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Noel
and Larry seem to be able to spend hours talking
about boat building. They are examining the rudder
on 53 foot Sina in this picture. |
Dear Friends:
The Christmas season here in New Zealand coincides
with summer holidays. This means that during December
most everyone is busy with the crazy rush of food and
gift shopping, Christmas and New Years parties to plan
for, but also preparing for their yearly yachting get
away. Things get even more confused because many major
sporting events - both professional and amateur are
planned for this time of year and almost all businesses
shut down for two or three week beginning on Christmas
day. (Banks, many cafes and super markets are only closed
for a few days.) This reality is especially hard on
voyagers who sail into New Zealand after several months
in the tropics with a long list of repairs and replacements
for their boats. They are shocked to find local repair
people, sailmakers, and suppliers are not able to accommodate
them until late January or even February. The actual
holiday time is intensely family oriented, with calendars
full to the brim and for transplants or visiting sailors,
can be almost lonely.
 |
Helen
Schmuck was reluctant to let the festivities end
on New Years Eve, so she put on a Hula demonstration
for us before saying good night. |
Our calendar, after several summer seasons down here,
was full to the brim, and included the rush to get ready
for summer sailing too. But without real family and
with Christmas dinner being away from home, I was spared
the shopping rush. The first holiday gathering of our
season was a special one when we spent two days on the
mainland, driving north to visit Alvah and Diana Simons
and also Litara and Noel Barrett. Both couples have
done circumnavigations and sailed extensively into high
latitudes. We first met the Simon's in Maine, the Barretts
in Chile. Noel is a superb boatbuilder born and raised
in New Zealand, Alvah an excellent writer born in the
middle of America, Diana born and raised in New Zealand,
is an accomplished gardener and fabric expert, Litara
is a nurse of Samoan heritage and is of royal blood,
a princess in her homeland, so even if we had not all
had the shared experiences and friends from voyaging
to talk about, conversation would never lag. But the
subject filled a large part of our evening was one I
some day want to write about, the far side of cruising.
When do you stop crossing oceans, where do you settle,
what do you do then? That took us through several good
bottles of wine!
 |
Eighteen month old Lexi Miller, my adopted grand
daughter, ably assisted by her father, Christopher
was the youngest participant in the New Years
day regatta.
|
For the actual Christmas holidays we did something
a bit different. We sailed Thelma into the city, secured
her in the Viaduct (right in the center of the city
where the America's cup bases once were) and soon after
secured Puffin, the Bristol Channel cutter owned by
our long time friends Doug and Helen, right in the same
berth. (It is usually used by a super-yacht and is 80
feet long). Then the four of us enjoyed the flesh pots
of the city, watching shoppers madly rush about for
two days, going to a fine concert put on by Bjorn Again,
an ABBA tribute band, then having Christmas dinner with
Helen's sister at her Auckland home. Thelma, though
34 feet long, has only 7'6" beam and sitting headroom.
So she is more for camping in than living. Fortunately
friends on the island have a grand pent house apartment
right on the waterfront, four blocks from the Viaduct.
As they were out at our island for the holidays, we
had the use of this luxury apartment. I had often dreamed
of a place right in the city. But after five days both
Larry and I agreed, city life is not for us - fun for
a visit -
 |
Right
of way discussions definitely came up at the start
of the regatta as the manned dinghies crossed a
starting line just offshore of the electronically
controlled yachts. |
New Years back at the island brought a lovely flotilla
of classic and cruising yachts into our bay - including
Doug and Helen on Puffin. So New Years eve parties seemed
to start two days before the actual date with final
party celebration being - a barbeque on our deck, then
trying to get a dozen of our guests into boats to row
or motor across the cove to three different celebrations
at three different houses. It was like herding cats,
with twice the laughs. I really love the casualness
of these island New Years eves - everyone brings something
along to drink or snack on, you never know exactly where
you will be when midnight strikes, and we always seem
to meet someone new and interesting. This year it was
the Scopas family, owners of a beautiful 75 year old
classic yacht who run a sausage making plant at their
home which is set amidst an orchard of 750 olive trees.
They are just setting up the olive presses. We sampled
their sausages for dinner. Look forward to trying their
olive oil before long.
 |
As
official handicapper, start and finish committee,
I had to restrain myself from favoring the home
team. |
Somehow I ended up as organizer for what many hope
will be a traditional New Years day regatta. The weather
was not perfect, but several dinghies turned up only
two hours after the scheduled mid-day start time. Larry
represented our family in Cheeky 3, our New Zealand
based Fatty Knees 8 footer. The winning boat was a Laser,
Larry came fourth, unhappily beaten by Doug in his Fatty
Knees 7 footer. Larry is already planning on how he'll
beat Doug next year! Highlight of the day though was
the fleet of radio controlled Electron models racing
in and among the fleet, under the auspices of their
designer Des Townsend.
 |
Sorting
through old boxes of photos sometimes reveals treasures.
This shot was taken by Walden Jones, a friend we
made in Costa Rica in 1971. I remember that day
with pleasure, we were all on board Seraffyn for
lunch on our day off. Larry and I were on top of
the world as we had a good job, our cruising kitty
was filling up and in a month we planned to set
sail for the Panama Canal. |
All together a fine Holiday week, even though the normal
warm, dry summer weather seemed to be terribly evasive.
The day that everyone left to go home from the island,
the weather turned wonderful, Thelma went up on the
tidal grid and Larry set to work upgrading her cabintop
as part of her gradual restoration and also preparing
for the regatta season that begins in three weeks. We
set to work on the new edition of Storm Tactics Handbook
in hopes of having it most of the computer work done
before we return to San Francisco to rejoin Taleisin
and take part in the Jack London Boatshow.
May 2007 be an especially lucky year for all of you,
Lin and Larry
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