Aradonna's blog

After 9 days at sea, we have finally arrived in Vanuatu. Looking back of the trip, it wasn't a bad passage really. There was one slightly scaring moment the other day when Heather stepped in some wet carpet - in a place that carpet should definitely not be wet! Opening the engine covers revealed water streaming in to the bilges through the shaft. Not ideal. Heather turned on the bilge pumps while Karl tried to figure out what was happening. At first it looked a bit puzzling - how was the water getting in? Heather casually enquired "Can you fix it?" and Karl said "No!" Oops! Heather then casually enquired again "Do you think I should make a Pan Pan call?" "Not yet," said Karl, "pass me the screwdrivier and I'll try something". Within 30 seconds Karl had discovered the problem, which turned out to be very minor, just a loose sleeve on the stern gland. A couple of screws to be tightened up and all was well again. It was amazing how calm we both were. Making mental checklists in our min ds of what to do next, but no panic. Panic in a situation like that could be disastrous! So all was well. Now we are here - yay! One of the first things on the agenda was slipping over the side to have a swim! The water is 27.5 degrees and felt silky and beautiful to slide into. It is amazing how different you feel after a swim, not to mention a wash! (It is a little difficult to keep up much of a personal hygiene routine when you are rolling around at sea) Now with clean hair, clean bodies and clean clothes, we are enjoying the sunshine. Just that first swim in the warm water has made the last 9 days seem worthwhile! Sheer bliss!

Sea sickness seems to manifest itself in different ways with different people. Some barf, others run to the loo for issues at the other end. Heather and Karl both get lethargic for a couple of days but don't have huge problems with body fluids escaping in any violent fashion. Apart from just wanting to sleep when off watch in the first couple of days, I (this is Heather talking now) have noticed some strange things happen to my brain when we go offshore (i've never been sea sick in my life in coastal boating). I feel OK for the first 8-10 hours, well, no different to normal. Then things start to slow down. Everything. My brain seems to slowly turn to jello. Within 24 hours of leaving port, my neural pathways feel like they are clogged with molasses. Even the most simple tasks, like putting on my harness the right way around or working out our average speed over the day - become a mammoth effort. I can sit staring at a chart for 10 minutes trying to work something out and discover tha t I am no further ahead - in fact I forget what it was I was trying to figure out in the first place. Nothing makes sense anymore! For a couple of days I seem to be blessed with the data processing powers of road kill. Then, on day 3, i wake up from one of my off watch naps and suddenly find the fug has cleared. Those little neurons are firing on all 2 cylinders again and my data processing speed rockets up to the sub planktonian levels I usually have. If anyone knows the reason why my brain turns to jello for the first couple of days - and if anyone has any suggestions to help, it would be much appreciated. Polite suggestions only please :-)

We cleared customs in Opua bright and early Saturday morning, waved goodbye to the ICA fleet and headed out of the marina towards Vanuatu. Within 15 minutes we had discovered two problems! The rev counter was not working. Was it a faulty wire, a fuse, or worse, perhaps the alternator? A quick diagnoses showed that no charge was getting to the batteries. Oh-oh! When Karl went to inspect he noticed a second problem. The circlip that holds the steering together had bent and fallen off! So we turned around and went back into the marina. Fortunately the marina office put us in touch with Rob Walley from Marine Electrics. He turned up promptly on Saturday afternoon and advised it was a faulty regulator. He had none in stock but travelled to Kerikeri to collect one that same afternoon and had us up and running again early the next morning. What a star! The circlip was a challenge. Sea Power was closed and Bruce was away on his boat. Cater marine had all sorts of circlips - smaller ones and larger ones - but none the right size! Glen said he could get one in for us by Tuesday...but when I told him we had already cleared customs and Tuesday would mean missing the weather window, he said - let me make a couple of phone calls. He called a previous customer who had purchased two of the size we needed and explained our predicament. Fortunately this customer had not fitted the circlips yet and was happy to wait until Tuesday. The customer went down to his boat, retrieved them and get them back to the shop within the hour. Huge thanks to Glen at Cater Marine and his customer, we now have a new one fitted and a spare. NZ Customs were very understanding too and allowed us to leave on our original clearance rather than having to clear back in and out again. We finally departed Opua on Sunday at 10.30am feeling very grateful to all the people who went the extra mile to get us underway again.

We have gathered many donated goods to transport up to Vanuatu and look forward to helping the villagers rebuild their lives after the devastation of cyclone Pam. On board we have thousands of vegetable seeds to help the locals grow crops again. Thanks to Terranova Seeds, South Pacific Seeds, Lefroy Valley Seeds and Sue and Graeme Cremer. We also have fishing gear on board to give away, with thanks to Burnsco, Jackie, Pieter and Sarah. To assist schools rebuild their educational material we have donations from Jackie and Patricia. You are all wonderful and we look forward to sending through updates on which villages are being helped with these supplies. Our first port of call is in Aneityum, the southern most island of the Vanuatu chain. These remote islands in the south were hit the hardest by the cyclone and we look forward to seeing what we can do to help. Thanks again to all contributors!