Whangarei Town Basin Marina, New Zealand
Turns out our last post was very prophetic, since one week later we were alerted to the news that a Category 3 hurricane would make landfall on the north island of New Zealand as an extra-tropical cyclone. So back we headed to Opunga Cove where we had ridden out two other 50 knot gales. The forecast was for the eye to pass directly over us, and everyone took the storm warnings very seriously with some shore-side locations calling for evacuations. For us, it was a dark and stormy night, with peak winds in the high 50s and the usual heaps of rain … but other than that, pretty uneventful. Once the eye passed to the south, the winds started shifting so we upped anchor and moved across to another cove to ride out the 30kt backside for another 24 hours. Dragonfly was so comfortable and stout it was nothing like riding out big weather at anchor on Kailani. By the next morning there were residual rain storms and squally weather and by midday we were on our way back to Opua for Dragonfly’s extensive spa treatment.
Our haul out in Opua was very productive but we were on the hard for 11 days which was twice the time for which we planned. Time is money so the yard bill was proportionately over budget, but in fairness both overruns were due to our first real chance to inspect Dragonfly below the waterline. Dragonfly’s main engine, essentially the most important component of an offshore single engine power boat, is cooled by a radiator bolted to the underside of the hull, a keel cooler. The manufacturer’s recommendation is to remove the cooler every 2,000 hours and clean it out. Since we could find no record that this had been done since she was commissioned in 2009 over 6,500 engine hours ago we thought we ought to have a go at it. The engineering firm we hired to perform the task worked like troopers, first to get the cooler off as in 17 years it had grown to be part of the boat. Once off a two day soak in a vat of acid was just the “spa” treatment to make it good as new. The engineers proved very creative in manufacturing both tools and parts to remove and reinstall the cooler properly since these were not locally readily available.
When we hauled out the existing anti-foul paint on the bottom began to flake off which meant that the entire bottom with all its nooks and crannies had to be sanded back to the barrier coat. This extensive process took 4 yard workers in hazmat suits 4 days to finish. After each day of this “scrub”, Dragonfly’s spa treatment continued with a bleach water rinse of her entire topsides to remove the staining dust from her decks. Yuck. In the process we discovered that one of the two grounding plates bolted to the hull had been painted over at least twice. These copper plates are critical to both the deflection of lightning strikes and the limiting of electrolysis, so it’s good to have everything back working the way it was designed to do. Always reliable tradesman, the guys at Opua Boatbuilders we were able to fix a leaking portlight in short order, as well as fiberglass a crack in one of Dragonfly’s stabilizer fins incurred during our buyers’ survey. Once all the trades finished, Dragonfly looked amazing. All in all it was educational for us and literally restorative for Dragonfly.
No matter how much time we spend here in New Zealand, we are impressed by her beauty and quiet grandeur. So few people living on this gorgeous piece of earth, where the sheep still outnumber the humans by five to one! Part of the nuances of the “small world” nature of life here is that although we personally are infrequent visitors, we still have the “hey, I know you!” moments pretty often. Take the haul out yard. The last time we hauled here was in October of 2024, getting Kailani ready to sell. The guy behind us was also selling his sailing yacht. And who do we see again? Yup, Peter, prepping his new sailing yacht to race across the Tasman in May. We swapped the usual stories and he remarked on the “spaceship” qualities of the underbody of our new “launch” (kiwi speak for power boat). What a small world!
And then there is the fact that the first haul out we did back in 2005 with Manu Kai was in this yard, and back then the paint shop was run by a guy named Robbie Aucket (famous for painting the NZ America’s Cup yachts). One of his crew, Chad, was a local Maori kid. This is our fourth haul out here in 20 years, and this time, Chad came up to us and gave Harley a huge hug! The guys pressure washing Dragonfly said – “wow, Chad doesn’t hug anyone – who are you guys?!” Hah! We have seen him grow up to now be the man in charge of the paint shop, and he likes to tell people how the first time he met us we young and spry, doing all the work ourselves, living aboard, showering at night in the crew’s lav (yuck!) … back when the yard only had about 10 boats hauled out at a time. Ah, the good old days.
We will be sad to set sail from New Zealand, but the fact of the matter is we are limited with our visa situation to how much time we can spend in country. If we do not move Dragonfly, we will be unable to cruise next fall. And boy we sure did pick a time to move to power boating! The cost of diesel here in New Zealand has just pushed above $9USD a gallon, making even the minimal fill of 600 gallons that we need to get offshore a bit prohibitive. This and our discovery of some rig work that needs doing have made us decide to delay passage to Fiji until we can return to New Zealand in the Austral winter (aka late August) and move her out then. For now Dragonfly is tucked back into the marina, and we will fly back to the states for the Idaho summer, thus pushing back Dragonfly’s maiden offshore passage a few months.
35 43.4 S 174 19.6 E
At the dock, Whangarei Town Basin Marina
North Island
New Zealand
Spa? I pictured you al last soaking blissfully in a tub somewhere. Who knew boats go there too. What a change in that hull. As we were taught in the Berkeley
Marina BOAT means break out another thousand. Diesel- hard to comprehend that Dragonfly takes more than 600 gallons! Anyway when are you returning stateside?
I think for the first time ever there has been no mention of Soph or Scotland ! She must be in her element as you two are in yours.
May your amazing life, adventures, and stories continue.
A
Yes, the boat looks beautiful! And how about the humans aboard- did they get the relaxing treatment as well?
Somehow, I can relate to the guy who doesn’t hug anyone taking a shine to Harley. He’s for that authentic Magnetism 🙂
Sounds like we’ll be seeing you sometime soon. Much love
Good as new. Cooler. Cheers