A good day today

Today I had a small job to do in Whangarei,  I knew it was only about a 10 minute job, had tried to talk the owner through the procedure but he just could not get it right.  He was frustrated enough to be happy to pay me to drive for two hours each way to do the job and get his machine back into service, so off I went.

Whats special about Whangarei?  Cruising yachts, hundreds of them, up in boatyards being worked on,  lived on, modified and repaired.  Same with the moorings, lots of boats with character, flags from all over the world and I kid you not, I saw flags from England, France, Netherlands and Germany,  South Africa, Uruguay, USA and Canada, plus a few I did not recognise.

But the really interesting thing about Whangarei is that my friends Annie Hill and Marcus Raimon live there.

Marcus has just bought a Flicka 20 and makes his home thereon,  Annie has taken over Marcus’s shed in Norsrands boatyard and has started building a replacement for Fantail, her 26 ft liveaboard.

I’ll get back to you on that. Next post, its interesting stuff.

But home as must, and I was sitting in my bunk at about 8 this evening, there was still a little light left from a spectacular sunset, it was slack water low tide and the wind that had been a pest all day had run out of puff, and---- well, it only took about two minutes to slide SEI off the  dock and into the water, and I was on my way.

She left a glossy flat wake with twin whorls each side from the oars as I stroked along, she moves very sweetly and leave hardly any waves at cruising speed, and the work is just enough to bring on  the “runners high” the gentle endorphin rush that moderate exercise can engender after 15 minutes or so.

That makes an hour go past very quickly, the mind aware and functioning but in a state of mild bliss.

While in Whangarei I’d had an hour or so before Marcus would be home from work on lunch break,  so I’d driven around the waterfront suburbs with an eye out playing a favourite game. It goes so, “If I could afford to buy it, would I live in it?”    There were very few that ticked the boxes,  and it was as I hauled SEI out of the water with my little dog sitting there telling me that he’d been a good  guy and waited patiently for me to come back, that I realised just how lucky I am to live here on the water.

It was a good day. Hope yours was too.

 Friend Blair Cliff took this, or Emma, same camera, either way this pic was taken a week or so ago so youll have to imagine that its low tide and dark rather than high tide and daytime. Same me, same boat though. 

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Hiding from the spring weather

But its not a complete loss of time.

Its Thursday evening, Im still house sitting my sisters house up in the bush at the top of the hill. This ia a very peaceful place, and I’ve been able to spend some time working on the drawings for both SEI and the Saturday Night Special.  I’ve written building guides for both, materials lists, and some words of general advice.

Both sets are now done, all ready to go out and help people create their dreams. They will be sent off to the print shop and I’m expecting them to be scanned and back to me in digital form about Wednesday next week.

Tomorrow though I’m onto the next one that’s the boat that I’m drawing for my own use, for a particular project / voyage / adventure I have in mind.

“Long Steps” is  if you like a slightly larger version  of Walkabout, long and slim, a reasonable rowing boat that I expect will sail well. She has though the centre area of SCAMP including the self draining cockpit floor with a water ballast tank under, a similar raised locker and veranda “cabin” which like SCAMP provides high up bouyancy to assist righting after a capsize, gives much dry storage and some shelter from the elements.

She will be cat yawl rigged, that’s two masts, a big balanced lug main and a triangular mizzen, will have the same offset centerboard that has been so successful on SCAMP, that gives space in the cockpit which is to be wide and long enough to sleep in, and I am drawing in an area aft of that with the full depth and width of the boat in which to stand and move about when sailing.

Ill be carrying a swimming pool bean bag in there so can sail in some comfort.

The boat is intended for very long range voyaging, at times in areas where there are no harbours for overnight refuge so she will be set up to lie to a sea anchor.

Im going to get this far enough along to allow me to start the new boat, I’ve got two other design projects plus a couple of small modification drawings to do as well.  I need to get them done so I can get out sailing when summer gets here.

Adventure cruising? The years keep ticking past, there are only a limited number of them and no one knows just how many each of us have, so its time I got out there and did some serious adventuring.  My philosophy is that life is what you use to build up the memories that sustain you in your old age.

I’ll have a pic of Long Steps in the next posting on this blog, the current working drawing is a work in progress, and as with all works in progress it’s a mess and wont make a lot of sense to anyone but me.

Oh yes, it will be back to sandpaper and paintbrush on SEI next week.

Watch this space.

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