Dear Friends:
I love books, I love being on the water. Kawau Island, our home base, has no roads, no shops nor library and lots of avid readers. Once a month people from all parts of the island journey by boat to a different home and bring along books they want to share. Since each cove, each house has a different outlook and the tracks leading from the shore vary from short strolls to half mile climbs; each meeting is a bit of an adventure. The last one topped them all. Jill Hetherington one of our closer neighbors and an avid sailor, decided she wanted her own transport between the mainland and island plus a place to stay while she was visiting on the mainland. She came steaming into the cove several months ago on Tuna, a 70 year old pilot boat powered by a big old fashioned Ford Dover 4 cylinder 90 horsepower truck engine. Jill then proceeded to upgrade Tuna and paint the boat in colors to her liking. The hull is now bright red, as it was when it worked in Wellington Harbor. But the trim, in purple, yellow and green is definitely different. On book club day Tuna arrived alongside our jetty. I served as deck hand as we steamed around the island, stopping at various jetties to pick up 9 other readers.
My first job as a deck hand on board Tuna
I soon learned just how different it is bringing a heavy displacement, single screwed work boat gently alongside but did enjoy working in cooperation with Jill, signaling how close we were to each dock, getting a line around a piling to secure Tuna, helping guests climb on board with their books, bottles of wine and plates of snacks. The early autumn day was bright and warm with a brisk wind from the east. Jill chose a spot in a sheltered cove and we set Tuna’s anchor. For the next few hours we reviewed books, shared lunch and island news (gossip?). Then most of the readers dove overboard to enjoy the summer warmed waters. By the time we’d gone back around the island, dropping friends at each of the jetties leading to their homes, I felt I’d had the best of both books and being on the water, even if it wasn’t under sail.
Tuna served as starting boat for the Easter Regatta
Then came the most memorable four days so far this year. For almost 40 years we’ve wanted to meet one sailing couple in particular and finally we did. Soon after we crossed the Atlantic and sailed into Falmouth England in 1972 on board Seraffyn, the local oystermen told us about Curlew, the most famous of the Falmouth Oyster Dredgers that, for almost 90 years, had been the fastest of these very fast cutters. It had been bought by someone who wanted to go cruising, taken as far as Malta then abandoned. But rumor had it a young couple named Tim and Pauline Carr had found Curlew and were not only fixing her up, but learning to race her. Over the ensuing years we learned, often at our expense, of their racing and cruising prowess.
Tim and Pauline Carr were great crew. After 40 years of sailing engine free they know how to keep a heavy boat moving well in light winds
Pauline
Though our paths never crossed, we seemed to end up in foreign ports where Curlew, a 100 year old gaff rigged, jackyard topsail cutter had joined the local racing fleet and shown an amazing turn of speed. “Don’t expect a good handicap just because you’ve got an old fashioned looking boat. Curlew showed us what boats like yours can do in light winds,” we were told in a wide assortment of places. Other sailing friends would tell us about Curlew’s fast passage from here to there, we’d find ourselves packing on canvas, trying to beat her time. About 18 years ago Tim and Pauline sailed south towards the Antarctic, then on to South Georgia Island where they got caught up in the beauty of the place and stayed to help restore the old whaling station and set to work eradicating the rats that were devastating the local vegetation. Their book, Antarctic Oasis is stunning. So were their sailing exploits around these ice filled waters.
A few years ago Tim and Pauline donated Curlew to the British Maritime small boat Collection and she was shipped straight from South Georgia to Falmouth where she is once again being sailed and raced in her home waters. Tim and Pauline moved to a small farm in southern New Zealand but still go back to South Georgia as guides. Now they were on a land trip around New Zealand and accepted our invite to sail with us on Taleisin for the Easter Regatta.
Within minutes of their arrival, we learned we were kindred souls. They had been following our sailing exploits, expecting our paths to cross. (We were all shocked to learn Tim had, in 1964, been crew on a 75 foot schooner called Kelpie, which was berthed in Newport Beach California at the same time as Larry had been first mate on 85 foot Double Eagle, berthed just two hundred yards further along the waterfront.) As we compared notes, the sailors we’d each met, the places we’d loved, the sailing tricks we’d used, it was like we’d always known each other. Even better was to be out on the water with a crew who didn’t need to exchange a word yet knew exactly how to trim Taleisin’s sails, to move around on the boat, to nudge an extra smidgeon of speed out of her.
Felicity moved along very smartly, showing a nice turn of speed for such a small boat.
Then there was the topper, little Felicity, my Herreshoff 12 ½ day sailor was skimming along among the fleet of 12 other boats, crewed by the Tollemache’s my adopted cousins who’d come to spend the weekend with us. It was a staggered start race, which meant Felicity, as the smallest boat started first. As those of us on larger boats set off across the start line, I saw her skimming along, wing and wing past the first island on the course. Soon we had caught up with the earlier starters. As we passed Felicity, I felt a bit like a proud parent as I watching her 15 and 17 year old crew trimming sails, keeping her moving through the outer islands of the bay.
What a weekend, weather that was far warmer than usual for autumn, sunshine, light breezes, a great crowd of local sailors sharing fine casual racing then a big boisterous barbeque on the deck of our cottage. Tim and Pauline stayed on for an extra day after everyone else headed back to their city life and together we talked of the one problem that long term voyagers eventually face – how do you settle down, where do you settle down when far horizons have always been your addiction. No easy answer there, though all four of us felt fortunate in the choices we’d made so far. Then, all too soon, Tim and Pauline boarded the water taxi and is it steamed away from our jetty Pauline called out, “Come on down south soon, still lots to talk about.” We’re planning a trip south because yes, we too want to repeat the magic of being with people who speak exactly the same language and have lived the same lives, faced and are still facing the same challenges as Larry and me.
Taleisin’s nylon drifter was the perfect sail for a perfect day
