparison.

Sten checked another item off his to do list today when he completed the installation of a strip of copper foil, which is meant to improve the performance of our SSB. Between the shiny anchor on her bow and the space shuttle like foil running through the steering compartment, Mata'irea is starting to look a bit disco.
We're still varnishing, working on both the cockpit table and the hatch surrounds. Varnishing in the boat yard, with trucks from the aggregate plant next door kicking up clouds of dust as they dump their loads 50 meters from the boat, is challenging, to say the least.
Yesterday I had a bit of a break from the yard as I spent the morning at the sailmakers. We're going to try to reduce the vibration of our mainsail by tightening up the boltrope. Rather than pay the sailmaker 60 NZD per hour to pick out the old stitches, I did it. Compared to the hot, dirty and noisy boat yard, the sail loft was like a little slice of heaven - cool, clean and peaceful.

These past few nights we've escaped from the boat yard to hang out in the cozy confines of Storm Along. Brian and Nell just got to town, and are tied up in Town Basin for a few days. More than a little familiar with how trying living on a boat in a boat yard can be, they have taken pity on us and invited us over for dinner and drinks. It was such a pleasure to be on a boat that is in one piece. I'd started to doubt that Mata'irea could ever be lovely again, but sitting in Storm Along's comfortable interior reassured me that once we reign in the chaos and put her back together, we will enjoy living aboard Mata'irea again.