It’s now a week since I left sunny NZ. The first couple of days at Canoe Cove were not too flash, I caught some disease (United Airlines food poisoning maybe) and felt awful. For two days I was pretty useless, feeling cold and miserable and couldn’t eat. Luckily, I stayed at an Airbnb just five minutes walk away from the boatyard for four days so had a warm bed to return to each night.
Well its rained every day since I have been here, real spring weather, rain on and off. When the sun comes out its glorious for a few minutes then the cloud and bitterly cold wind kick in again. Not the best antifouling weather and it’s taken me 4 days to get the hull ready for the final coats to go on. When I did the antifouling in Alaska last year I saved money by using Petit antifouling paint. Well, cheap is not always good and I have spent a lot of time sanding and scraping the Petit paint down to a good substrate. This time I am using International CRC paint and hope it will do a good job on its way back to NZ.
I just received a bunch of Pacific charts from Redwise ship delivery. So kind of them, it will save me money and give me paper chart back up should my electronics fail. Redwise is the company I do ship delivery for and they are a top quality outfit and very professional.
Looking back on the past week I don’t seem to have achieved much. Truce is in a terrible mess, I have sail bags heaped in the salon and spare gear scattered all over the place. I had a new shaft and dripless stern seal installed over the winter and want to leave the aft lockers clear for when we get back into the water so I can see if we have any leaks. On Tuesday when we floating again I can start stowing things and getting shipshape again.
Tomorrow should see the first coat of antifouling finished – I cant wait to be finished with this job.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 
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