Love at first sight "Conversations II"

noreply@blogger.com (CresswellWalker) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:06:00 +0000

Of course we wanted her on first sight. To look at her at the dock, how could we say but yes to her beauty and her mute proposal of nuptials? Simply in her form and fashion there was a promise in her silent whisper “You will love me”.

And so we did. The very next day, I was drowning in the whirlwind of making arrangements to make her ours. It was an intense time. Within a week we had commissioned and completed a professional boat survey, taken her out of the water to check below the waterline, and labored many hours aboard her looking her over from stem to stern. Great sums of savings then changed hands in a blur of escrow paperwork, registered tonnage certificates and insurance. Then, finally I had my first sail. Not the timid sea trial of the pre-purchase survey with her ex-owner onboard, (how could she have every been owned by another!) but the first real sail, in a real blow, with enough sea room and wind to let her run as she can. Enough wind to blow clear the cobwebs of paperwork and to start breaking some gear. It was everything promised ….

……….As the breeze built, and the sun shone that day over the Golden Gate Bridge that day, we set off from the dock. I whispered a silent prayer “Now prove to me, my beauty, that you are what you say you are.” Even in the early morning’s faint whispers, before the real wind came up for the day, I saw she was, indeed, easily driven. She was well balanced, almost sailing herself, needing only the lightest touch on her helm. Then as the day built with the heat of the summer sun, the winds crowded in cold in from the Pacific, bracing, refreshing, and STRONG! I thought, “Now this will test our mettle”

Even In those first few moments, she reminded me what I had forgotten, but so longed for. She reminded me what it is like to be sailing on the wind in a fast boat that hunts with each puff for those few extra boat lengths to weather. She reminded me what it is like sail off the wind in a boat with a strong back and a big, powerful rig. For as the day built, I could feel her only waiting for me to turn her loose and then….. oh gawd…. there she went. So responsive, I could not help but whoop for joy to surf along under the press of her great main sail and jib drawing in the spray. Even though I feared I was holding her so hard to lee her steering cables would fail, she only went faster. And to my enduring exhilaration, we roared along, her bow wave back at the shrouds, chasing down wave after wave…….

noreply@blogger.com (CresswellWalker) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:55:00 +0000

Yup, this is the right place.
This is where we are going to post our daily blogs during our sailboat passage to Hawaii from San Francisco in our 'new to us' boat "Conversations II", weather and radio permitting. You see, at sea, we can only send email over the ham radio, which isn't always that easy. Maybe the weather will get nasty and we will get busy, or a wave will come down the companionway and drown out our electrics and radios, or maybe we will get so caught up in the beauty of it all, we will just forget! But it is my commitment to do my best to stay in touch with you.

We are leaving next week around about Thursday or Friday (July 24 or 25) from San Francisco. The boat is an Oyster Lightwave 48. She is fast and comfortable with room for 10. This will be the first leg of the very long delivery home to Singapore. After our first stop at Hawaii, I'll be heading off across the Pacific sometime in September.

Let me introduce the crew for this first leg. First there is my darling partner Irena. She is the one who found the boat thanks to her legendary tenacity. She is taking time off from work with her other crew at Microsoft to sail to Hawaii. I hear the guys and gals back at the office are pretty jealous! Then there is my dear old Dad. Don, is pushing 80 and is not one to be left out of an adventure! (We promise to return him safe and sound Mom! Then there is Paul, my life long sailing buddy, and Jordon his pre-teen son. Finally, dear Al and Leona, long time friends from our formative mid life crisis years at Haven.ca, will be with us on their first ever offshore passage (though Al has shivered his way up the wild coast of west Vancouver Island with us in our last boat).

So that's the line up. You will be able to follow our daily position at http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/reporter_list.php which has a very cool 'goole-earth-like' picture of our track. Make bets on how many sea miles we sail every day. Have a lottery on when we will actually arrive in Hawaii. Read our post to learn how well we are really getting along! Bring pop corn!

Cress

Sail the 7Cs to success, purpose and happiness

Love at first sight "Conversations II"