Lovers Leap

[Kijima]

They say - Two of the happiest moments of your life is; when you buy your boat and ; when you sell your boat.
I disagree with that entirely. As a cruiser my boat has come to mean more to me than just an object of conveyance or fun, as is probably the case with most cruisers. A boat is a love-affair.
We have recently been forced to sell our boat having lived aboard for 12 years or so and making the transition back to land is all nigh but impossible.
Living with friends and family for the past year or so has really brought home the freedoms that living aboard include, but more than that, the sense of comraderie that exists between yachties is entirely absent in land-based communities. That sense of belonging is missing.
I doubt I will be able to get back into the cruisers world and so I hang about here waiting for I do not know what, reading about the joy of others and loving it.
Standing on the precipice I am reminded of someone saying to me that it is rarely the impact that kills. Having recently fallen 2 storeys I don't remember the trip down - only waking up in pain with that sense of having lost grip.

Peace +

K

[BlueSun]

Thank you for this post Kijima - it reminds me just how lucky I am to have the freedom to live the life that I want, and to try and make the most of every moment.
Take care.

[SurferShane]

Thanks for the post.

At the moment I am loosing that loving feeling. Last night I got caught anchored in my first real gale. I mean it was seriously the first time I have been on the water with spume blowing across whitecaps. Likewise, the front hit with an honest 60 knt wind blast. It literaly picked my heavy steel yacht up out of the water shearing the daisy chained anchors out of the bottom and depositing me windward.

I knew the front was coming and would not have anchored there if I had realised it was so exposed. The accepted cruiser's bible over here reads, "In winter the visitor is warned that strong westerlies can make the cove untenable". What it should have said is NEVER NEVER EVER anchor there in a southerly change. The geography will intensify the wind and funnel it to the west causing even the most prepared cruiser to loose their boat onto the rocks.

Luckily I did not end up on the rocks although one motor cruiser did break its permanent mooring and meet this fate. Instead, my anchor wanted to hold just as I was being dragged past another moored yacht. I had to play out line and ride its stern so I didn't sink the boat behind me again. While I did extensive damage to the pushpit of the solid old boat in front of me with my bowsprit - OK, I did have a bowsprit - had I have been pounded into the fibreglass production yacht behind me I have now doubt the sharp angles of my steel stern would have sent it to the bottom. Then if I would have cut myself free there was a good chance I would have gone under a big cat to leeward and sunk both of us.

I am insured, but I still feel rotten. I know some on here probably can't wait to comment about idiots dragging into other yachts. However, until you have been in that kind of weather you cannot really understand the situation. Then anywhere elsea southerly wind in such a cove would have sent me out away from the moorings.

It was devestating. My home was a wreak trashing one boat on occasion while I watched the bow of another rising up over my stern. The boat behind was seriously that close that while I had my dingy pulled in as far as I could it started to meet the other yachts hull. I let the dingy go to keep the motor cruiser on the rocks company.

Any moment I was waiting for my old girl to break free and for it all to end. Half of me was saying, "it's nearly over, if I live I can claim the insurance and never set foot on a boat again". The other was saying, "hell I have put everything into this boat and I am about to loose it all". After I agreed with the Water Police that it would be too dangerous to extract my vessel till the gail subsided I had a lot of time to juxterpose these thoughts.

I am off now alone on a sheltered emergency mooring pouring over similar thoughts while the wind and rain intermitently sounds on the coachroof and through what is left of the rigging. Seriously, the sea can be a horrid and harsh Mistress. You almost have to ask yourself do you do this because you love it or are you just mad?

[SurferShane]

F#ck, just heard an abnormal bsnging with that bit of weather going psst and had to run up into the rain and check another disaster was not brewing. It just turned out to be the boat circling back into the emergency mooring. I put a lashing over where the mooring is anchored to my bow bollard "just in case".

Didn't a famous cruising couple write something like, "if it was easy everyone would be doing it"?

[charliehows]

the good news is, this ugly little bugger will have blown itself out by tomorrow...

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by charliehows

the good news is, this ugly little bugger will have blown itself out by tomorrow...

Yep, although while your down and out it is hard to imagine the sun coming out, it inevitably does. I kind of remember I sailed down here not to be devistated, but to attend a surf comp over the longweekend. Nothing to stop me making a good time of it yet?

I also just discovered 89.7 fm Sydney. Some great conversation and music.

