Tag Archives: Aislado

Happy Christmas 2017

December 28, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We decided to splash out for Christmas. On the basis that we had been invited to Vaughn and Sylvia’s for a pre-Xmas drinks party on the 24th and ZigZag were in the nearby Half Moon Marina, we found an Air BnB house for rent near both and moved in for three days.

The do at Vaughn and Sylvia’s was great fun. The kids played in the heated pool, the grown ups (the men at least) looked longingly at Vaughn’s rather glorious speakers that had come all the way from Glasgow and his excellent BBQ. The selection of beer was impressive and the enormous fillet of beef that we were spoilt with tasted fantastic. Added to that the platters of salads, cheese, biscuits, many types of bread meant that the meal was a joyful event. Our thanks again to Sylvia for the organisation and Vaughn for his excellent BBQ skills. Quite an undertaking the day before Christmas.

Irene took over kids’ entertainment after dinner and they all had a great time singing Christmas songs in a variety of languages! It all seemed to work although asking the Dads to judge the costume dressing up competition was a little dangerous.

Christmas Day was spent at the Air BnB house. It was a pretty little three bedroom house with a hot tub in the back garden and most importantly a decent kitchen to cook in. I will say that the general cleanliness of the kitchen left a little to be desired but a couple of hours of scrubbing brought it up to standard. I hope the owner appreciated our efforts when they returned from their Xmas away. The house also had a washing machine! This was run practically non-stop with ZigZag catching up on their loads too – never has laundry been so enjoyable.

Santa delivered as expected and by way of Fiona Foura’s parents, we were able to pick up presents kindly sent from the UK from the family too. I’m not sure just how sane it was to buy Eleanor a chemistry set but she is already had fun making smells and bubbles!

The kids had a huge smile on their faces up to the point we made them wait for the arrival of ZigZag for the opening of the presents from us! ZigZag dutifully arrived just as the kids were ready to explode, with Irene’s sister, Mareike, over for the holidays in tow.

We had a lovely meal with a mix of British and German delicacies being added to the table, offering the traditional Henderson starter of cream of turkey and parsley soup. The parsley was courtesy of the Chinese market we found at the racecourse on our way back from picking up ZigZag’s new car on Christmas morning. Good thing the large Chinese community doesn’t celebrate Christmas! The main course was turkey followed by a huge sticky mascarpone wonderfulness made by Irene and Mareike. We had managed to find a good size turkey, the last in the shop, but had failed miserably in our attempt to find decent chipolatas. NZ just doesn’t do decent sausages. We have found a single butcher on our travels that would make what we would class as what is comparable to the standard we would find at our local butcher in the UK. Bread sauce and cranberry sauce were generally enjoyed; I’m afraid the sauerkraut was less so! Each to their own. The one item that Lou was hugely disappointed not to have on her plate was Brussels sprouts. As it is high summer down here, they were, regrettably, out of season.

Whilst our girls are by no way grown up, it is always fun to be around really smalls for Christmas. Noah was very helpful in unwrapping everybody’s presents whether asked for or not! Mia had a lovely time playing and cuddling a new doll.

After the meal, we retired to the hot tub and had a very pleasant afternoon bubbling away with a certain amount of NZ bubbles helping us along. Toasty!

A Happy Christmas to one and all!

Update posts

Exploring the North Island

December 22, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We left Opua in convoy. We were loaded to the gunnels and Starcharger were carrying Lorna and George of Quatsino. Our first stop was at a batch beside the sea at Kaimaumau. As an explanation, many New Zealanders have a family holiday home, handed down through the generations. often by the sea. It is known as a batch. These days they are less popular as international travel becomes cheap enough for most to run up to Fiji, Tonga or Aus for holidays. However, many are available to rent, they don’t cost a great deal and most are built in beautiful and quiet spaces.

We based ourselves there for three days and had a great time.

Day one saw us travel the final 80km to the northern most point of New Zealand – Cape Reinga. This is an important Mouri site as it is said that departing souls from the island travel to the Cape and lower themselves into the underworld, by way of the ancient Pohutukawa tree on the end of the rock outcrop, just to the W of the lighthouse.

