Then There Were Two

Picton Marina, (Lat 41 17S, Lon 174 00E)

Thursday 6 February 2020

We awoke to a rather chilly morning, but felt somewhat refreshed after the last two eventful days; and even last night’s farewell dinner (and lemonades) at the local Irish Pub. 

Dew covered every exposed surface of the boat, but pretty soon the strength of the sun’s rays began to penetrate and it turned out to be a warm, blue-sky-day … a national holiday no less, Waitangi Day!

Mid-morning, Jim and Gee jumped on one of the ferries to start their journey back to Australia, via Wellington,  and after a heartfelt farewell, it was down to just John and me rattling around in Chimere. 

“Must be time for a coffee … or maybe a tea”, we’d say, between jobs aboard – cleaning, tidying, adjusting, checking and measuring.  There were quite a few less-important tasks left undone when we got away from Westernport nearly two weeks ago, and now was the time to tackle ‘em.

A great thrill around midday was a visit from my father’s old kiwi mate, George Hardgrave … or as I knew him growing up … Uncle George. 

Dad and George grew up together in Wellington, both doing engineering apprenticeships in the 1940s.   George is now 92 and travelled the world with dad in the 1950s – to Australia, England, Scotland, South Africa and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) – sharing a variety of wild experience and near-death episodes that would fill a book.  George was even there in 1950 when dad, by chance, met a particular woman named Alice, in a train carriage between Sydney and Brisbane.  A woman dad would eventually marry four years later after a lot of letter writing too and fro across the world.  Pretty good letters they were too, it must be said.

Anyway, George came down for a visit at the marina, accompanied by son Simon and his wife Jenny – also long time close friends.   

“I remember seeing a photo of Bill standing there at the wheel” said George, as we shared ham and salad rolls together in the cockpit.  “Your father and I were good mates” he continued.  Then, out of the blue George shared an experience from times past … “I remember Bill and I were replacing all the bearings on a big ship in Glasgow. We were down in the engine room and I looked through to the other compartment and it was on fire.  I said to Bill, let’s get out of here. And we did, as quick as we could … got up on the dock”

Simon and Jenny headed off with George in the afternoon, with Simon kindly offering to help with transport, with the promise of returning from their home at Blenheim tomorrow.  We have a few chandlery items to buy, and the nearest shop is down the road at the other marina, at Waikawa.

John  and I continued work aboard, transferring the small dinghy off the foredeck to the stern, fitting the wooden  ladder to the port side, untangled the jib halyard (left extremely twisted after the strong winds of two days ago) straighten the stainless steel bow pulpit (this was bent 10 years ago and has never been fixed, but John is a kiwi and can fix anything) and generally tidying everything in preparation for the next leg south down the east coast.

Things were pretty relaxed on board, to be sure, and now for a short time, it was down to just John and me.  And what do you know, it’s John’s 61^st birthday tomorrow … so much older than me, my 61^st birthday isn’t until August  

Smooth seas fair breeze and then there were two

Rob Latimer