A Dolphin welcome party and a worn gooseneck

As we motored back into the Bay of Islands this morning - gorgeous sunshine but not much wind - we were delighted to meet a pod of Dolphins. They swam lazily around the boat before treating us to some aerobatics:

Wonderful creatures!

We're now back in Opua. Graham put his new rechargeable drill through its paces this afternoon and drilled out the 12 rivets holding the gooseneck fitting onto the mast. This is effectively the hinge which holds the boom (the aluminium spar at the bottom of the mainsail) to the mast and allows it to swing out either side and it's a pretty vital component; we've heard of a couple of boats where it failed in action. Ours was pretty worn so the boom was twisting under load so it was definitely due for replacement; the local rigging experts will make a new fitting (stronger than the original) to see Maunie through another ten years at least. So the end of the afternoon saw us marching up the pontoons, one at each end of the boom,to drop it off at the workshop.