Author: richwest3

December – May, 2013

You may wonder, as you read some of these strange names, if we have trouble pronouncing them.  We don’t when we’re talking to each other as we’ll happily mangle them.  The trouble comes in talking to the Kiwis.

It all starts when someone asks us where we’ve been, what we’ve seen.  We’ll tell them, and they’ll have no idea where we’re talking about.  We’ll describe the place and location, saying the name again.  Sudden recognition will then set in: “Oh, you mean xyz!” Yes, that’s what we said! XYZ!  We’ll then get a lesson on how to pronounce xyz properly, repeating it until it’s mostly understandable to a native Kiwi (saying it as if we were native Kiwis is usually beyond our ability).

It gets complicated in that some of the sounds are unique, like ng together has a soft g, as in “singer,” and wh is pronounced like f (if you’re using the more correct Maori pronunciation, otherwise, the Kiwis might just tell you wh it’s just wh).  Thus Whakatane is pronounced faka-tawn-e, where an American might think it’s waka-tane.  On top of all that, Kiwis tend to emphasize the first syllable.  Opua isn’t pronounced Oh-poo-a, it’s Oh-poo-a.

Over the six months we were in New Zealand, we got a lot better.  Saying w like an f is second nature, but I still can’t do that ng sound quite right.  Of course then we went to Fiji where they have their own really bizarre pronunciations, but that’s a subject for another blog post. –Cyndi

Here’s a pervious post about some of our pronunciation troubles.

May 25 – May 29, 2013

After Rotorua, it was time to get back to waiting for a weather window to make the jump to Fiji. While Rich is really good at using technology to predict weather (GRIBS, etc.), the area between New Zealand and the tropics is particularly challenging. It’s a volatile, ever-changing dance of highs, lows, and in-betweens stemming from Antarctica, the tropics, and Australia. What’s predicted and what actually happens are often two different things, and weather forecasting here is a bit of an art. Thus, we like to hire an expert, not just to help us pick a window, but to update us every day as the picture changes.

It’s always interesting to talk to people about their weather prediction choices. Some people prefer to do their own weather analysis, while others have good luck with Gulf Harbor Radio, an SSB radio weather guru who does general predictions and free forecasting for boats underway. He’s pretty good, but you need to be patient and listen through all the forecasts for various areas and personalized forecasts for other boats before he gets to you–sometimes a long wait.

Others of us like to hire our own weather router. Our favorite weather router, Bob McDavitt, puts out a weekly free newsletter commenting on the coming weather for the week (WeatherGram). Unfortunately, some people mistake this for weather routing and use it to make decisions. It’s not, and they shouldn’t. It can give you an general idea of what might be coming, but it’s not the same thing as using a weather router.

A good weather router makes a personalized daily forecast taking into account your boat’s speed and issuing your sail plan as close to your departure time as possible. Most important, though, are the daily updates via e-mail. Even then, it’s not a perfect prediction as your router can only make his best guess. Weather systems can suddenly stall, speed up, slow down, enlarge, dissipate, or turn in another direction. Mankind is very smart. Mankind can go to the moon. Mankind will never master Mother Nature, though, and trying to figure out what the weather will do is akin to herding cats.

By now we’d signed up with two weather routing services. This wasn’t our intention originally. We’d been using Bob Mc Davitt and liked him, but a friend of ours had consistently had great luck with Commander’s, a service based on the US east coast. He calls them and asks for clarification of weather situations even when he’s not on passage. We liked the idea of being able to call on the sat phone and decided to give Commander’s a try.

Well, they didn’t work out for us. They picked a weather window for us and sent a sail plan that had been made 48 hours earlier (we were flabbergasted by this–48 hours old might as well be a month old). That window deteriorated and we opted out, and they chided us, saying it wasn’t likely to get any better in the future. Confused and frustrated; we decided to hire Bob Mc Davitt, but also stayed with Commanders to see how they compared. It was no contest: Bob Mc Davitt ended up coming out way ahead, the most dramatic example happening while underway when Commanders failed to warn us of some dangerous weather ahead that Bob pointed out in an email in all caps – “GO WEST NOW!!!!!” (more about this in an upcoming post).

Does this mean our friend is wrong in using Commanders? Nope. Everyone has to use trial and error to find out what works for them. Some people love Commanders. Some don’t. Others of us like Bob Mc Davitt, but some don’t. Some people do their own best forecasting, while others will listen to Gulf Harbor or other radio nets. Our friend Webb Chiles doesn’t even believe in weather windows, and he’s sailed around the world 5 times! It’s a bit like religion: what works for you, works for you; but it may not work for someone else.

