We’ve been busy problem-solving! Life is never linear, and wouldn’t it be boring if everything always went according to plan?
Our house in Auckland is our income. For the last eight months, that has worked quite nicely… until a month ago. Now we don’t have tenants, and the property managers haven’t been able to find a replacement. So our income has dried up. A very stressful situation to be in, as we still have a small mortgage and rates to pay, and there’s always maintenance on the house.
I like to think of ourselves as resilient and resourceful, and there’s more ways to skin a cat, as they say, so we’ve worked out a plan. We will sail the next 1500nm to Langkawi, the boat will go into a marina for 3-4 months. We fly home, sell the house, retire the debt, hang out with the kids and the oldies, work for a while and return in January (with a renewed energy, outlook and income stream from invested funds) to complete the next leg. Sounds easy!🤣
We’re certainly not the only ones with challenges. We finally have some friends to share a beer and exchange some yarns with. This story makes our worries look pathetic….
Our friend Pelle is from Sweden. He and his wife, Ulla, have been sailing around the world. They got stuck in NZ during COVID, but embraced the Whangarei lifestyle, and eventually got underway again (two years later) and headed for Indonesia. When they were five hours from their destination, just near Tual (near Raja Ampat, Eastern Indonesia), Pelle’s wife was on watch. The boat crash-gybed. She was thrown across the cockpit, dislocating her hip and badly breaking her arm (the bone was exposed🤯) and a head injury. Pelle was able to put a call through to the Indonesian Coast Guard, but communication was an issue. Their kids back home in Sweden were able to assist remotely to organise support for them.
An ambulance was waiting for them at Tual to take his wife to the local hospital. As the drama unfolded, the hospital staff were in a state of high excitement as this was the first time that a foreign patient had been in their care in such dramatic circumstances.
Before she could be flown back to Sweden, she required surgery to put her arm back together. This would’ve been a frightening prospect in a third-world country. The x-ray machine was apparently a relic from the 1950s, but it worked, and the orthopaedic surgeon did an excellent job of repairing her arm with screws and plates.
Ulla was in the hospital for ten days, with Pelle sleeping on a mattress on the floor next to her bed. A comprehensive insurance package provided a life flight back to Sweden in a Lear jet when she was well enough to fly.
The Indonesian hospital bill also needed to be paid. Indonesia operates a cash society and there was no facilities for Visa. The hospital provided Pelle with a nurse who drove him round town on the back of a motorbike to get cash out of every ATM available. Each ATM only allows a maximum withdrawal of 1 million rupees (the equivalent of $120 NZ). For under $500 NZ, she received excellent care. Pelle became the honorary uncle to everyone in the town and received such kindness from the hospital staff and community. The boat is in the marina here in Lombok, and he’s packing it up in order to leave it here indefinitely until his wife has recovered enough to continue.
We’re now making tracks for Batam approximately 900nm in order not to outstay our visa. Enjoying a night at Gili Air, a very touristy island with no motor vehicles. Just horse and cart and bicycles.
Cruising Innocenti 
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