Category: By Voyage Blog

May 16th, 2011

Dear F&F,

\”Anniversary\”….\”The Little River Band\”.

Auckland, New Zealand: Wind SSW 18-35 knots. Swell in the Tasman Sea 6-8 meters SSW (18- 25 feet). Temperature 61 deg F, 16.6 C. Squally….

Today is May 16th, 2011. Today would have been our 18th anniversary. We always called it our \”Humaversary\” after the Humuhumunukunuku a\’ pua fish. You know it as the trigger fish. It was our favorite due to it\’s behavior and color. We first found this fish together on our dives in Hawaii in the mid 1990\’s.

The translation of this in Hawaiian is \”Nose like a pig, put together like a puzzle\”. I always thought it was apropos of Cindy. Little did I know…. I loved her cute nose, the puzzle is well…..a puzzle.

Tomorrow we will check out with New Zealand Customs, finish housekeeping, return the car and say goodbye. We\’ll have a last NZ dinner with Chris and Sandra Biggs at their home and depart Wednesday morning (your Tuesday in the Western Hemisphere).

The weather is predicted to calm for a bit then, but will build steadily as we head north. The swell will be long period and large, but the \”seas\” not predicted to be breaking off the tops too bad. This is \”Beach House\’s\” bread and butter condition. The good news is, it will be behind us. It could be a fast and blustery passage to Fiji. Currently, we\’re thinking \”pass\” on Minerva Reefs due to probable \”re-enforced\” trade winds when we would arrive. That means 25 knots or more! If so, c\’est la vie. If it works, we\’ll stop at North Minerva. This window is narrow and lots of boats will be leaving with us. The next one is not predicted to occur until sometime in June. So…here we go.

Savusavu, Fiji is 1205 miles in a straight line (which of course we won\’t sail) and should take around 7-9 days to get to depending on if we stop in the Minerva\’s.

Six boats are going to leave on our \”window\” from just Gulf Harbour. Perhaps 30 or so from all of New Zealand. We are lucky that due to bad weather, the Auckland customs dock was damaged so they have agreed to come up to Gulf Harbour tomorrow and check us out. This saves us a 35 mile round trip in the wrong direction. Additionally, they have agreed we can depart the next day which is virtually unheard of here. Usually you have to leave immediately upon check out. I told them I didn\’t want to do that as to have a full day of daylight before night watches began to get our \”sea legs\”. They understood.

So I write you with a mixed heart. Glad to move on, glad to leave this part of my life behind. New Zealand and all the people I\’ve met here have been wonderful, it\’s just sad that the circumstances did not allow me to enjoy it more….Perhaps I\’ll return again another day with a lighter heart.

Hugs to you all, Look for our live blog to start on the 18th here in NZ, your 17th of May in the US and UK. KIT, Scott with Kate

May 16th, 2011

Dear F&F,

\”Anniversary\”….\”The Little River Band\”.

Auckland, New Zealand: Wind SSW 18-35 knots. Swell in the Tasman Sea 6-8 meters SSW (18- 25 feet). Temperature 61 deg F, 16.6 C. Squally….

Today is May 16th, 2011. Today would have been our 18th anniversary. We always called it our \”Humaversary\” after the Humuhumunukunuku a\’ pua fish. You know it as the trigger fish. It was our favorite due to it\’s behavior and color. We first found this fish together on our dives in Hawaii in the mid 1990\’s.

The translation of this in Hawaiian is \”Nose like a pig, put together like a puzzle\”. I always thought it was apropos of Cindy. Little did I know…. I loved her cute nose, the puzzle is well…..a puzzle.

Tomorrow we will check out with New Zealand Customs, finish housekeeping, return the car and say goodbye. We\’ll have a last NZ dinner with Chris and Sandra Biggs at their home and depart Wednesday morning (your Tuesday in the Western Hemisphere).

The weather is predicted to calm for a bit then, but will build steadily as we head north. The swell will be long period and large, but the \”seas\” not predicted to be breaking off the tops too bad. This is \”Beach House\’s\” bread and butter condition. The good news is, it will be behind us. It could be a fast and blustery passage to Fiji. Currently, we\’re thinking \”pass\” on Minerva Reefs due to probable \”re-enforced\” trade winds when we would arrive. That means 25 knots or more! If so, c\’est la vie. If it works, we\’ll stop at North Minerva. This window is narrow and lots of boats will be leaving with us. The next one is not predicted to occur until sometime in June. So…here we go.

