Category Archives: Locations

Places around the world

Mount Manaia – A Stairway to Heaven

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We pull off the Town Basin Marina dock with our friends on Q2 (Lewis, Sara and baby Skye) following us to a new anchorage, Urquharts Bay.  A beautiful, wide bay with lots of moorings and local boats.  This anchorage gave us access to many hikes and is located at the mouth of the Whangarei river. Despite how busy it was we secured a place all by ourselves.

Mount Manaia

Mount Manaia, Mt. Lion, Bream Head, and the Hen and Chickens, are scattered remnants of andesite, volcanic intusions that erupted 16-22 million years ago.  They are part of a 50km 2 (19 sq mi) stratovolcano that extended to the Hen and Chickens.

This is a sacred place for the Maori.  In former times, Maori placed the remains of their important chiefs on the tops of these rocks.  It is believed that the craggy peaks represent an important chief’s family who were turned to stone in a dispute over the infidelity of his wife.

The left arrow shows how high I went and the right arrow shows how high Matt, Rich and Michelle got (they rock climbed the last 20′).

Mt. Manaia is blanketed by native bush and has jagged peaks that jet up into the sky.  The entire area is a protected reserve which has a very well maintained track to the summit.

A Little Bit of Crazy

Our friends on Pogeyan (Rich and Michelle) invited us to go on this crazy steep hike up Mount Manaia.  We dragged Q2 along with us (even 3 month old baby Skye came along).  Matt and I had not been hiking in almost a year and I was a wee bit nervous to say the least.   Rich said it was a short hike (a little over an hour to the top), but it is straight up – a total vertical incline with over 800 steps peppered in to help you get up the super steep parts.  Yikes!

As we begin our journey our little pack slowly starts to split up.  Matt takes off, in flip flops no less, and leads the way, the other two guys are behind him for most of the trail.  Us ladies take it at a “more leisurely pace” and rest periodically as I am totally out of shape!

They installed really nice stairs over the super steep parts of the trail.  Every 100 steps there is a small mark, but I don’t believe it so I count myself.  I was spot on up to 600 steps but then things got wonky and I ended up wit 1226 stairs to the summit whereas the markers had 1136 steps.  Hmmm.  I had 2 other witnesses so I am going with my number of 1226 – which is a lot of stairs!

The Summit

After an hour we reach the platform and hope to find Matt.  And wouldn’t you know he found a crevice to hang out in….can you see him in the far left photo or the top right photo?

Michelle and I at the platform summit – I’m so happy to be sitting down.

The unbelievable views….

I’m guessing these are the children in the fable….

The Pinnacle on the Summit

We continue on around the corner from the platform summit.  Rich says we are not at the top yet.  So, we carry on and do a few rock scrambles.  At this point my legs are burning.  I made it to the 2nd highest point but couldn’t carry on so Matt, Michelle, and Rich did the last 20′.

The views were spectacular.  I wish I had the power to go up the last section but I had to save my reserves for the climb down.

We saw lots of beautiful Kauri trees and this beautiful stone archway.

At the end of the day we hiked up 1226 stairs or 104 floors, 4.1 miles and 9,759 steps.  The numbers don’t seem so impressive when you break it down. But it was a hard earned workout!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred in late January.  Did you read about our new set of wheels in our last blog post?

A New Set of Wheels

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Boy that could mean so many things…a new boat — na.  A new dinghy — na.  A new car — na.  We literally mean a new set of wheels.  But why do we need wheels on a boat?  Well, we don’t “need” wheels but we got them for our dinghy.

Many cruisers use wheels to help them pull their dinghy onshore during a beach landing.  Our previous dinghy was soooo heavy. We could have used dinghy wheels for her but she was too heavy for the wheels.  Yes, the wheels have a weight restriction.

But, our new Highfield 360CL weighs in at 75 kilos, the outboard weighs 55 kilos and we carry about 15 kilos in fuel for a total of 145 kilos.  Just the right amount of weight for a set of new wheels.

Which Wheels to Buy?

There are lots of different types of wheels on the market and we really had to do our due diligence.  We made sure they would accommodate our dinghy’s make, model, and weight while still being able to work in hard and soft sand.  Beachmaster consistently came up as the top brand. 

Matt emailed them to make sure they would work and hold up with our set up and we received an affirmative reply.  We ordered the removable mount set with retractable wheels.  We wanted to be able to take them off if we were not planning on using them for a while.

