Taleisin - Adventure Machine!Jekyll2023-06-20T22:08:42+00:00https://taleisin.com/https://taleisin.com/https://taleisin.com/covid-19-and-life-on-the-boat2020-06-30T23:50:56+00:002020-06-30T23:50:56+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>We have just returned to Taleisin after a 3 week stint on land. Annie’s parents
are settling into their new house after they have been living overseas for many
years. We went down to help sort out furniture and belongings so that they can
downsize. Since we’ve done this ourselves, albeit far more extreme than they
would do, we thought that we might be able to offer some support in this area.
It’s tough to let go of things and it’s even tougher to decide what to keep. We
didn’t plan on spending that long away but it just turned out to be that long.
I did manage help Annie’s dad erect a fence.</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCFBpM6A5uE/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px;
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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
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solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px)
translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0
4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CCFBpM6A5uE/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Very exciting, we helped to erect this
fence.</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px;
overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis;
white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/svtaleisin/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Annie
Ryan</a> (@svtaleisin) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-06-30T23:58:49+00:00">Jun 30,
2020 at 4:58pm PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>I’ve had some fun and games with contractual work, as we’re in need to some
funds to keep us going. I thought our concerns would be behind us, but I had to
walk away from a contract due to a disagreement with the customer. While it was
a real nightmare it all worked out in the end as I’ve got a little bit of work
to generate some income again.</p>
<p>It’s been a while since I’ve published anything of substance. There’s multiple
reasons for this, but ultimately it was my own doing. Since I’ve added a patreon
account into the mix things have been on a steady decline. It’s not that I don’t
have anything say, on the contrary I have a lot to say. I’m of the old school
thinking that if you’re going to take money from people there should be a value
proposition. This lead me to write much longer pieces and that in turn lead to
decline in readers.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to be the writer who floods a blog with short entries and charging
patreons for the mess, it seems unethical to me so I thought I would deliver
more content so there’s a real value proposition. Unfortunately this lead to the
regular readers not reading the longer pieces as it consumes too much time.</p>
<p>So what happened to all my writings? Well there’s a manuscript. It covers the
last 5 years of our lives with Taleisin. Will it be published? Honestly I cannot
say at this point. I completed the rough draft in March. I’ve slowly been
editing away at it to turn it into something that might be worth the time to
read it. At present it’s around 100,000 words and it’s much too long. I find it
much harder to edit my work than I did to write it.</p>
<p>Life in the time of Covid-19</p>
<p>As most of you know we’re in New Zealand. This has been great as New Zealand
seems to be a bit more proactive about managing the spread of the virus. The
fact that it’s isolated might have something to do with it.</p>
<p>So what is it like living in a Covid-19 world aboard Taleisin? Honestly, it’s
not much different than life as usual. While we haven’t moved anchorage in
a while, we found life to be much the same during the lock down period. We had
a bubble with one other person and we spent our days hanging out and chipping
away at chores. It was a slow chip, we didn’t really make a dent in it.</p>
<p>It was rather amusing reading about people losing their minds. They have just
had our lifestyle thrust upon them. While it’s technically not identical,
there’s a lot of similarities. We understand that it’s one thing to voluntarily
do it, but quite another if it’s forced on you. The whole experience has made us
realise just how much we have changed and what we value today. Our only issue
was that we had a rough time provisioning, but we eventually managed to do it in
one giant swoop. Once the provisions was in place we returned to life as normal.</p>
<p>New Zealand is back to normal, or as close to normal as can be expected. The
rest of the world is still in pain and this is not lost on us. If you’re
suffering due to this I’ll leave you with this simple thought: “This too, shall
pass”.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/covid-19-and-life-on-the-boat/">Continue reading Covid-19 and life on the boat here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on June 30, 2020.</p>
https://taleisin.com/sad-news2020-06-08T07:59:27+00:002020-06-08T07:59:27+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>It’s with a heavy heart that I write this. Our good friend Brion Toss has passed
away. It feels like I have known Brion all my life, when I only met him in 2016.
Brion was a kindred spirit to me. When we first met Brion he invited us to stay
with him without knowing much about us. The only connection we shared was that
he knew Lin and Larry Pardey and we bought Taleisin.</p>
<p>We first learned that Brion was sick just before we dropped anchor in Tonga
after our first ocean passage. We have unfortunately not been able to go and see
him in the meantime due to financial constraints and Covid-19 restrictions.
It is fair to say that Brion was the last person in the world who deserved this.
He was always health conscious.</p>
<p>We had the great pleasure of getting to know Brion on a personal level. He was
a kind and very funny person. Brion was a lifelong friend that we only knew for
a fleeting moment.</p>
<p>Here is a picture of us sailing with Brion on SV Martha during the Port Townsend
Wooden boat festival. As with everything Brion was involved in, it was a richer
experience because he was part of it. Brion had overslept on his nap and missed
the boat. But in true class he was brought out by tender and boarded the vessel
like the admiral.</p>
<p>Also in this set is a picture of the friendship knot Brion tied for us just
before we left from our last visit. It’s been hanging on the little anchor in
Taleisin ever since. We look at it everyday and it will stay there as a reminder
of the wonderful times we had with Brion.</p>
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margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"><div> <div style="background-color:
#F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform:
translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4;
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border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px
solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px)
translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid
transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color:
#F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform:
translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px
solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px)
translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0
4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CBKrfQ1Aj8N/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">In loving memory of Brion Toss</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px
0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post
shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/svtaleisin/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Annie
Ryan</a> (@svtaleisin) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2020-06-08T08:09:17+00:00">Jun 8,
2020 at 1:09am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>Brion, it’s been an honour to know you and be your friend. May you have fair
winds and following seas!</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/sad-news/">Continue reading Sad News here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on June 08, 2020.</p>
https://taleisin.com/crossing-an-ocean-part-32019-08-30T03:51:31+00:002019-08-30T03:51:31+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>This is part three of a three part post, see parts
<a href="/the-post-most-of-you-have-been-waiting-for/">one</a> and
<a href="/crossing-an-ocean-part-2/">two</a> first if you
haven’t read them.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that luck on a boat is created by placing luck tokens in
a black box. You cannot see how many tokens are in the box and you never know
how many you use (the assumption is all of them). You place these tokens in
there by doing preventative maintenance. Every time you fix something small
that’s not quite ready to be done you add a token. It’s essential to add as many
tokens as you can because you don’t know how many is in the box. When things go
sideways out on the open ocean you make a withdrawal from that box, you never
know how much you withdraw since you don’t know how much is in there. But that
is where luck comes from. The little string I replaced caused the cotter pin to
stick around, it was lucky since I could have lost it. We certainly made a few
withdrawals! This is also the reason I went to fix the hatch, who knows what
that might have prevented.</p>
<p>We continued on our way. The wind was such that we couldn’t sail East. We headed
towards Minerva reef. This is fine as we know there’s a wind shift coming. It
was around this point that we realized we’d reached the point of no return.
