We got up early to prepare Nadezhda for lift out at 11:30am. As we made our way to Norsand we noticed someone waving at us from the river bank. Kevin who manages all the lift out's was giving us the signal to come in.
He had previously told us that we should keep towards the right hand side of the entrance and look for plastic stick that indicates shallows.
The procedure was very proffesionally done but a bit long winded as we didn't get truely settled until the following day.
Life on the hard isn't pleasant as everytime mother nature calls you have to down a ladder which is 11 feet off the ground and at night time a bucket comes into force.
Cooking also is tricky as washing up afterwards is a trail as all grey water goes into a bucket which needs to be emptied each day.
2nd Dec 2007
The day has arrived I heading off home, last night we decided to order pizza so that when I am gone Pete will be ok for a few days. We over orderd and it looks like he'll be eating pizza for a week.
Last night I tried to book my seats online and was told that I couldn't do it and I must check in at the airport.
When I tried to check in I was told that I wasn't due to fly today (I had changed my dates back in August) and that the booking was still showing the original date, after a long wait & hassle they booked me on the flight for the 1st segment to Hong Kong and was reassured that someone would meet me at Hong Kong with my boarding pass to London.
After an anxious 13 hour flight we arrived in Hong Kong and it came as no surprise to me that there was no one there so I made my way to the BA checkdesk only to have the same conversation that I wasn't scheduled to fly! again they got me on the flight but being the last passenger to check in I had the worst seats on the plane.
It was great arriving in London at 5:00am to see my Mum, Brother Ash and Holly waiting for me, my Mum had insisted on arriving three hours before the flight landed as she wanted to make sure they were there to meet me.
Strange how jetlag works as I really fancied a Gin & Tonic rather than an early morning cuppa.
I had a great time back at home being waited on hand & foot! people take for granted the simple luxury's of home; kettles that take a few minutes to boil, being able to cook roast without worrying about using to much gas, space around you and having a hot bath!.
As a treat I took Holly & Robyn up to London to get their Christmas presents this is something I would never do again as it was totally jam packed with people. The kids loved it and they shopped till they dropped, me I just dropped, I think I'm getting to old for this! plus the kids insisted that I dress up as they weren't going to go to London with me wearing jeans and a comfy and pratical pair of walking boots.
I had a wonderful Christmas but the time was really running away and I knew that going back to New Zealand was fast approaching.
28th Dec 2007
Last night I tried again to check in online and had the same error message as before so we left early to get to Heathrow in order to sort out any problems. Same thing as before I wasn't scheduled to fly, rather than bore you with the full details a fair amount of complaining on my part and I was checked in right through to Auckland. I will write to BA and complain about my experiences with them.
Goodbye England hello New Zealand
A Note From Norsand
Having been left behind, I got on with the myriad jobs that needed to be attended to. I won't bore you with the full details but here is a summary:
And that's not all since I have ommited the minor jobs and not told of the dismantling of other areas of the boat in order to get the above tasks completed.
A Note From Norsand
Having been left behind, I got on with the myriad jobs that needed to be attended to. I won't bore you with the full details but here is a summary:
- Varnish Kitchen, Navigation Station and Companionway. Plus Ceiling Beams and Part of Front Bedroom
- Varnish Tiller and Boathook
- Remove all windows, renovate frames and seal back in.
- Re-paint Rudder
- Remove all headlining panels replace velcro attachments and replace
- Remove stanchions around cockpit and fill resultant holes in deck, then organise new solid stainless steel guardrails
- Replace broken stanchion with new spare (See Bora-Bora to Suvarov entry)
- Replace gaurdrail wires
- Sand, clean, mask-up and paint decks with 4 layers of high-build epoxy + non-slip
- Cut-back paint on hatch coaming, re-bond coaming to fix leak and re-paint with 5 layers epoxy.
And that's not all since I have ommited the minor jobs and not told of the dismantling of other areas of the boat in order to get the above tasks completed.
Sanding and Dust Chaos
Deck Masking Detail
The lid just came orf in me 'and guv!
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