Almost ready, on weather watch

I had hoped to leave on Saturday 22nd, at the same time Andy Gillies left bound to Stewart Island - he's arrived safe and sound, and I'm still here in Lyttelton! It has been a real push to get Honey ready to go. By 23rd December the hard work had been done... Honey had been fitted out with all new ropes, two new jammers, a reefing system so it can all be done from the cockpit, lazy jacks making it easy to lower the mainsail, LED navigation lights and a tonne of other bits and pieces! This was thanks to Dad, together we spent the weekend working on the final jobs. Christmas Eve was spent finishing off work (office work that is), sorting out the communications and then the provisioning (minus the perishables) - Mum and I were in the supermarket to almost 11pm at night! I took the morning off on Christmas Day, lunch at Mum's and was then chomping at the bit to get back to Honey - so yesterday afternoon I serviced the winches (they're running really nicely now), and took Honey out for a sea trial. Autohelm working well, phew, but electronic compass out by 180 degrees, oops, must be mounted backwards! Today has been spent sorting out what to take - the front rooms at home are chaos! And putting everything in order so that I can leave for 3 months. There are now only a few wee jobs left to complete on Honey (including fixing the compass), a bit of the final provisioning (perishables), cleaning the boat, packing stuff up, moving it onto Honey and then stowing, and possibly a further sea trial before I go... So now we are on weather watch... there is some nasty weather brewing down south which looks to stick around for at least a week, which means Stewart Island is looking doubtful for New Year. Tomorrow is finishing off the the final few jobs and keeping a watch on the weather...