Strange thoughts run after being in uncomfortable sailing conditions for most of the 8 days we’ve been away from Auckland. We’re 35 degrees south of the equator, 162 degrees west of London… Which reminds me that I’m half a world away from Sara… and prompts me back to OpenCPN, the charting program we’re using to track our progress. Surprisingly enough, we’re on a direct course to where she is in northwest England! But it’s 9500 miles away and the “directness” of our course is challenged by the “S”-curve of a great circle route that has been plotted on a Mercator-projected chart of the globe. Strangely enough, the route would take us through San Francisco, about half way on a journey to northern England. Across Hudson Bay, too. And Greenland. Then through the western isles of Scotland. I really miss her, but for me this is the distinctly “not-fun” part of cruising, so perhaps it’s a good thing it’s not her introduction to the “cruising life”…
Continue reading “Choices – Starting an Epic Sea Journey”
Category: Doug’s posts
A bitter-sweet visit
This has been a difficult visit to New Zealand for me… and not just because of the sleep deprivation and the stress of assuring the boat and its systems are ready for the four of us to trust our lives to for the next few months. I’m so focused on Illusion and our trip to Vancouver, that I haven’t taken extra time to visit friends (or even write blog posts!!). I feel strangely disconnected from NZ, as though I’m not really here, since I’m not really connecting with this country as I have in the past.
Continue reading “A bitter-sweet visit”
Seeing red: what to do with a store credit?!
Shopping is not my favourite hobby and yet it seems to be taking up a lot of our time at the moment. We’ve started ‘provisioning’ (stocking up on food for the voyage, more on that soon), and we’ve also become regulars in the marine chandleries in the Auckland area. They’re mostly located within a 10 minute walk of Westhaven and Beaumont and the popular ones are as close to that corner as possible. A yacht refitter quickly realizes that a purchased item will not necessarily end its life on the yacht – and if lucky can recycle an unwanted item back to the shop, not into the yacht’s spares locker. During Illusion‘s refit, various items purchased with good intentions have turned out to not quite fit the need when compared more closely with the matching parts already on board. A couple of examples below illustrate this while giving a little insight into the exciting (?!) challenges of refitting: Continue reading “Seeing red: what to do with a store credit?!”
Paying attention
It’s so easy for mistakes to happen on boats. Things get broken easily in a small space, extra care needs to be taken on board. As has been mentioned before, I can get a little bit obsessive about neatness and looking after things – probably partly because from my previous boat-life days I know what it’s like to break something when there’s no easy way to replace it and boats are already so costly that I hate to have to waste money on replacing broken things that need not be broken. Also because I am just a little bit obsessive. So yesterday morning served as a cautionary reminder of the need to focus and stay alert. Continue reading “Paying attention”
Sea changes: the first month!
Wow! It’s a month today since I arrived in New Zealand. The cunning plan to document the process of getting Illusion ready to sail again has been somewhat foiled by the fact that by the time we finish work each day I’m ready to sleep. That combined with our internet connections being fairly unreliable has made contact a little irregular. And did I mention that our days consist of basically working for hours, eating, sleeping, then starting all over again? It’s been busy! I’ve managed the odd Facebook and Twitter update, but nothing on here. However, as our plan in having a website was not only to share with friends and family what’s going on, but also to document the experience for ourselves and to keep some kind of journal of the expedition, I’m going to do a catch up post here. Maybe when (if?) things calm down a bit, I’ll be able to go into some more details, but for now here’s a bit of a summary of the past month….. Continue reading “Sea changes: the first month!”
AIS, DSC, VHF, oh my!
It’s a few years now since I’ve spent any time at sea. Over that time, knowing that one day I’d be back out there, I’ve been following a great advance in collision avoidance systems for ships. Having spent many nights out on the ocean, any advance in technology that can assist the sleep-deprived in keeping the boat and its passengers safe gets my attention. One particularly challenging aspect of night watch is identifying ships from their lights and trying to work out whether they are likely to crash into you. In some situations, minutes of uncertainty can result in hair-raising, adrenaline-rushed moments of panic. This is where AIS comes to the rescue! Continue reading “AIS, DSC, VHF, oh my!”
Customer service?
Those two dreaded words. There is possibly nothing more frustrating than a bad customer service experience. Right? Minutes, even hours, on hold. Wrong information. No trace of previous conversations. Time being wasted on all sides. Aaagh. (In fact, we recently changed mobile phone companies for exactly that reason.) In the middle of all the planning and computer-based work I’ve been doing to prepare for the trip, a recent incident stood out…. wait for it….. because of how good it was! Really! Continue reading “Customer service?”
Lists and Lights: Stepping away from the computer
It’s been a week of list making (using FreePlane mindmapping): research to do, equipment to buy, boat jobs to plan, admin to complete before leaving town, things around the house that Sara needs to know about (she has, to my knowledge, never watered the plants, for example, and has little idea of my elaborate schemes to encourage maximum light and growth)… and my favourite lists: places to revisit and people to hang out with before I leave.
After days of computer work (mainly related to insurance, equipment purchases and scheduling boat work) the more personal, Vancouver-based lists were calling. They also fit in nicely with our current ‘Operation Love Vancouver’ mission: an attempt to make the most of this stunning place and stop complaining about the weather, traffic/transit, and how outrageously expensive it is. It definitely worked this weekend. Despite grey skies and rain, we had some fun adventures – a good reminder that acting like you’re on holiday when at home helps you see a place with different eyes. Here’s some of what we saw: Continue reading “Lists and Lights: Stepping away from the computer”
Cruising concerns: being safer at sea
While reading through the CruisersForum recently, I found a post by someone concerned about the major threats while cruising and asking for advice. There were a few replies and comments about how “normal” life is statistically much more dangerous. It got me thinking about some of the dangerous situations I’ve seen out on the ocean… Continue reading “Cruising concerns: being safer at sea”
New Year, old dreams
So here we are, already a few days into 2013 – which means this is the year I finally get back to Illusion and sail again. It’s now seven years since I left New Zealand, leaving the boat moored just off Auckland – I never planned to be away from the sailing life for this long. Life has a funny way, though, of turning things around and changing things up when you keep the possibilities open, and I’ve had all sorts of adventures in the meantime. But not a whole load of sailing, and no long-distance voyages. Continue reading “New Year, old dreams”