H
01/20/2010, Auckland, NZ

Hi Gents and Sheilas,

First of all I would like to apologize to our numerous and loyal fanbase for slacking on my blog duties. Not only a lack of creativity (writers "blog" I guess) but definitely a lack of adventurous happenings except for this week, i.e. todays blog update.
We just got back in the water after spending a week in Orams shipyard. As our door is still standing and in one piece regarding job offers we decided to take the boat out of the water and treat Babalu to a visit to the local spa and beauty parlor. We sanded the hull down and gave her a nice new anti fouling coat. The next project was to have the sail drive treated. Sanding, priming, anti-fouling, new rubber jacket (the one from last year when we fitted the new engine fell off after a month, this time we used 5200, for non-sailors, that is Satan's Glue, once applied and cured it will take a hammer and chisel to remove it with certain collateral damage.) Last but not least, the port water tank. For those not familiar with the Babalu layout, we have in our salon under the sitting area one 25 Gal. or 100 L tank on each side, connected by a crossover with valve. I noticed a while ago that the bilges were filling up with fresh water, although slowly it was a thorn in our behind, it had to be fixed. But taking that tank out promised to be a sweaty operation and filled with outrageous Flemish swearwords. The tank was most likely installed first and the furniture build around it. When I opened the tank I could see a rusty weld seam on the bottom, that's where that hole will most likely be we thought, this tank is 25 years old and made of Stainless. Now here is the challenge, when I redid the electrical wiring I used the same path as the original installation, on top of the tank (oooopsss) and entering the electrical compartment on the aft side, making it incredible hard to lift the tank out. So I had to start cutting wires and probably like a 50 wire ties, taking out one of the batteries, etc... it was a slaughter that made me sick to the stomach remembering all the hours of slave labor that went into the installation in the first place. Once that was done we had a carpenter starting to take out some wooden beams, breaking the screws, with the intention of gluing it all back afterwards. With a lot of hooha Erika and I got the tank out and had it pressure tested and fixed. The guys found 8 pin holes. Putting it all back together was a breeze, only a little time consuming.
So we are back in the water and docked in Westhaven. All back to normal. Babalu will get a proper bath tomorrow, I think she is happy.... and so are we.

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H
01/09/2010, Auckland, NZ

Erika and I started our newest year with something we have never done before, a rodeo. We had to come all the way to New Zealand to go and see a rodeo. We were actually there to help out a friend, Andre. He has an Ice-cream truck and needed a bit of help. So Erika jumped in and became an Ice-Cream Lady for a day. It was fun, lot's of people, bulls, horses, hot dogs and lots and lots of Ice Cream.
We are also still in the process of finding work. There are a couple of leads out there and I expect a break through any moment now. Oh by the way, we have decided to park Babalu for a year so we can take a more full time job and fill that kitty to the brim. We have less chance of leaving our boat somewhere safe and go away for work in the next couple of legs, so here we go. It is not going to be easy to leave our little home like that and not have the live we love so much but No Pain No Gain, right?
We hope people are not freezin' too many parts of their body, especially in Europe, it is another hot and sunny day here in Auckland. (I wont be able to enjoy it to the fullest though as I went playing football ((the real thing, ball with foot)) yesterday with the Brazillians (Canela), the French (Qovop) and Canadian (Sedna I) in the full sun for a couple of hours. I realize now that humans have a lot of hidden muscles and when they hurt badly you walk like an 87 year old...

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the Babalus
12/24/2009, Westhaven Auckland NZ

Dear Friends and Family,
Again a Merry Merry Holidays (ex- X-mas) and a Jolly Jolly New Start of 2010. We are still here in Westhaven Marina in Auckland New Zealand. It is a wonderful morning X-mas Day, about 22 degrees C (71F), sun shining through the hatch, haven' a quick breakfast and off we go to visit our friends, the Boltars. We used to work for Andre, Captain of Emerald K and Vicky and their two lovely children Aurora and Phoenix. So you guessed it by now, I did not leave on my tugboat adventure. At the last minute, even after my introduction to the crew and the boat, they could not hire me because of me not having the working permit. (A detail that was overlooked) All you people out there, living a more sedentary live complain about your governments and their never ending and inefficient bureaucracy sometimes...try to be a nomad and deal with a couple of them a year.... So our wish for the New Year is that some smart and intelligent person in the UN (contradiction enterminis) creates an International Passport and Work Permit for people like us. A Nomadic Passport. No more visa's, no more permits, only clear in and out, 6 months of care free living, working, spending money,... wouldn't that be great!!! All in favor...
But the good news is Erika and I can spend these celebratory days in eachothers' company.... So lot's of love from Down Under!!!!

