The “Launching”
Well the bow thruster job turned out (as most boat related jobs do) to be quite a mission but thanks to Wayne’s knowledge & experience we completed it by Thursday and launched on Friday. The sealant which stops seawater coming up through the bow thruster “tunnel” has all been replaced using 3M 5200 which Wayne says is far superior to any other product for this type of job. For one thing, although it takes about a week to fully cure, we were able to launch the boat about 6 hours after application as 5200 cures under water. Its tough to work with and sticks like the proverbial s..t to a blanket but that’s what makes it good. Wayne & Pat had originally been due to leave us on Friday but very kindly changed their own vacation plans to spend 2 more days with us, due to the bow thruster issue. This was certainly highly appreciated. So we launched for the second time late Friday afternoon and once again did our checks prior to leaving the safety of the travel lift. To my horror I saw traces of water in the bilge adjacent to the bow thruster. On closer inspection (by Wayne) this water was seeping out of a sea water strainer for the deck wash down and had nothing to do with the bow thruster – a classic case of 1 + 1 = 3. We turned off the seacock and all was OK – I’ll just have to replace the strainer before we turn it back on.
So on Friday night we spent our first night aboard.
All day Saturday was spent with Wayne & Pat showing us all about the operation of Envoy and there was a lot to learn, for example re commissioning the watermaker took about 3 hours and its pretty complex stuff. Once the watermaker is in use it must be used about every 3 days or problems arise.
Wayne & Pat departed on late Saturday afternoon after what I can only describe as a fantastic effort by them to assist us and Diane & I were on our own. That night we drank a bottle of sparkling wine left for us by Wayne & Pat and poured a glass over the bow of Envoy in recognition of her new owners and re flagging as a NZ vessel.
Since then we’ve been very, very busy ! We have a rental car and have been ferrying back and forth to the shops to fully provision the boat. So far 3 complete car loads of groceries with of course a bottle or three of vino.
But the shops are very interesting with the different food to what we are used to.
Also we have started going through Envoy from stem to stern to see what is on board and where it is. I can only describe this as being like “kids in a toyshop”! Envoy truly has so much equipment, spare parts etc that it’s a lot of fun just opening every locker to discover what is there.
Today the re stocking is mostly complete and we need a couple more days to familiarize ourselves with operating Envoy before we venture forth out of the harbour for the first time. This will probably be on Wednesday and we'll go out for the day and come back. By the way the weather here is like early Spring in Auckland – mild and pleasant in the day and coolish at night. Have not seen any rain so far, apart from a brief light shower. This is a beautiful marina and we're enjoying the atmosphere.
Ciao