Fiji here we come

Sam and I are off sailing to Fiji this morning so my site will be silent for a couple of weeks.
There is a big anticyclone over NZ at the moment so the weather is cold but brilliantly clear and not much wind. I might have to change my book from Jonathon Livingston Seagull to War and Peace!
Keep well

I am Sailing

Well maybe I won't post my experience in bread making until I video myself doing it. I think it will be much easier to explain it that way. I know that all one of you are poised waiting to plunge yourselves up to the elbows in flour but I'll do it soon.
Well maybe later than sooner. Son Sam and I have been offered a passage to Fiji to help good friends Neil and Martha sail their 50 foot boat to those lovely islands in the middle of the Pacific. They are on their way to Hawaii and it is their 22nd time they have sailed to Fiji so the experience will be invaluable for when we sail up in our boat.
The trip will take a little over a week depending on the weather and we will stay for a week to do some surfing and soak up the sun then fly back to the harsh realities of our winter.
I know I'm going to pay for this awful life I lead. Hope it's in the next life!!

Salty Dog

Oh to be a salty dog. You wanna taste my skin? I'm out sailing most days and freedom comes to mind. Enjoying something at no cost to me or the environment. Catching my food, making my own water, cooking with solar power (OK that's a dream at the moment but I'm working on it!). I only have to learn how to turn seaweed into something edible to stop scurvy then I'm complete! Have you ever heard such pretentious, greenie babble? A lot of people have started giving me sailing advice because they watch me gybing and luffing and going round in circles and don't realise I'm chasing my dinner and I never realised the disdain power boat skippers give to sailors but it probably works the other way too.
Easter weekend is the end of the summer season here and it's been great to see the summer people enjoying themselves in our beautiful area but it will be nice to get back to just the locals and a walk on a deserted beach for a change. We will have it to ourselves until about October and then look forward to seeing all the 'loopies' again.

Boating

The joys of boating! I've spent the last three days with my head in diesel motors. Learning a lot though and better now than on the high seas. I've never owned a diesel before apart from an old truck and that never missed a beat, the boat engines (two 13hp nanni kubotas) seem simple enough. One works fine, the other is leaking oil and sea water (water pump seals) and won't run at full revs which I presume is lack of fuel.
I did some single handed sailing yesterday in 20 knots. I'm glad I fixed the auto pilot, it makes things so much easier and allowed me to catch six kahawai trolling and the dinghy and the rudder!! She sails well and seems to catch fish. Believe it or not, some boats don't!