Logistics

In the last couple of days Warren and I have talked in some detail about the timeline we will need to follow once his extended visa is in place. This will involve selling our car either first or last, depending on how things pan out time-wise. We really need to re-pack our storage locker...at least the last 1/4 of it as we add the possessions we currently have with us. We also want to visit family in Whangarei (a good 5 hrs drive north from where we currently reside) and plan a family gathering on the North Shore, Auckland. We have a couple of special friends we want to share a meal with  and spend time with our elderly parents before we depart. We don't know how long we will be gone, so the latter is especially important.
There are, of course, the details of where to stay in Auckland while we complete our various last minute tasks. Renting furnished apartments rather than Motel/hotel rooms works best for us, we find. It is also considerably less expensive for the most part, means we can cook and visit our friends and family without taking up space in their guest rooms. We like to be independent.

I have been searching online for airfares, but there is nothing we can book...yet. It is good to know I can also book United Airlines Mileage Plus Award Travel, having enough miles to get both of us one way from Auckland to Houston, TX. It just means we wont have the ability to visit with our family in two different US states. This is unfortunate, but the budget wont allow for it at this stage. Lets hope they can come and spend some time on the boat with us.

We have been in a holding pattern for the past five months. We applied for Warren's visa at the beginning of December 2012. Just prior to that he received a 6 month US visa, but leaving NZ and returning every six months over a ten year period (the life of the visa) was not going to be economically possible. Other issues come to bear on this also...see below.
Because of this we have made the decision to stay in NZ until his 2 yr visa is approved and then move to the USA. We can apply for an extension for that visa before the 2 yrs is up, from the USA.

The big challenge with a 6 month visa is that when you need to renew, you have to leave the environs of the continental USA. You cannot go to Canada, the Bahamas, Mexico etc and then try to re-enter the US and expect to get a further 6 month extension, too many times. We know of others who have been turned away at the border regardless of their visa. You are expected to leave the USA for a min. period of 15 days between visits.
With all this in mind, and not wanting to take the risk of being turned back at any time, we are sitting tight in NZ. It is easy to get disillusioned throughout this whole process, though.

Two years ago, the US Embassy in NZ used to process the whole of the Visa application and issue it from Auckland. Now, they only conduct the final interview and process the NZ Police record form. The rest of everything is couriered at great expense to mainland USA. Not only is this superbly inefficient, it just doesn't make any sense. It isn't centralized and the different departments don't appear to share information. We know, we asked!

We signed up for e-notification from the National Visa Center (NVC), and have learned to expect mail from them on a Tuesday (being Monday in the USA) which sends a shiver down our spines because there is usually a request for more information or money. This of course cannot be E-mailed back to them. It has to be couriered! Then we wait another week to 10 days to be told that something isn't right, more information is needed or they couldn't process our fees! aieeeeeeeeeeee~! Mucho frustration!!!

We have not heard from them  (NVC) this week and are holding our breaths until next Tuesday morning when we hope we will hear only the good news that Warren can go and get his Medical certification and a date for his interview in Auckland. If we don't hear from them, we will call to make sure they have everything they need. This of course means we wait on the phone for at least 30 mins. to be connected to a real person. Said person rarely knows much more than what is on their checklist of documents they should have in our folder.
I have to say, it would be VERY helpful if the applicant received a checklist at the beginning of the process so that we could send everything at once. We thought we had done that with the initial application, but apparently that went to a different department and the NVC was not given that information...hence the need for additional copies, fees etc etc. I do wish they would learn to share!

Planning

When people ask us what we are doing in our 'Leisure time' while we wait to begin our Great Adventure, we hear from so many mid-lifers who can't wait to retire and live their dream.

The very idea that retirement will offer the individual/couple a panacea is rather interesting, in itself.
Let me tell you right now; Retirement can be nasty if you don't have interests or hobbies or something to fill your days . The Dream, as it were, is a myth that can hastily turn into The Nightmare if you have not taken good care of your financial goals for your post-work life.

