The day before yesterday, in the afternoon we docked at Whangarei marina.

It was a long way up from the bay where we stayed overnight in the first bay on the east side just inside the mouth of the Hatea river.

In the morning, we had strong winds when lifting the anchor but all worked out fine and quickly we were back in the navigable water of the river.

Terry taught Joe how to navigate in the well marked channel between the red and green markers. They did pretty well.

Further up the river I took over. We then approached the “Te Matau a Pohe” bridge. “The Fish Hook of Pohe” bridge in English.
This bridge is a rolling bascule bridge. It features a span that can be lifted to allow boats and ships to pass underneath. It’s design is inspired by traditional Māori fish hooks, which is reflected in its distinctive appearance.

After calling bridge control on VHF 18, they stopped traffic, open the bridge and we could pass without stopping because it was on a Sunday.

On the left bank there are many small boat yards and business with boats. Small marinas are also in between. Then the last about 1 – 2 NM the water got really shallow.

Without knowing that there are catamarans bigger than mine up into Whangarei marina and Terry’s local knowledge I would have stopped my approach when the water depth reach 2.0 m. However I continued.

Then we saw the marina and also the reserved berth just at the end of the pier.

Terry called his friend Ray to take the lines. He and people from the boat in front of us gave us a hand. Thus docking was very easy. The catamaran in front of us left shortly after our arrival and we move MaRe a boat’s length forward.

Then Ray, a former fisherman, came on board and we enjoyed the time talking about various things. A good time with friends. Next Maria, Terry’s wife, came and enlarged the group.

However, then came the farewell, which might not have been the final farewell.

Shortly after they left, I got a call from Terry telling me that Tanya is at the gate. So she also came on board for another chat. Terry will be busy when we will leave for Opua and Tanya has a to tight schedule with her professional work, she proposed that Grace, one of Boh’s sisters could sail with us Opua. That would be nice.

Yesterday, Joe and I took off each with shopping list. About 1500 we were back on board; Joe just arrive minutes before me. I got all I wanted to get and a lot of information on what I could get where. Whangarei really is a good place; all is in walking distance.

When we came back, there was a big box with fresh golden kiwis and a book with maps of the Northland’s East Coast on the table. Terry or Tanya was my thought. When calling Terry, I learned Ray came by with this wonderful present and I have him a thank you call. Gosh, I’m lucky having met all this people connected to Boh. (She’s now wrestling cows on an Australian farm but will come back to NZ for her university studies.)

After a late lunch with cuscus with vegetables and a tzatziki. We ate it’s on the cockpit, but we had the desert of fresh kiwis inside the salon with the heater on. I was kind of tired and didn’t want to get out in the cold and work. I spent the late afternoon in the salon resting. I only prepared dough for new bread. Joe finished kitchen work an searched the web for organic grains. We need to stow 20 kg of spelt.

I went to bed early; Joe as well.

Now I have to get up. Changing the antennae is the main tasks for today.

Yesterday we started sailing north!

As the company, I contacted for help with the new GA200 antennae for my Raymarine system didn’t even call me back on Friday and the weather window is good only for Saturday and Sunday, I decide to sail to Wangharei. The marina reserved a berth for us. Being there I can walk to all shops I need for provisioning of food, things to build in the GA200 antennae myself, and other staff I still want for the boat.

On the Friday I activated the water maker, which produces now again its 180 l water/h, thus this is fine and ready for sailing. I also did a bunch of other preparatory work.

In the evening Ljubica and Jeff came with a roasted duck, roasted potatoes with vegetables, and for desert her famous and irresistible tiramisu for a farewell dinner. Terry arrived just in time for the desert. We had a wonderful time. Then there was the good bye and all we know is that we will meet again but where and when is still unclear as a distant horizon.

Next morning, at 0700 Terry became active. At 0755 we moved out of berth and marina to sail with engines through the long access channel for Auckland. The weather was just beautifully sunny. What a great start!

To not “sail” often over land on the track and to enable Ljubica and Jeff to see us passing their house, I changed the Garmin InReach device to tracking every 10 min. When we passed the fairway light house at the end of the channel I set it back to hourly updates.

Via Signal I learned they saw us passing by with their eyes and also at the Garmin link https://share.garmin.com/P435
(Use this link when you want to see where we are. My OBM sent me a screenshot and the display is nice.)

Shortly after being out of the channel we set the gennaker and MaRe started running. Unfortunately the wind increased faster then anticipated and we had to replace it with the genoa. Still MaRe was running fine on her way north. With the wind turning from S to ENE we could have hoisted the main as well but we kept just sailing with genoa pulled open with a barber hauler.

I knew from the beginning that we won’t reach the entrance of the Hatea river (I called it sometimes wrongly the bay of Whangarei) at daylight. However I have a track in the river up to Marsden Cove marina, and Terry knows the bay in which we can drop the hook safely, I went in this bay in the dark. At about 2100 the anchor was securely in the ground. To my surprise we had more wind then I expected. The wind comes down the valley and blowed around 13 – 18 KN for the night and still now in the morning. I like such constant winds. They keep MaRe in small range of movements and my SuperWind 350 wind turbine charges the batteries.

