Quick Fix: 24° 33.1 N / 81° 48.1 W
January 26th 2014 (day 2,432)
Temporary shore leave: Florida

Easy Rider
Sporting a squeaky new leather jacket, biker boots that still carried a shine, and hanging onto a 2014 Harley Davidson Fat Boy, I wobbled-off last week into uncharted territory, for me at least, and toured a portion of America's most scenic highway on a motorbike. Route 1 is the longest longitudinal road in North America, a stretch of tarmac that runs 2,369 miles from the Canadian border, through 15 states, all the way to Key West. In 4 days I covered 1,002 miles, stayed in cheap motels, drank Key West Ale in poorly lit Floridian biker bars, rode under cobalt skies, over seven-mile bridge flanked by turquoise waters, narrowly avoided hitting a jaywalking cat, and toured across gator-invested everglades. If Harley sold a collapsible bike that I could stow on Dream Time, I'd buy one in a second!
 

 



 



Quick Fix: 48° 07.5 N / 116° 17.9 W
January 16th 2014 (day 2,422)
 Temporary shore leave: Idaho

Kruzer
The water temperature is a numbing 41° F. When the sun's shining you thaw to a nose-running 45°, and at night, under a clear sky, the temperature drops to a frostbite inducing 20°. No, New Zealand isn't experiencing the coldest summer since the last Ice Age - we're in Idaho - and ironically this is considered warm for this time of year! We flew back to the States to see family over the holidays and on our way back to NZ, stopped-off to see friends. But even though we're over 5,000 miles from Dream Time, we're still cruising - on Lake Pend Oreille to be exact, on Kruzer, a beautiful Carver 326 motor yacht that was most generously lent to us by new friends. We're lighting beach fires, carving a tiki and having a blast. Thank you Lloyd and Paula, we'll boat swap with you anytime - but perhaps only in the summer!
 





 

 
Day 2,409 - New Zealand (36° 37S 174° 47E)
09:28hrs - January 3rd 2014
A New Year!

We've added a '2014' button above and have a whole new year to explore. We have no idea exactly how we'll fill-up the months ahead, we're so far away from anything that even resembles a routine we'll just let the year unfurl naturally, and see where it takes us.

One thing we do know for sure is that unlike the first five years of our cruising, where each year was punctuated with a haul-out and time on the hard dedicated to routine boat maintenance and upgrades, the last thirty months we've been playing in the tropics we neither had the resources or motivation to focus on anything other than the most essential repairs, leaving us now with almost three years of wear and tear to catch up on.

So after another month or two of summer sailing around New Zealand, we'll haul Dream Time, roll-up our sleeves and get to work. Our list of boat projects seems to be growing by the day. But that's OK, our play to work ratio is still around 50:1, so it's a worthwhile investment.

Here's our 2014 project list to date:

1. Remove, repair, rebed bowsprit
2. Repair leak or replace forward diesel tank
3. Rebuild fridge cool box with new insulation
4. Remove pedestal, paint & rebed
5. Install new D400 wind generator
6. Troubleshoot poor transmission for VHF radio
7. Install new B&G wind instrument
8. Weld stanchion base
9. Service watermaker
10. Rebed scuppers and aft stanchion base
11. New anchor chain
12. Insert sleeve on worn anchor roller
13. Remodel head
14. Reinforce mount for mainsail winch
15. New cockpit cushions & sun canopy
16. Interior varnish
17. Exterior cetol

 

 


Hot Off The Press!
Click here to read our
story in the January 2014
issue of Cruising World magazine >
 



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