Means of Seeing what the eye brings

Just wrapping up reading John Guzzwell’s great book “Trekka: Round The World”. This is a book i’d heard of and seen many references made towards, but never actually had a chance to read myself. i wish i’d read it sooner!
The story sounds familiar; young dreamer scrapes a small boat together and sets off o’er the horizon. Not unlike “Dove”, eh? i was incredibly inspired by Robin Lee Graham’s story, as have many other “young dreamers” yearning for adventure. i’ve oft reccommended “Dove” to friends. Still, the book is certianly not without critics!
i got Kim to read it (i think other friends of hers are reccommended it to her as well), and she had some curious insights that got me to take another look at the book. Robin spends alot of pages carping about how tough it was, and of the many times at sea when he swore he’d never sail again, etc. Much of the book is taken up with escapades ashore; the sailing seemed portrayed as the horrible bits in between the good bits! Also, as another reader pointed out to me, while Robin was a hard worker, helpful, and possesed of some skill, his voyage was largely bankrolled by his parents (well, he was only 15 at departure!)
Overall, the impression that Kim had was that Robin really didn’t much enjoy the journey at all! Is it any coincidence that he moved to homestead in Colorado shortly after his return? Well, still a good book, worth the read, but losing lustre in my heart.

Guzzwell, on the other hand, paints an entirely different picture. A fine crafstman (a yacht joiner by trade), he built his boat Trekka behind a fish’n’chips shop in downtown Victoria, BC. i’ve seen the boat, a laurent Giles-designed 20’6″ yawl, on display inside the foyer of the Eatons department store in Victoria. It’s very difficult to convey just how small that is! When John crossed his outbound path off Hawaii in ’58, it was the smallest boat to do so, and he the first British citizen to complete a solo circumnavigation. One of my favourite passages from the book describes how, while far out at sea, he fondly recalls the winter months spent building Trekka in that unheated shed. i often wonder how i will look back on my times here when i too am a thousand miles out…
John delights in sailing and the sea. His happiest moments are at sea, far far offshore, drinking in the beauty and the solitude. In contrast to Robin, his landfalls are the times of greatest concern, and the bustling activities of shoreside life, while offering adventures of their own, seem to be nearly unwanted interuptions. He writes of friends, meetings, hikes, and landfalls as if they’ve fallen dryly from the pages of his logbooks, while heaping poetry, humour, and rare wit upon his open sea passages.
At 68, John designed and built himself a new wooden boat, Endangered Species (a ridiculously beautiful 30′ raceboat), with which he competed in the single-handed TransPac race. Now into his seventies, he is still a Puget Sound sailing fixture.
So, to all those i once urged to read “Dove”, now i urge to read this! i hope it inspires you…

Out in the Dink this past Saturday, former RBVIYC Commodore James Bridgewater called out to ask if i cared to go sailing the next day. Go sailing in the harbour and get invited sailing? Not bad!
A few Loyal West Endians refer to James as “Bilgewater”; rich, british, and a touch snobbish. Still, he knows a good hand when he sees one, eh? Not for the company but for the boat did i go. The boat, Tikitas, is a beautiful classic S&S-designed Nautor’s Swan 43. i had done a little work on the boat, interior woodwork and some deck hardware, so i knew the layout, but i was still itching for a sail.
Well, as it turns out, James had invited along some work friends and some girls he’d met on the beach; not a sailor among them. Everyone else sprawled out, drinks in hand, while i settled myself to sailing the beautiful beast. James claims the boat is “a bit much to single-hand”, but it didn’t seem too much of a bother for me while he went about serving drinks and chatting up ladies. Certianly, to get it really hustling along in racing trim, you’d need a bunch of folks, but i just couldn’t agree with his complaints for cruising.
The Swan 43 looks and sails like a much smaller boat. The visibility over the diminutive deckhouse in incredible, belieing an incredibly roomy interior with full standing headroom all the way forward, even under the long flush deck forward. Tikitas has long been one of my favourite local boats in the harbour, and snobbishness aside, it was a great day of sailing!

Hunter S. Thompson shot himself last Saturday night. i was reminded of another great writer, Richard Bratigan, found dead in the woods behind his place, a .45 and an empty whiskey bottle at hand.
Shades of Nick Jones too, my friends; the mad mystic, the creative force not so much driven to destroy itself so as to choose its own ending, its own destiny. Kim and i discussed this once. She told me that she had long-ago determined that she felt she wanted to kill herself in the end; not so much out of a sense of helplessness or depression, but as an act of supreme self-determination. My own suicidal tendancies always ran in a more melancholy vein. In any event, we agreed that we’d rather not live our last days tied to some medical machine or otherwise wasting away.
Over the last few months, i’ve been embracing stranger energies again, letting my life be governed by circumstance. In a great discussion last night with H.E. (my old Rasta friend), we got talking about theology and spirituality. We agreed that the path you take that is greater than the destination or departure point. All endings ought to come just as they naturally do; in the end.
Hunter S. always blurred the line between observer and participant in life’s circus. Perhaps the act of ending his life was the best obituary he could write…

Rigged a new spinnaker pole on the Dink and got out into the harbour this afternoon. Blasted downwind past the usual flotilla of bareboats and cruisers out into the outer harbour to do a couple laps around a special lady anchored out.
Yup, Velsheda is in Soper’s Hole for a couple nights. The last J-Class yacht in Soper’s Hole was Ranger, which i (unfortunately) missed getting up close to. Not so this time! i got a great look of Velsheda… perfect!