For Joe it was the first day sailing and she did well. Terry is an old sailor, thus knows what needs to be done with a few MaRe specific hints. All in all we had a nice day sailing north.

Today at noon, with the end of the low tide, we will lift the hook and sail with the engines and the incoming tide up the Hatea river to Whangarei. There we have a reserved berth in the marina, about 300 m away from the Hundertwasser museum. I mention this museum as it’s a know landmark in Whangarei and, as mentioned before, all shops are in walking distance.

With the strong northerly wind during the night the temperature increased and it’s not freaking cold as before. I hope it stays like this until we are ready for the last sail north in NZ to Opua where we will make outbound clearance and depart for the Minerva Reef.

Please keep fingers crossed for the right weather window at the right time to continue north to Opua and then to the Minerva Reef, Vava’u in Tonga, Fiji….

… what Raymarine thinks about getting antennae cables inside a boat which means the cable has to go through a cable gland.

Yesterday, I thought I can get the new cable through the cable gland of the old GPS antennae cable. However the new cable has a connector with an almost 20 mm diameter for cable of only 5 mm diameter. The design is made for cheap production and does not consider installing it on a boat.

As I don’t have the necessary tools and a suitable cable gland on board I needed to call a Raymarine service provider. Now I wait for there response to see if they can come today so we can sail tomorrow.

Please keep fingers crossed.

As it was clear they don’t make it yesterday. My old friend Ljubica and her husband came and took us by ferry from Devonport to the center of Auckland, where we had a drink and talked on the top floor of a high-rise at the waterfront with a magnificent view over the bay and along the waterline. We had a nice late afternoon.

Now I wonder if the technician can come today with the right tools and a new suitable cable gland.

It’s already the 22. May and almost noon again. Bread dough is autolyzing, Joe works covering the glasses for sources spices with light blocking filmi had to make a dozen of phone calls and write a bunch of emails. Sometimes I’m wondering if I’m a sailor or a one-person admin department.

Now just a short update on the situation on board.

The genset is completely enclosed and the coolant reservoir is connected. Several test runs over 30 min to about 3 h showed a constant performance of the diesel engine and the generator. After having uploaded this narration I will re-activate the water maker and make a few liter of fresh water for a watermaker test.
The old Volvo rev meter bug could not be solved because it did not show up when the Volvo technician showed up. Original Volvo rev meter shows irregularly wrong rev numbers. Due to this I have question marks behind Volvo Penta diesel engines and original Volvo parts. Both engines and especially all parts are pretty expensive.

With the Raymarine dealer in Auckland I had a very good email communication on the bug that the date is not correctly displayed at the Axiom chartplotter. In the frame of this work, I learned that my old, also still well functioning external GPS antennae is does not match anymore the date format the GPS satellites are sending. As there are not so many Beidou (China) and GLONASS (Russia) satellites on the sky of the south western Pacific, I did not bother to try to use these satellites only. However on the way north of NZ, I will test if there are enough GALILEO (Europe) satellites on the sky; it seems there are. Knowing this is good just for the case that the most intelligent president and best deal maker of the world considers to switch off GPS for non-US-military use. Tne good thing is that he might not even know what GPS is.

Result: I needed a booster antennae and with thus I can use the GPS system built into the Axiom Pro chart plotter. This morning I could make the final test with a positive result. Now I have to get the antennae cable through the antennae pole, through a hull-through at the stern, and then all the way through the engine room into the cable ducts up to behind the Axiom. Keep fingers crossed that the last 3 – 5 m don’t consume hours.

Joe is pro-actively taking charge of the galley and all around provisioning. She created a provisioning list for about 2 weeks – enough until the final provisioning – and ordered it at woolworth. They delivered all for a fraction of the cost for the ferry boat over to Auckland center. The provisioning is already stored. Here I needed to help Joe because for some work four hands are needed and some things she could not possibly know yet.

Beside galley we talk often about boat stuff and do dry-training with sheets, winches, and lines. She is doing very well, she is a quick learner.

Terry will come on Friday evening to sail N with us. Currently I plan to depart on Saturday and go to Kawau Island, stay there for a good weather window to sail further north and go into the last last marina in Whangarei. Whangarei is even better for final provisioning than Opua where I can reduce the stay to a day for the outbound clearance. However, I as the wind during the Saturday-Sunday night looks good, I might change plan and sail overnight, to arrive at the mouth of the long Whangarei bay with the first daylight. I need to look at this idea again in details.

Now I have to continue with watermaker re-activation and building in the new GPS antennae.

Yesterday a Onan technician was here to fix a small electrical problem. I had him to come to also check the engine control board.

Today I fixed a small seawater leak at the sacrificial anode of the heat exchanger. It was easier then I thought. About half an hour.

