Blustery day... jobs list depleted and a promise

The beans are ground and the stove top is bubbling... must be espresso time!

The beef curry left over from last night seemed to have improved with age - most satisfactory.  I even managed a quiet glass in the cockpit, albeit with thermals and a padded jacket and watched the sunset... complete with the visually spectacular 'no-flood' promise for tomorrow etched across the eastern horizon.


I thought of Ps 104 which I had read this morning...

You blanketed earth with ocean,
    covered the mountains with deep waters;
You set boundaries between earth and sea;
    never again will earth be flooded...

Lord, you have made so many things!
    How wisely you made them all!
    The earth is filled with your creatures.
25 There is the ocean, large and wide,
    where countless creatures live,
    large and small alike.
26 The ships sail on it...

Well, hopefully this ship will sail on it tomorrow!  The plan is to set off early tomorrow and see where the mood and the wind take me.

Sorry - a small delay while I retrieve the Whittakers dark chocolate to accompany the aromatic Tanzanian coffee.
By the time I showered, breakfasted and caught up with the news online it was almost time for morning coffee -  a quick coat of Toplac white on the oar blades and it was definitely flat-white time. Still, series of blustery squalls made painting between showers a challenge. Just got finished and had to race to put the lengthy oars under cover to dry - easier said than done at over 2.3m long!

Chatted to a bloke along the pier who has just arrived up with his young family in his immaculate and classic Cavalier 32 "Betelgeuse" - http://bluewaterboats.org/cavalier-32/ all the way from Nelson, if you please.  They had to wait out Cyclone Pam in Auckland and had another 10 day delay further south while strong northerlies persisted.  His plan was to sail back down the west coast but the delays have meant he is out of time and has arranged to put the boat on a mooring up here for the winter. Sensible move, I reckon.


Spent the afternoon finishing off some other jobs, filled the water tanks and a final 10 litres of fuel which filled the tank nicely - just enough diesel now to be able to motor to Auckland and back if one so desired!  While waiting to fill my small container I chatted to the skipper of the Fullers Cape Brett Cruise Cat - he apologised for the delay as he finished putting the last of the 800 litres of fuel (400 per tank).  I said "How much do you use each trip?"  "Oh, about 800 litres" he said.  I suggested he might need a reasonable payload of paying passengers to make it worthwhile for the Dark Side (aka Fullers/Great Sights monopoly).  He replied that they had had nearly a full contingent of 197 (at  $102 pp you do the maths!).  Anyway, turned out that they hadn't made it out there yesterday as 40 kts of SW meant that half the passengers were chundering and the crew was going crook at him as they bounced from wave to wave 'cause they were having to clean up!

Well, hopefully it will be a little less willing later this week and I can make it around to Whangamumu... we shall see.