A good friend of mine describes commitment with the following analogy. If you
consider bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved in the breakfast, but the pig
was committed. We realized that we were the pig in this scenario. We cannot turn
back since we’d have to repeat everything we’d just come through, we have to
carry on!</p>
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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Pictures making landfall in Tonga. See
the blog post at http://www.taleisin.com/crossing-an-ocean-part-3/ (will be
posted shortly)</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px;
overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis;
white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/svtaleisin/" style=" color:#c9c8cd;
font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Annie Ryan</a>
(@svtaleisin) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-08-30T04:03:12+00:00">Aug 29, 2019 at 9:03pm
PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>Bob sent us a message asking how things were going since he hadn’t heard from
us. It was late at night and I replied immediately, he must not have gotten it
till the next day. His reply the next morning was, “I was hoping you’d be
further East, you’re close to Minerva, anchor there and leave in two days time.
The wind is not in your favor!”</p>
<p>Bugger, Bob, we’re sixty three nautical miles North of Minerva already; that’s
a long way to go back! That’s OK just heave to for the night and carry on in the
morning then, he replied. Well heaving to is not an option right now, it would
be more uncomfortable due to the confusion on the seas and the wind is not
blowing enough to help out. We decided to push on but slow Taleisin down to
a crawl. North is still progress towards our goal so we’ll wait for the shift.</p>
<p>We spent the next two days waiting for the shift. We didn’t realize that the
sixteen knot current flowing East would actually prevent us from sailing east
completely. The wind was blowing from the east and this caused two meter chop to
form. We could sail North and South, but absolutely not East! We spent the next
two days doing just that. It’s around this time that the reality of the mental
challenge came home for me. Little things started getting to me. I was up on the
bowsprit trying to take the jib down. I got dunked in the water when the
bowsprit went under. I was wearing my foul weather gear and, of course, my boots
filled with water. It’s not the first time this has happened. But I had been
complaining about the fact that my foul weather gear is more akin to fair
weather gear. I get completely soaked if the conditions get a bit rougher. They
didn’t keep me dry and would stay wet for days. The issue was most likely
related to the amount of salt that had soaked into them by now. If I sat in the
cockpit when it was wet the water would quickly soak through.</p>
<p>It got to the point where I stripped down completely before donning my foul
weather gear as I was going to get wet. This caused me to be wet and cold every
time I had to go up in less than ideal conditions, which seemed constantly to me
at this point. I had a minor meltdown. Annie growled at me to get my act
together and get on with the task so I can get down below.</p>
<p>After three days of not making progress it seemed like we were going to be stuck
in limbo for ever. Turning back was not an option and moving forward was
impossible. Lets just say that our morale was a little bit low at this point.
Annie started digging out some comfort food. While she was provisioning she
would stash away little treats especially for me. I tend not to go for comfort
food as much, but she must have known that there will come a point in time where
I’d need it. She’d gone above and beyond and stashed quite a bit away. She
brought it all out and laid out a Smörgåsbord of chocolate in front of me. She
also pulled out a tin of BBQ Pringles. If there was no other reason to love her,
this would be reason enough alone! It did wonders for my low morale! At the time
we still had two hundred and sixty five nautical miles to go before we reached
Vava’u.</p>
<p>Annie woke me up at midnight to change watch. We spent a bit of time discussing
a change of plan to make landfall at Tongatapu instead. We both needed to ‘get
somewhere’ desperately. I spent my shift planning a new route and it looked like
we might be able to make landfall much sooner. Finally at 3:30 am the winds
shifted. Annie changed course! We were elated that we managed to get a break. We
were heading South East, but that didn’t matter we were heading East! Bob
suggested that we keep that course and round Tongatapu on the Southern end and
make landfall once the winds shift. We kept pushing through the night and
thought that we might actually have a shot at making landfall in the near
future.</p>
<p>The next day we lost the wind. We were drifting towards Tonga but we certainly
weren’t sailing. As much as that might sound painful it was actually a nice
change. We got to relax all day, the weather was nice and we managed to recover
some much needed energy! Annie put a lot of wet stuff out to dry and we spent
the day alternating sleeping and we’d consume junk food. We were about sixty
nautical miles from our destination and there was nothing we could do but relax
and wait for the wind. However, there was no way that we’d make it if we tried
to round Tongatapu on the South end. We again changed our plan and changed
course to go through the Northern shipping channel.</p>
<p>In the back of my mind I had the thought lingering that the easterlies would
pick up again soon, so we’d have to make landfall relatively soon or risk being
stuck just off the coast of Tonga for a few more days. Just before sunset we saw
the first land since we left New Zealand. This was very exciting and it lifted
our morale to a new high. All the bad memories we had quickly faded away. It
felt like we’ve almost made it! By now the winds had picked up and we kept
reefing in order to slow Taleisin down enough so that we will arrive at the
channel entrance at day break. We had shifted our watch by an hour and started
planning how we could each get a good rest before we made landfall. This went
well for a little bit, then we lost the wind again completely. We continued to
drift. From the forecasts we knew that we had till around mid day before the
easterlies pick up again and we might get stuck again.</p>
<p>This was a problem! At 1 am when I woke Annie up I had already attached the Auto
pilot and got everything ready to make an attempt at getting the outboard on. We
had thirty four nautical miles left to go, the water was clam enough and we know
from experience that this is do-able with our outboard. We managed to get the
outboard attached without much drama. But the million dollar question was, will
it start. We were fully prepared to make landfall under sail alone if we had to,
but the thought of being stuck out on the water for another three days or
possibly a week was a bit much to bear. I pulled the starter cord on the motor,
puff puff puff. I pulled the choke out, the motor grunts and stops. I gave it
another pull but with the throttle open a bit. It started! I let it run for
a bit to get itself warmed up.</p>
<p>We put the motor in gear and opened the throttle just enough to push us just
fast enough to allow us to reach the channel entrance at day break. We set the
auto pilot on course and it seemed like we had a real chance at making landfall.