Savusavu, Fiji is 1205 miles in a straight line (which of course we won\’t sail) and should take around 7-9 days to get to depending on if we stop in the Minerva\’s.

Six boats are going to leave on our \”window\” from just Gulf Harbour. Perhaps 30 or so from all of New Zealand. We are lucky that due to bad weather, the Auckland customs dock was damaged so they have agreed to come up to Gulf Harbour tomorrow and check us out. This saves us a 35 mile round trip in the wrong direction. Additionally, they have agreed we can depart the next day which is virtually unheard of here. Usually you have to leave immediately upon check out. I told them I didn\’t want to do that as to have a full day of daylight before night watches began to get our \”sea legs\”. They understood.

So I write you with a mixed heart. Glad to move on, glad to leave this part of my life behind. New Zealand and all the people I\’ve met here have been wonderful, it\’s just sad that the circumstances did not allow me to enjoy it more….Perhaps I\’ll return again another day with a lighter heart.

Hugs to you all, Look for our live blog to start on the 18th here in NZ, your 17th of May in the US and UK. KIT, Scott with Kate

May 15, 2011

Dear F&F, Hopefully Bobby Darrin, author of \”If I were a carpenter and she were a lady\” won\’t be too plussed about my liberties with his song title. (See paragraph below).

Current conditions: Auckland: 21 knots, SE (a first!), 57 degrees F, 14.2 degrees C. Rain and squally and rough outside the harbor. The backside of the low pressure system is starting to leave us. The incoming High Pressure system is very high and will have very strong winds (30+) knots as it approaches. A 1032 mb high is going to drive the wind from here to Fiji.

It appears our \”weather window\” is back for Wednesday, but we will get re-enforced trade winds about 500 miles north of New Zealand. At least it will be warm up there. Re-enforced means 25+ knots. Prediction is right behind us at 15 knots on Wednesday, a good get away wind. Tomorrow Kate will finish shopping and I will REALLY clean up the boat and get the packed stuff off to LA.

Today we loaded the final fuel, did massive laundry and checked weather. Kate cooked and did more organization. We had a lovely dinner at a Southern US Cuisine restaurant, \”Jambalaya\” owned by two American ex-pats. They wanted Mike to know they found the okra for the gumbo….Mike take note!
I tried to clean up the boat and was side tracked by adventures in plumbing….read on.

Adventures in Marine Plumbing:
Our water pumps both seemed to fail at the same time today. I thought that was odd? They both just kept running and running a sign that the variable sensors for water pressure have failed. So, I turned off all the water valves, and took apart Kate\’s bed to retrieve the spare pump. I put it in line AND…..broken right out of the box.

I noted that the other pump though seemed to work and I was okay with that as we only needed one. Then I opened the hot water valves and the now \”good\” pump started to run again. I quickly realized that Kate had forgotten to make absolutely sure she\’d turned off the hot water recycling valve in the shower and that answered the mystery of the \”broken pumps\”; we were just recycling our hot water around and around. When I went to put the (thought to be bad one, that wasn\’t) back in the system. The plumbing started to leak. ANOTHER \”O-Ring\” failed. Replaced, 2 hours chasing noisy pumps, and we\’re back in action. However, we did learn our spare was bad and we\’ll try and pick another one (or two) up tomorrow morning.

The weather window that is appearing is the first in over a month. The next one is most likely not to appear until at least the first week of June. Colder then than now (It\’s fast approaching winter here) and who knows what quality that window will be. Right now, the weather guru\’s say Wednesday. Let\’s hope for the best….

KIT, Scott with Kate

May 14th, 2011

\”Look Through Any Window\”…..The Hollies

Dear Friends and Family, Well, the weather HERE in Auckland has been pleasant and we were looking forward to a mid week departure. Now however, a tropical low is forming north of our nice Big Fat High. This means, we may yet be on hold awaiting a better weather window. The current set up is reminiscent of the \”Queen\’s Birthday Storm\”. An event that happened here 24 years ago, much like the \”Perfect Storm\”. You can google it: \”Queen\’s Birthday Storm\”. It\’s not likely to go that way, but we aren\’t going to tempt any fates.

