As I looked out the window just now (god, I gotta wash em again!) there’s the Ipipiri over by the Bramptons, probably giving a history talk on Waitangi?

The R Tucker Thompson is berthed alongside the Russell Wharf – looking splendid too!  They’ve just had a week of  Youth Sail Training around the Bay of Islands and the Cavalli’s – they were very good at calling in each mornig and evening with a different radio operator; apparantly I ROCK!! as they kept saying each night to me – and they left me some chocolate cookies and a box of mixed nuts covered in chocolate!

YUMMMMMMM — thanks everyone, that was nice, I shared them round.

Hmm that mornig breeze is getting up now, quite chilly in fact, its only 13 degrees and the humidity is 40% brrrrrrrr

I truly love my job – working the marine radio – its awesome! absolutely awesome! Just one drawback though? – internal politics, it drives me crazy, and I’m constantly battling to stay out of it.

I now have new approach – I come to work on the morning ferry arrive here between 7.30 and 7.40am depending on wind and tides, open up the radio rooms, get the weather maps out to everyone, then start broadcasting at 0800 and take calls and GIVE CHEEK to all the boaties out there until 2000 then close down and go back home on the evening ferry.

The vege patch is coming along nicely  – I had a “tutu” with Trev’s irrigation system.

Shot into town and purchased a packet of sprinklers that screw directly into the hose pipe.  Right side up only irrigated the bark surrounding the containers and the neighbours lawn and windows!

Okay, now what~!  I had nothing to lose (apart from shrivelled and dying veges) so I twisted the whole water pipe and now the sprinklers are upside down, and only watering the vege plants -

unfortunately! where I didn’t have enough sprinklers to fit all of trev’s holes it trickled down along the pipe, but I have another idea for this later on.

With the pipe lying directly on the soil mix wasn’t a good idea, so I had been given a whole lot of plastic “straw” type sticks that tie on the the end of balloons, never threw them away thinking they’d come in handy one day.

Well by Golly they did!  I made half hoops, stuck one either end of each container, then simply got Trev’s plastic ties and affixed the water pipe to each hoop.

Wallah!!  one VERY inexpensive irrigation system – and it works too!

yet ANOTHER quickie to catch up on the “goss”

Well, what else do you call it then? ha ha ha (satyrical chuckle) So much has happened over the past few months that I don’t know where or how to begin!

So, how about randomly then? ….okay…I know!…oh maybe you know already though?….never mind, I’ll just tell it as it comes to mind.

We’ve had the most awesome visitor out from the UK, on a well deserved holiday – GEMMA (now nicknamed GG – for “giggling gertie”) always welcome back anytime.

I think the first day GG was here, I threw the keys of the car to her with only one stipulation – bring it back in one peice please?  I know its hard being in a different country, let alone a different town while your hosts are working their butts off 7 days a week, and you’re left to “fend for yourself” in a lovely tourist town.

What was going to be a “few days” turned into a week long stay – we were truthfully quite sad when GG had to catch that bus for Auckland and her “road trip”, thanks for the farewell Pizza GG.

You take care in your travels – we want to see you again another time – oh, and don’t forget to give “Queenie” a huge hug from us okay?

For what its worth, I have happily raised and looked after these little fellas, but something is definately quite off! Perhaps my mix of compost, potting mix, soil & blood and bone wasn’t right?
Hmmm – We’ve had some very dry days, warm winds, lots of sun, and all I can afford to do, is water them twice a day for about an hour each time.

We had two days of non stop rain and this wetted the mixture down nicely, over night it dried out, if you plunge your hands into the mix, your fingers are damp, but the rest of your hand and arm is dry…no matter how much you water them.

The lettuce look decidedly ill – but then again, I thought that when I bought them in their pots. Why are the beans and courgetts covered in little black flies? Why aren’t my tomatoes looking healthier and fatter in the stalks? The ones on the left of the shot are the ones that survived my growing from seeds, the ones on the right (Russian something or other) haven’t grown more than a quarter of an inch since planting 3 weeks ago! I removed their lower branches in the hopes that this would make their “stuff” go into the roots and make them grow,

Thyme, Chives & Parsley - new beginnings

I’ve tried talking, pleading, but nothing helps – yet… what you think of Popsy’s irrigation system then? I would like to raise it and have little sprinklers in the hose so you get a better and bigger water cover area – OR? – stick the sprinkler in the top and you’d get the same effect wouldnt’ you?

Anyways – its my first attempt & maybe if I add more blood n bone? – the soil didn’t look that good – it was full of rusty old iron nails, broken glass – you name it, and keeps sending up Lily type plants – so it must be okay (I guess)

Never mind, its a start and I’m really happy – I have some more ideas – hopefully much improved from this experience.

Nah! Not!

