| Dear Friends:
Sometimes magic happens. Everything goes to plan, or
better yet, what wasn't planned is better than what
we might have planned. The Mahurangi Cruising Club,
North Cove regatta was wonderful. The weather predictions
had been pretty good, the actual weather that arrived
was even better. Festivities seemed to blast off on
Friday with the arrival of over a dozen classic yachts,
a house load of visitors and a barbeque at Jo and Steve
Horsley's house at the eastern side of the bay. A pile
of freshly caught fish, provided by arriving sailors
and barbequed by Dean, a professional chef, sent wonderful
aromas wafting through the crowd all evening.
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Regatta
day, we used our barge as a landing for dinghies
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Early Saturday morning, Gabriel Wilson from directly
across the bay, arrived with a bag full of silky hand
sewn signal flags to string the length of our jetty.
Larry and Doug disappeared to return with a neighbors
gas fired barbeque, Anya came rowing in with a huge
box of sausages, onions and bread and the fun was on.
All morning long, visiting sailors and neighbors took
turns sailing some of the dozen radio controlled yachts
off the end of our jetty, while Gabriel recorded who
won each of the twenty minute long races. Sizzling sausages
kept kids and adults alike from starving, and then at
noon there was a very joncular race meeting to determine
the course and start times for the full sized yachts
race.
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The
regular dinghy pontoon served as a base for controlling
electric sailing models |
Hugh Gladwell, who is the official handicapper for
the club, had a real challenge when 20 yachts were entered,
ranging from an open cockpit Haven 11 ½ footer
to a full out 60 foot race boat (Northerner, built in
the 1950's), from lightweight modern boats to 111 year
old Thelma. We were each given a starting time, with
the hopes that we would all finish together. In New
Zealand this is called a Mark Fowey start; others know
this as a staggered start. The idea is that at the end
of the race, no one has to wait for a handicapper to
decide who won; first boat across the line is the winner.
We crossed the starting line on Thelma 30 minutes after
the first boat, Doug and Helen Schmuck adding the extra
crew power for a 10 mile race with winds ranging from
5 knots to 25, and seas from dead flat to steep eight
foot swells. We had a grand race, passing half a dozen
of the early starters, keeping our place well ahead
of those bigger boats who were charging up astern of
us. But it was the finish that was the best surprise
of all. As we approached the reef that marks the entrance
to North Cove we were tied in dead heat with five other
boats. All of us tried to outmaneuver each other during
the last light air beat past the reef marker. I was
shocked when Larry tried to gain a better position by
tacking within five feet of the kelp covered rocks.
There was no finishing boat to shoot off a gun, but
by everyone's estimate, the first six boats finished
within one minute of each other. Every boat finished
within five minutes for some of the closest handicappings
we have ever seen.
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Thelma
is on her mooring waiting for her chance to race
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The barbeque on our terrace that night was highlighted
with a computer display of grand photos taken by Micheal
Marris from his powerboat. After the prize giving for
each of the days events, the banter was all about the
handicapping, plus plans for next years autumn regatta.
The assumption by all that attended was that it will
once again be held on our jetty and terrace. This shows
us how hard it is becoming to maintain two separate
lives, but also how rewarding. But by the time everyone
departed two days later we were looking at our calendar
to see if our long term sailing plans and favorite New
Zealand regattas could all be worked in together.
 |
Hugh
Gladwell, Mahurangi Cruising Club handicapper is
laying down the law, the course and our starting
time. |
With winter fast approaching, we had already booked
flights to the USA when Larry said, "I'm not ready
to leave, we haven't finished enjoying the summer."
I couldn't disagree that summer seemed to be lingering
as we enjoyed some afternoon excursions on Thelma. But
I was also excited about getting to the US not only
to rejoin lovely Taleisin, but also because we had arranged
to attend Book Expo America which was being held in
Washington D.C. with an eye to introducing our new edition
of Care and feeding. Fortunately, four days before our
intended departure, the weather turned with a vengeance.
Cold temperatures, strong wind and rain heralded the
middle of May and made us less reluctant to leave.
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The
crew of Sorceress definitely had a good time, with
Finnbar the dog firmly in control |
We have favorite friends in the Annapolis area from
our days of cruising on the Chesapeake. Denise and Lars
Lindenhall treat us like family when ever we are in
that area, so our stay in Washington D.C. was a double
delight. The Book fair is an amazing event. As we wandered
past 2500 booths looking at the amazing array of books
that are published each year, we never knew who we might
end up meeting - editors we have worked with through
the years, famous authors, other sailors. One minute
I was getting an autographed copy of a book by the ex-secretary
of the state, the next I was listening to Sebastian
Junger (of Perfect Storm fame). Every publisher was
putting on promotional events trying to get their newest
books noticed; free copies of books were being handed
out like lollypops. We left there with enough new reading
material to fill the summer, plus a ton of new information
on how the internet is affecting what folks like to
read. Best news of all gained from several hours with
well informed representatives of Google, Amazon and
two other major books on line players is…hard copy
books are here to stay. After ten years of trying to
promote e-books, less than 1 percent of books published
today are available in down-loadable formats - seems
folks still like the feel of a nicely bound book. E-book
demand is mostly for instructional manuals and books
containing info that can change drastically in a short
time.
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This
is Thelma's big sister Waioni and winner of the
big boat fleet. |
Our east coast jaunt was a short one, but we did take
the time to drive down to Virginia's Northern Neck to
revisit one of our favorite haunts, the little boatyard
on the Yeocomico where Taleisin spent two winters. Marion
and Doug, who run Krentz Marine, greeted us like long
lost friends and displayed the same warm exuberance
that made our time on this quiet back water special.
Our visit there made me look back through our cruising
years and recall that our best times seemed to be when
we sailed across and ocean, arrived in a place where
there were lots of inlets, islands and anchorages to
explore, found a central base to sail from, then spent
weeks and months exploring the outer reaches and returning
to the familiarity of home base - La Paz in Baja California,
Brachuy in Brazils, Isla Grande area, Punta Arenas in
Costa Rica.
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And
here is our other love, Thelma, beating toward a
four place finish, 20 seconds behind the first place
finisher. |
With our book launched, we got back to California,
picked up our 1986 Ford truck and camper from its place
in the middle of a vineyard in Paso Robles and headed
north to see how Taleisin had fared over the winter.
What we found was far more pleasant than we expected
a boat in almost prefect order and a unique reunion
which we'll tell you about in our next newsletter.
Fair winds,
Lin and Larry
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