The Cleanup - Dulcinea

Well today it was nice to not only sleep in (and in a proper bed) but wake up beside Emma who I had missed a lot! we slept into 9am after a good night of curry, beers and watching the All Blacks beat the French. We wandered around a wet and cold Wellington looking for somewhere nice to get some brunch, finally found somewhere and both decided in the waffles and a mocha. We spent another hor or so walking around together before I got on the bus to get to the boat (Emma had to stay in town as she was working on the rugby). I got to the yacht and began the enormous task of cleaning before leaving her to sit for a few months before we collect it. I had to wash all the towels, sheets, bedding, clothing as a lot had got wet during the trip and especially wet durning the tow in yesterday. The floors were filthy, there was salt spray over pretty much everything so it was all wiped down, storm jib stowed, bimini removed and stowed, genoa moved into a more suitable location, kitchen cleaned...the list went on and on and after about 6 hours I had managed to get it pretty good. So I locked her up, caught the bus and dropped the keycard back to Emmas hotel...it was here I realised we were now in daylight savings mode and I only had 1 hour before my plane left and I had to check my bag at least 30min prior to departure so I franticly got a cab and we hoofed it to the airport, making it just in time. Grabbed a coke and a sammy at the terminal and boarded for a very fast 30min flight (was supposed to be 55min so we must of had a serious tail wind or something). Got home, unpacked and thought I would finish the night by writing this.

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Gwalarn

AUTHOR

30 September 2011 at 18:03 delete

Glad you both arrived safely in Wellington, I thought the trip might throw up a few curves along the way but nothing as bad as you have had. That east coast has a rep (bad) to keep up.
With the Nor Wester blowing you would have made Lyttleton in double quick time after getting accross cook strait, the shortage of diesel must have been a bugger with the Kaikouras in your sights.
We only have hand steering so spend a lot of time at the tiller, Gwalarn does balance well, with a bit of bungy cord attached to a pair of blocks I can set her up on most settings and she will self steer as long as the wind stays steady. On the wind she doesn't even need the bungies. So when sailing alone I feel as though I have an invisible first mate.
Thanks again for the Flare kit.
Best regards,
Steve.