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h
12/18/2009, Auckland, NZ

Kia Ora,
First of all to all of you out there, Enjoy the X-mas celebrations and a Very Joyful and Happy Start of the New Year. Hopefully some of you will make your new year resolution a visit to Babalu. And share some of the amazing adventures.
We are still in Auckland enjoying the beautiful city and the Kiwi friendliness. The photo shows our new car bought on Trademe.com, New Zealand's most visited website I guess. The good thing is that I made a deal with the seller to take the car back when we are ready to leave again for just a little bit less then what we paid for it. I know it looks a little bit like a "Johnny Car" (it definitely sounds like one with the twin turbo engine, actually it sounds more like an old Harley.) but it was relatively cheap and it is a Subaru Station Wagon, what does one need more....
Funny situations have occurred already driving on the "wrong" side of the road, encountering flashing headlights, "Oink Oink" horning and startled Kiwi faces....
Also I have found work for a couple of weeks. I am going to be a 2nd engineer on a tugboat. First mission is towing a big dredger from Auckland to Newcastle, Australia. We leave on X-mas eve for a 9 day crossing. The down side is that I have to leave my lovely wife Erika here all by herself for the holidays but she had already a couple of offers to join some friends to spend it with their family. Eye on the price, eye on the price.... it is a small sacrifice for what 2010 has in store for us.
Love you all....
E&H

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H
12/12/2009, Auckland, NZ

And all that excitement and beauty in between.
We arrived in Auckland NZ yesterday morning. We had a pretty uneventful overnight passage from Whangarei except from some traffic at night. You get complacent sailing the South Pacific where we encountered only 4 boats since leaving San Diego. There was not a lot of wind so we motor sailed for most of it. But when we got into Auckland harbor it started blowing up to 28 Kts and rain. Now we are docked in the biggest marina we have ever been in, it takes us half an hour to walk to the entrance from our slip.
Hope all of you are well and now off to find work!!! ciao

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H
12/09/2009, Town Basin Marine, Whangarei

Hi all,
We arrived in Whangarei yesterday. We are located at the Town Basin Marina. This is about a 12 Nm run inland up the river. We did not hit the muddy bottom, which is a quite common occurrence for many boats, we were lucky I guess, and I did my homework regarding the right time with the tides.
But on every low tide here inside the marina we are sitting on our keel.
We left Opua around midday and sailed to a little bay called Whangamumu Harbor. It was a nice stopover for a couple of hours. We got some sleep and weighed the anchor at midnight, all this to time the upriver trip well. We are going to stay here until Saterday I guess and then leave for Auckland. We are still in hot pursuit of work and it has not been easy so far. For me to get a work permit I need a job offer first, but I can not get a job offer without a work permit, dog, tail, 22, catching it, etc....The ferry service just hired engineers but even if there was something available, they want me to transfer my British license to a New Zealand one, which includes on top of all the paperwork (and with X-mas around the corner could take 4 to 6 weeks) an oral examination.... So now I am looking into smaller electrical/electronic companies and see if they need somebody for the summer. There is something hanging in the air I am waiting for, more news next week, so cross your fingers.... Erika is kind of waiting to see what happens with me. We have also gone back to the Yacht Crew Agencies see what comes out of that. That's all folks!!!

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Hans
11/29/2009, Opua, Bay of Islands

After an amazing 7 month campaign of conquest of the South Pacific, following the sun, we can officially announce the annexation of Aotearoa (or New Zealand for the plebes) to the Babalu Nation.
Erika and I finally arrived today in Opua, the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand. Once again we were welcomed by some local dolphins. We are sitting here now waiting for Customs, Immigration, Bio security etc... (I wonder if Capt. Cook had to wait that long too?) We ate our last meal in the channel on our approach as all the rest had to be thrown overboard, they are very strict here, no food allowed, well the list is longer and not just all foods but I want to keep it short so I am just going to say, no foods, if that is alright. We have fed the local aquatic population with all Erika's finest. From her own made vanilla yogurt to here already famous pumpkin-cranberry quick bread.
Now it is off to the store I would say. I think the officials have bonds and investments in their local supermarkets. Well we are not cooking tonight I can tell you that, Steak and Fries for All!!!
Well I just found out that the First President of the European Community is none other then a Belgian Comrade, how delightful, well done!!!
Also not to forget on December 1st: Happy Birthday Boris!!!
On December 2nd my sister, Happy Birthday Mieke!!!

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Hans
11/26/2009, 28 42.240'S:176 13.890'E, North of New Zealand

