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Here
is one of our favorite photos from this years racing
on Thelma. This is 109 year old Whitangi, charging
toward the finish line in Auckland |
Dear Friends:
Cruising has spun a wonderful web of friends through
out our life. Way back in 1988 two interesting yachts
sailed into the cove in front of our New Zealand home
base. Andy and Pam Wall had met sailing friends of ours
as they sailed through the Pacific. Those friends suggested
the Wall's stop by and introduce themselves. Di and
Harley were exploring hidden reaches of northern New
Zealand on the 42 foot Hartley cutter Return which they
built in their garden near New Plymouth, 500 miles south
of Cape Reinga. They met the Wall's and decided to stop
in North Cove too. The day after they arrived, the Mahurangi
Cruising Club crowd and several other friends sailed
in for the annual Easter Regatta. It was a week of fine
partying and racing.
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We
came home from the Classics regatta with a new work
list, including upgrading the halyard leads so Thelma's
topmast would come down more easily. |
Fond memories, relegated to the backs of our minds
until we decided to take a few days off to visit WOMAD,
a festival of music and dance from around the world.
It is held in New Plymouth. We decided to call and see
if Di and Harley were still living near there. In the
usual Kiwi fashion, our call lead to an invite to share
their wonderful hospitality as they too were looking
forward to the three days of music. This gave us an
excuse to take an interesting trip - and also be part
of a campaign to save one of the most scenic train rides
in New Zealand. So we booked on the Overlander, a train
that runs from under the main plaza in downtown Auckland,
over the central plateau then right into central Wellington.
Traveling by train is definitely more elegant than by
plane. The twelve hour ride was relaxing, the views
were great, the service friendly but not luxurious compared
to US trains. It would have been a pity if this service
was scuttled as the government had planned due to low
usage. But a word of mouth campaign got folks like us
on the train and now it is over-subscribed and new carriages
are being ordered to handle the increased usage.
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Only in New Zealand. This old station wagon
was kept from rusting away with this complete
covering of corrugated iron. It was actually used
by for several years by the artist before coming
to be prominently displayed, muddy tires and all,
at Te Papa, the national museum in Wellington
as the front piece to New Zealand art and crafts
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Three days in Wellington, a long lovely ride by rental
car to the festival, then ten hours a day of music (with
groups from 18 different countries including the spectacular
Gotan Project from Argentina, we were surprised to find
our favorites were a local group we'd never heard before
the Mamaku Project - a wonderous mix of French and middle
east influenced music and the smoothest jazz sax I've
heard in years), the whole week flew by. This trip gave
us a true sense of place, reminding us that New Zealand
is more like a town than a country - with everyone and
everything being much more inter-related than in places
with far larger populations like the US or Europe.
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At
the Womad festival there was something for everyone,
five different stages, two or three different concerts
every hour. |
. It also made us eager to get ourselves a van we can
camp in to explore our adopted country in the future.
Problem is - we have been spending every southern winter
on board Taleisin in some summery place. So when we
come back to enjoy the summer here in New Zealand our
time is filled with regattas and catching up with local
friends. These endless summers, filled with sailing
activities make it hard to find time for land based
ones.
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There
were five distinctly different stages set up just
a short walk away from each other in the beautiful
park under the towering volcano that dominates the
Taranaki region. |
Reality hit when we returned. Only three weeks to get
ready to pack up - the time flew by with a milestone
being - lifting the first boat ashore for storage in
our boatyard. This is one small part of our long term
cash flow plan - and now our neighbors have seen this
32 foot Etchells sitting comfortably ashore, we are
having more enquiries. As we winterize the collection
of boats we seem to have accumulated here for the winter,
make sure the house and yard drains are running clear,
we are also getting ready for the Easter regatta that
is held at our dock and yard each year.
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Young
and old, few of the 12000 visitors could resist
dancing to the music |
. This year it looks like the fleet of model yachts
will not be quite as big (10 instead of 12), the full
size race yacht fleet appears to be doubling, and there
is an additional day of dinghy racing. We host the event
so along with packing up to fly out to rejoin Taleisin
three days after the last race, we are enjoying the
hustle and bustle of preparing for the invasion. What
a wonderful way to end our summer here - this regatta
has always given us lots of fun memories and an especially
warm feeling about our own little island in the southern
sun.
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And
they danced on hour after hour |
Oh yes, on the work side - we have filled as many spare
hours as we could doing research for a new edition of
Storm Tactics Handbook. In doing research we came across
John Harris site at about voyaging to Iceland on board
his 55 footer, Morgan's Cloud. His discussion of getting
his 55 footer to lay hove-to by effectively using a
Galerider like we use a para-anchor makes interesting
reading. www.morganscloud.com look at questions and
answer section. His is only one of several new stories
we will be including in the new edition, and with each
new story our projected publication date gets set back
a bit further.
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The
food was amazingly good too - local fishermen provided
fresh mussels which were cooked and spiced before
your eyes |
All is ready for the BAADS raffle fund raiser at Strictly
Sail in Oakland California. It seems to be turning into
a party with at least a dozen friends letting us know
they'll be coming along to sit on Taleisin and show
visitors on board. We scrubbed her whole interior before
we left her last October. So it should not be too much
work getting ready for the show - and the voyage there
is less than half a mile - but with luck we can take
a few long tacks down the estuary and enjoy life afloat
before securing her at the docks.
Good Sailing,
Lin and Larry
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