Pacific Crossing
Merry Xmas and Seasons Greetings from Down Under - 25th December, 2010
It has been over three months since I stepped off SKIE in San Diego and returned home to the maelstrom of business and social activities that have dogged me all of my life.
Maelstrom would not be a word I would ever use to describe my land life in the past, but relativity to the past 4 years on SKIE, the word is not so harsh.
A key 15 year employee leaving, our biggest shop ever opening in Sydney, our son Chris who runs the business getting married and off around the world for his honeymoon, the European buying for 2011 being brought forward to December, and getting out our new autumn Winter catalogue to be signed off yesterday.
My thoughts of our big adventure coming up has sadly only received scant attention in the past months.
Also it was great to have two of our children and their kids and a niece and family over from Europe for the wedding.
However this missive heralds the metamorphosis from business man/land lubber back to navigator, engineer, cook, cleaner, etc, etc.
In 25 days time I fly out back to the boat in San Diego to start the careful preparation for the Pacific crossing.
I am firstly dropping into Seattle to spend a two days at a "Hands On" diesel course with my good friend Bob "Lugger" Senter, who is the teacher at Alaskan Diesel, makers of Lugger engines and Northern Lights generators.
Bob is probably the best in the business and a serious boating man into the bargain.
Bob is going to concentrate on teaching us to care for our engines with preventative maintenance, and to deal with any trouble shooting that may be needed, and the likely spares needed on board.
I have been told that this is probably the least likely of things to happen as diesels are bullet proof as long as you give them good oil, fuel, coolant, and air.
I also had Craig Hatton from Hatton Marine in Seattle check everything a few months ago and all on engine hoses were replaced at his suggestion.
Much work needs to be done when I get back on the boat, lots of spares to be bought, life raft inspected, and I plan to go over everything on the boat with experts to make sure we are in fine shape.
Margaret is staying on at home until Feb 12th to attend a wedding, then join me to cruise Mexico until SKIE sets a waypoint due west late March to the Marquesses, 3000 nm away, with no place to stop at all en route.
Marg will not do this leg, but will join us when we make our first landfall, or maybe in Papeete.
Spoke to a friend who has crossed the Pacific on his Selene 59, who said the “Coconut Milk Run” was perfect with weather, and the roughest he found was from Brisbane to Sydney 10 - 20 nm offshore.
I guess it would just be the SE blowing a bit setting up the south bound eastern Australian current. For us Aussies this is just normal sort of stuff.
Joining me to cross will be my 1st mate Rick McLure from Queensland, who has seen many miles on SKIE already, being a trained diesel mechanic, owning a fleet of trucks, and a professional diver to boot, and my new found friend Jim Crossley from Calgary Canada, who is using this trip to prepare for buying a boat shortly.
The plan at this stage is to take 40 days to get to Tahiti and leave the boat to go home for a couple of months, then cruise Stage 2 to Fiji.
Stage 3 will be down to NZ for the cyclone season, then in March 2012, up to the south west pacific (New Cal, Vanuatu, etc) before heading finally to home to Hobart, Tasmania.
What to do after this remains the 64 dollar question.
Whether my boating life continues I don't know, but after considering Margaret's wishes first (and this is a first I can tell you after 43 years) I hope I can pack in as much as I can with the inspiration of Wolfgang Hass's wooden metre ruler lesson, mentioned in an earlier blog.
In a nutshell, if I am fortunate to live to 80, and in good health, I've only got 13 years left.
Sheez! that just seems like yesterday.