Take dental care, for instance. Suddenly, I have had to have dental work done that was unanticipated (isn't most of it?) and it has cost thousands of dollars. I have also had a (at this stage) small medical matter to attend to which has the potential (I guess) to also cost many dollars that were unanticipated.
Fortunately we have Medical Insurance, though the premiums grow each year as we get into that higher age bracket, and fortunately we live in a country with socialized medicine...well, kind of. User pays more and more.

Getting back to The Dream:
As with most of the bigger things in life, planning is essential. Warren and I have been in the planning stage for our mid-life adventures for the best part of two years. We did not anticipate being 'retired' this early in our lives, but the downturn in the economy, selling our business and being unable to find worthwhile work at this age has meant we have had to make other plans. It was not as if we stuck a  pin in a map and said "let's go there". We just knew we didn't want to spend the rest of our lives making things in the garage and tending the vege garden, though they are definitely included in the 'retirement experience'. They just were not going to be the raisin d'etre! (deliberate spelling!)

We had been planning to sell 'Warren's' boat for some time. Well, that isn't strictly correct: 'I' had been nudging him to consider the possibility of selling the boat, for some time:) When the two of us got together as a couple, HE came with a boat and 'I ' came with a dog. We have enjoyed both for the past 6 years.

Even though I grew up with a small boat in the family and a father who 'went fishing', I cannot say I spent much time on a boat. Warren had spent most of his life boating and owned sailboats and later the 41ft Launch (Motor Yacht) he brought with him to our relationship. The attraction of boating, for us, was that this was one of the very few ways we felt we could completely 'get away from it all' in our busy lives. Our own little 'Desert Island'.

With the boat on the market (online) we had to check out the opposition, as you do. Warren found a 40-something foot Bayliner for sale that had 'done X number of thousand miles' and gave a brief description of where the boat had been (USA). It was also imported into NZ from the USA. This gave us the idea of buying a boat (Motor Yacht or Launch) to live aboard and discover the delights described by so many on The Great Loop.
We sold 'his' boat just before Christmas, 2012.

In 2010 when we were about to go to Texas for two weeks, we were looking on Google Earth, as you do, to see where we could go during that time that would be of special interest. We discovered that the Intra-Coastal Waterway (known as the ICW) runs along the Gulf Coast of Texas between the Barrier Islands and the Mainland, all the way from Brownsville, on the Mexico border, to Florida.

Warren then went further on Google Earth and discovered that we could motor the ICW all the way up the east coast of the USA though canals, behind Barrier Islands and estuaries to New York. From there we could go up the Hudson River and into either the Eerie Canal from Albany, NY to Buffalo on Lake Eerie, or up the Champlain Canal from  Albany, NY, to Montreal on the St Lawrence Seaway. The possibility of boat travel on the Great Lakes into Canada, using their canal systems was most exciting.

Of course one has only a few months to visit Canada before the weather becomes too cold and the Lakes are closed for the Winter. In those circumstances, you have to either winter your boat over in heated sheds or go south back down the ICW again or through the Chicago River at Chicago, into the Illinois River etc to complete The Loop to the Gulf of Mexico.

Now, before we go any further, and you think that you have to be 'well off'  to do something like this, you don't. People 'do' the Loop in anything from 21ft sailboats (with their masts down) and power boats to 60ft vessels (albeit with a height restriction due to one 19ft bridge in Chicago). Some people do half or 1/4 of The Loop, others do the complete loop (approx. 7,000 miles)  repeatedly over many years.

The costs associated with doing 'The Loop' are as varied as the craft doing it. There is much discussion on various Looper Blogs and Forums about the costs, but they are entirely individual. Taking into consideration the amount of fuel needed to power your boat, side-trips, personal preferences, groceries, restaurant meals, marina fees, rental cars, accommodation other than your boat etc etc, the costs vary widely. Some people might spend $50k over 8 months travel, while others might spend $15k or less.

There are no hard and fast rules for how to do it or when to do it, other than the weather restrictions and the warmer months. The New York canal system doesn't open until early May due to ice, so I guess that says it all. The usual traffic pattern on the ICW is northbound early in the Spring and southbound on the rivers in the Fall.