Day two took us to the wonderfully named 90 Mile Beach. It isn’t actually that long – it is only 80km – but the over exaggeration is forgiven. If you have a 4×4 veh, then the beach is open to you to drive on. With our poor beastie, we had to walk! We had fun bouncing up and down some of the huge sand dunes and the view along the beach was an endless beauty.

The day before when we were travelling up to the Cape we had been staggered to see hills of sand towering above the rolling grass downs of Northland. These enormous dunes have built up as sand is thrown ashore by the prevailing W wind and are common on the W coast running N from Auckland. We visited a baby one with Amelie when we were staying with the Hoburns. Standing hundreds of feet high, the ones near the North Cape are a different scale altogether. They have spawned another great sport – sand boarding.

The only trouble with said boarding is the effort of climbing up a couple of hundred feet of sand dune. Climbing sand isn’t easy at the best of times. Do it a couple of times and your lungs are bursting and your legs are jelly. We got to the point of using relays to get the all important boards back to the top. The girls loved it. Alastair gave us the funniest descent, scattering the panicking watchers at the bottom of the hill with one of his banzai runs to everyone’s amusement.

We left the company of Starcharger and Quatisino as they headed back towards their boats and we headed down the W coast by ourselves. We found that there was a ferry between Kohukohu and Rawene so rather than drive all the way back on to Highway 1, we took the recently graded W Coast Road which wound its way through the mountains. It was a great drive and the scenery was beautiful. The ferry took about half and hour. It was nice to be back on the water, even on just a stink boat!

We stopped at the entrance to Kiapara Bay, the scene of a recent tragedy in November where a fishing boat was lost with eight deaths. The entrance to the bay is tricky with large sandbanks extending out over a mile. You can see two of them with breakers in the photo below. It is a beautiful harbour once you are in. Sadly the fishing boat touched one of the banks and turned turtle in the 4m breakers. There were only three survivors.

We have been hugely impressed by the land management that we have seen throughout the North island. Where once the UK went down the initially efficient but environmentally damaging hedge removal, NZ farmers have built hedges and whole tree lines to divide land blocks, proving shelter for stock and crops. We spotted this area as we drove to the Kia Iwi Lake campsite. The norm around the vineyards, it is quite common to see them around just normal blocks of land used for livestock, as seen here. These tree lines are 40-50’ high.

The Kia Iwi camp site was well set out and great fun. On a freshwater lake, it means endless splashing around for the kids in the surprisingly warm water and of course there were plenty of other smalls around to play with. Dad got involved too and there was a certain amount of tomfoolery protecting the swimming platform! We also met a great couple, well into their eighties who have invited us to visit them on our return to Auckland. Ex RAF but an émigré more than 50years ago, he still hasn’t lost the accent! We stayed at the site for three days and left with tears.

Heading South, we drove into the area of NZ that is the home of the giant Kauri trees. Once common across NZ, they were cut down in huge numbers in the 18th and 19th century for their hard wood. Now, very few are left, they are protected and NZ has started to replant them. It will take even longer than the UKs New Forest to grow back to glory as the trees grow slow and will last to over 3000years. We visited the largest of them left named Tane Mahuta, The Lord of the Forest, thought to be about 2000years old, said to be a baby in comparison to the monsters that were around a couple of hundred years ago. The other interesting fact around these trees is that they are the source of GUM, which once petrified becomes amber. A major industry of the 19thC was to collect the gum from the trees by scoring them or dredging up all the old amber that was plentiful in the swamps, melting it down and exporting it. Gum was sorted in to different grades and was used for make such stuff as jewellery, the first linoleum (providing the waterproofing) and gumboots. Want to know where that particular word for wellington boots came from? Look no further. Interestingly, the North British Rubber Company (now known as Hunter) based in Edinburgh was taking out adverts in the local papers asking folks not to buy the knockoff “gumboots” made here as far back as the 1870s!

