100 days in the boatyard, and finally we have a plan

Looking east from Whangarei Heads

Norsand Boatyard, Whangarei, New Zealand

It's been a very long time since my last update.  Who knew that being in lockdown a boatyard with nothing to do and nowhere to go could make me so incredibly idle?  When I have a deadline I am fine, but without one, I am not one of life's completer-finishers.  Each day has been pretty similar to the one before around here.  Anything we don't manage today, we can have fairly safely leave until tomorrow.  And that is what I have done.  Until now.  This is it.  Enough.  It's time to share some news.  We are approaching 100 days in the boatyard, and we finally have a plan, and both of those are good reasons to force myself to sit down and write this until it is finished.

Eloise and Angus on a weekend walk

We came out of the water in early March for what we thought would be two weeks.  When we met our new neighbours, we couldn't work them out at all; on both sides of us were couples who had been living on board their boats, out of the water, for some years.  We thought what a strange life choice theirs was, using their boats as elegantly shaped caravans, living up ladders, and carting their washing up water, wees and worse across the boatyard to the waste water dump each day.  If you live on a boat, then surely you would want to have it in the water, we thought.  Well, lockdown began the day before we were due to relaunch, and here we remain - if you can't beat them, join them!  We are now completely used to life in the boatyard; it doesn't even seem strange anymore.

Boatyard gymnastics

We feel extremely lucky to be in New Zealand.  We had four and a half weeks of lockdown at Level 4, and a further two weeks at Level 3.  The first part of lockdown was quite tense, as we waited to see what would evolve, whilst also continuously checking the situation back at home.  We avoided everyone in the boatyard, and deployed antibac spray and diligent handwashing when using the communal facilities (shower, loos, laundry).  The kids used our new camping loo on board, so that helped a bit.  (Emptying the "cassette" is one of our least glamorous jobs.)  The lockdown rules here were clear and very strict, and they were enforced by a combination Iwi (Maori community) road checkpoints, the police, and the press, who made sure to report stories of tourists deported for breaking the rules, locals arrested, and the health minister's demotion for driving his family to the beach.  Since Level 2, life has been closer to normal, albeit with queues at the supermarket and lots of hand sanitising.  The schools re-opened at Level 2, and although we only agreed initially that Eloise and George would be there for three weeks, the wonderful Parua Bay School has agreed to have them for a little longer.

Lockdown homeschool - butterfly cards and Maori fry bread

Home-schooling aboard Victoria during lockdown was our highest quality ever, and we achieved the longest hours that we have managed at any point during our trip.  A number of things contributed to this; mainly that homeschool was not a new thing for us, and neither of us were working.  Also, as Eloise and George had been at school for two weeks prior to lockdown, they were included in the very imaginative homeschooling resources.  We have great 3G reception here, and plenty of data.  And really, we didn't have anything to do except for focus on home schooling; no work, and no passage planning, sailing, snorkelling or island explorations to fit in.  Thanks to the amazing internet, I handed over all of the teaching responsibilities to a combination of Youtube, Carol Vorderman, Khan Academy Kids, The Maths Factor, Reading Eggs, and various other apps and websites.  

more lockdown homeschool - Eloise's ginger beer bottle xylophone

Lockdown home-school was the absolutely opposite of the internet-free learning we had done previously.  We enjoyed Joe Wickes and Cosmic Yoga, and drew loads of pictures from "Art for Kids Hub".  Jack watched a lot of Paw Patrol.  And Ninjago.  And we made a lot of lego creations.  Eloise's day consisted of google hangouts for chatting to friends, google classroom to view and hand in work, zoom calls with her class, and a lot of learning from interesting videos on youtube. We played family cricket and football, and went for a walk to a grassy area at the end of the road every afternoon.  I am eternally in awe of everyone at home who is still home-schooling, whilst also working from home, and enduring the unending anxiety and uncertainty of the current situation.  You are all in our thoughts daily.  The irony is not lost on us that we set off merrily with the aim of homeschooling our children for eighteen months, which many of our friends struggled to get their heads around, and now ours are pretty much the only children who are at school.

One of my lockdown projects - I have made us new, breathable lee cloths

Angus, of course, gave lockdown home-school a fairly wide berth, and focused most of his attention on boat maintenance.  He began with the engine, and the anchor locker, but after a while he ran out of checks and tweaks in both of those sanctuaries, so he moved underneath the boat and began the tricky task of removing firstly the propellor, and subsequently the entire propellor shaft.  I can only imagine what the domestic equivalent of "removing ones propellor shaft" is.  Hopefully it means either that your garden shed has been converted to an all out man-cave, or you have a fancy new chicken coop, rabbit run, climbing frame or similarly manly construction in your garden.  In our case, the fervent lockdown activity has uncovered a little bit of "age-related wear and tear", as we would refer to it in GP-land.  Looking on the bright side, we are taking this unexpected opportunity to address this, whilst we are out of the water with time on our hands.

