Yippy wahoo I just did the funnest thing!
Of all the things I have been able to say, when ask that question that is always part of meeting traveling types, “What do you do?” I just got to say the funnest thing of all, “I am writing a book!”. In the past I have been able to say, “I'm a architecture student, carpenter, plumber, painter, roofer, tiler, designer, builder, inventor,(that was fun too!), Furniture factory manager, Captain, tourist, cruiser, I'm on permanent vacation, shipwright, charter operator, commercial diver, resort manager, bar owner, fire performer, and of course Pirate”. But here I am in the very place where James Michner hung out to write Tales of the South Pacific and I get to answer, “I am writing a book!” Yippy Wahoo!
It also always comes around to the fact that I live on a lovely wooden schooner and am refitting her as well and have lived in the tropics for years. They look at me and I can sense they don't want to tell me that they are an accountant.
So yes I am very excited and am continuing to have high hopes for this project. I just got some great news and insights on how to take it more public using the Sailing Networks website from the woman who chose me as the winner of the writing comp. I have also updated my email list a bit.
Thanks to all who have sent transfers. I am sure your faith will be rewarded!
OK So here it is.
The Captain's Secret.
So I have had a secret. I am not good at secrets. I have not found many circumstances which merited keeping a secret. I suppose I have been lucky that way but I do hold dear the clarity of living with the truth. I was advised however that this was one such circumstance and I must admit that I agreed. There was magic in the air and I did not want to taint the passionate event that was going on with sad news.
Thus I have struggled for weeks now wondering how and when to come clean. In reality I knew those I kept the secret from would understand. That I was not doing an injustice. That the time would present itself to reveal the news. A dream was coming true and I reveled in that and accepted the new challenge including its secret.
So here it is.
To all of you who have been involved in my grand project, the secret is revealed.
I was in Auckland and my bold presentation was complete and I was to send the emails and post the facebook and launch the project the next day. It was one week before I was to head back to Vanuatu and I was excited and nervous. My friends were very supportive of the project and we were all together for an evening meal at Chris's house when I received this email.
This is the short story….not good…Cassi is taking on water and is thigh high downstairs….engine is under water and so everything is dead. We currently have a pump in her pumping out so she is coming back to the surface but you should probably get back here sooner than later. Someone has been on board and trashed her as well, this may have been part of the problem…maybe not….maybe the bilge pump failed…we don’t know. I got the call from Grant this afternoon that she was sinking. We will endeavor to keep her up till you get back. Things just aren’t going your way.
Ben
Ah yes a dynamic addition indeed. I immediately grabbed the phone but could not get through to anyone in Vanuatu. I wandered around the room like a stunned mullet. She had patiently waited for three months, and now one week before my return disaster struck. Ben had checked on her frequently and she was always fine. Bummer. What happened?
Since I am in story telling mode her is the flowery version.
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The ship sat quietly in the small bay. She waited patiently, as her master was away, yet all was not well and she knew it. Strong though she was, her ropes were frayed and her paint stained and faded like a thread bare dress on a poor working woman. Indeed she felt a poor woman, despite having worked hard for the past years, thrilling the landlubbing tourist with a tiny taste of the sea. Now she was steadfastly moored and with her sails stowed she had not moved in months. She could feel the itchy bites of undersea creatures scraping at her bare wooden spots and the warm ocean soaking into her planks. She did not like sitting still.
She new she was a special wooden ship and it was true that her spirit was famous. She had seen many adventures with many stalwart crews gracing her decks. She had sailed thousands of sea miles and had reveled in the glory of the winners circle in numerous regattas. All those who knew her sensed her special ways and believed her alive and aware. She was now aware that she was in trouble. What she did not know was that her Master was returning with a promising plan to save her.
And then one night a boat banged hard into her topsides. There was clambering and hushed voices as the men boarded her. It was a dark night and she was moored away from any but a few eyes on land. They had confidence they were safe and began a thorough search for anything of value. They laughed as they cut away her radios with their bush knives and dumped the contents of her lockers on the cabin sole. They rummaged through every drawer and tossed the records of of her fitouts and passages all about. They cut away her stove and loaded the foam mattresses off her bunks into their boat while grabbing every little item they fancied. They drank what grog they could find and rummaged through her masters pictures for amusement. They had a cruel party.
