| Dear Friends:
When I first met Larry he told me, "Sailboats
are wonderful, you can cross oceans in them, you can
use them like a toy - to race and enjoy, as a floating
home for weekends or months at a time, as a way to entertain
your friends…" What he never imagined was
that sailing and boats would also provide us a vocation
that seems endlessly rewarding. As Larry fiddled with
the rigging details that would make Thelma more competitive
for the "big" regatta, I settled in to do
the finishing details on the new edition of Care and
Feeding of Sailing Crew. Though we do not have, nor
desire internet communications when we are off cruising,
I did find the communications between my editors and
book designers via internet were truly amazing, considering
our New Zealand home base is on an island with no roads,
twice weekly mail delivery and no high speed telephone
or internet connections and I am working with editors
in Maine and Seattle. Only problem - now that we have
almost instant communications, no one seems to allow
time for mishaps - where in the days when folks mailed
things back and forth, deadlines were set with lots
of spare time for mail slow ups. Our years of cruising
definitely helped me through some of the mix-ups that
seem a natural part of writing a book - as I do not
have the expectation that things will go right, just
that there is always a way to fix or jury rig things
if the crew slows down and thinks together.
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By the time Thelma was ready to sail back to Auckland
City for the Lindauer Classics Regatta, my editing work
was under control and the book on course for a Mid-May
release date. So it was with a light heart that we headed
southward on a lovely summer day, winds from the east
for a brisk reach. Over 60 beautiful wooden yachts were
involved in this five day event, a third of them are
100 years old or older. the race headquarters is at
the old Team New Zealand Base and as many of the classic
boats rafted together at the end of each race, we had
prime seats to watch the final finishes going onto New
Zealand's America cup boats in preparation for their
departure to Valencia in Spain.
Gabriel and Micheal Marris who have a home directly
across the bay from our base on Kawau, also have a glorious
apartment overlooking the waterfront in Auckland. They
generously insisted that we would do a better job of
racing (and representing Kawau Island) if we used their
flat (and spa tub) instead of bunking down on Thelma
amid the noise of the harbour. We felt like "real"
racers as we came in at the end of each day to participate
in the buzz at the base, then wandered six blocks to
sleep in luxury. Then there was our crew - two lovely
young people in their early 20's who had always loved
Thelma, had lots of dinghy racing experience and real
enthusiasm. Emily and Scott were at the boat each morning
even before we got there and had her washed down and
waiting.
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The light wind regatta required a lot of patience,
but definitely suited Thelma and our crew as when Larry
showed signs of tiring after three hours of constant
helming to catch every puff - Scott took over and was
excellent at catching the tiniest lift or header. But
best of all, by the time all the racing was over - we
had fully tamed the topsail - learning which lines to
pull to get the two jackyards up between lazy jacks,
under the topsail sheet, over the reefing pennant etc.
etc. (Yes there are far too many lines on a gaff-rigged
double jackyard topsail rigged cutter). Jonquil, the
Buzzards Bay 25 we used to maintain and race, was our
fiercest competitor and after the second race she had
two first places, we had two seconds. The last race
started with the all of us being sure we were in contention
for second or third place with Jonquil unbeatable. Then
it happened. In very light winds, Jonquil tacked right
after the start, we kept going to the left and she fell
into a windless hole along with half the others in the
fleet. Only half the fleet finished after six long hot
hours and, Jonquil among them. With one first and two
seconds Thelma took first in her division. Yes, for
those who do not enjoy racing, this all sounds like
a big fuss about very little - but the camaraderie among
the fleet, the joking back and forth on the water -
the laughs and discussions afterward when you have all
worked really hard and put up with the knocks a wind
shift can give, it's hard to compare - especially in
a fleet of boats that are as well loved as these - so
much so that the docks were often lined with several
hundred spectators to watch us sail in at the end of
the day. Better yet, there are real prizes for competing
- Thelma and crew split three magnums of fine sparkling
wine plus a two day luxury charter on Lion New Zealand
(we let our crew have this as we seem to get in a lot
of good sailing.)
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After the fun of being in the city, of dining out every
evening at a grand selection of café's, and the
full-on five days of participation of the regatta, both
of us were, frankly, ready to take it easy. So we decided
to turn on Thelma's little Arona diesel engine and putt
home early the following day. At least that was the
idea until we cleared Auckland harbor and a sweet easterly
breeze filled in. Up went the generous mainsail, the
two headsails and off went the engine and the magic
of sailing just for the sweet pleasure of hearing the
hiss of the water, the swish of the bow wave as Thelma
ate of the miles toward our island hideaway.
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I'm glad we had those last quiet, organized feeling
hours as, the minute we arrived back at our home base,
I realized what lay ahead. There on our porch was a
pile of tools. At 0730 the next morning, Tim, one of
our neighbors who is a builder, was waiting at our door
- ready to work with Larry and I on a project I had
been looking forward to with both anticipation and dread,
the rebuilding of our 40 year old 600 square foot cottage.
It definitely was a challenge, working on the final
proofing and design of Care and Feeding as Larry and
Tim tore out most of the upstairs while I set up my
office in the play room under the house. - to cut a
long story short - The next weeks were definitely confusing,
interesting, messy, full of saw dust - the smell of
lovely cedar, the sound of hammers, saws and occasional
curses, the organization of getting timber, nails, and
a myriad of building materials over on our small barge
- but from the beginning we could both see the end results
would be well worthwhile. Yes, the book project did
proceed as planned - so did the building project. After
7 weeks of chaos I was able to send the final book off
to the printer and my new office looked like it would
actually happen, along with a remodeled bedroom and
bathroom. (the old bathroom was once an entry hall and
pantry with four different doors opening into a 6 square
meter room.)
So I am pleased to be able to say the Care
and Feeding, with almost 35% more information in
it than the previous edition is
now available from this website. It will be in the
book shops in another month. It has been almost ten
years since we updated this book when we were wandering
around southern Africa. Now, as I found back then, reworking
this book has brought back a lot of wonderful sailing
memories and reminded me of how much I enjoy the challenges
and variety of life on a sailing boat.
In next months newsletter I'll let you know how the
other parts of our southern summer projects came along,
including the three day classic boat regatta that is
scheduled to happen at our home base at the end of the
month.
Best wishes for a fine spring,
Lin and Larry
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