Been busy updated Russell Radios Blogsite – if you go across to their site, you’ll see I’ve caused quite a stir with the NZ metservice – all I did was ask valid questions, and as promised, posted their reply as well.

Mr McD was quite charming on the phone – I really would like to meet with him and talk about the weather and how its “deciphered”.

As you can see, we’ve been on Tsunami alert all day; for more info, please look at Russell Radio site, I really don’t want to repeat myself.

Tsunami Shockwave!

Hope all my lovlies overseas are looking after themselves and staying happy & are keeping on smiling?

0600 – Last day of Standard Daylight time. I sit in the kitchen and watch the sun hovering over the horizon – a glorious red ball! Might as well make the most of it and enjoy, tomorrow the clocks go forward – mornings will be dark again – the ONLY drawback to Daylight Saving (now that my children have grown up and moved on) I can now see.

0715 – Got to the pool, pulled the covers off – checked the chemical level of the water – flicked the chlorine pump to #5 – it was reading 1.25 and we need an average of 3 to 3.5 today. We’ve got the Bay Of Islands Swim Club (BOISC) Northland interclub Competition today – yup – a whole 11 hours of enthusiastic children and supporters screaming for their favourites and a woman (god, I hope she doesn’t turn up!) whom I’m convinced is still suffering from menopause on the whistle!! Give her her dues though – when she blows that whistle EVERYTHING shuts up!!

0915 – A Northland record set for the Butterfly stroke last week, was smashed to smithereens – the windows of our little office are vibrating with the shouts and stomps of over a hundred pair of feet!! 1000 – There’s a sausage sizzle going – $2 a go, and fizzy drinks $1 a bottle. The aroma wafting in and mingling with the smell of chlorine isn’t something that gets the stomach juices flowing.

1030 – I’ve had to turn away five families who have come to swim for the day – one mum was particularly hostile – she’d driven down from Kerikeri. Am I sure I couldn’t just put one lane aside for them? YES I’M PRETTY CERTAIN I COULDN’T DO THAT MAAM!” We have a huge notice board up which we post one month ahead notifying everyone of coming events AS WELL AS verbal communications. Jees….

1130 – Oh my EARS! Are aching and now the pool has emptied out for at least 2 hours, they’re taking a break – lunches and rests I suppose? Had a complaint about the mat surround lifting on one corner – its two pieces about 1 inch deep, a half inch thick – TWO children have tripped up, er sorry maam, I don’t have any glue (and I don’t think it would adhere in a puddle?) what’s that? Nails? No, sorry maam, don’t have any nails – (or hammers). So, someone grabbed our mat from our lunchroom (stops us standing on concrete and cuts down the static electricity when you grab a tap!) and threw it on the offending corner! The boys aren’t going to be happy when they see that tomorrow!

1200 – Oh the peace, the beautiful peace – have been around and emptied the overflowing rubbish bins – mostly plastic water/drink bottles, and banana peels; flushed down the showers ready for the next chapter. 1230 – Okay, now I’m bored – can’t let the public in, done all my jobs forced to sit and read my Underwater Journal — oooohhhh that’s interesting, a new dive computer option for the Open Water Course. YES – excuse me while I peruse the article….

1315 – Just had a visit from one of the local “old girls” – she belongs to a walking club; as it has been raining, they’ve decided to come back, now she’s bored and wants company – Her club has slowly dwindled from over 30 to just 3 of them. She visits only on days like these – and her stories are always the same – I look forward to her visits and if she feels she had a good day and made a “new friend” that’s okay with me – every week it’s okay with me..

1330 – Just had a call from “Popsy” – he left the cellphone at a friend’s in Kerikeri and couldn’t find their number.

1350 – I’m bored.

1415 – Did I say I’m bored?

1445 – Well, they’re all slowly drifting back in – not a bad break was it? 3 ½ hours.

1530 – And still no racing – just warm ups. Lanes 1 & 6 are for “starting” and lanes 2 to 5 are for “turning” – hmm do “bombs” constitute turning then?

1600 – its 27 degrees in here! Unable to open sliding doors cos the kids will freeze, the water temp is 28 degrees – just hold there please! –OH MY GOD!! There goes that blasted whistle (pardon the pun) 1700 – Tea Break! One thing you can say about the BOISC is; they certainly put on a good spread – every mum in the club has bought something homemade in to eat..the kids are cleaning up the plates FAST! 

1830 – The crowd is thinning out as those finished racing for the day, go home a well deserved rest for tomorrows big events – many are still racing though. The man on the PA system keeps announcing “don’t forget to put your clock forward – we start at 9am tomorrow” (don’t think anyone listening) You have to admire the judges – they’ve been standing all day – walking up and down the length of the pool – with no complaints mind you…but their faces are starting to tell the strain.