[surfingminniwinni]

Hi Shane,

I feel for you mate, we were in the Marina at Woolwich in Sydney Harbour when the bomb hit. I left work early to make sure I was ready, doubled our lines and checked the yacht in the next pen lines as well. Not much sleep but we were safe and no damage.
Where we're you? I hope all works out for you mate, please don't give up the dream.

Cheers,

Glenn

[SurferShane]

@ Glen,

Toward spring cove and very quickly amongst the moorings in Little Manly Cove. I thought that big thing called North Head might have given a bit more protection and relied on the passage in the cruising guide stated above. I was wrong and I have the insurance claim to prove it. Instead, the southerly funnels from Sydney down Middle Harbour and absolutely blasts Spring Cove.

If you are interested in seeing some great surfing the 25th Snowy Macalister Winter Festival is on over the longweekend in Sydney. It's longboards and SUPs with big prise money in the pro divisions.

I was talking to this old bloke at Manly who was telling me Snowy was as nice a bloke as you could get. When they would loose their mals out Fairy Bower, Snowy would ride in on his ski and get them back for them. Some of his spirit still has to be getting around over here?

[surfingminniwinni]

Shane,
Unfortunately or fortunately for me, ive committed to surf trip down to ulladulla for the weekend. Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember Snowy, a total legend! Mate I don't know how long your in Sydney for, might try and catch up next week? Who are you insured with?

[BlueSun]

Wow Shane, that sucks. You've had a really rough trot lately, eh? I will make a note in my copy of the accepted cruising bible next to Little Manly Cove. It is hard to remember the good things about this way of life when youre getting beaten up by Mother Nature. We had similar thoughts last night ourselves while being thrashed about here at Batemans Bay.
Hopefully the big high pressure system that's chasing the low away will remind us of why we're out here!
Good luck with it all Shane, and Kijima.

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by surfingminniwinni

Shane,
Unfortunately or fortunately for me, ive committed to surf trip down to ulladulla for the weekend. Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember Snowy, a total legend! Mate I don't know how long your in Sydney for, might try and catch up next week? Who are you insured with?

Glen,

It would be great to catch up. It is probably going to take a month or so to get everthing resolved through NRMA, so we will have a while. In the meantime I will be keeping away from Sydney's imfamous "lover's leap" and try to enjoy Manly.

[SurferShane]

Originally Posted by BlueSun

Wow Shane, that sucks. You've had a really rough trot lately, eh? I will make a note in my copy of the accepted cruising bible next to Little Manly Cove. It is hard to remember the good things about this way of life when youre getting beaten up by Mother Nature. We had similar thoughts last night ourselves while being thrashed about here at Batemans Bay.
Hopefully the big high pressure system that's chasing the low away will remind us of why we're out here!
Good luck with it all Shane, and Kijima.

The reality with cruising is that it could happem to anyone. I would hate to have been someone like an overseas cruiser who thought the place was safe only to loose everything. Not a nice way at all to be forced to move back on shore.

I am not sure what I have done to deserve all this bad luck. Maybe, I was a real bad MF in a past life like Vlad the Impailer or one of those Roman Emporors who used Christians as street lights? Again though, these things are a reality of cruising. If you think living on the sea is easy you probably won't last long.

[Cyndimarcus]

Talk about a thread hi jack! Shane, been there, and it DOES get better so hang in there.
Kijima, Welcome! I know I have been happy to buy, but selling has not always been happy. Just tell myself, she is ready to help someone new with their adventures.
It is true, I have been back on land for just over a year, and the community is not the same as cruisers. Spending a very short time in an expat community in Mexico, and some time with full time (or 1/2 time) RVers did give me a bit of the same kind of community, maybe with time you can find your own.
Missing Mexico and missing cruising, but the countdown has begun and I will once again escape the gravitational pull of land life.
Cyndi

[SurferShane]

@ Kijima,

Sorry about hyjacking your thread.

Everytime of late I have tried to sleep on shore of late I have had a rotten night of it. It has taken a nasty close succsession of mini-disasters to make me seriously think aboutstepping of the boat for a while.

Unfortunately a popular suicide spot here in Sydney is called "Lover's Leap". While we both have our regrets lets hope things never get that bad!

Better unlash my stand up paddle and head down the marina to sort a few things out. After I might grab a couple of waves and maybe even see if my dingy survived.

[Kijima]

It is a bit like swallowing the anchor, although there is light on the horizon. Thanks for your input
Peace +
K