Gone Sailing

Ever since I saw The Talented Mr Ripley on DVD a few years after it was a new release at the local video store I, a) had to go to Italy, and, b) fell in love with the idea of sailing. At that time the latter was such a pipe dream, because, 1) I didn't know the first thing about sailing, and, 2) I didn't know a single person who was into it, let alone had stepped foot on a yacht before. Fast forward a decade later and (unbeknownst to me until later in our relationship) I fell in love with a guy who sailed for most of his childhood and had dreams of one day owning a sailboat. We talked about it for years as our lives remained "busy" until one day an opportunity came up to purchase a neglected Tasman 20 on a swing mooring out at Little Shoal Bay. Ah yes, the excitement of owning our first yacht.

Jef spent a lot of his time working on Fire Dancer, trying to get it to be in a comfortable state for us to sail. But eventually he realised that life was too short to try and refit this boat. What we need is a weekend cruising boat that is ready to go. So in 2012 we bought ourselves a Christmas present. We are now the proud owners of Cariere, our Davidson 28.

My dream is to one day leave these safe shores and throw caution to the wind, but right now any chance we get when the weather is conducive our little family hangs a virtual sign on the door of our lives that reads - Gone Sailing.

Here are some of our memorable cruising stories so far.

Summiting a volcano - a day trip to Rangitoto in January 2015.

When the weather makes you happy - an unexpectedly beautiful weekend in March 2014 anchoring in West Bay, Motoihe Island.

A long weekend of sailing - Auckland anniversary weekend 2014 when we had unpredictable weather and anchored at Rakino Island and Motutapu Island.

We are into a new year of adventure - over the 2013/2014 Christmas/New Year holidays we went to Motoihe Island and Rakino Island. It was the first time we caught fish for dinner.

Sunday quickie - a brief sail to McKenzie Bay at Rangitoto to play in the rock pools.

Into the wind to Rakino Island - straight after my sailing course in Feb 2013 we had a fabulous weekend on the boat. It was the first time we had both sails up because I actually knew what I was doing and could be a semi decent deck hand.

Sailing to Motoihe - Exploring the beautiful island so close to home.

Sailing to Owhanake Bay - our last weekend of sailing over 2012/2013 Christmas/New Year holidays. We had a magical time over on Waiheke Island.

Birthday on the water - our first sailing adventures on Cariere, and my first sailing experience EVER. It was also Kien's 3rd birthday.

Motoring to McKenzie Bay - our first trip on Fire Dancer and we couldn't even sail. So exciting for me to be out in the Hauraki Gulf on our very own sailboat. McKenzie Bay is awesome!


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you still have fire dancer? I saw her on the free stuff site due to searching tasman 20 yachts. We are looking at stepping up a size in boat for weekender in the hauraki gulf

Lien - all new adventures said...

No, Fire Dancer has been refitted by someone else a few years back.

Unknown said...

I came across your blog while I was doing research on living in New Zealand and sailing. I just wanted to leave a comment that you and your family are living our dream life! Like your husband, my boyfriend has been sailing all his life in Seattle and have this lifelong dream of sailing to the South Pacific and living in New Zealand.

We are planning to visit Auckland at the end of this year and I hope we have enough time to see some of the beautiful places you've shown in your blog.

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...