Back to the Planning:
Along with the excitement of a pending adventure, we have had to deal with the real-life issues of what to do with 'everything'. Reducing our personal possessions and household to the equivalent of a 40ft container (storage unit) was a challenge when coming from a 250 s. metre home. A garage sale...or two...got rid of many items, with the rest of the decent but not throw-able goods going to goodwill stores.

Having sold the business, plant and equipment as well as some other assets, we made the decision to sell the family home and invest that money in an income stream. We had long thought that living in one's retirement fund (family home in Auckland, NZ) was not the wisest of investment strategies. Actually taking the leap to divest ourselves of a permanent family base, as it were, was not as hard as expected. With the last of the children leaving home to work in another city in NZ, the two of us rattled around rather.

We advertised the home ourselves online and sold it to the 2nd people through the door at the beginning of December. With Christmas getting in the way of the ownership change we didn't actually vacate until the middle of January. This gave us plenty of time to 'sort our stuff', in more ways than one.

Perhaps the hardest decision we had to make was that of re-housing our much loved pooch. She had been in my life since the age of 4 months, and was a wonderful companion to both of us. We know it pays to talk to all kinds of doggy people about your dilemma because inevitably one of them knows someone who will love your dog to bits. We are fortunate that this happened for our girl and we are in no doubt that she is much loved by a special family. That is not to say that we don't miss her every day. We get our doggy loves when we can with obliging pooches and owners:)

We planned, with the sale of the house, to set aside an amount of money for the purchase of the vessel that is going to be our home for probably the next couple of years. What kind of vessel does one need in order to live aboard? We can think we know, but when it comes to the crunch, we don't! Again, there is much discussion on blogs and forums as to this very question, and no one answer has been arrived at. It is entirely individual!
We had done extensive research over the two years into the kind of vessel that we thought would take us where we wanted and needed to go. It was most frustrating at times converting our dollars into Greenbacks, until we set a benchmark at which we could afford to buy, and nothing less. This turned out to be .84c NZ  to the US$.

As luck would have it, the NZ dollar settled between .83 and .85 around the time we needed to send the money overseas. We used Forex to send the money because there was no commission and better exchange rates. We could also do it all online in a flash. Easy!

Along with the 'price' of the vessel, we also had to factor in such additional expenses such as survey of the boat, marina fees, State Sales Tax, registration, ownership transfer and many other 'small' items. This can add beaucoup bucks if you don't plan well for them. So much expense, you say...but consider all the expenses involved in buying a home or a car. This, after all, is our home.

Besides the planning for the boat, we had to plan for our banking (online), medical, legal, family obligations (including our senior members in their late 80's-90's) among many other considerations. Going paperless is proving more challenging that you would have thought, especially in the USA. Our USA online banking is also proving to be hugely challenging. NZ makes it seem so easy by comparison.

The minutae of our lives have had to go under the microscope and be deemed worthy of keeping or discarding. This is not always straight forward. It has proven an interesting exercise in what is most important in our lives.

Shopping for 'things' for the boat.
As so many  'things' had been removed from the boat before we bought her and those left were largely inappropriate to our lives, we had so many 'basics' to purchase and take aboard. These all add up, of course, and we had a budget that we just could not exceed.
First up were cleaning products and antibiotic hand soaps. Personal toilet products will come later when we are finally living aboard.
It took many mornings of trawling stores to find the items we needed. We would shop in the morning and then take our lunch to the boat around noon, unwrap all the items on the back deck (cockpit) and discard the boxing and wrapping before taking them into the boat. This is very important. We do not want to introduce ants, and especially cockroaches, which love to inhabit packaging. Normally we would undo the packaging on land for this reason.
This pic shows the cockpit with attached table and seating for about four people

In the galley, the cook top is only an electric three burner coil element  appliance. I dislike these intensely, but we made the decision to retain it for the moment with a view to finding a three burner Ceran glass top eventually. The cook top has a stainless steel cover which folds up for cooking and down when not, to create more counter space. There is also a chopping board insert in the top for when it is down. Because the coil elements take so long to cool, we purchased a single burner electric induction cook top. For $76, this was a  bargain. Try buying them as a 3 burner one piece...they cost almost $1,000 US.

