Mark Chisnell's Diary

The OneWorld navigator has returned to Auckland

The sail washing area is one example, using a 6,600 US gallon tank (about 25 tonnes of water) that's filled by the rainwater run-off from the huge roof area of the shorebase. We reckon that just an inch of rain will fill the tank. This is then pumped through a sprinkler system to wash down the sails, which are suspended from the ceiling on tracks that run from a door leading off the main sail loft. The water is also pumped to standing hosepipes on the dock for washing down the boats after sailing.

Richard Karn, former Team New Zealand fluid dynamicist (and concerned citizen of the global environment) has been instrumental in getting this project up and running. Auckland has an almost continual summer water shortage, so this is one idea that may have particular local resonance.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the inevitable chaos that this rebuilding necessitates, we've also put the boats back together for sailing: 51 hit the water for a shake-down sail last week, it's the turn of 55 this week.

And we've all been trying to deal with the upheaval involved in moving across the Pacific and living down here for the summer - finding housing and organising transport. Matt Mason has won the style prize with his ice blue Vespa scooter, though Dick Parker's 'NZ Homes and Gardens' featured apartment runs it a close second.

But those are just the big jobs on the list, the little ones are the myriad details that make for a comfortable life and they normally take years to settle into place. We've been trying to do it all in a couple of weeks. So I spent Saturday morning searching for a cable to get my Discman CD player to talk to the amplifier and speakers that have - fortuitously - come with the rented apartment. Not to forget tracking down an optician that can supply my contact lens prescription ...

Editor's note: This was written before the failure of OneWorld's mast on Tuesday