Finally, it looked like a good weather window was coming. During our final days, we finished provisioning and spent a lot of time at marine and home goods stores doing final small boat projects. Meanwhile, the nights and mornings were pretty darn cold, but we couldn’t complain too much as our fellow cruisers in Whangarei were seeing ice on their docks in the mornings! It wasn’t quite that cold in Tauranga, but there was one afternoon so chilly we went to Phil’s, had our lunch smack in front of the fireplace, and switched chairs during the meal so we could warm up our other sides. We were getting pretty anxious to head to the tropics.

Below is a hodgepodge of pictures from Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. I don’t know if I ever mentioned our marina was right by an airport popular with gliders and stunt pilots, and we always enjoyed watching them. The cute squid came to check us out after we splashed back into the water following our haulout. (As always click to enlarge and scroll.)–Cyndi

Cruising Season 2013

Whenever we go to new place, we like to visit Mc Donald’s to see what specialty menu item they have for that region. For example, there’s the McBaguette in French Polynesia, McPatatas in Mexico, Portuguese sausage in Hawaii, Thai chicken wings in Hong Kong, etc. (If you look on Wikipedia, the long list of Mc Donald’s regional items is astonishing!).

Here in New Zealand we’ve had some really interesting stuff. Over the summer season there’s a Kiwiburger with beet and egg and a chicken sandwich called the Scorcher Peri-Peri (crispy chicken with spicy Portuguese peri-peri sauce) that’s really tasty. On the regular menu are lime shakes and Georgie Pies (meat pies with steak, ground beef, and cheese). The lime shakes are very good, but we haven’t been able to bring ourselves to try the Georgie Pies as we usually avoid meat-intensive items at Mc Donald’s.

The best thing we’ve had is the New York burger from the Taste of America series of burgers. The choices included a Texas BBQ burger with bacon, a California chicken burger with chili-lime mayo, and the New York burger with beef, a spicy mustard/mayo sauce, pickles, onions, lettuce and cheese. The really special thing about the NY burger, though, was the bagel bun with lots of seasonings, like an “everything” bagel. This burger was one of the best things we’ve had at any Mc Donald’s–ever! Sadly this temporary series wasn’t around long and I hope it comes back. –Cyndi

(AKA Food Porn–Rich)

April and May, 2013

And now for my favorite topic: food and what we ate while we were there! We generally had breakfast and dinner on the boat, but we’d usually go out for lunch. Our favorite spot was Phil’s Place, which happened to be right at the marina. The food was fantastic, the people wonderful, and the atmosphere beautiful. In the summer we enjoyed sitting on the deck or by an open window, and in the late fall we cozied up by the fireplace. We had many wonderful meals at Phil’s, but I think our go-to favorite was the seafood chowder, especially with a cold glass of sauvignon blanc.

Another favorite spot was Yoku Sushi. Real sushi bars, where chefs make your sushi as you order it, are very rare in New Zealand. Sushi here is pre-made and laid out in glass cabinets. You get a tray, pick what you want from the shelves, then pay at the cash register. The downside is it’s generally not as good as sushi made on the spot; the upside is that it’s a lot cheaper. And by choosing carefully we found some really good stuff, like the salmon sushi! We had many happy meals here.

We also had a lot of meals at Turkish To Go (blog post coming). And we enjoyed at few meals at Subway and Mc Donald’s (blog post coming).

Less often, we’d go for meals at the Fresh Fish Market. They have world-class fish and chips and it’s inexpensive, but it also tends to be crowded with a long wait for food. We did enjoy a few meals at the Astrolabe restaurant in Mount Maunganui. It’s a fun place with a cozy atmosphere and pretty good food.

Places we only visited one or two times were the Texas-themed Lone Star, Gengy’s, Mongolian Barbecue, and Bravo for delicious pizza. The food at these places was quite good, but the prices were high so we didn’t visit them very often.

Just before we left we discovered Little India, which has fantastic food and nicely-priced lunch specials. We looked forward to more meals here next year. Comida Spanish restaurant was another last-minute discovery, with great food, live music and a festive atmosphere.

Of course we visited a few coffee houses, including frequent trips to Starbuck’s and Robert Harris, but we also checked out the local roasters at Fixation and Fusion. There’s a lot of good coffee in New Zealand. And we were thrilled to discover The Donut Factory hidden in an business/industrial park. They make donuts for markets but sell extras at their door. It had been a long time since we had good donuts and these were a treat. –Cyndi

May 24, 2013

Once again, it’s that time for the runner-up pictures to have their day. They just missed making the final cut, but I like them too much to not post them. So here it is, the hodgepodge of pictures from our day in Rotorua. (As always, click to enlarge and scroll) –Cyndi