I went down below to get two hours of sleep before I would swap with Annie. My
next watch I spent sitting in the cockpit, my spirits high and I was watching
Tonga slowly rise out of the ocean! I know we’re not there yet, but it sure felt
like we had arrived! I decided that I’d let Annie sleep as long as I could and
then we’d start the process of actively handling the boat to make our way in.</p>
<p>Annie awoke on her own and joined me up on deck. We both sat there in awe as
more and more of Tonga appeared. We both kept saying that if feels like we’ve
made it, but we didn’t want to celebrate prematurely! One and half hours later
we decided to attempt to make contact with the port authority, customs etc. But
it was Sunday. Tonga is closed on Sundays. We tried a few times and then decided
to go anchor at nearby island Pangaimotu. We dropped our hook at midday.
Ignoring the one hour timezone difference, that makes a midday to midday run.
Twenty days at sea! We made it. Sure we haven’t checked in yet, but our anchor
is down and we can now relax.</p>
<p>We now had cell phone reception and were able to active roaming on my phone. We
proceeded to call our families. We had purposefully not told them what we were
up to, as to spare them the worrying that they would have to do while we’re
sailing. This in hindsight was a good choice as it took us much longer than
expected. Sure we had a means of communication, but as it proved we lost our
ability to charge our battery for a few days, which meant that we could have
lost communication with them. This in turn would have just made them worry more.
Taleisin is still the exact same unstoppable boat that Lin and Larry made. We
might have added a few supplemental things here and there but we have only added
to the available options. We’ve never reduced methods of achieving things. We
could completely have made the journey without electricity. We could have
completed the journey without the outboard.</p>
<p>We were quite relieved and surprised by the reactions we got from our families.
Sure they had moments which nearly gave them heart attacks when we told them
what we had just accomplished. But in the end they congratulated us and were
proud of our achievement! We got a lot of questions about things that seem quite
insignificant to us, we’ve been planning this for quite some time and had
certainly done our homework before we set off. After answering a lot of
questions they were finally satisfied and relieved that we had managed to do
what we did. We explained to them that we endured three storms, so the trip back
shouldn’t be more challenging as we’d be doing exactly the same things we had
just done if things got worse. We are now capable of handling the boat in all
conditions so they should be comfortable with the prospect of us returning to
New Zealand.</p>
<p>It’s been a long and hard journey to get to this point. We have had many
obstacles, but we’ve had many people encourage us along the way. Many people
also thought us crazy, they might be right. Ultimately we told very few people
when we actually left, just in case we had to turn back. We’re going to claim
that we crossed the ocean engine free. Sure we used the outboard a little at the
start and a bit more at the end. We didn’t have the luxury of using an engine
when becalmed or to try and out run those storms! We couldn’t use the engine at
all on the open ocean. Some of you might disagree with our claim, that’s fine.
We’re extremely proud of our accomplishment regardless.</p>
<p>I’d like to finish by quoting Kaci Cronkhite in a comment on our post on
Facebook: “You did it! In a boat built to do so… to take two dreamers, darers,
lovers… to sea”. We had learned to sail on this little boat, it wasn’t easy
and ultimately used her for what she was built. Taleisin has truly started her
new life with a new crew, she sails the seas again!</p>
<p>We’d like to thank those we let in on our plans from the start for their support
and encouragement, as well as keeping it quiet so that we wouldn’t cause our
loved ones to worry for five years. Without your help and encouragement we might
never have been able to make this journey!</p>
<p>Oh and for those wondering about the chicken soup… Well we intended to use it
for burley around day 15 or so, but putting out a fishing line was a luxury that
we couldn’t afford, so the fish got a free feed.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/crossing-an-ocean-part-3/">Continue reading Crossing an Ocean part 3 here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on August 30, 2019.</p>
https://taleisin.com/crossing-an-ocean-part-22019-08-22T01:45:35+00:002019-08-22T01:45:35+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>This is part two of our ocean passage, see part one
<a href="/the-post-most-of-you-have-been-waiting-for/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Luckily Annie is smart and suggested that I dig out some clamps as she’s certain
there’s two small G clamps in the tool tray under the work bench. I dug the
clamps out and clamped the box down. I took the panel up on the fore-deck and
tied it down. I squeezed as much 5200 in the gap as I could and smoothed it over
with a Popsicle stick (another important set of tools we added recently to the
toolbox). We left the panel to dry until night fall and brought it down below to
continue curing for the requisite 24 hours.</p>
<p>I turned to Annie when the job was done and quite proudly announced that “This
will be one of my top five fixes while at sea!” We had a pretty nice day sailing
and we were starting to enjoy the passage. Unfortunately it didn’t last too
long, the next day we were actually sailing in decent weather but the barometer
was steadily dropping. That night things had built up to the point where we had
two small (not big enough to eat) squid wash up on the side deck. The seas were
also so confused that I couldn’t get the wind-vane to steer Taleisin and instead
had to hand steer for two hours before things finally settled enough for the
vane to work again.</p>
<p>I think I’m starting to master the wind-vane, it’s a fine balance of sail trim,
the right tension on the control line and in some cases the use of a bungy cord
on the tiller, which also might need more tension to either port or starboard.
It’s a delicate dance, but something I think is becoming instinctive to me now.
