Pacific Crossing
Melbourne, Australia, October 9th, 2012
I think that this sure to be my last entry, and all good things must come to a close.
The site has been completely put together by myself using the wonderful tools provided by Talkspot. However they have been modifying things over the past 5 years and I am struggling a bit with the new sophistication, so things have gone a little amiss as you probably notice.
SKIE is sitting at Abel Point Marina in our beautiful Whitsunday Islands, and tomorrow she gets a new master.
We have engaged John Thomley as our skipper to run the boat, hopefully sell her, and move up to a N78 that we have done a deal on subject to SKIE being sold.
Engaging John was Margaret's idea as she believes running the boat is too stressful for me and that I should sit back and just enjoy where it will take us.
I don't agree about the stress, but she is right about the responsibility side of it.
John crossed most of the Pacific with me and accompanied Marg and I from San Diego (where John lives) to La Paz Mx. He is an outstanding person and mariner, and we are looking forward to being with him again.
Margaret and I have just returned from Europe after a month of mainly leisure. Two weeks of this was in Murcurey in Burgundy, France, where I picked up paint brushes for the first time in 51 years and completed 8 paintings. Not sure it will continue but glad I revisited it out of curiosity.
So to sum up all I can say is I have knocked another item off my bucket list, and learnt to be a reasonably competent mariner starting off 5 years ago with nil experience whatsoever, and completely self taught and educated by just gaining experience through miles under the keel (30,000 nm)
People I would like to thank are firstly my great travelling companions and crew who have helped me move the boat around. They have all been so supportive, some great cooks, some great drinkers, and some great fishermen. Too many names to mention of course.
Special thanks to Cindy Diettrich in Tahiti who not only handled our customs clearance, but gave me the peace of mind to leave the boat in Tahiti for a year, knowing she was looking after her.
PAE the builders of Nordhavn's must be commended for the integrity that they built into their boats, and I wish them all success for the future.
Technical help and support came from so many other Nordhavn owners, Dave Harlow from PAE, and the Guru of marine diesels in the US - Bob Senter, who with Dave was standing by with full and attentive support always.
Finally the "Missus". Margaret has always allowed me to do my selfish things and has always said I deserved to after working so hard building a very successful business, so without her support and love it all might have just been a dream.
SKIE, or the new SKIE will now become a holiday home for us, and will be a wonderful platform for exploring in great depth the most interesting place I have ever seen on my travels - The apple Ilse - Tasmania.
Dramatically changing scenery, fabulous food and people, and an overnight ferry or an hour by plane from home in Melbourne. What more can you ask for?
