San Francisco memories, they came flooding back when Ben
Shaw began interviewing me for his Out The Gate Podcast program. We had
wonderful adventures on the bay in both Seraffyn and Taleisin. In
fact, I was introduced to the delights of Sausalito even before we began
sailing as you will hear if you click on this link www.OutTheGateSailing.com.
Ben asked some very good questions about how to make the break and get off
cruising, and about Larry and my penchant for sailing engine-free. Thanks Ben,
enjoyed talking with you.
As I write this note, New Zealand is in lockdown due to a very limited outbreak of Covid19. Tonight, after two weeks of lock down, all of New Zealand except Auckland, goes from level 4 lock down which means no one can leave their own property except to buy groceries, to level 3 which means you can have two or three close friends over and order take-aways or non-grocery supplies if you can get them without going into a shop – i.e. on line. Though the little island where we live is at the far boundary of Auckland City, we are in full lockdown for possibly two weeks more. Fortunately for us, we are totally engrossed in a major refit of Sahula. She is right next to our workshop, her interior 80% removed, the inside of the hull fully inspected for rust and now refinished a bright clean cream color. Today I hope to have the final coat of varnish on three more of the cabinet doors we removed. Also fortunate, we have most of the supplies we need to keep us working for a few weeks more.
The equinox is almost here and with it gales and rain. But that doesn’t stop our progress, and we need to keep hammering away. There is probably two months work to get Sahula back in shape for the summer voyaging we want to do, to the Coromandel Peninsula islands, to the islands along the northeast coast of New Zealand. And yes, when covid19 problems settle a bit, we do hope to head off to foreign shores again.