Dear Ndugu, Well we are still here, still beating our way South. The wind has pretty much been just off the bow since we left Minerva. The first 2 days 25-30 Kts, which was actually not too bad but the going into the seas is tiering. Then a bit more then half a day of no winds and we are back to the beating into it. Not much, about 15 to 20 Kts. So we are sailing along just fine getting closer to the turning-south point hopefully catching some westerlies soon. Nothing much to report here except for my moment during the first night of pole dancing and being stuck on the bow with it in my hand and Erika snoring away. What happened was that our 10' (3m) pole that is attached to the mast, clipped in at the bottom and hooked into a stud (called donkeydick) at the top with the topping lift still attached at about a foot from the bottom. With all the motion and pichin', slamming the boat hard on the surface of the seas, it kind of loosened itself enough to make the annoying sound of a back and forward "click". So at about 3 in the morning I go up the bow to straighten it out. Erika was fast a sleep down below. I thought no problemo, I am attached with my harness to the jack line and the waves were not that high anymore. So I went up, grabbed the halyard and start pulling it up so it would have no more slack at the bottom, thus no more "clicking". Well when I pulled it up, I felt another click but this time above my head and when I looked up I saw the pole moving away from the mast. It is not that heavy but on a moving boat it is rather clumsy handling on your own. So all I could do was embrace the mast with the pole in between us. (This is not a sexy story, but there was a bond there,...) Now what??? I could not go down to manually unclick the bottom, the halyard was too tight to let the pole come down on the deck, which was quite an operation anyway, only one thing left, EEERRRRIIIKKKKAAAAAAA!!!!, It took me at least 10 screams, stamping my feet, whistling to the point of being about to blow my eardrums. After a good 5 minutes of pole dancing on the foredeck there she appears, sticking here pretty little head up with those big brown sleepy eyes, asking me what was going on, man was I happy to see here. What made us think though was that up to that moment we were convinced that if one of us would fall overboard, we would be able to hear the shouts, well I can tell you, NO freakn' WAY... So from now on we are even more careful, a good lesson it was.

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Hans
11/23/2009, 23 37.390'S:178 55.200'W, Northern Minerva Reef

We arrived yesterday the 22nd at Northern Minerva Reef after a very enjoyable first part of our trip. What a strange place. Located about 300Nm SW of Tonga and about 850Nm N of New Zealand, in the middle of nowhere, this big round bathtub shaped reef with only one 70m wide entrance. The water around is very deep and the water inside has a depth of about 15 to 20m. It is kind of choppy as there are no land features to stop the wind or the waves (a little at low tide when the reef is slightly exposed) We are the only sailing vessel here. There is another boat but it is a "local" fishing boat. The weird thing too is that for example to anchor we had no reference point to see if we dragged or not, there are other ways of course but usually two points in line is the easiest and most common way. What is great though is that there are no bugs and especially no mozzies, those damn hans' crazy vampires. We are leaving tomorrow morning. The winds are not that great but we are going to have to go with the flow, I guess. It is a lack of wind and the direction that is the stick in the wheel here. If all goes well we should be in New Zealand in about 6 to 7 days. Opua here we come...

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H
11/18/2009, Pangaimotu, Nuku'alofa, Tonga

There is a flair of hectic busyness on the boat today. Like a well oiled machine, but chaotic to the outsider, Erika and I are in our last preparation for the big push. Engine serviced, all filters and strainers replaced and/or cleaned, storm jib and try sail have flown about in this tranquil bay, all procedures fine tuned, food prepared, stores are full, only for this trip though, the New Zealanders are incredibly strict on what is brought into the country. We are already cleared out and New Zealand knows we are coming. The shroud coming from New Zealand is in town, coming on the next ferry to Big Mama's Yacht Club. (This message will have a part II with a shroud update) Hopefully this time it is going to go up. Tomorrow morning after breakfast, high tide we are going into town for the last time, filling up with water and then off we go. We are going to sail to Minerva Reef first and then wait for a good weather window to proceed to Opua in the Bay of Islands.
We have been sitting around here now for over two weeks kind of waiting for our part, and we can tell you we could not have wished for a better place. This has been by far the friendliest people we have met so far, Nuku'alofa is the place to get ready for the trip to New Zealand. A lot of the cruisers stopping here are very surprised and most of them promise to come back next season on their way North. This island has a bit of a bad rap, the rumors are that it is dirty (wrong, cleaner than any place in Tonga), the people are not friendly (wrong again, see my comments above), the officials are hard to work with (keep getting it wrong, the easiest clear in and out in the whole of our trip, including the US of A.) and I can keep going on,... which I wont.
Also we have met kind of a celebrity here. When Erika and I were shopping for veggies and fruit at the market we passed a stand with a friendly gentleman in his early 60's. He was selling souvenirs as quite a few others but what caught my attention was a book he put together claiming that he was a direct descendant of Captain Bligh. His family came from the island of Tofua, the closest place to the 1789 mutiny on the HMS Bounty. We started talking and it sounded very interesting. I have given him my copy of "The true story of the Mutiny on the Bounty" a well written book with a lot of historical research involved. He gave me his book, which is actually a collection of letters between him and an
Australian Captain of the Bounty replica that came around here in late 80's. They were doing the research together to get to the truth and nothing but the truth of this wonderful claim, I guess Capt. Bligh had a local mistress and did not use any protection.
Ok Part II. The Famous Shroud.
It arrived about 2 hours ago. I unpacked it and the first thing I saw was the right size threaded stud for the turnbuckle. Good! The length looked alright but I had to check that once on the boat. BUT the T-bar was a 10mm instead of a 8mm. I had to go up the mast and file away the sides of the mast piece. Lucky after a good 5 min. filing the piece it entered. So WE ARE READY!!!!
Next update, Miverva Reef...

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