This is the first time we’ve used the wind-vane in anger on passage and I was
surprised that I managed to get it to work.</p>
<p>Things kept building until mid day the following day. We noticed that some of
the sail cars on the mainsail was detached and decided to heave to so we can
re-attach them. I started lashing the cars back on, Annie said, look up. The top
three cars we undone. We would have to hoist the trys’l if we wanted to have
a chance to fix these! We dropped the main, hoisted the trys’l and put Taleisin
back in the hove to position. I started lashing the sail cars back on as best as
I could. While in this position it became pretty obvious to us that we’d have to
get the para-anchor out soon. We set to task and we were very glad we did it
when we thought about it. Within an hour of setting the para-anchor things got
serious. The swells increased to five meters (imagine staring at a ten meter
wall of water when you’re at the bottom). On top of those swells were one and
a half meter breaking waves. We have no way of knowing the exact wind speed but
using the Beaufort scale and our observations we estimate the winds to have been
around forty to fifty knots. It was certainly a lot more wind than we’d ever
been in and we know for certain that we had sailed in thirty five knots gusting
forty.</p>
<p>At this point we sent Bob a message and told him we were forced to heave to, his
reply was, stay hove to until morning, then sail to a way point north east. We
intended to do just that. Through the night I didn’t get up enough to check on
our gear and the anchor rode had managed to chafe quite badly. This was due to
the fact that Taleisin tacked on us and the rode was running underneath the bob
stay. I though it would be fine since our bob-stay is basically covered in
a chafe guard. Little did I know that the conditions were so rough that it
actually managed to tear the top part of the guard open and pushed it up so that
the rode would happily chafe against the stainless steel wire. I noticed this
when Taleisin tacked back and we attempted to get the pennant in the right
position to try to avoid tacking. I shorted the scope to the point where I could
inspect the chafe, “Nope, cannot have this out there I don’t trust that it wont
break”.</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Z59veH9q2/" data-instgrm-version="12" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px;
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text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"> <div style=" display: flex;
flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color:
#F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px;
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100px;"></div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px;
flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div></div></div><div style="padding:
19% 0;"></div> <div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px;
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translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0
4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Z59veH9q2/" style=" color:#000;
font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">This is what happens if you don’t tend
your anchor rode frequently when you have a para-anchor out in a storm
#fujiframez</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px;
overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis;
white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/svtaleisin/" style=" color:#c9c8cd;
font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Annie Ryan</a>
(@svtaleisin) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-08-20T23:47:39+00:00">Aug 20, 2019 at 4:47pm
PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>Unfortunately this meant that now we’re on a shortened scope. It was morning and
we were considering hauling the para-anchor in and taking off. We thought we’d
have something to eat first since it was still quite rough sea conditions. After
breakfast we realized that we’re not going anywhere, things kicked up even worse
than the previous night. This time I went and checked the rode more frequently
and dammit, Taleisin tacked again. I kept moving the rode to avoid it chafing as
much but we managed to get another really bad spot of chafe on the rode. This is
crazy, we can’t keep doing this. I know we still have another spare rode under
the work bench but trying to dig that out in these conditions is a bit beyond
what my constitution would allow. We tried the best we could with what we had
and it somehow seemed to work. It was around this time that the first mental
challenges started, Annie had a crisis of confidence and a bit of an emotional
meltdown. Not because she was scared but because everything just seemed to get
to her. I tried to comfort her as best as I could and got on with the tasks at
hand. I recall saying to Annie at one point while everything was in full swing
as we headed up on deck: “It’s do or die out here”.</p>
<p>Later when people asked us if we were scared or concerned we’d reply with,
there’s no time for that sort of stuff, you just get on with it. Once the
weather cleared we got underway as soon as possible and we sailed Taleisin as
hard as we could. We decided that it was time to push on as fast as we could as
to avoid any more bad weather. Bob gave us a way point to aim for and we made
haste! As we hoisted the mainsail we managed to give the second solar panel we
lashed to the dingy a good crunch. You’d think that we might have learned from
the first time that we should take it down before doing stuff in rougher
weather. Seriously at this point we don’t deserve to have solar panels, we just
don’t seem to take care of them. Luckily it’s only cosmetic, it still works just
as poorly as before. This panel was the first solar panel we bought, it’s a 100
watt Solbian, supposedly the best there is. Well it doesn’t produce much power
any more. We were going to return it since it’s got a pretty long warranty, but
alas it’s now a very expensive souvenir. We certainly don’t have the money to
replace it either.</p>
<p>Over the next 24 hours Annie’s loss of confidence started to have a knock on
effect. Every time something got a bit challenging during her watch she’d wake
me up. This is absolutely fine as I’d rather she wake me than get in serious
trouble. Unfortunately it meant that I got hardly any sleep. This quickly lead
to me having a crisis of confidence thinking that we might have made a mistake
coming out onto the open ocean. I started formulating a plan to create a sleep
cycle for myself that will allow us to carry on without completely depleting my
life force. The next morning at around 7 am things kicked up again and we hove
to under trys’l only. I went down below and got some much needed sleep (still in
my foul weather gear on the cabin sole), Annie kept an eye on conditions in case
it got worse. A few hours later we were under way again. I made the decision to
sail under trys’l alone. I put Annie on the helm and got her to hand steer and
learn how to feel the motion of the boat in trickier conditions. She surfed the
