April 30, 2007

Last Friday Yu-ching’s close friend from high school and college roommate, Eko Chiu, her husband David Lin and their sons Tom & Tony came for a four day visit.  The boys spent their time swimming in the pool and playing video games in the hotel recreation room.  Yu-ching, Eko and David spent their time catching up, discussing Taiwanese politics and going shopping.

On Sunday morning we set sail for Tiga Island, about 30 miles from KK, were planned to spend the day and evening and return today in time for their flight back to Taiwan.  Before we got 5 miles from KK we had several of our guests hanging over the rails so we turned around and anchored at one of the islands just offshore from KK.  Our sick guests got better as soon as we were settled and everyone went ashore to swim and snorkel.  That evening we barbequed chicken and corn on Alchemy’s grill.  Yu-ching did her magic with a marinate for the chicken and it turned out great.

We have posted pictures of their visit under Blog Photos 26.

April 23, 2007

On countless occasions people have asked me why I wanted to go sailing around the world.  I have never been able to come up with an answer that satisfied them or me for that matter.

I tried to explain that boats have been part of my life since childhood. My brother and I had a row boat that we used to explore Lake George in Hobart, IN when we were in grade school.  My family owned a series of boats that started off with a ski boat but quickly progressed to a series of cabin cruisers.  We kept them at a yacht club on Lake Michigan.  On weekends we would go cruising to other yacht clubs along the lake shore or just take them out for a ride.

When I built my first home it was on a lake in Fort Fairfield, ME.  Shortly after the home was completed I purchased a Hobe Cat that I sailed from the time the ice melted until the lake froze again.  I was teaching at the University of Maine Presque Isle and I talked my department chairman into allowing me to teach a summer course in sailing.

When I moved to Portland, OR, I purchased the first Alchemy, a 34 foot Hunter.  I lived aboard her and sailed almost everyday.  She made trips up the Columbia River to Lewiston, ID and out over the bar at Astoria to the Pacific Ocean.  Later on I moved her to Marina del Ray, CA and lived on her for three more years.

When my career took me overseas I sold her and was without a boat until I purchased the current Alchemy, a boat I had hoped would fulfill my life long love of the sea and a chance to see my dream of sailing around the world come true.

As I said above, I have never found an answer to the question of why someone would want to spend their life on a boat sailing around the world.  Until now that is.  The other day I began reading “The Cruise of the Snark” by Jack London.  It was first published in 1911 and is about a vessel he and two friends built to sail around the world.  In Chapter 1 he gives his answer to the question and it expresses my reasons remarkably well.

“Our friends cannot understand why we make this voyage.  They shudder, and moan, and raise their hands.  No amount of explanation can make them comprehend that we are moving along the line of least resistance; that it is easier for us to go down to the sea in a small ship than to remain on dry land, just as it is easier for them to remain on dry land than to go down to the sea on a small ship.  This state of mind comes of an undue prominence of the ego.  They cannot come out of themselves long enough to see that their line of least resistance is not necessarily everybody else’s line of least resistance.  They make of their bundle of desires, likes, and dislikes a yardstick wherewith to measure the desires, likes, and dislikes of all creatures.  We are all prone to think there is something wrong with the mental process of the man who disagrees with us.

But to return to the Snark, and why I for one, want to journey in her around the world.  The things I like constitute my set of values.  The thing I like most of all is personal achievement – not achievement for the world’s applause, but achievement for my own delight.  It is the old “I did it! I did it I did it!  With my own hands I did it!”  But personal achievement, with me, must be concrete.  I’d rather win a water-fight in the swimming pool, or remain astride a horse that is trying to get out from under me, than write the great American novel.  Each man to his liking.

The more difficult the feat, the greater the satisfaction at its accomplishment.  Thus it is with the man who leaps forward from the springboard, out over the swimming pool, and with a backwards half-revolution of the body, enters the water head first.  Once he left the springboard his environment became immediately savage, and savage the penalty it would have exacted had he failed and struck the water flat.  Of course, the man did not have to run the risk of the penalty.  He could have remained on the bank in a sweet and placid environment of summer air, sunshine, and stability.  Only he was not made that way.  In that swift mid-air moment he lived as he could never lived on the bank.

As for myself, I’d rather be that man than the fellow who sat on the bank and watched him.  That is why I am building the Snark.  I am so made.

The trip around the world means big moments of living,”

Recognizing this about me makes the decision we have made even more difficult.  Those of you who have been reading our Blog regularly will remember that my right knee gave out when we were in the Philippines.  In a follow-up visit with the surgeon who operated on me, I was told that it was just a matter of time before I had to have knee replacement surgery.  Despite following a rehabilitation program religiously, that time has come.  I will have to return to the states for the surgery and the rehab will take 6 months or more.  With this in mind, we have made the decision to list Alchemy with a broker.  We don’t want to leave her unattended for a year or more and thinking realistically, she is probably more boat that I could handle with an artificial knee.

While I regret the way this has all turned out, I do not regret making the decision to have her built.  We have had a wonderful year sailing her on the South China Sea.  I did not set on the shore wondering what it would be like.  We didn’t make it all the way to the states, but we certainly got a feel for what it would have been like had we completed the trip.

Our traveling days upon the sea are, in all likelihood, over but that does not mean that we are done exploring the world.  Nor does it mean that we will never own a yacht again.

April 4, 2007

This past weekend Yu-ching returned from Taiwan.  She was accompanied by her Aunt, Uncle, sister Yu-Fong and her friend Jane.  Yu-fong and Jane had spent some time with us in Hong Kong, but it was the first time her Aunt and Uncle were aboard Alchemy.  For all of them, it was their first visit to KK.

On our visits to Taiwan they have always shown us such a great time so we wanted to make this trip a memorable one for them.  To make is special, we reserved two suits in the Sutera Harbour Magellan so they could enjoy the opulence of the hotel.

They could only stay for the weekend so we didn’t have much time together.  We went out one morning for a harbor cruise, Yu-ching took them shopping and they spent the rest of the time enjoying the hotel and marina amenities.

As I said, the visit was short but I believe everyone had a good time.  We look forward their next visit and hope that they all can stay longer.

I have posted pictures of their visit under Blog Photos 25