The good news is that we may yet get a new circuit board for the little water maker and have it operational before we leave. Also, we could have a few days to relax and get Kate started on her Open Water Scuba course.

The food is cooked and packed, the boat is in great shape. Fuel, a bit of shopping, LOTS of organization, weather watching and some sad goodbyes.

Tonight, we\’ll be taking Paul McFadden and his girlfriend Dawn to dinner as a thank you for all Paul\’s help in this difficult time. On Monday we\’ll be going to Chris and Sandra Biggs for dinner, invite offered today as they sailed by on their boat. A chance for some relaxation will not be lost on either of us, especially me.

This Monday, May 18th would have been Cindy and my 18th wedding anniversary. I\’m sure it will be an emotional day.

Hugs to you all, Waiting for the right \”window\”…. Scott

May 12th, 2011
Dear Friends and Family, When leaving New Zealand which I have chosen to do as soon as practical for emotional reasons; the weather is EVERYTHING.

Yesterday was perhaps the worst weather I\’ve seen in my life! Not kidding. It was blowing 40 knots, 50 in the gusts. It was raining as hard as I\’ve ever seen. A tropical depression was to the West of New Zealand and just pummeling us. At least it wasn\’t freezing. Winter here is just around the corner.

What a difference a day makes…. Today looked like a benign sunny calm Southern California day…go figure!

Another low pressure system is to \”hit\” us on Sunday and the weather guru\’s say Monday to Thursday looks good for a JUMP. A jump is of course \”departure\” day. We\’ll go to Auckland (downtown), check out with Kiwi Customs and anchor out for a night to acclimatize to our environment. I prefer to start a long passage in the morning as to get our sea legs for the day. Speaking of \”our\”, let me introduce you all to young Kate Richardson of the UK.

Kate is an ultrasonographer. Basically, she takes ultra sounds of people for medical diagnosis. Kate is on an extended holiday \”overseas\”.

I met Kate through \”findacrew.net\” where people are looking for sailing experiences. As she was here in New Zealand, we met and hit it off right away. Kate brought two friends to check me and \”Beach House\” out. Kate\’s friends Stephen and Bea are both in the British military. Stephen is a communications officer in the Royal Navy and Bea a soon to be Major in the British Army. Stephen of course had to check the boat and Captain out for safety and qualification to let his friend Kate go off on a 1300 nautical mile South Pacific junket. Due to the result, I suppose both Captain and boat (which at the time was a complete mess!), passed muster.

Kate has been most enthusiastic and a complete joy in the organization of the galley and provisioning. With several crew/skipper certificates in hand, she is looking forward to her first long distance ocean passage. Hopefully it will be adventurous, but not too much so.

We are using local weather guru, Bob McDavitt to assist us in weather passage planning. Bob works for the New Zealand Met and was the head weather guy in Fiji for several years.

Kate is keen to learn to dive and I\’ve reinstated my PADI SCUBA Instructors certificate officially as of today. So if we get to the Minerva Reef\’s or upon reaching Savusavu, Fiji, Kate will get wet and we hope to make her a newly certified diver upon arrival.

So far, our Wednesday departure is looking good. If it continues so….we\’ll \”Jump\”

Keep in touch, Scott and Kate aboard s/v Beach House

May 12th, 2011
Dear Friends and Family, When leaving New Zealand which I have chosen to do as soon as practical for emotional reasons; the weather is EVERYTHING.

Yesterday was perhaps the worst weather I\’ve seen in my life! Not kidding. It was blowing 40 knots, 50 in the gusts. It was raining as hard as I\’ve ever seen. A tropical depression was to the West of New Zealand and just pummeling us. At least it wasn\’t freezing. Winter here is just around the corner.

What a difference a day makes…. Today looked like a benign sunny calm Southern California day…go figure!

Another low pressure system is to \”hit\” us on Sunday and the weather guru\’s say Monday to Thursday looks good for a JUMP. A jump is of course \”departure\” day. We\’ll go to Auckland (downtown), check out with Kiwi Customs and anchor out for a night to acclimatize to our environment. I prefer to start a long passage in the morning as to get our sea legs for the day. Speaking of \”our\”, let me introduce you all to young Kate Richardson of the UK.