As the hot water tank was not operating (one of the elements needs replacing) I had to boil any water for dishes, cleaning etc. The little induction cook top was fast, clean and almost instantly cool when turned off.
Of course, when  you buy an induction cooker, you need the appropriate cookware. If you can attach a magnet to your pot bottom, then you can use it for induction cooking.
We went to Marshalls for the pots and pans which helpfully had the symbols for different cooking types imprinted on their bottoms. We had previously seen these when looking for other kitchenware. While there, we checked out the rest of the items Marshalls have...wow! such a choice:) We also purchased all the towels, kitchen and other, colander, tools and implements. We went back several times after not finding some things at either TJMAX or Ross. Target was the source of our larger cooking items, however...oh, and don't forget the Herb Garden in a container, all ready for me to plant when we return.This will live in a safe place on the back deck...probably shaded!
We had thought we would take out the set of drawers below the current cook top and replace the whole thing with an oven/cooker. This would mean that the drawers would need to go somewhere else, being the ONLY set of drawers in the gallery. Hmm..maybe not right now. The current microwave/convection oven has lost the use of it's screen.We have to guess at what is on the screen. Not too smart, but we have found the exact one to replace it with. Not purchasing that right now, so will wait until we absolutely need to.
 In the meantime, as it is a very small appliance, we decided to buy a large Toaster/Convection oven. This now sits on top of the cook top with the lid in place. It does take a little space from the counter, but it ends up being swings and roundabouts. The new appliance cooks fast and is portable. I can always store it if necessary.
We don't have room on the counter for a Kettle, but the small 2 cup coffee maker we bought in Punta Gorda for our tea, sits nicely and inconspicuously in a corner.
We had thought we would purchase an electric frying pan, but instead we found a fantastic interchangeable Panini Press that opens flat to give us two surfaces to use at once. I can grill meat or fish on the one side while doing veg. on the other, or corn fritters/pancakes on the other. Most versatile.
It is all about making do in the best possible way. We fossicked around for bake ware small enough to fit in the new toaster oven and were successful in both Walmart and Home Depot.
A new kitchen faucet was also essential. The existing one did not swivel and because the sink is smaller than domestic, that was essential. Who knows, perhaps it did in another life? Home Depot provided us with enough choice to purchase a low faucet that pulls out for spray. Works like a charm. While there, we also purchased a one handle mixer for the sink upstairs on the flydeck. After painstakingly installing that, Warren went to close the lid on it...ooops! just half an inch too tall! Some choice words followed:)
Back to Home Depot and a second choice was made. That will be installed on our return. We rather ran out of time. Considering we returned the other on the morning we left the country, I would say we did rather well.
West Marine also came in for some of our dollars. Fantastic stores, but a little pricey. Well, it seems everything Marine is pricey. Remember what I said about holes in the water....?

I had thrown all the cushions in the Salon out because they were mouldy, and now there are none. On our return to Tauranga we were passing a tourist storeand saw some very cool retro tea-towels hanging on the wall. We bought three different ones...these have New Zealand things all over them, I might add...and took them and some zippers to a seamstress across the road. Bingo! cushion covers. Later we found two more very kiwi  covers in a Spotlight store. We look forward to having some distinctly Kiwi things about us. If we get tired of them, they were not expensive, so we wont have a conscience about sending them for recycling.

One of the hardest things about living on a boat is that you cannot collect 'things'. They clutter the small spaces and you have to put them somewhere safe while underway, in case you strike some rough water and everything gets tossed and turned. Been there Done That. While it is nice to have familiar things around us, it is also essential that we are safe. With this in mind, we are careful to purchase things that don't have sharp edges, or that can be stored safely in a cupboard or behind something in one of the many cavities.

These are some of the old cushions that were washed and found a new home at the Hospice store on NASA Parkway.

Warren was spending his time  in the engine room and checking out all the gadgets to make sure they all worked. We had to identify what lights worked and where and if not why not. It took a whole week for us to discover, after much head scratching and not to mention swearing, that the lights on the stairwells were labelled 'Safety lights' on the circuit board. Who would'a thunk? Wouldn't they be 'stairwell lights'?

