Journal Entry January 1, 2007 - Update - Back In New Zealand

Happy New Year friends and supporters of The Blind Circumnavigation!

It has been some time since you got one of our little updates in your inbox. Some of you might even think that we were swallowed whole by a giant sea squid with purple spots and slimy green tentacles, or perhaps you thought we were marooned on some tropical island subsisting on lobster, coconuts, and pina coladas. You might even have thought we threw in the towel to raise rescue hippopotami in Zimbabwe. Well, absolutely none of that is true. If you will kindly read along for a bit, we will give you a recap of our past year and some insight into our continuing voyage.

Let’s set the Wayback Machine to November 10, 2005. On this significant date in Blind Circumnavigation history we arrived in New Zealand after sailing over 9,000 nautical miles, visiting six countries, and most significantly crossing the Pacific Ocean to become the first legally blind people to accomplish this milestone.

Upon reaching New Zealand we decided to retire our trusty Valiant 32 Tournesol, to live out her remaining days in the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, and we became the new owners of Starship a Pearson 390 cutter rigged swing keel sloop. It wasn’t that Tournesol needed retirement, in fact we weren’t even looking for a new boat, but serendipitous cosmic forces came into play and we found ourselves on a new old (1973) boat with more living space and a whole new list of boat projects.

As 2006 approached we also had Mother Nature to deal with and she inconveniently hurls a few cyclones each year during the summer season down here in the Southern Hemisphere. So, with a new boat to refit and the cyclone season to wait out, we decided that our cruising kitty could be better fed by working in the United States, besides we really weren’t cut out to be kiwi farmers or sheep herders. On February 10th we boarded a plane to the states, and after thirteen months of sailing we retraced our voyage in just thirteen hours.

We arrived in the states with no home, no jobs, and no real plan. I guess our transformation to blue water sailors was complete, but as fate would have it and with some wonderful intervention from some of our dear friends we found ourselves with plenty of work, living in a cozy flat in San Francisco. Pam found work at Backroads an adventure travel company and I worked as a technology and management consultant working with many of my friends and past business associates. Our life in the states was drastically different from our sailing life. We jumped back on the rat wheel with gusto. We quickly became cell phone talking, marathon commuting, workaholics. We could eat whatever we wanted, we could find virtually anything we wanted to buy, there was always a wireless network connection, showers were warm and did not come from an insecticide sprayer, and of course there was Starbucks. Ahhh - life in America can be bliss.

While we were back in the states boat work continued in New Zealand, and we were keenly reminded there really is no free lunch. Although we purchased Starship at a very reasonable price it became clear that lack of maintenance and poor attention to safety from her prior owners made the refit of Starship much more complex and therefore expensive than we had originally anticipated. We could practically hear, and we certainly could feel the money sucked to down under to feed the boat projects.

All together we ended up spending nine and half months in the states. We worked hard, had way too little time for our friends, and we were reminded of how fortunate we are to come from such a prosperous country.

On December 4th we arrived back in New Zealand fueled with ambition to get back on the water and to continue our circumnavigation. Our many upgrades to Starship seem to be real improvements and we feel she is now a safe and reliable blue water cruiser. For us, she feels huge! It is hard to image that we will actually have a place to hang out below deck while the off watch person gets some shut eye in the aft cabin. And though we know that things will always break down aboard Starship, for this is the nature of boats, for now we have all of her systems in good order.

Since returning to New Zealand we have been busy completing boat projects, sorting, organizing, and downsizing all the gear that was left behind on Starship. Even Pam with her proclivity for order is tired of organizing! Well, as of 1930 on December 29 we officially have a place for everything and everything has a place!

For the holidays we had a delightfully warm 70 degree Christmas that included a holiday BBQ with our neighbors on the dock, and for New Year’s we cooked up a gourmet dinner, rang our ship’s bell at midnight, then danced on the dock to bring in the new year.

So what now you might ask? A wise sailing quote states that sailors don’t make plans they have intentions. Our intention is to sail Starship on the east coast of New Zealand to shake out the bugs from her refit, then in late March or early April we will probably depart for Australia via the South Pacific, visiting some incredible places like Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Whatever we do our marvelous adventure continues and each mile sailed brings us closer to our goal of sailing back through the Golden Gate. We will now be making weekly journal entries to our new log-blog at www.blindsailing.com, and then more frequent entries once we leave the dock. Please read along and share our voyage with us.

May you all have a safe and wonderful New Year!

Cheers,
Scott and Pam