Rugby World Cup 2011 - Opening Ceremony

Auckland, New Zealand


So I met Sean, and about 200,000 other people in downtown Auckland Friday night for the opening ceremony of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. They had originally expected about 50,000 people to show up downtown, updated it friday mid-day to 100,000 and best estimates are over 200,000 showed up so it got pretty crazy. I waited about 45 mins for a bus in Albany and arrived in the city at about 4:45. It took me the next hour and 15 minutes to travel the 1.5 blocks to find Sean. I think he was in the hardest spot possible to get to and I nearly crushed this little old asian lady against a wall when the crowd started pushing pretty heavily. Took all my strength to give her enough space to hide between me and the wall.

Finally caught up with Sean and had a great time watching the haka's and Maori parade till about 6. We then headed up into town to grab a few drinks, and a little food. Met a nice group of kiwi's who thought Sean looked like actor Kevin James, even taking photos with him...quite funny.

We returned to Quay street for the opening ceremony and fireworks....quite spectacular with 4 sets of the same show over the harbour, plus another shot from the sky tower. Then it was back to the same bar for the game as Quay street was just TOO crazy, so after another 30-40 mins of severe pushing and some near tramplings we were out of the pack and on our way. All Blacks killed Tonga so I headed home at halftime. A great time though I was VERY glad to be a big strong guy as the crowds were HUGE and there was basically no crowd control in place.

July Update Part 2

Gulf Harbour, NZ

Since returning work on Visions has progressed, but a bit slower than I had hoped. Insulation has been installed and looks great and tomorrow most of the electrical equipment and furnace should get mounted on the walls and then the electricians can get in there late this week or early next and do the bulk of the re-wiring.



Meanwhile, I have been trying to make new friends and have started curling. The ice is pretty marginal as it is normally a hockey rink, but still lots of fun on a Sunday night.





I also headed to the beach in Piha, though the clouds rolled in on my drive there so it wasn't great weather wise. Still a beautiful point and I am sure amazing on a nice summer day.

July Update Part 1

Gulf Harbour, NZ

God, I suck at actually posting when I am home. I have lots to talk about so this is going to go in increments.



Trip to Vanuatu was good. We caught a few fish along the way including some of the smallest tunas I have ever seen which we threw back. Here is Ayla reeling in one (I finished for her as it was fighting pretty good). We got in at about 11:00 am on Thursday, about the same time the owner landed and spent the afternoon cleaning the boat in the nice bright sun.



Friday I took the day off to "see the island" while the others finished turning over the boat for the owners to move onto Friday afternoon. Unfortunately it poured pretty much all day so my plans sort of got screwed. I ended up going to the market and walking around town. The market was the best I had seen since South America. Tons of great veggies and fruit, fairly cheap, and all looked really good. I had a little kitchen in the room I was staying in, so I decided to buy some fruit (coconut, bananas, oranges, raspberries, & POMPOLMOUSE!) and make a great big fruit salad for lunch...it was fabulous.




I flew home early Saturday morning and was back in Auckland by late morning. My car battery was dead to the point of not being able to unlock the door so I had to wait around in the freezing cold for almost 2 hours for AA...not a great way to be welcomed back.

Work on the boat had progressed well in my absence and I returned home to an engine room fully painted and ready for insulation to be installed.

Miller High Life Sailing -- The Champagne of Beers

30 s 174 30 E
Conditions have been surprisingly reasonable and as we get north of 30 south it should get better.  We are averaging about 10 knots and today the sun is out between the scattered squalls that keep us on our feet with sail changes.  Hoping for bikinis and board shorts by this time tomorrow.

Rolly Polly

21 37 s 171 57 e
300 nm SE of Port Villa Vanuatu

It id 2:45 am and we are rolling gunnel to gunnel.  Yesterday was probably the nicest day of sailing on the Pacific one could imagine..beam reach in 12 to 14 knots of breeze, flat seas, a mahi mahi in the morning and tuna in the afternoon.  This evening the wind has come around right on our stern and we are rolling like crazy in the swell coming up from south of NZ.  Still, it is warm, clear sky, and we only have about 36 hours to go, hopefully a little less as we really want to be in by midday on thurday to allow time to get the boat clean and ready for the owner who is coming thursday (they will probably stay in a hotel thur night to allow Toby and Ayla time to prep.  My left shoulder (separated in car accident) feels like it is ready to fall off after 4 days of holding on to things so the lack of heel is nice but it is hard to sleep when rolling back qand forth.  We have modified the watch (was 3 hours on 4:30 off with 2 people on at a time on 1:30 hour blocks but in the calmness your 2nd 1:30 can be taken sleeping in the pilothouse.  Makes for a short but boring watch without anyone to talk to.  All for now as my first half is cominng to a close.  Time for a log entry and then try to catch some Zed's.

F'ing Boats

Pacific ocean. 600 miles south east of Vanuatu

A fairly booring day with winds easing though of course coming from the exact direction we need to go.  Excitement was added then the engine start battery was dead just 10 minutes after the engine had been running (shut down to drain fuel/water separator).  Parallelled the genset batt to start it and seems as though the 12v alternator has died as it isnt ouputting any juice.  Toby and I looked through the manuals to discover that there is an emergency 24 to 12 volt Newmar converter (same as on visions), but we then dicovered it has been left on preumably for years and is deas so we are stuck running the genset and main engine in order to charge the start batteries.  Wind has in the meanti me built and we are pounding pretty baddly as we try to make miles north to get across this frontal boundary and into light southerlies.

Leaving shelter

35 23.4 s 174 14.6 w
OFF CAPE BRETT

Last chance for cellular data for a while so not sure how much I will update from here out. But I will try.  Passage so far has been easy as we are in the lee of the island hugging the coast. In the next few hours we will bear away to the north and get out into some real seas...hopefully not too bad though.  Eta is currently late wed night but I wouldnt be surprised if we have to slow the boat down in the larger seas expected.