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and are living life at anchor in Matauwhi Bay, near to the town of Russell.

This means that we take the kids across the channel in the morning with the dinghy. There are always less waves in the morning than the afternoon.

The kids are all keen to take turns driving the dinghy, and trying to start the dinghy.

After school, the kids walk 2 blocks to the ferry dock, and take the foot ferry back across the channel. We meet them at the ferry dock, then walk 10 minutes to the Russell boat club dinghy dock in Matauwhi Bay, then it’s a short dinghy ride home.

Today Riki took the kids by school in the dinghy, and he said he wanted to run the tank out of fuel so he knew exactly how far we can go on one tank. However, it ran out on the way to school, mid-channel. He filled the tank, but then couldn’t get the engine started again. So he rowed the rest of the way across the channel! Luz keeps mixing up the words soil and fuel — she says, are we going to run out of soil?

Now we are true dirtbag yachties — we are always bringing our garbage into town in small bags and dumping it in public dumpsters; we shower sporadically in public showers; we fill up our water bottles in town rather than on the boat since we haven’t started the water maker yet; we also try to use public toilets when in town since our toilet on the boat flushes with fresh water.

Yesterday the kids and I showered in a Top10 RV park — it was $6 per person, but the hot water was unlimited. The kids loved playing on the jumping bubble at the park there, so that was an added bonus.