waves for a few hours and then she set the wind vane. I’m not sure if this
helped or not but it seemed like her levels of confidence returned to normal
after that.</p>
<p>Turns out that upon asking her if she felt better about knowing how the boat
handles, or about knowing what to do in those conditions she said, “I know what
to do, and that wasn’t anything new for me. It’s just that some things you said
or have done have confused me so far. I’m now no longer sure my judgment is
correct or if I am letting things go for too long.” I just want to put on
record that Annie is extremely competent, her loss of confidence was purely due
to the mental challenges we faced. She’s capable of handling the boat on her own
in most conditions. She’s also the best crew mate I could wish for. The mental
challenge while out there is a strange one, and I cannot find the words to
describe it, unless you’ve experienced it for yourself you probably wouldn’t
understand it either.</p>
<p>We kept the trys’l up for the rest of the day and night, it proved a good
choice, we were still making good way and the winds and seas were quite variable
such that we were happy to keep going with the sail configuration. It also meant
that I was able to get better sleep due to the fact that I knew the boat was
configured for what ever may come already. All we needed to do to heave to was
sheet the trys’l in, head to wind and tie the tiller off. That’s quick and easy
and either of us can do that alone without any issue. This also helped get
Annie’s confidence back on track, so it was well worth it.</p>
<p>The next morning we put a doubled reefed main and stays’l up which moved us fast
enough and kept the configuration manageable enough so we both felt comfortable
when on watch alone. Unfortunately, it was a bit rocky because of the wind,
swell and chop direction, but the sailing wasn’t too bad so we didn’t complain
much. While sailing along with Annie sleeping in the bunk I heard a bang. It
wasn’t huge since the wind forces wasn’t too high. I popped my head up and saw
the stays’l stay swinging on the port side. “Oh crap, get up Annie, we have to
deal to the stays’l!” I rushed up on deck to investigate. At first I thought we
might have lost the stay somehow (but I inspected it all before we left). Then
I thought that possibly the Highfield lever had undone itself, but that was
still in the closed position. Oh no, did the attachments on the bowsprit rip out
somehow? It couldn’t have there’s not enough wind to do that! I went up forward
to have a look. Nope it’s all still attached. Then I grabbed the sail and
brought it all in, letting the halyard go as I do that to make the whole mess
manageable. Once I had it in hand, I noticed what had happened. The cotter pin,
which has a spring loaded ball bearing to supposedly keep it from doing just
this had come out.</p>
<p>Bugger! How did I miss that during inspection. Heck I replaced the bit of tired
string that held the cotter pin onto the rest of the assembly (good thing too as
we might have lost it). We worked swiftly to get it all back in place, but we
had an issue with preventing this in the future. Larry, show me the way! I said
to myself. I looked at the cotter pin again and noticed there was a hole drilled
in the other end. The light bulb went on! I need some kind of pin through there!
I looked at the forward hatch and saw a keyring style pin holding the hatch
cotter pin in! That’s it! I removed it from the hatch and applied it to the pin
on the stay! Problem solved. I placed the cotter pin from the hatch in my pocket
since we wont need it until we undo the hatch.</p>
<p>I went down below to rifle through my rigging bag. There’s bound to be something
in there! Annie made the comment that the rigging bag is like Mary Poppins’
handbag, there’s all kinds of crap in there and it’s almost always the right
kind of usefulness when you need it! I found another keyring style pin and went
to replace the hatch cotter pin right away. By now we’ve learned that if the
opportunity to deal to something exist you do it immediately, it pays for itself
in the future. We were very lucky that this happened during reasonably clam
conditions as it might have done some serious damage otherwise. While it’s
a potential mishap we felt like we dodged a bullet here. We got lucky!</p>
<p>To be concluded…</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/crossing-an-ocean-part-2/">Continue reading Crossing an ocean - part 2 here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on August 22, 2019.</p>
https://taleisin.com/the-post-most-of-you-have-been-waiting-for2019-08-16T07:57:00+00:002019-08-16T07:57:00+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>We’ve been a little quiet on the blog recently for various reasons. I wont go
into the reasons but lets just say it’s been interesting. That of course does
not mean that I haven’t been writing. On the contrary, I’ve written almost
30,000 words that I haven’t published yet. There’s a lot more to come, but it
hasn’t been appropriate to publish it just yet.</p>
<p>If you follow us on Facebook then you know by now, that Annie and I have made
our first ocean passage. This will be an abridged account of that passage. While
it’s abridged, it’s a very long read. We will publish it in three parts over
three weeks. Those who support us on Patreon will get the whole piece
immediately as a thank you for supporting us. The rest of you, patience is
a virtue! You won’t be left out, it will just take a bit longer. Also good
things are worth waiting for right?</p>
<p>While the dream has been in the making for almost five years now, it’s been slow
going. We started planning this particular passage in January while we were
cruising in the Bay of Islands (I promise there’s something written about that
too). At the time we were considering going to New Caledonia, but abandoned that
idea after talking to many other cruisers who said they were heading to Tonga.
Also since we’re completely out of money (there’s another story there, and I’ve
written about that too), Tonga was the better option as we could do it with less
money.</p>
<p>A lot of things delayed us quite significantly. I had a contract on the go
which was supposed to start at the end of January but for various reasons didn’t
materialize until we already left Westhaven marina, bound for Kauwau Island to
do a final refit in June. It got to the point where we just had to go or we
wouldn’t leave. An unplanned trip to Australia over Easter set us back a bit too
due to weather and my car got stolen from the marina parking lot (there’s
another story there, and yes I’ve also written about that), while we were away
in Australia. So we then had to deal with the aftermath of that.</p>
<p>Refitting took a bit longer than expected as we had to redo a significant amount
of fiberglass on Cheeky2 which we did not expect. There’s much to write about
the adventures here, especially when I let the smoke out of the compass (rookie
mistake, but a story for another time).</p>
<p>It took us far too long to get ready but eventually we managed to get on top of
all the jobs that had to be done at Kawau and we set off for the Bay of Islands.