Warren's list of spare parts, need to buys, and like to haves grew. We have had to identify, given the budget, what is essential to living aboard and negotiating our way safely for 7,000 miles. This is perhaps going to be an ongoing battle :)

We knew that our time was finite, so worked ourselves hard each day to accomplish the tasks we had set out as being essential in our remaining time in Houston. All too soon, the time came to pack things up and put away so that we could safely leave our new baby where we found her.
We had negotiated an excellent docking fee with the broker we bought her off, so she remains under his watchful eye.

The space behind the salon seats above, and below...when all the seat cushions and tops are removed... this is what is hidden

Every inch of storage counts, on a boat.

I believe I left you somewhere about the time of the Survey for the Grand Harbour 55 we were in the process of purchasing.
After she was taken out of the water for her bottom inspection, her hull was power washed so we could get a better view of any problems or potential problems. She was declared fit to return to dock, so that's what we did.
After lengthy discussions with the Hull Surveyor about what needed fixing and what it would cost, we had some time to formulate some plans and discuss those with our broker Len. The engine survey would come through in two days time, but we needed to make another offer post survey, taking into consideration all the engine maintenance that was needed, hoses replaced, cutlas bearings, zinc etc etc. She would also need a bottom paint at some stage in the near future. Her insides were generally in excellent shape but she was in need of updates in the electronics dept. and in the galley. One of the Heads needed a new pump, and so on and so forth.
A BOAT is known as a hole in the water that you keep pouring money into. Talk to any boating person and they will tell you the same thing. The trick to buying a boat is to find the shallowest hole into which to pour the money. This is no easy feat when you are looking within the budget we had and within the age also.
For a 14 yr old boat, this one is in cracker condition, all things taken into consideration.

Armed with the Survey reports, we put in another considerably less offer. I guess the seller was offended. We don't mind that. They need to consider that they didn't look after the boat in the manner she needed, so they will reap that reward at the sale end of things. There were items listed for sale in the literature that were not on the boat when we came to view her. Some of those things were expensive! This we also had to take into consideration as some of those items were essentials.
The seller countered with providing a couple of those  what I would call 'fluff' items. That is, not essential to the running of the vessel. They were refused and we stuck to our price offer. I guess his broker did some fast talking because by morning we had a deal. We owned the boat.
The sale of the boat was completed by Thursday morning, and we took possession of her by 10am that day.
We finally  had our boat:)
First order of business was to clean her. Well, for me it was. The owners had literally walked off the vessel and had not cleaned her. I don't understand how people can offer a boat for sale...or a house....and not clean it first. I was a little disturbed to find denture cleaner in the vanity cupboard, I have to say, lol. I don't have any use for that....yet!
A huge throw-out ensued to get rid of mouldy smelling things, opening up the sofas to reveal the huge storage cavities behind, but also the mould growing on the walls under there. Lots of hot soapy water did the job, but I think I will have to revisit that when we go back.
The walls everywhere have mould on them. It took me 2 1/2 days to clean the master stateroom, and I still managed to miss some. The Master Head took more time than I wanted and turned up things that weren't included in the survey. How surprising (being sarcastic!). I didnt attack the VIP cabin and Head until the day before we left. I also need to go back there with bucket in hand and complete the de-moulding of the area.
When boats are closed up and there is no air circulation, it is little wonder that mould grows so well.
One of the first expenditures on the boat was for three fans. Keeping the air circulating is paramount.
At this point I have to say that we were thoroughly enjoying the surrounding area of Clear Lake, Houston, and the people we encountered there.

The view across Clear Lake. The high rise is the only one for miles, and a bit of an oddity.

Some of the lovely homes bordering the lake, below.

There is almost always a pleasure craft of some kind outside their lake-side homes.