VE Day on Victoria

For a long time now, we have felt the growing desperation of our friends and family for us to relaunch and "get going again".  Relaunching has been a possiblity for several weeks now, but "getting going" means within New Zealand only.  For this reason, we made a conscious decision to stay on the hard, focus on boat improvements, let the children go back to school, and wait to see what would happen in the world.  The weather at the start of lockdown was fantastic, but the days are short now; it is cold at night, and sometimes in the day, too.  We had such wonderful summer cruising in New Zealand, and for us, winter cruising is just not as appealing.  Walks would be lovely, but it's not really kayaking / swimming / snorkelling weather.  The last few days have been mostly warm and sunny, but we have had weeks of relentless rain, and several winter gales have whistled their way through.  Being landlubbers for a while has allowed us to keep our options open, and make the most of other opportunities.

It's not especially warm here anymore

We were lucky enough to see a sailing circus which passed this way last week.  Check out seastewardship.com. Ben and Ari run their 70-foot ketch, the Rosalie Clare, as an NGO, leading coral conservation and regeneration projects in Fiji and the Kiribati islands.  Due to Covid, they have not been able to leave New Zealand this year, and so instead they have filled their boat with unemployed circus performers, and are travelling to different venues to put on shows, provide income for their crew, and promote their conservation work.  We offered to help them out with transport from the boat to the venue, and as a result, were lucky enough to be able to meet them and explore their boat.  

The performance was fantastic, and as it was the first event we had actually been to (rather than attended by zoom) in a very long time, it felt extra special.  There were probably 150 people gathered in a community hall, watching the show together - laughing, clapping, mingling and chatting.  It was like normal life as it used to be.  Then there was fire juggling outside, followed by a local band, Mermaid Bait, whose drummer works in the boatyard.  We were so inspired by the sailing circus; they are making the best out of a very difficult situation.  The money from the shows is the only source of income for the performers.  There is no fixed ticket price - they simply ask for Koha (donations) on the door.  They also shared the specific things that they needed; a free marina berth, an outboard engine, an accordian, food for the crew, and help clearing up at the end of the show (as they were setting sail at 3am).  By the end of the night, they had been given every thing they asked for.  There was a palpable force of community spirit and goodwill, and we were all caught up in it.

The band, the circus, and a mottley collection of "percussionsists" at the front

Last time I wrote, I was trying to register and look for work here as a GP.  That plan cam to nothing, as luckily there was never a need for any additional workforce here to fight covid.  This left Angus and me free to focus on the children, Victoria, and to spend time researching possible future plans.  After much deliberation, we have a firm idea what we are going to do next, which I think is concrete enough now to share.

Our first beach trip after lockdown was lifted

Victoria will go back in the water at the end of June, and we will spend a final week in Whangarei Town Basin, saying goodbye to friends, before making our way slowly south towards Auckland, hopefully via some of our favourite places - Kawau and Waiheke.  (July is the slightly warmer equivalent of January in the UK - the weather prediction says 7-14 degrees, with 15 days of rain, so we certainly won't be topping up our tans or reverting to our summer blondies look anytime soon!)  Once in Auckland, we will work extremely hard on packing up, and cleaning Victoria, ready for the passage back to England.  Victoria is going on a ship, and we will go by air, at the end of July / beginning of August.  It wasn't our first choice of endings for this adventure; we had planned to sail Victoria at least as far as Indonesia by August.  But the world is so uncertain with covid, that this option makes sense for us.  We will be home.  We will return to our house, work, and (hopefully..) school, and resume whatever "normal life" is by that time.  Victoria will be nearby - we have just been offered a mooring on the Beaulieu River, which could not be more perfect - and we will be able to use her, look after her, enjoy her with our friends and family, and continue the adventure.  The only worry then is that Victoria will be a long way from her home, and she will probably be chomping at the bit to sail back to NZ again.  But there are so many wonderful places that we can take her, so I'm sure that we can keep her happily distracted.

Sand dunes on 90 mile beach - the north west of the North Island

It has been so lovely in these past months to spend lots of time speaking to friends and family at home. The internet has been amazing for communication, and also brings us the depressing and distressing world news, from so many sources. We feel rather guilty that we have inadvertently dodged the worst of this bullet, so far.  Huge love to you all, especially to Will and Jules, whose wedding could not happen as planned.

Signing off now - with my coat on, a hot water bottle on my feet, and a freezing cold nose - I am ready for the warmth of bed.

Sending love. 

Stay safe and keep sane, somehow.

Laura and the crew of the Good Caravan Ship Victoria X

That's Angus and Eloise up there, before they made their very rapid descent