This was to be our first overnight sail as we needed to experience it before the
main event (there’s another story there, but again not the one you’re here for
today). Lets just say that it took us two days instead of one and it was an
adventure which ended with us anchoring at 3 am.</p>
<p>Once in Opua we had a few minor things to take care of and some final
provisioning to do. We waited for a ‘good’ weather window so we could leave. We
had a fantastic time in Opua but we were happy to leave.</p>
<p>As with everything we do, we’re not just content to have the normal or average
‘experience’. If we pay full price, we want the full ‘experience’. When you
reduce your equipment down to the essentials and nothing more you get a much
richer ‘experience’. What follows is an account of what happens when you set off
with that crazy mindset.</p>
<p>Without further delay, lets get to the main event…</p>
<p>We checked out of Opua on Monday the 22nd of July at 10:30 am. It was
surprisingly easy. We had to leave the marina by midday. We’ve become incredibly
last minute when it comes to traveling and that bad habit has crept in the door
with passage making. Taleisin was not hundred percent put in order for an ocean
passage but the major things were done. While we were motoring out Annie was
still busy below stowing stuff properly.</p>
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12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div></div><div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4;
border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px
solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px)
translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)"></div></div><div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid
transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div> <div style=" background-color:
#F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform:
translateY(-4px);"></div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px
solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px)
translateX(8px);"></div></div></div></a> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0
4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B1N5un7H0jT/" style=" color:#000;
font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Some snaps from our passage</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px
0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post
shared by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/svtaleisin/" style=" color:#c9c8cd;
font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal;
font-weight:normal; line-height:17px;" target="_blank"> Annie Ryan</a>
(@svtaleisin) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px;
line-height:17px;" datetime="2019-08-16T07:54:42+00:00">Aug 16, 2019 at 12:54am
PDT</time></p></div></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script>
<p>There was very little wind and we knew it would be a slow start. After motoring
out into the bay we decided to take the new six horsepower outboard off (another
story to be told here), and stow it on the forward bunk to keep it safe while
out on the open ocean. This was much easier than anticipated and the water was
clam enough so that it wasn’t dangerous.</p>
<p>Annie had prepared a whole big pot of chicken soup which we planned on consuming
in the first 48 hours. This worked great for us on our first overnight passage
so we thought we’d stick with a winning formula.</p>
<p>Once we had the outboard stowed below, Murphy paid a visit and the wind died
down completely. I had placed a Scopoderm patch behind my ear as soon as I felt
the slightest hint of seasickness. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me. That
first night I paid the lee rail two visits while Annie was sleeping down below.
Followed by another visit the following day. Annie was not feeling too good
either but held it together and looked after me as much as she could. We ended
up drifting and finding a few puffs of wind here and there. It took most of the
night to get away from New Zealand. I spent my watch laying in the cockpit with
my head on the deck box. I closed my eyes and opened them every five minutes or
so to scan the horizon. This would be the first few days of night watches for
me.</p>
<p>Once we were finally away sailing for two days our InReach finally got activated
(this was a last minute addition, we got a secondhand one and there’s another
story here for later). Finally we were able to communicate with Bob McDavitt
regarding weather. Bob’s comment was, I was hoping you’d be further North by
now.</p>
<p>On day three we encountered some heavy weather and decided to heave to. We did
it while there was still day light and got some rest while the rough stuff blew
past. Once Taleisin was hove to and we went down below, the change in motion of
the boat caused Annie to visit the lee rail. After my third visit I decided that
the Scopoderm was quite likely not working for me and removed it. I switched to
Sealegs but had to crush them in my mouth and hold it as long as I could to try
and get it absorbed into my body. That seemed to work rather well. The only
problem is I would be consuming them like tic-tacs for the rest of the voyage.</p>
<p>When the rough stuff passed we finally managed to get a nice day of sailing in.
We both felt better and were quite hungry. Annie said she felt like mashed
potato and disappeared down below. After some time she handed me a bowl of
mashed potato in the cockpit. I have to say that it was quite possibly the best
mashed potato I’ve had in my entire life. It could be that Annie had somehow
managed to produce the absolute best mashed potatoes the world has ever known or
it could be the fact that we’d hardly had anything to eat for three days due to
being seasick. I guess we’ll never know.</p>
<p>Annie also produced some chicken tenders which we had on bread, I swear it was
fit for a king! We had a really nice sail for the entire day. Then things
started to pick up a bit. I sent a message to Bob asking what’s up with the
weather as he’d told us to sail North West until the wind shifts. Bob then
proceeded to route us clockwise around a low pressure system. Things just got
worse for us so we decided that we’d rather not continue to sail and heave to,
wait for it to pass and then hopefully we can ride the high pressure system that
was following. This time we had to do the procedure at night and we were much
better at it than the first time. Both times we put the para-anchor out as we
couldn’t stop Taleisin fore-reaching. The second blow was worse than the first,
but we managed to get going again sooner than the first time. At this stage we
were five days into the journey and had only managed to sail about two hundred
nautical miles from New Zealand.</p>
<p>Once we got going again we entered a high pressure system and Bob told us to
sail North West until wind shifted. We had a fairly nice sail until we lost the
wind early in the morning the next day. This is when we noticed that our battery
wasn’t charging so there was something up with our solar panel that we lashed to
the dinghy. When we finally went to investigate we discovered that during all
the ‘drama’ the terminals got ripped clean off. The panel was flush with not so
much as a tiny bit of ribbon cable sticking up. We had another two panels down
below so we swapped them out and started thinking about how we could fix the
broken panel. It was a nice calm day with very little wind for the most part.</p>
<p>I noticed that the other panel wasn’t charging the battery either so I went on
a troubleshooting spree. This involved me having to pull the battery out from
the mount I made and lashed it to. It was a rather involved process and it was
also quite hot. We were still dressed for the New Zealand winter as we hadn’t
had warm weather yet. As a result, I had sweat dripping from me at a rate that
made it look like I just stepped out of a shower. I did the only logical thing
and stripped down to just my underwear. After the appropriate amount of cussing
for a job of this description and a couple of false starts I managed to get
everything ticking over!</p>
<p>Since it was clam and I had an idea on how to fix the solar panel I decided to
give it a crack. In order to appreciate the moment I’ll try to describe the
scene. I’m sitting on the settee, just about stark naked, dripping in sweat. The
table folded open with the solar panel on top of it. I’m holding a Stanley knife
in one and and a flashlight in the other underneath the panel so I can see where
the ribbon cables are. I’m slowly trying to cut through the first layer of
plastic on the panel to reveal a bit of the cable so I can try to re-attach it.
