darkside

I'm just pleased we are now permitted to open and devan containers. We have a couple arriving tomorrow which aren't "essential" For a while it looked like they would sit in our yard until the end of the lock down.

Having dived Great Barrier at the same spots for 40 years, without cleaning them out, there are still plenty out there this year. In closer, different story. However it seems the limits will change in a month or so. https://legasea.co.nz/2020/02/25/dont-get-caught-out-on-april-fools-day/?fbclid=IwAR2smVVr_0iOc2NF_sIltFLy_y2qaomGIgqHQgGoTribiOp6iO0zXTMnQ_s

I picked up a mint life ring with Dive Cat on it about 2 miles SE of Horn rock on Saturday. Called Barrier radio but no one new anything about it

Yep time to get going soon. We had Christmas on the other side of the Atlantic. The Canaries are nice, Graciosa was a good first stop.

Most inflatables, in particular RIBs bow steer badly. The cat style with pressure floors don't and actually track pretty well. The limiting factor is then the rowlocks first and then the flimsy oars they give you.

Ours was un-caged plastic rollers (well something hard that looked like plastic) My cousin and I dropped the rudder on the hard at GH, nice clean tarmac. And we lost one roller........... Couldn't find it anywhere, so frustrating. Later I got a message from my cousin that he had found it in his shirt pocket. Be careful if you do it in the mud.

Yep I have a True Kit Navigator. The main plus with the "cat" design inflatables with the paddle board type higher pressure floor is the rowing performance. So good that I have never used the outboard since I got it. Also the light weight as I lift it up on to the roof. The down side is the ribbed protection pads under the hulls which disintegrates to the stickiest mastic type crap you can imagine. When I suggested they use something better the guy said use the UV cover. A pretty average response to customer feed back I thought. So we swapped the protection for a vinyl ourselves and

Years ago we were trying to get my son to remember the word for crayfish. "What does daddy dive for" "Umm tools?"

"Renewable" energy for hydrogen production will be here soon. Tuaropaki Trust and some Canadians will be using geothermal to produce hydrogen next year at Taupo. Hiringa and Ballance using wind turbines in Taranaki on much the same timeline.

A diesel engine is designed to bypass fuel not required back to the tank. Because of this feature fuel burn is only loosely related to revs. It's load that matters. If you want to get really flash you get a variable pitch prop and load the engine to the correct exhaust temperature. But at 3.1l/h who cares?

Buying hydrogen is nearly as hard as plutonium in New Zealand at present. Hopefully that changes soon.

Yes absolutely be happy with that. Perhaps the prop being way under pitched is also the "clutch" to get your big heavy bathtub moving.

At 3.1l/h you aren't producing 27hp. A good rule of thumb for non turbo is 20hphours/gallon. 3.1/4.5*20 is around 14hp. In other words your prop doesn't have much pitch.

Infinity always appealed to me. As for RH powercats I prefer Mahimahi. But then I am a bit biased on both.

Headsail. Very good.

Haven't been up there for a while. How about the store at Totara North?

There was a similar event in 95 when we were in Vavau. It even formed a small island for a while which they were going to name after Lomu which is referenced here. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/65103454/ The raft we sailed through going to Fiji was much lighter than this years however. Don't underestimate the gases however. There is an exclusion zone off Grenada around an underwater volcano called Kick'em Jenny. We asked the locals about the exclusion zone and were told if it belches, you sink.

To get performance sailing out of a cat my list would be in order: 1. light weight 2. long skinny hulls (if there is a double bed in the hull, the cat better be over 60') 3. bridge deck clearance 4. powerful rig to overcome the extra drag in light airs 5. last of all dagger boards A well designed mini keel can work quite well. However virtually every cat with boards also ticks the top four points as well so the boards get all the kudos, not sure they deserve it. To get a cat big enough to carry the weight required for cruising on those skinny hulls, I think a minimum of 45' if you want

The speed advantage of a lighter cat gets old pretty quick. We were faster than virtually every mono cruiser when we went around but what's the point? We got beaten in the Musket - Vila by 90 minutes by a 60' composite Warwick from Hong Kong with eight blokes on board. We were a 46' relatively light cat (Grainger) with me, my wife and two sons aged 6 and 8. We were first boat in in the Darwin - Bali, having been roughly last when the wind started on day two. Not sure if we ever really tried after that. To go fast downhill on a Cat you have to charge off at big angles and cover a lot o

See the lights coming on on the big powerboat as the crew wake up?

Ah yes the propeller above the dinghy in the sounds. I'm a member of that club. Got it going again but it sounded like a concrete mixer. That aside a nice cruising area. We had a 36' keeper in Waikawa for four years and never picked up a mooring once. Anchoring is fine, just takes a bit more thought than in the Gulf

Have a look at the Game Sail boat down at the viaduct. It can be done.

Saw four whales in the past couple of days close inside Great Barrier. Just assumed they were Bryde's and didn't pay much attention. I did think having three in sight at one time was a little unusual.