Then came the moment of truth. I pushed the button an it started immediately. When will it stop?
I set my the bezel of my wrist watch at starting time. 2 min, 5 min, 10 min, 20 min…. It kept running. At about 50 min I started the washing machine. When the laundry was ready two hours were gone. Two hour non-stop run is very good. I check the spot with the small leak. It was dry.

Tomorrow I’ll put all enclosures on and do another test run. Then I’m also curious how quite the genset will run because I changed the sound absorbing material and the new one should be better.

I’m feeling much better now; a higher degree of happiness!

Maybe I also start the water maker tomorrow. It needs to activated again; a normal procedure.

Today the sea is very smooth. Wind waves of 1 (0 +10 cm high) and a swell which is hardly felt.

With only 1700 RPM she runs almost 7 KN.

The sky gets mostly likely fully overcasted. This the sea looks grey. Not as nice now compared to when we started this morning. There is was sunny.

Temperature is pretty down. In the morning, at the navigation table, I logged 14 degC! I’m wearing 2 T-shirts and nice and warm cotton zip-neck sweater I got as a present from Paul the electrician and I’m feeling a bit cold in the meantime. I want to go back to the barefoot route where it is warm, and I only need a T-shirt!

In a bit less than an hour we reach the entry point of the approach to Auckland when coming from North. From there it’s still some 12 NM to the Bayswater Marina.

To follow our track please see here:
https://share.garmin.com/P435
And click “view all”.

As the genset doesn’t run yet I decided to go to Auckland for check & repair by the Onan service provider.

I also want to a few other things in Auckland.

As we had yesterday SE wind we had wind and current against us we reduced our speed. However my decision to have the bow and stern thrusters removed proved to be a good one. It seems MaRe runs almost 2 knots faster. Now I’m very curious what I observe while sailing.

For the night we are at anchor in bay on the west side of Kawau Island. Absolutely quite.

From here we have about 30 NM to Bayswater Marina where I made a reservation for a berth.

My crew member from NZ to Japan will arrive on Thursday and embark at Bayswater Marina.

To see the track of MaRe please use now http://share.garmin.com/P435
You need to click “view all” at the top right corner.

Genset – I cleaned all contacts of the cable harness and built it in again together with three parts of the enclosure needed to test run the genset. In the meantime I gained experience with this work. Sometimes, during my work yesterday, I was thinking about my student days when I fixed my cars where I also gained a lot of experience while doing the work. However, yesterday it was too late for the final visual inspection and the reconnect the positive cable from the battery and run the test.

Fridge – John filled in the refrigerant and when I went to bed, the fridge was cold. If it will be cold in morning as well, the fridge repair can be considered as done.

What will be the result tomorrow for the genset and the fridge?

Paul came by yesterday to have a look at the cable harness. Although all looked good, he removed the isolation of 4 cables being crimped to each other and crimped them stronger to make sure that there is not bad contact inside which can pop up any time.

This triggered me today to look for possible similar situations at cables from battery studs, sensors, switches and relays. I found some. Thus, tomorrow I’ll clean the contacts off all connectors and relays. It’s will sum up to about 100. After that, I will build in again the cable harness, and the enclosures needed for test run.

Will I reach genset happiness tomorrow?

Plan B – Should I observe any problem again with the genset, I’ll sail down to Auckland to have the genset checked with the diagnostic SW, the Onan service has.

Fridge – it was built in and a 48 h leakage test was done. All seems to be tight. Tomorrow John will pump out all gases from the entire system and will fill it with refrigerant. Then we will see if the fridge really works again. Please keep fingers crossed.

…is the sound of a nicely running genset” I said to John after it was running for already 5 – 6 min, producing 220 V, and charging the batteries. The moment I finished my sentence the genset stopped showing the error code “not enough oil pressure”. I checked the oil out was at maximum, and started the genset again. It started, ran again, but stopped after about 30 s. No error message. I wondered and pushed the start button again. No reaction, not even the LEDs went on.

I has this phenomenon 2 – 3 times last week but when I pushed the start button again it worked.

“What is this?” I thought. Battery voltage was there. The ON-OFF switched worked. Where can the power supply be cut off?

Diesel-John arrived, but this is not his major. As if Paul, the electrical engineer, smelled the problem he came and started looking into the issue. There is no power. He assumed that the harness must have rubbed on the flywheel and a 12 V cable from the positive battery stud got damaged. I could not believe it because when I mounted the harness I check several times the distance between the plastic conduit is the harness and the fly wheel was with at least 5 mm sufficient.

Nevertheless I removed the already mounted enclosure, a part of the air intake resonator, and the exhaust type to finally could take out the harness. I could identify the pin via which 12 V are supplied to the engine control board.

Tomorrow Paul will come again.

While writing these lines I got the feeling that the control board is gone. 12 V go in but don’t come out towards the fuel pump and the glow plugs.

I’m thinking already about a plan B and will make a phonecall tomorrow morning.

What will happen with the genset tomorrow?

Now the fridge.

With all what was done on the fridge, the conclusion was that we can built it back in, connect all the tubes and run a pressure test overnight. This sentence was quickly written, behind it, it was a day’s workload.

So will the pressure be OK tomorrow?