New Alita

I finally downloaded the photos of our new Alita top and bottom. Her you can see the body work of the two weeks work on the hard in December before we left sailing: 

Beautiful New Zealand

As we're sailing up the north east coast of New Zealand once again I am impressed by the beauty of nature. Nowhere in the south sea do you find prettier beaches, or more gorgeous islands. Just the temperature here is a bit too cold for nice swimming or snorkeling. But, we went swimming anyways in this gorgeous horseshoe bay….

We're enjoying my  new toy, Charly, the drone. with it we can take spectacular pictures or movies from above…See for yourself. 

Cape Brett - known as the Hole in the Rock

Deep water cove where we spent christmas and Horesshoe Bay where we went swimming

Horseshoe Bay and Whangaroa, where Sibylle, Peter and I once again climbed up to the top

Love NZ

Merry christmas

After 2 beautiful sailing days (with an overnight stop at Whangaruru Bay) we anchored in Deep Water Cove where we started (and ended) a 5 hour hike to/from Cape Brett. A gorgeous day, a gorgeous christmas with Sibylle and Peter. We put up lots of lights yesterday and put a lamb roast in the oven yesterday for a super good late dinner after sunset (it gets dark at 9pm). This mornin we had christmas morning cinnamon rolls from our Alaskan sailing friends on Fran and Richard on red. What a treat! Sorry that I hadn't written before, we rarely have internet connection. Wishing you all wonderful holidays!!!

Gorgeous day out!

We're sailing!!!

Plätzchen

Seriously, what would you do if finally your boat is ready, all clean, all working, sails are up and you keave the harbour to let the quiet season start? Right, you start (finally) making christmas cookies because it's almost christmas. Ok, and we did fishing the Kiwi way. How? We had to raft up to a Catamaran in front of Whangarei bridge, which is closed in after work traffic hours until 5.30 pm. We started talking to the guy and his family, the typical lovely Kiwi, as you do. Talked about South New Zealand and how lovely the people are and how fishermen always give something to boats cause there are so few of them coming there. Next thing I hear is that he is ind of those Crayfish-fishermen..,We chat a bit more, then I went doenstairs to make my cooking dough. Next thing I know is that he gives us a bag with fresh fileted King Fish, a super specialty, for our dinner. That was so lovely of them. Boy, this fish was GOOD! I had really missed fish in the meantime. Fresh fish. And the trade tradition...
Now I'm back into cruising life - despite baking cookies...

Ready 2 go

We're in the water without a leak, big grocery shopping tour is done and stored, Alita cleaned and living room usable, the last caulking / glueing work outside done, the genoa and foresail are up (I had to go up the mast though) and so much more. We're ready to go. Tomorrow we're heading out. Out hurting backs, knees, numb fingers will remind us of all the work for a while. But when we finally sail and see our firt sunset out in a bay I am sure this will all be forgotten. We're looking forward to getting out of here.
M

Storing 1/2 of the shopping

New Alita

It's been a tough two weeks with long working days, but now we're mostly done. Alita is more beautiful than ever. The super painting job ob the deck that Marcus did with Daemon here at Norsand, our new fake trak deck (Permatek), the new interior that's makes us think the sun is always shining. And of course the Antifouling that Marcus put on which hopefully lasts for the next two years. All of this stuff handmade in long hours and hand-put-on!

Big thanks to RoSch Yachts in Hamburg Germany for the super production of the Permatek deck according to my master plan and for going through the hassle of sending it here with the glue. It worked out well even though you had never seen Alita in person - only photos with the master on and measurements. We already love our new deck!

Last but not least we put the new name sticker on Alita- the old one had to come off due to the paint job.

Now my friends an christmas can come! Happy 4th of advent!

Project 1: beds completed

So the first project that is completed are our beds. I might do the guest beds as well and have to do the curtains - while Marcus is finishing the under-boat job: 2 layers of Anti-fouling will be applied today. So far so good. Will start with fixing the deck tomorrow together. We'll keep you posted.

First day

After a super cool flight with Air New Zealand on sky couch seats (3 seats form into a sofa!) we were ready for our first exciting day. Our friends picked us up and we started the crago company -customs- cargo company - freight loading area marathon of getting papers, paying fees, get another paper and pay more fees until 2,5 hrs and a breakfast later we were able to start the drive from AKL airport to Whangarei to our dear swimming - and currently on land -home Alita. A quick lunch and grocery shopping (while we had someone to drive us) later we were ready to start the work. What does a woman do before she stores new stuff? Yes, clean the boat. About 4hrs and a ahower after our friends left us Alitas living areas were clean and most of my stuff stored away and I fell into no dreams but a deep and spound 12 hr sleep night. No jet lag!
Today we're back to normal boatyard working day. Ok, I first cleaned the kitchen and tools so I could eat something. Then I set up my depserately needed means of transportation: my bike.
In the meantime we also pulled up the new deck and rolled it out to see if it fits. Except for 2 small stairs it is perfect!!! Yay. So now Marcus is grinding underneath to perpare for glueing it on while I need to find a solution for the backrests in the cockpit.
The weather is nice and warm. Summer feels unusual to me at the moment.

So long, have a great day

Short stop in LA

Making the best out of a 5hr stop over

On our way

> Long time no hear. These last weeks have been crazy. Finishing the jobs I loved, preparing the house to be left and saying goid-bye to family and friends -and to my beloced cat- was hard and left me with a lot of tears. On this 1,5 day journey to NZ I can finally change my focus and start looking forward to all the excitement coming up. So stay tuned for the latest stories. We have two weeks if preparing Alita til we put her back into the water.
>
> So long, Michaela