Our final stop before hitting Auckland again was at a campsite in the Tawharanui Peninsula Regional Park. The area is completely wired off to prevent stouts, rabbits and possums from getting in. It is a sanctuary for flightless birds and is one of the few sites with good numbers of kiwi. We didn’t see one although Eleanor says she heard one calling at night. We did see great numbers of Pukeka, another more common flightless bird. The beach was beautiful and and we saw lots of surfers returning to the camp happy after a day playing in the waves.

We stopped in briefly to say hello at the Hoburn’s to pick up the left behind socks and Hannah’s Kindle. Then it was time to head into Auckland to meet up with Aislado and ZigZag for some Christmas celebrations. Northland is beautiful, warm and we have had great fun exploring it. As always, we wish we had more time to do it justice but what secrets we found, we have loved. Our thanks to Sarah and Mo for giving us so many hints and steers for our travels.

Time to turn our sights on the wilder lands of the South Island.

Update posts

Apataki – Skylark on the Hard

November 18, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We chose to leave Skylark at Apataki on the suggestion of our friends John and Trish on Lumiel who had heard that the yard was friendly and well run, if a little basic. They lifted out in August and Lumiel will be parked there until their return next year. Being well to the N of the Society Islands, Apataki is out of the Cyclone belt, a massively important consideration if you are intending to leave your boat in storage over the summer period. Our options in this part of the world are limited as many yards don’t store catamarans leaving Hiva Oa, Apataki and Tahiti the only places you can haul out and store in French Polynesia. Our preferred site of Raiatea don’t do cats, Hiva Oa is way too East for us to think about and Tahiti is way too expensive and it can get hit by weather. Whilst I trust John of Mary Ann II’s analysis of the very small likelihood of a cyclone within the Societies the year after an El Nino event (see article written by him and published on Noonsite), the added advantage of Apataki being cheaper by half than the big Tahiti yards was another key factor.

The SW pass at Apataki has a little dog leg at its end which turns straight in to the prevailing E-SE wind. The good books say only go in at slack and expect falls on an incoming tide on the inside of the bay. We arrived just before slack and punched through about two knots outgoing current with no drama at all. It got bit bouncy on the inside of the pass as a 9 mile fetch with the Trades blowing had set up a nasty Solent like chop, typically coming from exactly the bearing we wanted to go. We pulled the jib back out and motor sailed, tacking back and forth with just enough angle to avoid slamming.

We arrived at the yard late afternoon and anchored in 25’. We were pleased to see Sanuk, who we first met at Isabella in the Galapagos, then again in Hiva Oa and Cheeky Monkey, last seen in the Marquesas. It was good to catch up and talk shutting down techniques. Whilst we did that, the girls played and petted the “tame” 6ft Nurse Shark that lives by the yard. The yard also has three dogs. H says her favourite is a small puppy called Viron.

We started to clean and strip Skylark of the external deck paraphernalia and sails. The mainsail and foresail are to be sent to Tahiti for some TLC but we are also looking at renewing them for our last year and we are waiting a quote from Lee Sails. However, the rest of Skylark is in good condition with just a few bits and pieces needed before we start again next year. We do have a few knocks that could do with the touch of an expert in gelcoat repair but I don’t think we will find anyone like that until we hit the Societies next year. Our shopping list, considering how far we have come, is a surprisingly short list. Most we will get in NZ; some in Tahiti to be sent up by ship.

The watermaker got one last blast to provide us with a big fresh water load to clean the boat with and then was pickled, an easy process when clutching the instruction manual in one hand. We have noticed a little bio contamination in the water quality of late and we will return with an acid and alkali wash which we will do on recommissioning next Spring. It may damage the membrane with the quality of water not to be quite as it was before but it will kill anything left after pickling. We will do a little bleaching of the tanks on our arrival back as well.

Engines and generator had their oil and filters changed as did the fuel lines. Fuel tanks (diesel and petrol) got biocide treatment. I’ll need to remember to change out the impellors on all engines before we kick off next Spring.