This was not the energy she was used to. This was not loving laughing crew. These were malicious men intent on hurting her and taking everything they could find. They left her stripped and damaged and now she felt more alone than ever. She knew her time was now quickly running out. Indeed the cutaway radios had left bare wires shorting and so her batteries grew weak quickly. She could feel the water slowly rising in her belly as the electric bilge pump struggled and finally quit. The trickles of her tired seams had been added to by the tongue of one of those nasty creatures attached to her hull. It had managed to bore a small hole through a plank. Without her automatic pump she was slowly sinking.
The days passed slowly and she felt more and more alone and heavy. Her bow was far down and she was getting very close to having the sea get in through the portholes which would indeed have been her end. Luckily she was noticed from across the bay by a local fisherman and he was alarmed at how low in the water she was. He made a phone call to the friends of the master and they came in a hurry with buckets and a big pump. They battled furiously to get the pump working while still bucketing the waist deep sea out of her main cabin. It was not a moment too soon!
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Thats the true story. Yet another chapter!
Cassi was moored alone in a very protected anchorage. She was a mere two hundred meters from the beach bar of a local resort. Yet a boat had pulled alongside in the night and they had stolen everything. She was not locked but locks are easy to break and never seem to stop the bad guys. These guys were bad indeed, they trashed her. The list of what the stole is long, from the GPS and subwoofer and amp, to my cast iron skillet and the aft bunk mattress and settee cushions, generator and anchors. They must have been there a long time and filled their fiberglass “banana” boat high.
The implications of Cassi being waist deep with sea water in the main cabin and her engine under are pretty obvious. A lot of work to revive what can be and a lot of what went under is totally ruined.
So now again I am faced with the delicious dilemmas of life. I am on top of the world and yet at the same time am confronted with a near devastating incident. My project is working and I am living the dream affording to write my stories and repair my beloved ship. Yet an event thrown into this time has split me into a man both ecstatic, and a man invaded and a little angry.
I am totally focusing on the ecstatic man!
So YEAH FOR ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The words are pouring out and I can fix absolutely everything that is wrong with Cassi. There are new directions to keep the “project” funded. The original budget will still suffice.
The effects of the near sinking have been a struggle for my return and still are I must admit. All of my power tools went under, table saw, grinders etc so I have been soaking them in buckets of fresh water and slowly taking them apart and putting them back together. I have the engine starter in bits and am hopeful it will be fine. I threw the pictures away but had some electronic copies of a lot of them. I have rinsed the deck cushions and placed them on the bunks. I bought a little cook top and fresh Poulet fish is on the menu for tonight.
And now I have come clean! No more secret! And the truth is this nasty event changes little because Cassi is alive and well and so am I. The dream moves on.!
And the fact is that it is going to be a really good book! The more I play with it, the more the words get put down, the more I realize there are lots of great subjects going to be presented. The pursuit of dreams, where fear fits into life and how the bubble wrapped generation misses out, the seeming happiness of “poor” people, the old ways of the sea/land and its technologies versus the new, how a moment can change or even end your life, do you believe in ghost?, and of course I am carefully working on the sex and drugs part. All of these philosophical subjects packaged in adventure stories with bizarre wrappings.
There are a number of people who Cassi and I owe a major debt of gratitude for her still being above the water. From the fisherman who made the call, to Ben and Grant and lots of Oyster Islands workers who rushed to her rescue, to Collin who provided the pump and others. I must express a heartfelt thank you to Ben (he went to the boat twice a day to run the pump until I arrived) and to his family as I stayed at their place until Cassi was livable again.
This was definitely the snippet of this story as Ben had plenty of side adventures and there are lots of other dynamics involving the effects on other peoples lives and politics and police and yeah lots more stuff to talk about!
I just wanted to let you guys know, “come clean”, so that when I now list the “progress” on the Cassi part of the project you will understand it started at an unexpected point.
As I have said in reality it has not changed a thing. Half the stuff they stole was needing to be replaced anyway. The amp only had one channel working and the dvd player had not worked for over a year. They probably plugged the television into 220 volt and instantly let all the smoke out as it was 110 volt and most likely caught fire. Ha ha to them!
I will recover most of the swamped tools etc. just a bit of time. I will get her old Ford running again, you cant kill that motor, they are the best.
So I have got to go as they are shutting the resort and I need to get this off so I will send more!!!
Spread the word this is going to work and Cassi will soon be having huge fun again and the stories just keep piling up !!!!!!
big Harold hug to all
H
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