Experiment Number 1 - Bay of Islands NZ 2011

The interior of the Davidson 20 we chartered. You can see the remnants of taco fixings.

My first "official" experimentation with proper sailing was in January 2011 in New Zealand's beautiful Bay of Islands. We charted a yacht with Great Escape Yacht Charters in Opua for a long weekend. Her name was Kakapo. Or rather her name is Kakapo. We didn't sink her. I did worry that would be a possibility. But that's why they make you take out insurance. I think they might have even doubled the rates once they realized I didn't know my aft from my stern and resist calling a rope a sheet. Why do you have to call them sheets? If you call ropes sheets, what do you call your actual sheets on your bed? Ropes? And I thought learning French was hard. Nauticalese seems to be more challenging.

Great Escape has a lot of different types of yachts to choose from. The term "yacht" always sounds very grand to me with visions of beautiful decks and cabins and friendly staff at your beck and call with lots of tropical cocktails, cold beers and iced tea. What we chartered was very different. It was a Davidson 20 which is a teeny, tiny boat. Great Escape describes it as a "big volume small boat, great for learning and those cruising on a budget." This was perfect for us. I had never sailed properly before and chartering a boat is very expensive so a "budget" charter boat sounded very appealing to a newbie like me.

Did I mention it was tiny, very tiny? Note to self, budget = tiny. When they say that the boat is recommended for two people overnight, I think they mean two very teeny tiny people who are very, very, VERY comfortable with each other. When you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, everyone has to get out of bed because the toilet is under the bed. Yes, you read that right - under the bed. Privacy is in short supply on a Davidson 20. I've also learned a bit about marketing language. The brochure says that there is "good sitting headroom" in the Davidson 20. Good sounds good right? But the key word to read in this description isn't "good" it is "sitting". That means a normal sized person won't be able to stand straight up. Fortunately, I'm short so I was fine. Unfortunately for Scott, he's tall so he sat a lot inside the cabin.

Although it was technically a yacht, there was no staff, there were no tropical cocktails. There was no ice, therefore no iced tea. There was, however, warm beer (did I mention no refrigeration?). But beer is beer and after a long day sailing on our wee yacht, warm beer was mighty tasty.

The Davidson 20 is a Kiwi classic designed by Laurie Davidson who is well known for designing much bigger, faster and winning boats for the America's Cup. Our boat was much smaller and slower (thankfully!) then the boats they use in the America's Cup. I've seen the America's Cup boats practice in the Hauraki Gulf. They go fast. Really, really FAST. The Davidson 20 has a drop keel - 500mm with the keel up, 1.7m with the keel down. Great for getting in close to anchor and for being able to get to the dock in the shallow waters at Great Escape in Opua. (Wow, I almost sounded technical there talking about keels!)

So we headed out from Opua with the keel up and the engine on. Once we got out a ways, we put the keel down, the sails up and we were off. We headed past Russell and around Tapeka Point over to explore the islands. Our first stop was Robertson Island. You'll often see pictures of Robertson Island and there is a reason why. It is stunning. There is a long beach which connects two headlands. There are two tidal lagoons which are popular with the kiddies. It is also where Captain Cook first landed in 1769.

We then headed off to Motorua Island which used to be a hospital camp and refitting base in 1772 for the French navigator, Marion du Fresne. We anchored up in Awaawaroa Bay which is a great place to weather out a storm. You can even take refuge from a hurricane there. Don't worry Mom, there weren't any hurricanes when we were there. On this trip we also poked around the some of the big southern bays including Parakura Bay and Manaowora Bay.

It was a good first experiment. I survived. The boat survived. I found out you can make tacos on a boat. I like tacos. I agreed to conduct further experiments.


Robertson Island (also known as Motoarohia). The tiniest sailboat you can see in the picture will be ours

Awaaaroa Bay, Motorura Island (also known as Pipi Bay and Honeymoon Bay)

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Sailing with Penny

In the interest of being a supportive wife wanting to learn more about Scott's dream and realizing that there won't be crew when we're out sailing (I'll be the crew), I took Penny Whiting's practical sailing course in Auckland. Scott had offered to teach me to sail when we had purchased a boat but you know what its like with husbands teaching wives. Scott's teaching methodology, as I'm sure it is with husbands the world over, is called comprehension through repetition. He basically repeats the same thing over and over again (even if it didn't make sense the first time). This is aided by a series of grunts, monosyllabic one and two word sentences and facial expressions. When on the rare occasion he produces a polysyllabic two word sentence he is so pleased with himself I feel I should toss him a treat or at least give him a scratch behind the ear.

