Moving in

On sea trial day Nick, my first crew ever shows up, and we both get to give Keturah a try.
The boat is swift in the water, steady and easy to handle, and soon enough we have a good command of her. Nick has no sailing experience apart from a brief spell on a tallship, but his four years in the coastguard and a passion for surfing and weather forecasting makes him a natural aboard.
The boat is taken, and in a few days we'll be moving on her.
A few trepidant days while the money comes in and I can take possession of the boat, and then at last after much painful awaiting all goes through and I can move on.
A couple days are spent working to clean the boat and making her to my liking, shifting gear around, checking batteries and other details I couldn't get into while the owners were still living aboard.
The night I move in, I buy a bottle of NZ sparkling wine, and me, Richard and Charlotte from D'Urville toast to Neptune, to the boat and me, and have a pleasant evening in the sheltered cockpit...for once it isn't raining!

Men's Delight

The day before I simply have no energy left to make my way into Gordon's and Carol's boat, so I just spend the day firing the 800 circa emails required to keep everything running: back home, the crew, the other countless people that keep on writing to me from everywhere asking about the now or what about in a year?
Sure the hardest thing to make clear is how difficult it is to have even a sketchy plan when sailing...one could find paradise and wish to stay, or find hell and decide to move on ASAP, not including sea and weather factors!
However, it's all in good nature, and to some extent it is easier to say tentatively where I'll be next year rather than in three months...
So, having seen already most of the obvious things, today I decide to tackle what for most is the main point of interest of any boat, a yachtman's pride: the Engine Room.
At first I get around looking at plumbing and sea caulks, valves, tanks. Then we open it up to take a look at the 150HP Ford monster propelling these mere twentytwo tons of concrete and steel.
The panels are removed. The engine is fire red, also spotless, no loose wiring, lots of cable ties everywhere, two good lights there, all new and greaseless. A bit of belt dust on the alternator pulleys but not much else. See through water separator, brand new filters, access all around and a fairly clean bilge too.
What to say? Shall we try it out? Tomorrow at 8:30am? OK!

The Inspection

The morning after I head to Keturah for a first look around. The owners are stil living on her, so it is not too comfortable to poke around. However, I manage to take one first good look at the interiors, storage lockers, heads and galley, electricals.
Just as it showed in the pictures everything is neat and tidy, and not just the interior, but also all the wiring and pipes are neatly organized and spotless. The electrical system is quite simple and most cables run in accessible places. Flares expired in 1989, but it was in account that most of that stuff would have to go or be serviced. The two EPIRB buoys are also pretty old, but it doesn't mean they won't work, and I'll get a third brand new one just to make sure.
The rigging is good, a few missing cotter pins, but it's all good, can't really complain of any integrity flaw.
I am tired and although I should be mercilessly ripping through it all, I can't help feeling like I'm intruding into the private life of two old folks, and so I go back on D'urville to rest a while. Too tired to do anything else, off to sleep.

Getting there

I get a taste of NZ beer, accompanied by fried squid. We chat a while, then the conversation dies and it's time to get back to the marina. On MV D'urville where I'll be staying they're very curious about some italian guy that came all the way from Italy to get a boat here, so, offered with copious glasses of red wine which I can't resist, I stay some more, chatting away the evening. Richard and Charlotte are instant friends, might of the boating life wich brings us all together!

We spend a wonderful evening chatting away, until I, because of the wine and jet-lag just have to sleep.

The day after it rains, so I start making a first survey of the boat's interiors and systems...everything is reallly tidy, clean, not a scratch. Everything is really accessible and organized, there's a lovely engine powered freezer and a nice fridge working with 12V and propane. The head looks like a real bathroom (nearly), though everything is cluttered with boxes filled to capacity with the owner's belongings.
So IU take it easy for a couple days, walking around town, Quuen's street, Ponsonby road, checking shops out for what I'll eventually need.
A couple days go by with more checks on the engine, hydraulics etc. and it all lokks good. Very well done, mostly brand new. The engine is a mirror, not a drop of grease or oil staining it.
On the 11th we'll have a haul out and go out for a sea trial, that's going to be the decisive day.

Auckland at last

Two months of preparation back in Italy for this trip and suddently September is here, the ticket is bought and there's no more excuse: the time has come.
Last few dinners with friends and family, gorging on our local fishes, mushroom season is on with the first rains, so I get lots of those too, since for quite a while (possibly years) I won't be tasting them again. The usual trip to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, accompanied by my father Ugo, which is nearly in tears when leaving me. Back when he was 35, he and my mother nursed a similar dream, but life decided it wouldn't be so. Now he is 86, and unlikely he'll ever be able to sail with me ever again like we did so many times a few years back when I picked up sailing again. So I am a little bit his reincarnation, his dream coming true, as well as mine.
Usual intercontinental drudgery, the flight in Bangkok is rescheduled for the evening, so that in the end I will have gone trough over 48 hours between airport waiting and flights. I try to warn the broker of the delay, but the time difference makes it unlikely he'll get the message.
Back in Bangkok airport I was desperate to be online, but, unwilling to shell out the 250 Bhat per hour requested (it cost on average 7 Bhat x hour) I give up at first. Then I peek at someone's his laptop and he's got connection. So I whip out my brand new Dell and check out what's in the air. Thing I discover is that the Business resting areas, plecluded to ordinary mortals, provide Wi-Fi but it's unprotected, and so I log in with the Thai airline wireless.
I manage to send all my messages out and then switch off, as the connection is crap. Some more boredom, and next time I sit by the JAL Business area, and of course the signal is much stronger...I get playing bassdrive.com, and aside from the stares some even do a dance move or two. Pretty funny. Thanks JAL!
I finally land in Auckland, to be carried right away to the searching area, where my luggage is taken apart (with my bags nearly exploding already), and get asked over and over why I'm there, when I bought my ticket, when I booked it, how I paid for it, and why I was there and who I was staying with and another meaningless hundred questions. I keep a poker face for the whole time, though I could have killed someone right there...besides they even ended up letting me keep a knife my uncle gave as a good luck gift...go ahead and murder anybody, but don't let us find you smoking a joint or that'll be big trouble!!!
Anyway, Ian is at the airport in his Harley Davidson jacket as planned, so off we go to Westhaven marina to get me settled in my temporary abode and to have a quick look at Keturah. I will be hosted by a lovely couple living aboard their classic motor yacht, while Keturah is just across from us in the next pontoon. I unload my bags, take a quick look around my future home and then we go for a bite to eat at a local brewery.