The next morning, it was the 2.Dec.2024 we were cleared in.

First the bio-security officer came. A nice gentleman following the rules of NZ for bio-security. I really have a lot of understanding for bio-security but in NZ the baby is thrown out with the bathwater! In all other countries, which I visited we were told that certain food may only be used on board. In NZ, honey, eggs, canned ham with pork, onions, garlic, and ginger had to be thrown into a big, plastic bag made of a rather thick material. What is the impact for NZ of all what needed to be thrown away would it have been eaten on board or like in the case of canned pork meat would have been brought out of NZ again?

The officer is a very nice and friendly gentleman but the rules, although I followed them, I regard as ridiculous.

As I’m just writing about a rule I consider as ridiculous, there is another example. When I asked in the marina office, about shore power, I was told that first my cables and the boat needed to be examined and I have to get an approval sticker. One sticker needs to be attached to each cable, and one at the entrance door into the salon. As I have a strong technical background, I wondered if in NZ the technology of a 240 V line breaker does not exist. So what is the inspection good for? Until now I don’t understand it but had to pay about 125 EUR for it.

Also in this case I have to say that the inspector was a very friendly gentleman and we had a good talk. Now my cables and boat are NZ approved for electrical safety.

Friendliness – I really have to say that the people here are very friendly and helpful.

The first non official person I met was Terry, Boh’s grandfather, who came to pick up Boh after inbound clearance was completed. As he was a sailor, he knew how to deal with the lines to dock a boat. He and Boh worked as team. He at the pier and Boh on board at the bow. It was nice seeing the two of them acting together.

Once docked, he came on board and I invited him for breakfast. We had a good talk. One of the topics we talked about was the leakage of the big salon windows and that I want to seal them newly. He will now see if he finds someone who has experience in this work. If he doesn’t find one, he’ll give me hand and we will do it together.

Then came the moment that Boh, my valued crew member since Vava’u had to move on to her next adventure. I hope to read her name one day as participant of another edition of the Vendee Globe single hand race around the world.

And then, 2 – 3 days later, a charming lady suddenly stood in MaRe’s cockpit. I looked at her and thought “I know her, but where did I meet her?” “I’m Boh’s mother” she introduced herself. Then I knew that I saw her when we entered into the marina and berthed MaRe at the quarantine dock. They could not enter the quarantine dock and we could not get out. Now she brought me some deep frozen meat and offered that she can drive me Whangarei on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was overwhelmed from her friendliness and helpfulness.

As I already got in contact with a General Marine Services about an overhaul of my Onan genset, while still sailing towards NZ, two gentlemen came already on board to discuss what needs to be done. They will remove the genset when MaRe is on the hard.

The same happened in respect to the sail and canvas repair. I reached out for Andy, who still as an employee of Doyle NZ, made my “Big Blue” gennaker. He is about setting up his own business but is not yet ready for it. Thus, he made me a contact to Tony Scoones of Doyle NZ. Both of them came and we talked about what needs to be done.

On Monday, Gareth, the marina manger introduced me to Richard of Clove Boatworks. His people will deal with the work at the hull and Volvo engines. Actually after we discussed the matters, he brought me back to MaRe and John, an experienced elderly engineer joined to have a first look at the Volvos. John’s inspection results are better then I expected. He started already getting gaskets and parts for the raw water pump.

And then I fighting a few IT issues. First, since a forced upgrade of the Joplin notes application at my PC, the app on my PC doesn’t synchronize with the server anymore. Even after a complete removal of the app including all config files and a complete new installation, it doesn’t work. I spent already for a few days hours on the solution of this problem but it still exist. While working on tests to find the solution, I changed accidentally a filename at our NextCloud. This caused me today a few hours of work because suddenly the Joplin app on my Android devices didn’t synch anymore. Fortunately I found and could resolve the route cause.

Next my brother, who is our webmaster, found that one of my email accounts got hacked. The problem is solved but I still have to change a few passwords and re-arrange some things at the server. Altogether this will take me another day.

Finally I started collecting information to continue building my homepage. This becomes necessary as I will move my tracking and blogging onto my own homepage.

Beside all this, a few smaller boat jobs, internet searches for things needed, the daily life with food shopping, cooking, cleaning the pantry, and laundry, kept me pretty busy. When the IT issues are solved additional boat jobs will be done.