"Good water, good life; poor water, poor life; no water, no life" Sir Peter Blake


Thursday, June 20, 2013

On the rocks - Mazuran's Salvage

I am sitting on the boat at the navigation station, reflecting... I can hear the wind howling outside, and the rigging of the boat next door banging away against the mast. I can hear the battery charger with the familiar humming noise as it charges our batteries (and keeping my feet warm at the same time).  I can hear the hail outside, hitting the hatch and windows less than 400mm from my head.  There are flashes of lightening that are similar to the flashes of tourists as they walk through the Viaduct on warm summer evenings.  Thunder echoes around the buildings sounding as though there is something dreadful happening outside.

I am dry, cosy and warm.

I am reflecting about the storm that brought Mazuran into our hands. The storm that made it all happen for us. The life changing decision that made me smile and petrified at the same time.

Purchasing a rather large damaged boat.  Who would want to do it?  You'd have to be CRAZY!  (Well, yes, as you all know, I am a little crazy!)...So I write this little bit for those who don't know how we came across our new 'home'.  (Once again I have to thank my parents for making this dream come true, for they put their heart and soul into helping us in every way possible).

Every boat has a history. When an owner buys a second hand boat they have lots of emotions go through their head; excitement, happiness, elation, guilt and even fear.  When buying a damaged boat, there is also another element, dread.  There are moments when you have to sit down and think practically.  Go through every scenario, and revisit questions such as;
Can we do it? 
Can we afford it?  (no, is always the answer for that one!),
Do we want it enough to change everything in our lives? 

And once it's all yours....

What the f**k have we done!??? 

If you are the sort of person who thinks that every boat is like a human being, you feel that a part of it has 'died' when you see a boat that's been broken up by a storm.  Mother nature is something so powerful that no-one knows what the outcome will be until it has passed.  It certainly isn't a nice sight seeing a boat being washed ashore in a storm. Your heart feels torn apart, knowing that there are often great memories associated with the boat, firstly with the building of such a vessel.

When we purchased Mazuran she had been washed ashore in a storm at Paihia Beach, Bay of Islands, and the previous owner was very kind in letting us have some of the pictures of her.  These photos of her as she was going ashore, the owners were out of town at the time so were totally devastated when they came back.  A friend of theirs took these photos, feeling very helpless as they watched through the camera lens.





She even made the front page of The Northern Advocate paper and another local paper the Bay Report.




And then along came her rescuers!  (that's us)...

So this is Mazuran before we bought her and started our major refit project.  She was basically a shell that we had to add lots of structure to, including her hulls underneath.  As you can see in the pictures, she had no hulls from the waterline down.




We then relocated her to the best spot in Kerikeri, and the major re-build began!

I still am dry, warm and even more cosy now I have turned on the heaters.. I am smiling as I write this post, as I realised I hadn't written anything about her salvage. She has been an amazing boat, and the people and friendships we have formed have been something we had never thought would happen.  There were times where we shuddered at the thought of having nothing more to spend on her, yet we were only half way through what we wanted to do, but you somehow gather strength and tackle each problem with tiny steps to keep the progress going forward.  I know we will venture more with her, and have more projects to complete on her.  Even though I'm tied up to the dock with a million docklines and fenders to protect us, I feel like I am 'home'.  Aboard our hard work, a space we have created for "us".

I will do another post that shows the 'before' and 'after' when I get a chance.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Nasty Low Pressure

Today was a bit of a brief storm, (some say it was just a strong breeze), but having 60-70knots at Tiri on the nowcasting I would certainly say it was a storm!

We had 45.6 knots over our deck today, and honestly while on Skype to Craig, I think he was more worried than we were as all he could see was us swaying from side to side as the boat was moving around with all the wave action!

I took a photo during the 'peak' wind and then 45 minutes later, when the sky turned an amazing colour and the wind died right out, leaving a calm evening to enjoy.


 


Crazy Auckland!




Sunday, June 09, 2013

Inside Out Photo Installation - Tisha Carter

On our way back to Mazuran, we met a lovely family, Tisha & Scott Carter and their lovely daughters Isabel & Sophie.  Freya and Blake took an immediate liking to them (and not to mention the bucket full of glue) and we helped Tisha with her installation.  It is a great series of photos showing the Humans of New Zealand, a piece of the project for the Inside Out Project, and as the website says...

"A global art project transforming messages of personal identity into works of art."


Blake applies the base glue, read for the photo application

Next, the photo goes up, followed by the helpers to smooth it out



For more information on Tisha Carter see her website here.  (she has not may images on this website at present as she says she needs to get time to load them!)

Saturday, June 08, 2013

Fishing Dock, Viaduct Marina

Every day is different when we walk around the waterfront.  There are often seagulls scavenging from leftovers, fishing boats unloading or getting ready for their next sea voyage.









Friday, June 07, 2013

Freya's Fan Club

One of the things we love about being here is the impromptu visits of famous people.  It so happened that we were venturing out on our walk and came across these funny looking guys in Black gear who thought Freya and Blake were famous enough for a photograph!

Freya with All Black, Luke Romano

Dai Henwood, NZ comedian and MC of the day - he thought Freya was tall enough for his "knee height"

I still cannot figure where Dai's 3rd hand came from!

All Blacks - from left: Luke Romano, Victor Vito & Charles Piutau and of course Dai Henwood squeezing in the middle.



Wiggly Tooth

After two weeks of having a wiggly tooth, Freya's first bottom tooth decided to loosen itself. She was super excited, she even wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter!

(The Tooth Fairy even wrote in the visitors book!)


Monday, June 03, 2013

Best of British, Queens Wharf


This Queens Birthday weekend we made the journey to the Cloud on Queens Wharf and experienced all things "British"... we watched a puppet show, played games, and even did a cryptic message and found the crown jewels!  A couple of VERY expensive cars were at the entrance along with a selection of Mini Coopers and a brand new 2012 Morgan.