The day of lifting out arrived. It was a near calm with an offshore breeze. We couldn’t have wished for better weather.

The lift went well and Skylark came out looking pretty clean but primer shining through in several places. The jet clean was excellent. The worker who did it was a dedicated soul who ripped in and saved me a huge amount of effort by stripping away a lot of paint that was left on the bottom. We will probably stick with ABC3, the paint we got last year and Lou and I have already decided to paint her ourselves. It is a bit more expensive than the paint the yard sells but Tony, the youngest member of the family that runs the yard, likes it better than the stuff they are contracted to use.

Dinghy – scrubbed, cleaned and dropped to sit under Skylark on tyres to protect her from the sun. Tied off at four points to ensure she doesn’t try to take off if there is any wind. Engine – 18HP – washed, oil changed, greased and internals wiped down.

Skylark has been scrubbed within an inch of her life with vinegar to minimise mould and bleached. All the external holes have been plugged up as we have heard that infestations of ants are common here. The water line was well scrubbed by the girls (a very wet affair) and is now gleaming. All the scuff marks have all been polished out, using the excellent 3M marine restorer and wax product I have. We wrapped anything delicate (EPIRB, hand mikes etc) in towels and placed them down in the hulls, out of the cabin area. Our last action was to put tin foil over all the windows to minimise the sun getting into the boat. Neil, an Aussie who has left his boat in the yard three years running recommended this as the yard in summer can get to roasting point and this reflects away a lot of heat.

It unexpectedly rained the night before we left which left us with a clean boat but with wet canvas that we didn’t want to put away. We have to give a huge thank you to Sanuk and Mary Ann II who put away our bimini and screens once they had dried off and covered off a couple of items that we forgot about before we left. Mary Ann II also very kindly finished off a few tasks that we had not managed to complete and that only occured to us once we were sat on the plane to Tahiti! It was massively appreciated.

After a presentation of flower necklaces, we had a dry but bouncy ride across the lagoon to the airport for our flight to Tahiti. As we were a little early, we were taken to Tony’s family house in the village for coffee and a shower. They really have looked after us very well. Our plane was a small one with 12 seats and it was great to be able to see into the cockpit as there wasn’t room for a separating door. Belts were worn throughout the flight and just as well. We hit one bit of turbulence that Eleanor likened to the Tower of Terror she remembers from Euro Disney. A big lurch!

One note on your luggage allowance if you are leaving your boat in FP. If you are joining an international flight out of French Polynesia (and you will need to show them proof you are – a copy of your e-ticket is fine), your allowance is 23kg hold and 5kg carry on. Interestingly enough they measured the total weight of all our bags to ensure our family weight was less than the 92kg allowed. If you don’t show proof, then your allowance is limited to 10kg and 5kg respectively.

Our 2016 itinerary has seen us visit visited Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands) and in French Polynesia, the Marquesas and Tuamotus island groups. We have added just over 6600 miles to the log, had to say our goodbyes to some old friends but have met and made some great new ones too. It has been a wonderful year and even taking in a few lonesome moments when we have felt very far from friends and family, we have all loved it.

We now look forward to life on dry land for a little while. New Zealand is exciting us and our list of to dos is growing every day. The one thing we are wary about is the temperature that we will have to deal with. I haven’t been in less than 75F since I left the UK over two years ago. I haven’t been in less than 80F since we left the Marquesas. The last few weeks have been 90+F!

Auckland today was 65F.

Bugger….

The girls have the advantage of woolly hats, sent to us oh so long ago by the lovely Elspeth Logan. Hannah’s hat was the first thing on her packing list. Expect to see it in a few photos over the coming months as we get used to the temperature down in the 40S latitudes.

Skylark will be back in the water at the end of February. In the meantime, watch out for posts on our New Zealand travels.

Next year’s agenda – The Society Island, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia. Oh yes!