Matt placed the order on Thursday.  On Friday we received a call from Beachmaster asking if we were a foreign flagged vessel and I said “yes.”  She then asked if the wheels were being installed onto our dinghy which would be leaving the country with us, I said “yes.”  And then she said, I will then send you a new invoice as the original invoice charged you for GST (tax) and you qualify for a GST (tax) free order.  

What?  Yes, that is absolutely true.  Normally, both Matt and I automatically request GST free so I assumed he did on this order.  But he forgot.  So, the company proactively realized this and reached out to us to credit us the GST!  Seriously an amazing company.

Drilling Holes Into Our New Dinghy

The package arrived on Monday (1 business day after placing the order).  Talk about service.   We measure multiple times, tape off the area, and measure again.  We then put them up with VHB double stick tape so we could raise and lower the wheels without hitting the rub rail.  Then we drilled the holes into the transom.

The top photo shows he wheels down and the bottom photo shows the wheels up.

It took two of us to drill the holes so no photos.  Once the bolt holes were drilled, Matt taped them off and filled them with 5200 so they would not leak.  Then we installed each side.

Here are the final photos.  The before (upper left), installed and up (top right), installed and down (bottom left).

Now all we need is a beach to try them out!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred around mid-January 2024.  In our last post we spend a lot of time redoing our dinghy chaps which came unglued.

Chap my Hide! Dinghy Chaps Unglued

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Our new dinghy, a Highfield 360CL, has had a few issues.  Most recently the velcro holding the dinghy chaps (which are the cover to protect the pontoons) stopped sticking to the dinghy.  

We had our dinghy chaps custom made by Kim at Masterpieces in Canvas about 8 months ago.  She did an amazing job and we have had over a dozen people compliment us on the well made covers!   It was not her fault that the velcro sticky back stopped sticking.

The Problem

Kim used the sticky glue on the back of the velcro to adhere the chaps to the dinghy. The male part of the velcro stuck to the chaps and the female part (soft) of the velcro stuck to the dinghy.  In theory this works and it did for a short while (8 months).  But as the dinghy gets hot and cold in the sun it expands and contracts.  This causes the glue on the velcro to loosen and come off.  So, not a good long term plan.

With our last dinghy, we had the velcro glued onto hypalon strips, then sewn together, then we used special glue to stick the hypalon strips to the hypalon dinghy.  We should have remembered to do that to these chaps, but it slipped our mind as we had so much other stuff going on.  Our new dinghy is made from PVC not hypalon unfortunately. 

Hindsight is 20-20 they say.

The Remedy

We had a lovely conversation with Tim at Northland Inflatables.  He was able to sell us PVC strips and special PVC contact glue.  In addition, he walked us through the best way to remove the glue from the dinghy, the application of the velcro to the PVC, and the glueing process of the PVC strips to the dinghy. He is a wealth of information!

Tim informed us that the PVC strips will be stronger if you cut them diagonally across the fabric (rather than with the grain of the fabric).  Good tip.

We were ready to start this project after purchasing our special 2-part PVC contact glue, special brush, and 18m of 30mm wide PVC strips!

Step 1A: The Prep

It seems like all I do is glue removal projects!   Removal of all of the graphic stickers and its 23 year old glue, scraping all of the glue, 5200 and silicone from the ceiling panels, 6 hatch frames and of their adhesive, and now the dinghy glue.  And the funny thing is that they are all different, using different glues, on different surfaces, and requiring different removal techniques.

We removed the outboard and hauled the 75kilo dinghy up using our spin halyard.  Placing the dinghy on our two bean bags allowed easier access to the glue areas on the outside (see photo below).

The dinghy has 23 pieces of velcro spanning over 18 meters.  Tim had suggested we make the strips 30mm wide even though our velcro was only 25mm. He thought it might make sewing easier.  But in retrospect we should have just got 25mm strips.  Now we have to accomodate for the extra 5mm.  What I decided to do was apply the velcro on the bottom of each strip and had the extra 5mm on the top.  The reason I did this was because several velcro strips aligned with a seam and we did not want the white PVC strips to show.

We created a sheet and labeled/numbered each piece of velcro so we know exactly where it goes when we put it back.