With this in mind we both asked around about courses in Auckland (he asked people he raced with, I stopped random people on the street) and Penny's course was often mentioned. It is a 15 hour course which runs over two weekends and covers practical sailing and chart work. The course was mostly made up of women many of whom already own boats and sail with their husbands but don't feel competent to support their skipper husbands. Some of them also thought their husbands were doing things wrong and wanted to be able to go back and say to them, "No, that's not how you do it! Penny says you should do it this way!" 

Some of these women had real horror stories of their husbands trying to teach them to sail. They didn't recommend it which is why they found Penny. (There seems to be lots and lots written about marriages and sailing. The two don't always seem to mix as More Joy Everywhere have found. Personally, I think Scott and I will be fine. He makes me laugh and from what I read laughter is important especially when there are gale force winds and you're worried your boat is going to crash into the rocky shore.)

Penny's favorite quote is - "If it is hard to do, you're doing it wrong." She said that a lot to me. I did a lot of things wrong. It was hard and I had the bruises to show it. But it got easier. Well, some things got easier. I forgot everything I learned in chart work and I still can't tie knots. I did complete the course, got myself a fancy certificate, a copy of Penny's book (which I bring out from time to time and quote from it to Scott saying, "Penny says..." He may be getting tired of hearing what Penny says.). 

I also bought myself the best shoes ever from Penny - my Lil Grippers. I love them. They're made out of wetsuit material and keep my feet reasonably warm. I sure hope they sell them in other parts of the world because when they wear out, I'm going to want another pair. They have a picture of a cute little octopus on each shoe. Who wouldn't want an octopus on their shoe.

This stupid bunny keeps running out of his hole and getting tangled up around some tree that keeps getting in the way. Stay in your hole little bunny, don't come out. It's way too dangerous out there! People keep trying to tie bunnies to trees! 

This is what a bowline knot looks like (at least in my head). I hope this one is still running free on the South Island and hasn't been turned into a knot.

For those that don't know, this is a reference to a bowline knot. For some reason, you are supposed to visualize a bunny running out of his hole around a tree and magically turning himself into a knot. I know the name, I just can't tie it. Thinking about a bunny really doesn't help. Unfortunately, they are one of the most important knots to be able to tie. I can, however, tie "Ellen Specials" - knots that are very complicated, can't be replicated and can't be easily untied. It is counter-intuitive to me, but sometimes you want knots that can be easily untied. Needless to say Scott isn't very fond of "Ellen Specials" especially when he has to untie them.

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The Original Experiment - Cruising (Not Sailing) in Scotland

In August 2008, we spent a weekend cruising from Oban to Tobermory and back in Scotland. It was long before my first official sailing experiments in the Bay of Islands began. One of Scott's friends very kindly offered to take me out on his Westerly 41. I don't think he normally likes women on his boat and has a strict rule that there can't be more than one at any time (otherwise vicious cat fights with hair pulling and nail scratching might break out), so I felt really chuffed that he would make the offer. Scott had done a bit of sailing with him previously in Scotland and "the Med" so he knew about Scott's dream to brainwash show me how fabulous sailing could be.

The weather wasn't conducive so we never got to put the sails up, but we had a great time motor cruising up to Tobemory. I was very partial to the snacks, meals and cocktails that Scott's friend had on offer (a former hotel owner and chef so he knows what he's doing!), the time spent lounging on the deck and reading books. I was starting to be brainwashed convinced that sailing was the life for me. The fact that I didn't have to do anything (including tying knots - I hate tying knots!) other then eat, drink, read and sleep might have had something to do with it. Tobermory is also lovely harbor and very picturesque to sail into which also helped immensely.

Tobermory

I didn't sail again until the Bay of Islands 2011 adventure, but Scott continued to cruise and race and kept at his cunning plan to brainwash sell me on the cruising lifestyle.

Just What The World Needs - One More Sailing Blog

Those that know us will know that we are very private people. So the fact that we've started a blog may come as a surprise to them. It surprised me. I went back and forth as to whether we should do this, but in the end it came down to three reasons:

1 - I'm getting old. 

I have gotten to that point where I walk into a room and stand there for 5 minutes desperately trying to remember why I went there in the first place. So unless we write down what we do, I'm pretty sure I won't remember. Where did I leave my glasses again?
 
2 - My mother wants me to email her more. 

My mom would love to get more emails from me describing what I get up to. This way she can read our blog instead and see what we've been up to. And there will be pictures! We figure this will be a good way to keep our families and friends updated on our adventures and eccentric seamanship.
 
3 - People like to hear about stupid things people do. 

There are a million sailing blogs out there which are very informative. But my favorite ones are those where people are really honest about the mistakes they've made and where things have gone terribly wrong and yet they can still laugh about it. These blogs make me realize that it is okay to mess things up, that things will break and that things will go terribly wrong but that you can still have fun anyway. If we can amuse others with our adventures through this blog then that will be a bonus. 

So, here we go - another sailing blog is born.

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