1900 – they’ve all gone now, ah the “pain of silence!” time to pull the covers over, hose down the showers afterwards, flick of the chlorine pump, turn down the fan, check the pool surround for any hidden rubbish, lights off, lock up and …home here I come! ahhhhhhhh  

Where do I start? in no particular order I suppose?…hmmm

You know Trev has had his first grandson? We still don’t know what the name will be (sad). Really enjoyed the snorkel scuba race, made some new friends, been pretty well booked out solid just lately.  So I’ve either been at russell radio, or the pool or in the boat (diving).

Check out our friends new blog – scubavoltage !! (its right there on the right hand side in the blogroll – you can’t miss it ) he’s got an awesome sense of humour! You can imagine when he’s on the boat the laughs we have all the time.

Mrs Wharf (aka Toni) has sold her business (Russell Information centre) and is now a “semi – free woman” – working as Dive instructor/guide again – she and scubavoltage just had two days “team bonding” down in the Poor Knights!!

The Ipipiri has been out twice now with a full load on, its going slowly, but they’ve got some great promos to draw people in.

Some of our friends have arrived back from sailing overseas – good to see them again – don’t worry Richard, your tan will soon fade

Tiger V nearly took the floating pontoon out just now – (yes, I’m doing this while at work) the tide is super high 2.5 above mhws.

This morning, went out diving with Jane, Clare & Nadia – I just felt SO invigorated afterwards – to keep the load light, Nadia & I took only one bottle each and decided to dive the second dive – specifically for scallops.  My son Michael and his beautiful new partner Dimity flew over from Australia on a surprise visit!!  so Scallops, mussells, crayfish were on the menu – Mike’s like me, a sea food addict!

So, why not combine it all then.  We went over the side by the Pora Pora’s, dived a huge area, across to submarine rock, then back towards the Pora Pora’s again, but you just knew when you hit the bottom by the state of the seabed, you weren’t going to get many today!

There were a few very small scallops scattered around, and it took us 15 minutes before we found the first scallop of legal size – we came up with a total of 5 only!  The floor looks like a fishing net, and where the scallop dredges have criss-crossed over, the weed is trying to grow in their grooves, and its just not recovering!

How do we get our point across to ban the dredges? its the modern world now, where a diver without a boat knows someone who has one, and a boatie knows a diver who will go down for them.  We need the Bay of Islands to be made into a no take zone for at least the next two season! and then maybe open it for 2 months only!?!

Needless to say, for our two new divers to scallops, Clare & Jane we gave the scallops to them – they were as disapointed as Nadia and I were. A visit to the Supermarket reef was in order, and we ate farmed scallops, mussells & oysters for tea.

Dimi had never had a lot of shellfish, but is now sold on them!  What a lovely day I’ve had!

We did it! FINALLY after all these years, our dive club (BOIUC) which bought the old club out of the cupboard – DIDN’T come last for a change!

What a lovely feeling – except we missed out on the Black Label whiskey trophy (yup a full bottle of it) – never mind, can’t have everything.

Our team was an all woman’s team this year, with the exception of the “hauler upper” and our scuba (Trev). Let’s see, who was in our team again?

We were loaned a small inflatable from Chris at Bay Marine – just perfect for what we needed, but it took some getting used to after driving Molly for nearly 6 years! That damned throttle kept moving on me..and I only tried running over Karen once!

We had “Brave Dave” (we’re sure he volunteered just to be able to have licence to “throw the women around the boat”) he was an absolute god send in dragging the snorkelers on board, Captain Karen (who organised the team & held everyone together), One Fin Kim (so named because one of her brand new fins smashed to pieces!), Racin Raewyn (who flung herself so enthusiastically from the boat then flew through the water), Turbo-Ali (who finned so fast she put up such a wake behind her she just about flooded the boat) & Dead Reckon Debs (who never once went off her track).

It was an absolutely freezing cold day – winds from the South averaging 20 knots gusting 35 knots at times, the sun shone all day though, so your mind didn’t let you get that cold.

We all three boats got trapped in the outgoing current and those strong gusts and within seconds, were off track and heading back to black rocks and further out to sea!

Several times during the race, the girls were finning on the spot against the current. We overtook 2 boats then dropped back past one to come in 3^rd from last. Every one said it was a really hard race this year, with 13 teams no one matched or broke their last years times, I’m not sure what our time was, but we were all very happy with our attempt.

Once again for the fourth year in a row, our local spearfishing club won! Mind you, Graeme had ‘em all training in the pool 3-4 times a week, and it was a very close finish between the two scuba divers.

I would say the most popular team were the “Purple Starfish” their time was 2 hours 59 minutes and 37 seconds! They will definately get the “Canterbury Most Improved Time” next year when they return.

The prize giving was held back at the Swordie sports in Paihia and it was packed tight with people, competitors and friends and family.