Update posts

Tahuata – Take Two

July 10, 2016 stewart135 1 Comment

Although we intended to spend just a day at Tahuata after travelling S from Ua Poa, the weather suggested we stay on. The water was clear as a bell, a light wind blew and there was little swell. It just looked too good to go!

After a longer discussion, we also came to the conclusion that we wanted to slow down again and spend Bastille Day in Hiva Oa where the largest population would be. Tahuata seemed to be the perfect place to hang out for a while to wait for the big event.

We had initially had three days in Hanamoenoa Bay. We got some practising with the spinning rod. We have a killer lure on it at the moment that works very well so we have been catching and releasing as the bay has ciguatera in it and we are unsure which fish are safe. Much to her surprise, Hannah caught a 10ld Blue Fin Trevally which had her fighting hard and yelling for help. Perhaps not quite the monster of Death and Glory’s fame but still a cracker and the rod was impressively bent!

We also were lucky enough to meet some very good people. ZigZag and Aislado came in and they had kids! Irena and Georg, Mia and Noah are on ZigZag and are from Germany. The kids are small. Mia is 3 and Noah is 10mths but the grown ups have been living on a boat for the last eight years and crossed the Atlantic for the first time 12 years ago on their first boat. Vaughn, Silvia and their five year old, Zara are from New Zealand and Bulgaria respectively and are heading back to New Zealand. They also have Yana, a student taking a year out from her Theology degree at Heidelberg on board as crew. We cemented friendship with perhaps a touch too much rum and made some sort of agreement to look at business opportunities together (yup – a very, very, good night!). In the meantime, I was able to offer some advice on Vaughn’s HF noise issue and he was able to help plumb in my AIS multiplexer. It nearly works – just need to get a small resistor into the circuit and the damn thing should fly. The help was greatly appreciated as those who know me will realise how much I dislike electronics! I think both boats are going to be going a little faster than us to NZ and we are going to have limited time with them but I am really looking forward to meeting up with them once we get down there.

It was really nice to be in kids’ company again and Irene got everyone in the bay ashore for a BBQ and marshmallows. The kids loved it and the older adults (this is Debbie from Kalliope with Noah) spoilt themselves having fun with the v smalls. Sadly we now are marshmallow-less. Next visitor to Skylark from Europe take note. There will be a request for resupply!

Next best thing after marshmallows is making bread on sticks over the embers. Perhaps not quite the sugar rush the kids’ hope for but still very satisfying. Our thanks to ZigZag for showing us the trick.

We moved down the coast to Hanatefau Bay and the village in the bay 800m S, Hapatoni. The anchorage is small but has good holding on sand. Watch for coral heads, the mantas and white tips here. The snorkelling has an excellent reputation but it is deep.

The village has a good dock but it can be subject to swell. We put a stern anchor out to keep us off the wall. The locals are very friendly. It started with the kids playing by the dock, happy to chat, allowing the baby to kick the football and then offering us shelter as the torrential rain started. Just decent, happy, down to earth kids.

We walked through the village and followed the very old walkway, built with huge stones with traditional raised housing platforms lining it, these days boasting modern housing. Every villager we went past had a smile and a welcome for us. I wasn’t able to find out how old the village is but it must be considerable. Whilst we explored, it was strange to watch Eleanor and Hannah carrying out the duties of big kids for Mia and Zara. They both did well.

We also found a selection of animals. Two pig pens allowed the smalls to coo and throw greenery at the animals.

The Noah related baby carrying was becoming mercilessly competitive between H and E to the point that Dad stepped in and had some fun himself. You forget how small they were!

When we came back down to the harbour to head back out to the boats, we met the small delivery boat bringing some supplies and shopping in to the village from Hiva Oa. There were a couple of sacks of baguettes and we asked if it was possible to buy a loaf per boat. The lady in charge with a big smile on her face, decided that with kids we needed at least two loafs each and no, the villagers wouldn’t accept payment. Thankfully she bent enough to take a small gift bag that Irene on ZigZag offered her to make us feel we were not freeloading. Just plain goodhearted, friendly and kind. For future visitors wanting to trade for fruit and veg with the bloke that lives on the edge of the anchorage, old ropes for the horses, kids’ shoes and batteries were what he was asking for. I believe the village also has a small craft stall which can be opened up for visitors but we didn’t find it.