Kate is an ultrasonographer. Basically, she takes ultra sounds of people for medical diagnosis. Kate is on an extended holiday \”overseas\”.

I met Kate through \”findacrew.net\” where people are looking for sailing experiences. As she was here in New Zealand, we met and hit it off right away. Kate brought two friends to check me and \”Beach House\” out. Kate\’s friends Stephen and Bea are both in the British military. Stephen is a communications officer in the Royal Navy and Bea a soon to be Major in the British Army. Stephen of course had to check the boat and Captain out for safety and qualification to let his friend Kate go off on a 1300 nautical mile South Pacific junket. Due to the result, I suppose both Captain and boat (which at the time was a complete mess!), passed muster.

Kate has been most enthusiastic and a complete joy in the organization of the galley and provisioning. With several crew/skipper certificates in hand, she is looking forward to her first long distance ocean passage. Hopefully it will be adventurous, but not too much so.

We are using local weather guru, Bob McDavitt to assist us in weather passage planning. Bob works for the New Zealand Met and was the head weather guy in Fiji for several years.

Kate is keen to learn to dive and I\’ve reinstated my PADI SCUBA Instructors certificate officially as of today. So if we get to the Minerva Reef\’s or upon reaching Savusavu, Fiji, Kate will get wet and we hope to make her a newly certified diver upon arrival.

So far, our Wednesday departure is looking good. If it continues so….we\’ll \”Jump\”

Keep in touch, Scott and Kate aboard s/v Beach House

May 11th 2011
Dear Friends and Family, We\’ll the journey continues and begins anew. The weather has been horrid. The wind blows like hell in furry, the rain falls like a broken damn. What am I doing here?

Mike Lonnes, great guy and genuinely best marine installation man on the planet earth, came to New Zealand with me to get Beach House ready to move on. Mike sailed with Cindy and me from the Galapagos to the Marquesas in 2009 and is most familiar with Beach House.

Mike designed an entire new electronic system and underwater plumbing system for the boat. Without his assistance, I simply would not be able to make this trip plain and simple. Thank you Mike!

It\’s been an intense 12 hour per day, go go go for the last two and half weeks. At least a dozen contractors have been here and we\’re as close to ready to go as we can be.

Mike left on Tuesday, the 10th of May and I went into a bit of \”what am I going to do without him?\” here.

Thank you all for your emails to keep up with me and keep me focused. Healing has been up and down. My new crew, Kate has been very helpful as a sweet soft understanding spirit. I\’ll introduce you to Kate in my next post.

All the folks here at Gulf Harbour have been fantastic. A great place for the major planned re-fit. I\’m still in shock and confusion as I\’m sure many of your are. I\’m plugging along just trying to keep one foot in front of the other…..

On another note, Skye\’s movie was given the \”green light\” and she and Sean are now in Atlanta, Georgia prepping for production to begin in the near future. Thank you Ms. Diaz for signing and keeping my daughter gainfully employed….:) Hugs to you all, Scott

May 11th 2011
Dear Friends and Family, We\’ll the journey continues and begins anew. The weather has been horrid. The wind blows like hell in furry, the rain falls like a broken damn. What am I doing here?

Mike Lonnes, great guy and genuinely best marine installation man on the planet earth, came to New Zealand with me to get Beach House ready to move on. Mike sailed with Cindy and me from the Galapagos to the Marquesas in 2009 and is most familiar with Beach House.

Mike designed an entire new electronic system and underwater plumbing system for the boat. Without his assistance, I simply would not be able to make this trip plain and simple. Thank you Mike!

It\’s been an intense 12 hour per day, go go go for the last two and half weeks. At least a dozen contractors have been here and we\’re as close to ready to go as we can be.

Mike left on Tuesday, the 10th of May and I went into a bit of \”what am I going to do without him?\” here.

Thank you all for your emails to keep up with me and keep me focused. Healing has been up and down. My new crew, Kate has been very helpful as a sweet soft understanding spirit. I\’ll introduce you to Kate in my next post.

All the folks here at Gulf Harbour have been fantastic. A great place for the major planned re-fit. I\’m still in shock and confusion as I\’m sure many of your are. I\’m plugging along just trying to keep one foot in front of the other…..

