Life at Dockland 5

Posting by Dennis:

Landfall was at Dockland 5 for about six months.  During that time we have done a lot of work to our boat.   The biggest project was installing a new engine.  The keyway on the camshaft was cracked out.

Removing old engine

I have found out since I sold it that all the push rods were also bent.  So it was either have the old one rebuilt or get a new one. 

The cost of rebuilding the old one was about eleven thousand dollars and getting a new one was going to be close to twenty thousand.

New engine arrives

So we decided to bite the bullet and opted for a new one.  Being in New Zealand makes it a little tougher, it took a several of months to get.  Then I had to get the old one out and prepare for the new one.  Some of the parts were a lot harder to change because they were installed before anything else was on the boat and so were buried behind other parts.   You end up taking lots of additional things off just so you can swap the engines out.  For example I had to remove the hard dodger.  When I installed it I never planned on taking it off again.  But it came off and went back without a hitch.  I spent many days all bent up trying to work in the lazratte.  Since we had the dodger off we decided to refinish the teak in the cockpit.  And since we were going to refinish the coaming cap boards we may as well rebed them. That meant that we had to pull all the hardware off.But we hope that this will help with a few of the leaks that we have. 

We ended up doing over hundred different repairs and changes to the  boat.   And the worst part is I have already started the list for next year.  Some of the projects are fun to do like turning the hanging locker into a cabinet with shelves and others were terrible like sanding the bottom which took two long days and turned us smurf blue.  It was the worst!  But when it was all done the boat looked great and it was off to get our final sea trial on the engine. 

We have met a lot of very great people while we have been at Dockland 5. 

Ernst and Inge are wonderful and we enjoyed many happy hours with them.  They have sailed their steel ketch from Germany and have spent the last six years exploring the South Pacific.  Brad and Gloria (Kindred Spirit) are from the US and are spending the winter at Dockland 5.  Gloria has become the local restaurant critic.  So if you are in Whangarei and need to know a place to eat she is the one to talk to.  Chris and Betty are from England and have been here in New Zealand for over twenty five years.  Chris is an expert at just about anything to do with boats and is a banjo player.  Sonke and Tina a wonderful young couple from Germany that we hope to meet up with in Fiji.  And we have spent a lot of time with our good friends Rick And Kyra who have their yacht Nyon in Opua (take good care of our car).  Then we have met Pete and Mel who live in Whangarei Heads.  Mel has become Barb’s hiking buddy and Pete is the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back.  We have enjoyed many fun evenings at their home over the last six months.  They do alot to help kids who are wwoofing and are in the process of setting up a glamping site. (Glamorous camping sites)  They are both the best (see you in Fiji).  We have met so many other wonderful people from all over the world.  Many of which we hope to see in Fiji!!

Look in our photo album to see even more pictures!  If we don’t get any comments we will stop posting because apparently no one is reading it anyway….