Step 1B: More Prep

We used a pencil to mark where each piece of velcro (the edges, start and end) and then we taped all around the velcro before removal.  Taping will help limit the spread of glue and MEK when you start the adhesive removal process.  

We were really good about marking the edges but we did not tape until afterwards.  So the problem was the MEK took off the pencil markings so we had to guess where some of the pieces went. And some of the MEK extended beyond the velcro area causing a very slight discoloration.  So, tape before removing your velcro.

Step 2: The Removal

I carefully remove each of the 23 strips of velcro, one at a time. I place them on the PVC strips lining them up on the edge and labeling each one so I know where they go when we have to put them back onto the dinghy.

Next I get to removing the tons of glue off the dinghy.

We cannot use anything sharp to remove the glue because we would risk puncturing the pontoon (very bad).  I tried a rubber square, a plastic paddle, and a cool tool Aaron from Norsand Boatyard had given me and none of them worked.

Finally Matt brought out a putty knife that he adapted for me.  He rounded the corners and dulled the blade.  Eventually, I was able to remove the adhesive while using a heat gun to warm up the glue and the modified putty knife.  This would get the large globs off.  Then I went back with MEK (really nasty stuff) and a non-absorbent rag to remove the difficult to see remnants of the glue.  If you use an absorbent rag you end up wasting a lot more MEK. But you have to wear very thick, high quality gloves as the MEK will eat your skin and nails!

After many hours we finally have a dinghy without residue…clean.  It is always amusing to me that I have such a hard time removing adhesives.  Why do you ask?  Well, I am removing it because it no longer sticks, so why is it hard to come off?  Why I ask you?

Note

Tim from Northland Inflatables told us to put the velcro on the dull side of the PVC strips.  The dull side is the side that has UV protection which does not stick as well as the clean shiny side with no UV protection. The trick is trying to determine the shiny side from the dull side while in the sun.  So, we stick the velcro to the dull side, then sew it on.  This leaves the shiny, clean side ready for the contact glue to stick to the dinghy.

Step 3: Sewing

I tried to use our trusty Baby Lock sewing machine to sew the velcro to the PVC strips.  However, the machine struggled with the PVC as it was slippery and wouldn’t move with the machine’s foot.  And it made the stitching on the back look funny.

Matt breaks out our new “to us” Sailrite Sewing machine.  I had not used this machine yet as it totally intimidated me!  But, you got to start somewhere.  The Sailrite has much better feet and it just sucked the strips right through!

I had 38 meters of sewing to do as I sewed all four sides of each of the 23 strips of velcro to the PVC – it will not move now!

Step 4: Glue PVC strips to Dinghy

We did a lot of research on what was the best glue to stick things to PVC and either Bostik 995 or PVC contact glue were stated to be the best.  We found a tiny bottle (50ml) of Bostik 995 at All Marine for over $100.  Well that won’t do as we need over 300ml.  So, we asked Tim what we should use and suggested this special contact PVC glue that he uses on all of his dinghy repairs.  He sold us 300ml for $25.  Sweet as!

We run MEK along the strips and the dinghy to ensure there is nothing that will prohibit a good stick.

Next, we tape off the dinghy where each strip goes.  This will protect the dinghy from getting excess glue on it and it will help us align the strips in the exact place since we won’t have the luxury to move them around once they make contact with each other.

Matt and I work together to adhere the PVC strips.  Tim gave us a “chip” brush that he cut down to almost a stub and then rounded the corners.  He said this will help us to use less contact glue.

First you apply the contact glue to the PVC strip and then to the corresponding area on the dinghy.  You let it set for 10-15 minutes.  Then you go back with a heat gun to warm both up and slowly and carefully apply the PVC strip to the dinghy.  I say “slowly and carefully” because once the PVC strip makes contact with the dinghy it aint movin.  

Then I follow behind with a dowel to press the PVC strip to the dinghy and ensure it is stuck on good.

We ended up having to get an additional canister of the special PVC contact glue to finish our project.  But we did use it for two other smaller projects.  In the end I think we probably used 350-400ml.  We were probably more generous with the glue than necessary.

Completion

As you can see we are doing our best to leave no room for errors and to ensure this is stuck on good.  After a week of work we are finally done and our beautiful chaps are now snug as a bug in a rug!  Let’s hope these last us many years.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occured in early January 2024.  Don’t miss out on our luxurious experience at Wai Ariki Hotsprings and Spa – check out our last blog post.