Colds, Cold, Countdown

Colds, as in: we're all of us (except Alisa) kind of sick.  The boys are hacking, I've been nodding off at the dinner table, and I fall asleep for good at eight.

Cold, as in: it's not Alaska, but Eric is wearing his fingerless gloves in the cabin.  And thermals under his PJs.

Countdown: as in, based on the current forecast, we could be leaving for Tonga as early as Thursday or (and we've never done this before) Friday.

Alisa had been griping about the lack of a grocery store in Opua ever since we returned from North America - this is one of those odd yacht outposts where there's no town, just stuff for your sailboat.  So this morning she and Elias struck out on the coastal track to Paihia, making the hour and a half trek to investigate rumors of a grocery store in that town.  And, as these things often turn out, they got to chatting with an incredibly friendly fellow on the way there who drove them to the much bigger, and cheaper, grocery store in Kerikeri and came back to collect them two hours (and $900 NZD) later, and drove them all the way back to the dinghy dock.  New Zealand is that friendly a place.  And now, lo and behold, we're pretty well provisioned for a season in the tropics.

We haven't even been back on the boat for a week, but it feels like we never left.  I'm so at home that I even had a go at fixing the old wind generator yesterday.  This is something that I do when I'm feeling nostalgia for the good old days of our life afloat, when everything was simpler and I did all my own boat maintenance.  The best thing about fixing the old wind generator is that it never runs out - you fix it, and then a day (or not even a day) later, it's like you never fixed it at all.  So you can do it again.  If you're feeling nostalgia for the good old days when everything was simpler and you did all your own boat maintenance.  Every boat should have a job like that.  People living in houses I suppose have to content themselves with cutting the grass, which is obviously a poor substitute, as you're not actually fixing anything, just cutting.  The grass.

I feel better now.