On another note, Skye\’s movie was given the \”green light\” and she and Sean are now in Atlanta, Georgia prepping for production to begin in the near future. Thank you Ms. Diaz for signing and keeping my daughter gainfully employed….:) Hugs to you all, Scott

May 2nd, 2011

Dear Friends and Family, I don\’t have any idea where to begin. I write you from still gray, rainy, windy Auckland, New Zealand. The weather has been truly awful since my return to \”Beach House\” a week ago. It suits my emotional state as I\’m sure you can imagine. I am still wondering how I can press on. My girl was the dream, not the boat. This will be a continuation of some of the toughest days of my life. With the weather the way it is, I just can\’t see how to get north, out of the cold and back into the warm tropics. Everyone here says the weather will give us opportunities to head north; back into the warmth we left behind. I again thank all of you for your support and love, please keep emailing, it is really appreciated.

Friend Michael Lonnes, who is professional marine installer and sailed with us from the Galapagos to the Marquesas returned to New Zealand with me. He is an absolutely delightful human being which is making this experience of finishing the boat tolerable. Without him here, I would be in complete despair.

We attempted to launch the boat on Friday and one of our new 11 through hull fittings had a bad valve, we had to re-haul the boat. Upon inspection we discovered a bad \”o-ring\” and ultimately had to replace the entire fitting. So boating goes. The \”o-ring\” essentially cost $750.00 as we had to be re-hauled, put on blocks and re-launched. We successfully replaced the valve and relaunched this morning; now back at the slip. I almost had an industrial accident where the boat nearly crushed me against the concrete pier in the 30 knots of \”breeze\” we were experiencing. If not for friend Gram who was watching and gave \”Beach House\” a good shove, I might not have journeyed another yard. I\’m okay, a bit of a headache, but all is well.

The boat is in the process of being completely renewed. A Phoenix essentially. It was always planned that while in New Zealand, this is the place it would be done. The contractors are very good, the prices right. The timing right as to our travels. None of it feels good to be perfectly honest, but I will try and go on. The next several weeks will be very busy.

I\’m anxiously awaiting news from daughter Skye if her new movie is a \”go\”. If so, she\’ll be off to Atlanta for several months. I told Skye to tell Cameron Diaz\’s agent I would pay full retail for a ticket if she\’ll just sign the contract….:)

Amongst my projects here are to finalize crew (I\’m close!), prepare for the 1300 mile sail to Savusavu, Fiji, re-provision, get all the systems tested and on line, watch the weather, clean the boat and ship many things home to be lovingly dealt with in the Fall of the Northern Hemisphere. For those of you in Southern California, calendar a note to contact me in November and I\’d love to spend some time with you.

Love and Hugs to you all, Scott

May 1st, 2011

Dear Friends & Family, As you can see from the new homepage of svbeachhouse.com, I have archived our original website to the memory of our voyages. We truly had some of the greatest times of our lives in places like San Benedicto Island riding giant manta rays, swimming with a whale shark in the Galapagos, watching a thousand gray reef sharks in the pass at South Fakarava in the Tuamotus and an amazing week with friends Clark and Vincent in Bora Bora.

I will never get to know why….. I will carry a certain sadness in the window of my soul always. I can only hope that I will be able to find some peace and happiness in the future. Only time will tell. Whether time heals wounds or not, I\’ll just have to wait and see.

Please stay with me as I try and press on. I not only enjoy your support, I need it. The bitter sweetness of my life and whatever path it leads to will unfold. Hopefully to a place where peace and joy can re-enter my life. I\’m not the clear and concise wordsmith that Cindy was, but I\’ll try my best.

New people will now enter my life and I hope to enjoy their story. I need a respite from my own.

I always saw our arrival in New Zealand as the end to the first book of our trilogy. I\’m not sure how I can begin book two, but I will try. It all brings to mind the epic journey and struggle in the \”Lord of the Rings\” trilogy. Ironically filmed right here in New Zealand.

Gather round your own campfire, hold your loved ones closely, you can\’t have them forever. I know this to be true. Enjoy them fully today, for we don\’t know what tomorrow may bring.

Scott (Windy, rainy, gray – Auckland, New Zealand, May 1st, 2011).