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What if the spell of a place falls
upon a youthful heart, and the bright horizon calls!
Many a thing will keep till the world's work is
done, and youth is only a memory.
When the old enchanter came to my door, laden with
dreams, I reached out with both hands.
For I knew he would not be lured with the gold that
I might later offer, when age had come upon me.
Richard J. Mac Cullaugh, Viking's Wake
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Here is Thelma, on the tidal grid next to our boatshed,
waiting to be surveyed and hoping we will adopt
her. |
Dear Friends:
The past month, though spent on shore, has reminded
us strongly of one of the most frustrating and difficult
aspects of voyaging - being harbor bound. I remember
a dozen times during our voyaging lives when we were
eager to sail toward a new destination, the boat outfitted,
charts on board, food lockers bursting at the seams,
but the weather just wouldn't cooperate. It happened
to us in Fremantle, Australia when we wanted to set
sail for Africa. Frontal system after frontal system
delayed us for three weeks. Each day we'd wake up and
hope the weather forecast of the night before had changed
- but it hadn't. Winter was drawing closer which meant
even more gales would form - we'd partied and said our
farewells and wanted to get on with it all - but we
couldn't. In the south of England it was similar, fog
banks keeping us in port day after day - not a book
we hadn't read left on board, days of playing cards
to waste away the time. We know of cruising couples
who have been through all sorts of marriage-stretching
situations - only to find being harbor bound for three
or four weeks was one they couldn't weather. Like sailors
waiting for fair weather to head out on a new voyage,
we have had to find other projects to do as we waited
for dry conditions so Larry could put on the two small
planks required to repair damage to Thelma caused
by collisions in her past. It rained or blew gales or
storms for 22 days in December, almost a record wet
month out here at our island home base.
Now that the weather has broken with five straight
dry sunny days in a row, Thelma is starting to
look just grand. And with luck, by the time you are
reading this we will be out sailing her for the best
fun regattas of the local summer, the Mahurangi Regatta,
where usually almost 100 classic yachts turn up, and
the Anniversary day Regatta where over 1000 yachts all
race from 8 starting points to converge on the city
for a big night out - fire works and all.
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It was hard not to fall in love with such a sweet
little lady. |
Being responsible for a 109-year-old boat that is an
irreplaceable part of New Zealand heritage is both special
and at times daunting. Several New Zealand sailors have
taken time to come over and encourage us, and one wrote
a lovely email after seeing Thelma nestled onto the
tidal grid next to our shop, covered in tools and wood
shavings:
Dear Thelma
Congratulations on being so clever and finding your
own private boat builder to take care of you.
Chad Thompson
Our holidays were busy, with friends and work coming
into conflict because of the fact that summer vacations
and Christmas holidays all happen at the same time down
here. That means when one of our best customers and
favorite friends broke his boom a few weeks ago, it
would have ruined his holidays if he couldn't use his
boat. So most of Christmas week was taken over by repairs
to this spar ( 26 foot long, 6 inch diameter and weighing
over 200 pounds). As Douglas fir, or Oregon Pine as
they call it down here, is not available off the shelf.
We had to use recycled timber, which meant laminate
up the timber in six separate steps, then reshape it
all to blend in. When you consider our workshop is only
33 feet by 12 feet and all work had to be done inside
due to weather, you can imagine that long boom created
a traffic hazard. But Peters boom is now back on Sorceress,
and Thelma is getting full attention from Larry
and half attention from me. I am enjoying refinishing
her hatches, upgrading the noise reducing insulation
in her tiny engine room so we don't resent having it
there, and doing an awful lot of hunting for bits and
pieces to keep the upgrade going smoothly.
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So soon she settled in to become part of our fleet
- in the foreground is Jay Dee (no we did not name
it after the whiskey, that was its name when we
acquired it as a thirty year old with an ugly old
outboard on it. We use Jay Dee for moving boats
around and for transport to the mainland. On the
floating dock is the collection of dinghies that
seem to have moved in on us, Our Fatty Knees, Cheeky
cubed (the third one we own), plus Rocky, the little
red work skiff and Thelma's tender, with the blue
stripe. |
Now the holidays are over my mornings are spent working
on magazine articles and getting ready for the video
shooting we will be doing late this month for the new
DVD project. What about the holiday celebrations? Full
of friends, with Xmas eve spent in the Bay of Islands
with Doug and Helen Schmuck. Doug is an old friend from
Newport Beach, California who, 25 years ago, helped
get us a bargain on lead for Taleisin's ballast
keel. Then he helped us melt down the lead and pour
it. He sailed his Bristol Channel cutter down here to
New Zealand to see our home base back in 1987, three
weeks later he met Helen at our New Years Eve party
and now he owns and runs Doug's Opua Boatyard next
to the Customs dock and helps cruisers who sail in from
overseas. On our way home from Opua, we stopped in Whangarei
to rendezvous with Doug and Jackie Truscott - some of
Larry's oldest sailing friends from Vancouver - I mean
like from when he was 17 or 18. Jackie's sister lives
in Whangarei. Doug and Jackie have cruised all over
the Pacific and now live in the Gulf islands of Canada.
He is a boat builder - so Larry had a good fill of boat
building talk.
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John Gorter owned Thelma for 18 years and not only
raced her a lot but took his wife and three children
cruising on her for a month each year. Got to be
a bit of a pinch as his children reached full size
as she is quite small inside. |
New Years Eve was lovely, clear weather, almost everyone
in the arm of the cove where we live, exchanged visits
as we all slowly made our way to John Pryor's house
which had been designated "Barbeque Central".
At midnight about 40 people ranging from 18 to 75 raised
a toast, then it was proposed we have a dinghy regatta
the next day - with everyone sailing any kind of boat
they could float. Race day brought more wind than bargained
for and of the 15 starters 4 did spectacular capsizes.
But all, including first me, then Larry in our Fatty
Knees 8, were glad we'd shaken off the cobwebs and gone
out for a sail.
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And Larry's gift to me last year, outrageous until
you learn it is 30 years old. Choose it because
it has been stored inside all its life and looks
about two years old. Makes a grand cargo machine
for our once a month trips to the big smoke. Goldie
waits under a canvas cover at the parking lot on
the mainland to be used about once every two weeks.
Real bit of luxury - makes me feel like Janis Joplin
when I drive it. |
I got an email from one of the folks who read these
newsletters asking if I could send him a copy of the
poem that he remembered from reading our first book,
Cruising in Seraffyn. He said it had influenced
him and his wife and changed their lives. It is the
quote I have at the top of this letter. We are enjoying
this time away from Taleisin, enjoying being
in one place for more than a month or two at a time
because it gives us a chance to look back and see that
this quote also directed our lives on a very rewarding
path.
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I get a kick out of these Pukeko, These birds are
common along the edges of farm fields - with their
bright colors and large size (like a nice sized
chicken) they add to the beauty of the landscape
here. |
We hope the year ahead is a good one for you, full
of pleasures and creativity so when, some day, you find
yourself harbor bound for one reason or the other, you
can look back on the memories you create, to carry you
through the restless hours.
Sincerely,
Lin and Larry
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