We are now heading to Houston Texas, food-wise, that is.
After the bungle with our meals at the Hilton Garden Inn, and subsequent move to the Hampton Inn  we were very happy to discover that the restaurants on the main road alongside the H I  were almost all well populated, which is usually a good sign.
Our first stop was Carrabba's Italian Restaurant.  We chose to sit at the bar the first night because there were no restaurant seats. This turned out to be an inspired choice. We received exemplary service and taught the barman to make Lemon, Lime and Bitters. He was rapt to make what we thought was the best LL&B we had tasted in our travels:). I don't remember what we ate that night, but conversations with other bar inhabitants were delightful and totally added to our experience. We decided we would return. A couple of nights later we did and again chose the bar to eat. The entertainment is better at the bar~!The food was excellent and not too expensive.
In between those visits we ate sushi (which had lots of selections featuring Jalapenos!) just along the road further, and another night across the road at an All -you -can -eat Salad Bar. Cant beat $6.99 each! We also ate Gyros at a mediterranean restaurant where the hosts were more interested in talking to each other in their mother tongue, than conversing with the patrons.
We thought the best meal we have ever eaten was at the Tradicao Brazillian Steakhouse across the road from the hotel. We had passed by there everyday on the way back to the hotel and swore we would investigate it one night. The night we chose, we were totally tuckered out and it just seemed like a good idea. Not knowing what to expect, this experience was like no other. We were invited to partake of the salad bar which featured 30 different item such as Heart of palm, Reggiano Parmegiano cheese by the basket, white and green asparagus, artichoke hearts  and delicious grilled vegetables, including eggplant...one of my favorites!
We were given a coaster that was red on one side and green on the other. When you place the coaster green side up, it means the meat servers will visit your table. Red, they dont.
Check out the menu here...http://www.yelp.com/menu/tradicao-brazilian-steakhouse-webster-3
All the meat we ate was superb...especially the NZ lamb!:) The little parmesan bread rolls were to die for and Warren enjoyed more from a second basket that magically appeared at our table.
We loved that all the meat was straight off the spit, especially when we had to wait for the Picanha to be cooked. The fried bananas that came as an accompaniment to the meal were fantastic, and Warren considers that they were his dessert.We came out of the restaurant saying WOW!!! This was by far the most expensive meal we  had  consumed but considered it well worth the money. We will be back.
Also just along the road was a Ben and Jerry's Ice cream shop. Warren had never eater B & J's, so this was a golden opportunity. Not inexpensive, but definitely well worth the visit.
Across the road was a Stone Cold Creamery. This is ice-cream with pudding mix added to it, so it doesn't melt very fast and it doesnt 'lick' like ice-cream. Into it you can have any number of 'goodies' mixed in, including Heath Bar, Snickers, gummy bears, cookies, nuts and sprinkles etc etc. All this is then scooped into a waffle cone or cup. We didnt make a return visit there.
Our last meal in Houston was back at the Sushi restaurant where we ordered Bento. Price was reasonable and the food was excellent.
The next day we were on our way home to New Zealand.

I will touch on the 'shopping' some time soon, but first, back to the boat saga.

Here we are back talking about food again...
Perhaps I should include some photos of the Pelikans  at this stage. They were fun to watch diving for their food and provided much amusement when a fishing charter came back to port at the Fisherman's Village full of fish.

This photo is of the Fisherman's Village (all the colored buildings) from the middle of Charlotte Harbor. The Marina is on the left. Another photo below.

The Pelikan is diving into the live bait bucket on the charter vessel and finds a good catch.

There were so many fish for the charter captain to fillet that he had another fellow help him for the most part. They were filleting for hours with these electric knives. Very efficient! The egrets were also trying to get a stray fish, though their best efforts were thwarted.

One of our favorite restaurants in Punta Gorda turned out to be the River City Grill http://www.rivercitygrillpg.com/

The food was fantastic, the service without equal and we were made to feel as if we were welcome family. We dined there three times! I favored the Seafood, of course, and Warren the Steaks. 

This was one of the busiest restaurants we have ever dined in. Not only that, the average age of the patrons seemed to be in their 80's. No kidding! This was the end of the 'Snowbird' season and they were there with their oxygen bottles and all.

Another Punta Gorda special meal was the Irish Pub where we had amazing fish and Chips. Thank goodness we arrived at  4.30pm, because you couldnt get a table for love or money much after that. 

Everywhere we went we initiated the Bar Staff into the delights of Lemon, Lime and Bitters. For the most part they got it spot-on:)