On our last sail before departing Nelson to head south, the autopilot decided to neither pilot or demonstrate any auto features. Its symptoms included veering massively off course of it’s own wilful accord, showing the boat icon on the chart plotter screen 180 degrees the wrong way round and refusing to change between auto and standby mode. It appeared to be buggered. I’m expressing a mild version of dissatisfaction here.

Dave spent most of the following day trying to diagnose the fault. We went out on a sea trial and tried to recalibrate instruments by driving round in circles. I did question in my head whether this was actually a real thing to try and fix the problem or was it designed and written by an electronics engineer with a wry sense of humour. Really, you want me to go round in circles??!

Try as we could, it appeared our 20th century high end electronics had decided to retire themselves. We know they are at least that old as we have all the old paperwork on board. And we all know how much wires and electrons have changed in 24 years. Meaning ours certainly aren’t manufactured anymore and the company that make them, offer no help and support to maintain them.

However, there are techies out there reclaiming old parts, checking them and selling them on. Dave found one item in Wisconsin in the States and another in Denmark. Hopefully just what we need. While waiting for these items to jet themselves to NZ, we took ourselves back to the Abel Tasman Park and had a lovely time swimming and walking and enjoying what a fab place it is. It is a fab place. Believe me.

Entertainment, provided by Starlink, was logging in each day to see where our new – old electronics were in the world. The computer ‘box of brains’ went to Hawaii and Sydney before getting to Auckland. We have them here now and Dave fitted them this afternoon. Tomorrow we get to drive round in circles. Hopefully not ever decreasing one’s.

Our worldly possessions are diminishing. The car has gone. The bike rack has gone. The bikes have gone. A spare sail cover is ours no more. Must mean it’s time to say goodbye to Nelson and crack on with getting south. 

Nelson has been our base for the last year and we both really like the place. It’s held us very easily. Could six months here and six months somewhere else be in our future? 

We left Nelson a couple of days ago and are in a sweet bay called Wairangi on the edge of the Marlborough Sounds. Grace does have an addition though, a satellite dish. Our internet will come from Elon’s ‘Starlink’ trickery henceforth. We’ve resisted until now but know when we head south there will be no phone reception. We actually bought the equipment about a year ago as there was an early bird offer in town. It’s been waiting patiently in a box.

Our experience so far has been pretty impressive. Download an app, put the kit together press a few buttons, watch the dish orientate itself and bingo we have download speeds like we’ve never seen before. If you’re a techy bod, the numbers said 292Mbps. Internet from the sky. 

In order to mount the dish on the boat, rather than just having it perched on the deck, there some adjustments to be made, notably drilling a hole in the back of the dish to be able to disconnect the motor. Doesn’t seem right and proper drilling holes in your electronics. But having the dish fixed in a flat aspect means it’s much easier to mount and it uses less amps. Which always keeps Dave happy. 

We did squeeze in a fine day walk with friends before departing.  Mount Arthur sits in the Kahurangi National Park and bulges its way to 1,795m above sea level or 5,889ft if you like your units in old money.  All good walks finish at a pub with alcoholic beverages and bowls of chips. Marvellous.

As I type, we’re drying Grace out again against a couple of piles. We want a clean hull so Grace can slide through the water and make best speed and this is the cheapskate way of going about it. It’s a waiting game now till the water recedes enough so we can clean the hull.

Then we’ll be good to go. Whether we go east about or west about depends on the weather. Stewart Island is the goal and hopefully Fiordland too.  Ideally we’d like 3 to 4 good forgiving days to get westabout down to Milford Sound. 

And finally, here’s a sentence I may never ever have uttered previously. I have been accessorising. I desired new cushions to complement the new upholstery. They are gorgeous, frivolous in Dave’s opinion, totally unnecessary and I love them.