Posts

4 jul 26: anniversary of a special friend & some digger woes

Actually while I think of it, today is her birthday. She died by suicides the day I discovered my then wife of 29yrs, was cheating.  Anyway, Robyn was my first serious girlfriend & a very special relationship we had. Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events that any couple would struggle with, bought is undone. But, the memories are of a very special, romantic & loving soul. Some people would struggle to see me as being romantic, but I am, its just that years of little brutalities by "friends" & family have made me this way.  Back in the now so to speak, I had a restless night fretting over my little digger. Its rubberised cat track had walked out of its runners. The cost of replacing them is legend, & despite having tried to sooth myself, I did fret.  So this morning I got out early & began trying a remedy.  No luck. I went back home & searched the little manual that came with the Digger when I bought her. Essentially there were no clear...
Read more

29 jun26: Grit

Grit: 1. small loose particles of stone or sand. 2.  the combination of passion and perseverance toward long-term goals. While convalescent I discovered the Travel Grit podcast. On the small list of guests are Sven Yrvind & Hugo Vihlen. One other featured the owner of the Wandered III who has sailed over a hundred thousand miles, many in high latitudes. All gritty sailors.  Meanwhile, I'm feeling like I have grit in my eye! Following a cold day afloat, when I went overboard twice, once to fend off rocks & to check for centreboard problems, I developed a back spasm. A painful condition thats aided by pain relief, gentle movement & warmth. Right now I'm low on pills & the water jacket on my fire has sprung a leak. And my centreboard is frozen & its Monday, booboo!  Ab
Read more

Sven Yrvind Wisdoms

Very occasionally Sven leaves my head spinning with his logical revelations. * On his website, he writes, big production boats are not made big because they are safer, they are made big because they make more money. * on a podcast he explains how selling small boats in Sweden was crippled by boating industry lead  regulations. Apparently a flood of small seagoing craft were being bought from France. The Swedish boating industry outlawed the practice by alleging these smaller boats were "unsafe". Sven knew this because he had a friend on the committee.  * When he was building his first boat in his mothers yard a town planner told him he couldn't do it. Sven protested; " I thought this was a free country". The planner asked Sven, " What if everybody built a boat on their yard?". Sven asked: "What if everybody was a town planner?".  * Sailing Bris through The Doldrums Sven was held in place by lack of wind for 35 days. The interviewer asked his ...
Read more

the rescue of john stinker Clark

Old lifecest, 11' open dinghy, fishing snapper is. In windy cold conditions. Whales "really putting on a show" Pulling anchor_overhead wave_boat swamped x rocks = danger, decided to drift  Oars, bucket, hope wife calls when he doesn't cone in at dark.  Mate knew where hed be fishing. Few hours, helicopter light, boat arrives, <5 hrs. Delirious, at first thinking of FAM, things tet to do, unfinished, but hypothermia took over, not fully conscious.  
Read more

27 Jun 26: Yrvind, triking & pollishing

Image
Early on I watched a video by Sven Yrvind. In this he described his attitude to building high latitude sail boats as "like a sea kayak". That is, he builds in preparation of being knocked down, or capsized. Some of the key elements are:- short masts sealed hatches ventilation to exclude water everything is securely stowed hatches by the masts, to avoid going on deck seat belt water tight sections everything stored has a secure place and is kept there.  He said that most high latitude sailors fear and avoid capsize, yet many do. His boats are built to capsize.  Well, such obvious design goals made me rethink many things. I am rethinking my thinking!   -----     -----     -----     -----     ----- Triking came to mind overnight. I have been dreaming of rotovelo, so perhaps I realized that I have the next best thing at the foot of my bed. I pumped tires, brushed off dust, and went for a ride on Summer hill Road. I r...
Read more

dumb phone vs dumb operator

I get in a knot using too much social media. I've already shut down unnecessary apps and deactivated all i can, but phase chook and the red arrow channel are letting me. They say it's an addiction right?  So i get the notion to buy a dumb phone that has no social media ... It said it could hotspot so i assume i can still do the bad things occasionally on my tablet.  I buy it, take it out of the box and at first i find it's primitive style amusing. But after talking through the same long sequences many times to perform a function that the phone doesn't do, you kind of start losing your will to live. And, it doesn't hotspot.
Read more

24 jun26: sailing a mixed bag

Image
In short its 9pm & just home with a coffee after sailing all day.  The launch was a bit sticky. The centreboard wasn't fully up. I'd been attempting to replace the uplift cord & hadn't reset it properly. No problems, I think.  Just after peak Low tide, I motor out the Lemon Tree Passage & have trouble lowering centreboard. It won't budge!  Light winds forecast are not light. Its blustering 10-12kn SWer. This increased slightly through the day. Going through the channel west of Soldiers Point, there are heaps of dolphins & I get great movie footage of them playing on the bow that I cannot post here.     Here we are exiting the channel, the wind is shoving us along mightily so I put in a reef & worry about centreboard.  Too early for the 2pm sailors, it barely noon. I skim the west shore of Middle Island & sail dead downwind along the north shore. Off the entrance to Myall River, I gybe S in the channel. This puts is ...
Read more