POG's voyage continues - and ends

[POG]

I fly from San Francisco to Tonga on Saturday, Oct 20.  A friend from New Zealand and a buddy of his are joining me to bring the boat down to the Bay of Islands at the very North of New Zealand's North Island.  About 1,500 miles of sometimes treacherous water.  Thank you to all you nice people on this forum who have helped me with advice and encouragement and more.  Keep your fingers crossed for a good passage.

[Bev & Billy on Sta-sea-dawn]

POG....do you have a blog we can follow?

[POG]

Nah.  I or my wife send out occasional updates to a select little group of people.  I plan to write the story, briefly, of POG's voyage on this site, once the voyage is finished.

Hope you are getting somewhere with your prop and gearbox linkage issues.

[POG]

How things can turn around.  I notice that the above conversations took place on 10/16 and 17.  The rest of that day I was on heavy duty garden and house maintenance duty, before leaving here on 10/20.

However, the morning after the full day of maintenance I had a bulge in my groin.  Hernia, said the doc in the afternoon. Hernia, said the surgeon the day after.  "We can operate on Tuesday 23".

After that a circus of expensive rearrangements of travel and other plans.  And here I sit, licking my wounds, hoping to get the boat down to New Zealand in the middle of hurricane season, if I am mended then and can pluck up my courage.

The lesson, I think, is:  Do it while you can.  I am glad I sailed around the world when I was 27.  Getting across the Pacific at near 70 is proving a bit of a chore.

[POG]

POG arrived on Dec 4 (2012) at Opua in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand after traveling a total of 7,400 miles and a 12.5 day final crossing from Vavau, Tonga.  Alas, I was not part of that last voyage because of my hernia operation in October.

One of the really good things to happen to me on POG's not always wonderful Pacific crossing was coming across Larry Schneider and Sheri Roberts on the island of Vavau in Tonga.  After my monster crewman had finally deserted for good and having sailed way too fast (because of monster crew wanting to go home) through the island world - I was not a very happy camper. Meeting Larry and Sheri turned things around.  

Larry and Sheri are an American cruising couple that settled in Tonga and started a small business of supplying a few moorings in a beautiful and remote bay to people that need to leave their boat for a while.  The two of them live on their minute one room houseboat and closely supervise and check the moored yachts.  Their help allowed me to go home and lick my wounds and get needed parts.  When my untimely hernia surgery stopped me from getting the boat to New Zealand myself this great couple found a good sailor to bring the boat down for me.  It cost some bucks, but was worth every penny as hurricane season is now in full swing with hurricane Evan already laying waste to Samoa and Fiji.

POG is now an imported  New Zealand boat.  Most of the needed repairs and maintenance are done.  The ripped cruising spinnaker is mended and the boat is happily tied to the dock at the Kerikeri Cruising Club Marina in the Bay of Islands.  There were times I doubted that it would happen, but all is well that ends well.

Thank you to all that have helped with input and advice and outright help - Dale Tanski, Nelson Tolar, Ray Deming - as I worked on getting the boat in shape for crossing the Pacific and whenever problems struck.  You are a great bunch of people.

[SVJourney]

Congratulations on finishing your journey!  Hoping for fairer winds and seas for you in the future.