After about fifteen minutes of struggling and cussing appropriately (I think
it’s mandatory to get jobs like this done, if you can’t do it due to having to
concentrate ask someone else to just stand there and cuss on your behalf; I think that will also help), I managed to get the three cables exposed enough
to deal to them. I spent a bit of time checking everything with my multi meter
to figure out what gets attached where.</p>
<p>Still dripping with sweat and half naked, I dug out the little 150 watt inverter
and soldering iron (this was an impulse purchase but turned out to be extremely
useful). The boat was rocking since there wasn’t much wind but the swells were
at least consistent. Now I’m trying to balance the soldering iron on the table
while holding the required bits to solder on again. Luckily Annie came down to
hold things for me so I could solder the cables together. Looking at the mess
before me, I now had to somehow ensure it isn’t too vulnerable. Inspiration
struck when I realized that it was originally stuck down with 3M 5200 and
I happened to buy a tube of 5200 the day before we left. Just in case I needed
it. But the problem was holding it in place long enough for it to cure. The
terminal box doesn’t sit flat and the gap is now huge because of the three blobs
of solder.</p>
<p>To be continued…</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/the-post-most-of-you-have-been-waiting-for/">Continue reading The post most of you have been waiting for! here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on August 16, 2019.</p>
https://taleisin.com/creating-adventures-for-others2018-01-23T00:00:00+00:002018-01-23T00:00:00+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>We have been very fortunate over the last few years with the opportunities that
have crossed our path. Lin has introduced us to wonderful new friends and we
have been invited to go along on many wonderful adventures (I still have to
write about many of them). While travelling in the USA we came across many
people and we invited many people to look us up if they were to make it to New
Zealand. I recall saying to Annie that if anybody does take us up on the offer,
and I doubt many will, I will make good on my promise to take them sailing.</p>
<p><img src="/images/Brad/sailing.jpg" alt="leaving" />
<em>Copyright Campbell/Seamans</em></p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/creating-adventures-for-others/">Continue reading Creating Adventures for Others here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 23, 2018.</p>
https://taleisin.com/another-interview-with-wooden-boat-dan2018-01-04T04:10:11+00:002018-01-04T04:10:11+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>It’s clearly a rainy day and we have nothing better to do…</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/another-interview-with-wooden-boat-dan/">Continue reading Another Interview With Wooden Boat Dan here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 04, 2018.</p>
https://taleisin.com/changes-and-a-new-way-to-keep-up-with-us2018-01-04T00:00:00+00:002018-01-04T00:00:00+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>I’m experiencing Deja Vu, not that long ago I broke the email system. Today I
received another email about it not working correctly. I do apologise for this!
I’ve added some more checks and controls to avoid this happening.</p>
<p>If you’ve received an empty email you can click through to the website and find
the last update in the archive section.</p>
<p>Since I was making changes to the blogging system I decided to add a few
things.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/changes-and-a-new-way-to-keep-up-with-us/">Continue reading Changes and a New Way to Keep Up With Us here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 04, 2018.</p>
https://taleisin.com/in-my-defence-i-was-left-unsupervised2018-01-03T06:21:14+00:002018-01-03T06:21:14+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>Two posts in rapid succession… Something must be interesting…</p>
<p>As you can tell from the title, this is bound to be good!</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/in-my-defence-i-was-left-unsupervised/">Continue reading In My Defence, I Was Left Unsupervised here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 03, 2018.</p>
https://taleisin.com/reflections2017-12-31T03:00:54+00:002017-12-31T03:00:54+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>It’s been quite a while since there’s been an update on this blog. Rest assured
it’s not for lack of adventure, on the contrary, we’ve had too much!</p>
<p>I’ve written quite a few blog posts, and they are long, very long and also quite
unfinished. Since they are unfinished and not ready to publish I’ve decided to
write something new.</p>
<p>Right now I’m sitting in the Kawau boating club, waiting for the New Year’s eve
celebrations to start. I’m looking out over the water at Taleisin and thinking
back to the year that’s has been.</p>
<p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdki/39399924801/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4681/39399924801_f6e293ff98_z.jpg" width="640" height="429" alt="Untitled" /></a><script async="" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/reflections/">Continue reading Reflections here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on December 31, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/email-issues2017-05-06T18:49:50+00:002017-05-06T18:49:50+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>It would appear that I messed up the email system with the last post. Hopefully
this issue will not re-occur in the future since, I’ve added an automated check
before updating the blog.</p>
<p>If you’re not technical then you can stop reading now and click
through at the bottom of the email to previous post or click
<a href="http://www.taleisin.com/river-adventures/">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/email-issues/">Continue reading Email Issues here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on May 06, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/river-adventures2017-05-06T04:56:17+00:002017-05-06T04:56:17+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>A lot has happened since I’ve last written anything. This doesn’t mean that it’s
been boring…</p>
<p>On the contrary, I’m not sure what to write about since there’s so many awesome
adventures that we’ve had. The only logical thing to do would be to write about
them in the order they happened. Given that watches and calendars get ignored
aboard, we’ll just say that the following happened some time in February.</p>
<p>We packed up the possessions we wanted to keep and stored them safely. We sold
everything worth selling and gave away anything that we couldn’t sell. The rest
was sent off to the land fill. With the commitment made to live aboard full time
we got stuck in the marina with some bad weather. We had a date to keep since
the CANANZ group were having a dinner in Warkwarth and they were all planning a
cruise up the Mahurangi river.</p>
<p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdki/32739029450/in/dateposted-public/" title="Annie Hill's fantail. We met Bryan and Linda (the current owners) this weekend we enjoyed a nice visit and beer with the aboard taleisin this afternoon."><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2883/32739029450_1bfefb79c9_c.jpg" width="534" height="800" alt="Annie Hill's fantail. We met Bryan and Linda (the current owners) this weekend we enjoyed a nice visit and beer with the aboard taleisin this afternoon." /></a><script async="" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/river-adventures/">Continue reading River Adventures here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on May 06, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/life-aboard-taleisin2017-02-15T21:16:07+00:002017-02-15T21:16:07+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>It’s been a while since our last water based adventure. The reason we’ve been on
land for some time is so that we can avoid being on land for some time.</p>
<p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdki/32547798620/in/dateposted-public/" title="Life aboard taleisin"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3725/32547798620_bb3a55fdc7_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Life aboard taleisin" /></a><script async="" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Let me explain. It’s now been a week and a half since Taleisin has been our only
home. We spent the last month sorting through all our stuff and selling
everything that is surplus to requirement. The rest was put into storage
awaiting our return some day in the future. We got the smallest storage unit
that we could get away with and really only stored things that we wanted to
store. This was challenging as it forced us to go through absolutely everything
we own to ensure we’re not paying to store junk.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/life-aboard-taleisin/">Continue reading Life Aboard Taleisin here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on February 15, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/what-is-it-with-power-boats2017-01-18T06:31:07+00:002017-01-18T06:31:07+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>I’ve been warned about this before, cruising with a schedule doesn’t work. This
is more true if you’re sailing engine less. While it’s true that we have an
outboard, we don’t carry that much petrol and when there’s a reasonable chop the
motor is not much use.</p>
<p>We broke a cardinal rule of cruising. Whilst we’re both taking a timeout from
work at the moment, I’ve been temporarily sucked back into work for some
important business deals to get closed out.</p>
<p>This unfortunate or fortunate, depending on your perspective, fact has lead to
us sailing back to the marina in less than favourable conditions. The schedule
dictated our sailing day. Weather plays an important role in sailing for us.