After a night’s discussion, we were invited to join ZigZag and Ailsado who were heading down to Fatu Hiva. Although it was a complete change of our plans, the breaking strain of a KitKat was applied and we accepted the kind offer. We headed out with less than perfect weather but with hopes that the wind would both ease and move a little into the N as forecast. Unfortunately neither happened. The W side of the island is in the lee of the spine of hills running down the island. The occasional break in these means small acceleration zones where from 0 to 30+kts is a matter of yards. Stay a mile offshore!

We cleared the S end of the island with 30+kts showing and a 40 mile beat into 2.5m waves in front of us. We quickly decided that we would turn back to Tahuata. The French Lagoon that went past us heading on a far nicer course to the Toamotus was bouncing. Vaughn on Aislado, his stately HR 46, three times our weight, long keeled and with a far better upwind capability decided to continue but still got a bit airborne as they passed us heading back in.

They had an interesting sail and anchored in the dark at the Bay of Virgins. It took them four attempts so as much as I’d love to have had their company for more time, I don’t have any trouble in saying we made the right choice in chickening out. Rather than staying at the S end of the island, we headed back up to the sand of Hanamoenoa Bay to meet up with ZigZag who had also decided discretion was the better part of valour. It chucked it down and squalled for the rest of the day.

We made up with it with a visit to ZigZag for “kaffee unt kuchen” to celebrate Noah’s fourth tooth and then a return visit to us in the evening. Noah is the youngest visitor we have had and is on the verge of walking. We hoped he might achieve this milestone on the flat of Skylark but it wasn’t to be. He made up for it by being cute.

Having decided to go back to our original plan of hanging around Tahuato until closer to Bastille Day and then going up to Hiva Oa, we said our goodbyes to ZigZag the next morning as they headed out for another go at reaching Fatu Hiva.

We made up with the disappointment of not going with them with the visit of three manta rays about 8-10’ across, feeding just behind us. Their slow grace was wonderful to watch as they summersaulted, corralling the plankton they were feeding on. We swam with them for half an hour and got some great video and photos.

We lucked out with the arrival of another French boat, Toomai, with two boys of 15 and 9, and spent another three days enjoying their company. We also had Sequoia, an Open 40 lookalike, with Jean and Tiph on board. I asked Jean how quick Sequoia was and gulped when he said he had hit 25kts in her! The French boats spearfished and after clearing the fish with one of the local boats that went past the bay, ate the product. They did throw away at least two fish that the locals thought would be infected with ciguatera. I’d suggest that you make damn sure you do check with locals on anything you catch as it seems that the advice on what are safe fish varies bay to bay.

After school, the kids played, paddling their way around the bay from boat to boat, the adults circulating, enjoying each others company and just watching the world revolve. Our thanks to Antoine for showing the girls how to make caramel popcorn with just brown sugar. Not sure if our pots will survive it but it tastes very good!

We had one last night of brownies and coffee watching the sun go down before we all headed our separate ways before the weather broke. Toomai left for Fatu Hiva. Sequoia with Jean and Tiphaine headed N for Nuka Hiva and we headed for Hiva Oa. It was a good way to sign off on Tahuata. We left the bay empty, awaiting the next yachts looking for their own little bit of paradise.

I was unsure to the point of rudeness about Hanamoenoa Bay on our first time visiting the island. I was prejudiced due to the big swell we had which made it both a rolly anchorage and difficult to get on to the beach. I should like to make up for it now and say I can see why, all those years ago, the Hitchcocks enjoyed it so much. We saw its best on this visit and it was spectacular.

A great island for kicking back and enjoying the simple life.

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Tag Archives: Aislado

Happy Christmas 2017

Exploring the North Island

Apataki – Skylark on the Hard

Tahuata – Take Two

The Hendersons Abroad