Island Time!

Hi Everyone,
I forget what I sent last. I guess we are starting to get into the "island time". We hardly know what day, or week, or month it is. Although every day seems to be filled with lots of chores and things to do. Like going to the local farmers market to get veggies and bread. Life seems to be filled with the basics of food and supplies and getting things done on the boat. Even with a new boat there are lots of little things that need upgrading, particularly after we have gone through the Tasman with 40 knot winds and 3 - 4 meter seas. Anything that could have shaken loose, or broken, or worn, did. But overall, we are still very pleased with the boat's performance. As I think we mentioned before, the most scary part was not the winds and waves, but the lightning storms. We fortunately skirted most of them, but one particular one had Carol sleeping with the EPIRB.
The life here in northern New Zealand is like the US in the 60's. The music on the radio. The cars, the way teenagers act. The more relaxed life and the way that everyone seems to be helpful. Every morning, the local net is filled with information and people who are willing to help each other. For example, this morning someone wanted ride to a nearby town, and someone else responded, "Sure we can give you a ride" The country side is rolling hills, very green with lots of cattle and sheep. The Kiwis love their Cricket teams and though we don't understand it, the games last for days. We will be leaving this lovely area of the Bay of Islands to visit the area between here and Auckland over the next few weeks. Our next port will probablly be Whangarea, pronounced Fongeray. Cheers mates,
Dan and Carol aboard Caprice.

LIfe at the Bay of Islands

Hi Everyone,
Life here at the Bay of Islands is everything we could have imagined. Clear water, a bit chilly, lots of fish and diving is excellent. Vaughn and David dived for scallops the other day and had a ball. We feasted on scallops and oysters for Xmas eve. The local Opua Cruising Club had a wonderful Xmas day dinner. We find local shopping a bit unlike Costco, but are getting along fine. Today we will go back to the Islands to do some more diving, and the grandkids playing on the lovely beaches.
We will stay in this area thru the month of January and then perhaps work our way down south a little toward Auckland.
Cheers,
Dan and Carol

Greetings from Opua!

Hi Everybody,
Made it to Opua NZ in 9 days 6hours from Sydney, pointing most of the way with NNE winds that ranged from 0 to 40 knots and seas from flat calm to 3-4 meters. We are told that this is one of the worst 4 ocean crossings. Caprice handles very well, even in rough seas, although when we spotted a huge lightning storm behind us, Vaughn put the "pedal to the medal" with both engines and Carol hugged the EPIRB most of the night. I really enjoy the Spectra Watermaker. It is so neat to be able to take a shower in 15 -25 knot winds. I can't imagine doing that in a monohull. We only saw 5 ships during the entire Tasman Sea crossing and no airline contrails. But now we are in the quaint little village of Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. The marine facilities are excellent and the local supermarket has most of the provisions we need.
The local Opua Cruising Club is a lot like RYC - family type, cook your own steak and reasonable prices. We will join them for Xmas day dinner, where everyone brings something and helps out. Met Commodore and Nancy Tompkins here yesterday. Small world.
David Rasmussen and Vaughn were perfect crew members for the Tasman Sea crossing - pleasant, skillful and very helpful. Couldn't have asked for a better crew for our maiden voyage. Of course Carol kept the stew pot full although we didn't eat nearly as much as she anticipated.
Jenny and the grandkids are due in Auckland tomorrow morning, so Vaughn and David are driving down to pick them up. Looking forward to cruising out to some of the Islands to do some snorkling and to test out our Hookah.

Land Ho!

Hi Everyone,
Can you imagine, here we are beating upwind in 15 - 20 knot winds at 6.5 knots in the Tasman Sea and taking a shower? With the watermaker, we can enjoy such luxuries every few days. We spotted the Three Kings Islands at 1530 today. Soon we will fall off and head for Opua (Bay of Isles), where we will check into customs, set foot on land and find a laundromat. We may even get some time to try our our Hookah in the clear waters of Bay of Isles. We expected the crossing to haved taken 10 days total, so we are right on schedule. Much of the trip we motorsailed to keep moving during the light winds and to get to New Zealand as much before Jenny's, Michaela's and Westley's arrival as possible. We have all enjoyed the trip, learned a lot about Caprice and ourselves along the way. Had a variety of weather from zero wind and flat, calm seas, to 35-40 knot winds with 4 meter seas. All in a day's work. Caprice handles beautifully and takes even gale winds in stride. Vaughn and David have been invaluable crew members, handling all situations with precision and calm. They have been a real pleasure to have aboard. We found that the iPods (one per person) are extremely useful and help the watches go by very quickly.
Cheers.
Dan, Cook Carol & Super Crew

All is well!

All is well aboard Caprice. Little rain for the last 24 hours. We are all ready to see land. we figure that we have about 2 to 3 more days to New Zealand.
-Caprice

We're On Board

We made it!!!! We have been on board for 3 weeks now, and are finally settling down to normal life aboard. We have been cataloging where we put "stuff" since there are 33 compartments in the interior and once something is stashed, it gets lost unless we have a log of where we put it. All systems are go except the watermaker which hasn't been commissioned yet and the life raft is due to arrive on Tuesday. Then we will be kicked out of the marina and set off to explore on our own. We are actually looking forward to it. We have only sailed a few days up to Manly Beach and back, but have successfully gone out of the slip several times. The twin engines are a dream. We have met many lovely people here, who have opened up there homes to us. We are learning the local lingo and actually can say G'day almost like the locals. Sydney is a wonderful harbour with tons of boats. They actually race almost every night of the week, plus weekends, regardless of the weather. Looking forward to Vaughn and David joining us in a few weeks to start the voyage to New Zealand. Our SailMail is up now, so we can send and receive short messages.
Cheers,
Dan and Carol

Its almost done

Its almost done. This picture was sent from the factory as a "tickler". We still plan on going to Australia on Nov. 1, to arrive on Carol's birthday, Nov. 3.

We had a wonderful party on October 6. Great friends from all over the western states helped us celebrate our adventure. Mike Roper was very gracious in sailing his Seawind 1160 to our home so that our friends could see the "sister ship". Tom Hansen, Ted and Pat Stuart, Lucie Mewes and Vaughn Seifers all sailed back to Alameda with Mike and crew. All seemed impressed with the speed (10 knots) and handling in moderate winds.