Since we’re still learning we don’t like to sail in conditions that is beyond
our ability and comfort levels.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/what-is-it-with-power-boats/">Continue reading What Is It With Power Boats? here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 18, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/never-miss-another-adventure2017-01-18T04:44:33+00:002017-01-18T04:44:33+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>While this is not an adventure of the nautical kind, I’ve just had an adventure
adding more dynamic content to a static content only blog. If this doesn’t make
sense to you don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>The important thing is that there’s now a way for you to receive our adventures
directly via email. While this is not my personal preference I’ve had a few
readers ask for this feature. Not wanting to disappoint I quickly hacked
something together to make it happen.</p>
<p>If you’re one of the readers wanting to receive emails with our adventures, type
your email address in the box below and subscribe to our mailing list.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/never-miss-another-adventure/">Continue reading Never Miss Another Adventure here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 18, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/small-adventures2017-01-12T05:37:26+00:002017-01-12T05:37:26+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>When you own an adventure machine like Taleisin, there’s no shortage of
adventures. After our little adventure with Taleisin in Bon Accord Harbor we
talked about the situation and what could have been done better. Sure, we didn’t
break anything and nobody got injured, but that doesn’t mean that we were
comfortably in control.</p>
<p>We discussed it with Lin, and she shed some light on what may have happened. Lin
suggested that we take her little 12.5’ boat out for a sail and go and learn
what the winds do when you get closer to the headlands.</p>
<p>While waiting for a bit more suitable weather as the wind was blowing quite a
bit and it was really gusty too! We just kicked back and relaxed. We did have a
day where we went walking on the other side of North Cove. It truly is a magical
island. It’s not in any way related to the timeline we’re used to. It really
feels like time has moved on and this little island is stuck in the past. We
absolutely love this place!</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/small-adventures/">Continue reading Small Adventures here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 12, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/rookie-mistake2017-01-08T05:33:23+00:002017-01-08T05:33:23+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>With the weather turning and the anchorage getting less comfortable we decided
to find a better spot. We spent the last few days carrying water back to
Taleisin. We did it the hard way, we carried 20 Litre water cans back and forth
for a total of 4 trips. We rowed back and forth and loaded it all on board
Taleisin. Yes we probably could have motored up to the dock and done it all very
quickly. That all sounded too easy so we did it the hard way. We got some good
exercise and I’m sure we’re better off because of it.</p>
<p>We got Taleisin ready to sail this morning. We checked and double checked
everything. We put a reef in the main as it’s blowing around 17 knots gusting
into the 20’s. We hoisted the main, but didn’t cleat the sheet off. Feeling
confident we started to winch the anchor in, it’s a tough job if you’re not used
to it. I feel like we’ll be better off physically in the long run doing things
this way, rather than the alternative. Time will tell if this gets easier or
more painful…</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/rookie-mistake/">Continue reading Rookie Mistake here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 08, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/off-grid2017-01-06T07:12:58+00:002017-01-06T07:12:58+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>We’re back floating! The last couple of days have been fairly laid back, sure we
did some work on Taleisin. Double checking the hull is clean, making sure
everything is removed behind the rudder. She’s looking pretty sweet! While I was
at it, I got Lin to supervise me replacing the Sikaflex on a few small deck
seams. Whilst it’s not rocket science, there was a few things I didn’t know.
It’s always silly in my eyes to not learn from those around you before you go
experimenting and trying to work out how to do something that’s already been
done.</p>
<p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdki/32135639085/" title="Off grid"><img src="https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/658/32135639085_49dd06f5bd_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Off grid" /></a><script async="" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/off-grid/">Continue reading Off Grid here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 06, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/back-on-the-grid2017-01-03T18:41:34+00:002017-01-03T18:41:34+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>Back on the tidal grid! Since Taleisin is home and she still fits on the tidal
grid at Lin’s we decided that it would be a good idea to give the bottom a clean
and inspect the seacock that’s been giving me grief as of late.</p>
<p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdki/31241590584/in/photostream/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/294/31241590584_5eeb16ef27_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="Untitled" /></a><script async="" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>We got the motor going and took Taleisin for a trip around the bay, mostly
because the wind was blowing and we weren’t comfortable taking the direct route.
We navigated our way through all the moored boats and slowly made our way to the
jetty.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/back-on-the-grid/">Continue reading Back on the Grid here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 03, 2017.</p>
https://taleisin.com/baking-bread2017-01-02T04:45:19+00:002017-01-02T04:45:19+00:00https://taleisin.com
<p>Today I baked a loaf of bread. Very exciting, I know. It’s been almost a week
since we consumed our last bread and I’ve been promising Annie that I’d bake a
loaf of bread. It’s something I used to do a few years ago so the concept is not
new to me. How ever I’ve never done it all by hand without electricity. It’s not
rocket science to bake bread. Yeast, a bit of sugar, water and flour with a bit
of salt will be the job done. Use a bit of elbow grease and it’s not long before
you have something that resembles dough.</p>
<p><a href="https://taleisin.com/baking-bread/">Continue reading Baking Bread here.</a> Originally published by at <a href="https://taleisin.com">Taleisin - Adventure Machine!</a> on January 02, 2017.</p>