Well the holidays are upon us. Time to reflect….(well no thank you for me – I will pass on reflection this year). Just came back from TiriTiri Matangi island where I spent the weekend hiking and being lazy in the sun. Got sunburned because I forgot to put the sunscreen on. My friend Nora has just finished her 3rd year working there studying and writing her theses on Whiteheads birds. Yeah – pretty funny stuff if you ask me but she is into it so well what can one do. I am only kidding – she might be reading this and I dont want to get in trouble. Ok but seriously, it was great. Away from civilization, air does not get any fresher and have met some great people too. We had few glasses of wine in the evening and I took some pictures again. I have not been taking pictures for quite a while. I have to catch up with that. I am going to spend Christmas days with my other friends, doing the whole presents and eating thing. I am going to stay in Auckland for most part of the holidays so I am going to work and that makes people happy because they can take time off. I think I am going to be one of the few people working in this crazy country over next couple of weeks. Basically everything slows down and nobody works.

I have been sailing couple of times since my last post. Two overnight races around Waiheke island. One race on Iolanthe II and one on Stratocaster. Last one while I was on Stratocaster the friends on Iolanthe II had some interesting moments. Jochen got hit in a face with a running backstay (support line for a mast) while they were jibing (changing the sail from one side to another while the wind is behind you) and then few hours before sunrise they hit the rock hidden under the water in the waiheke channel. Well the bottom part of the boat (keel) basically hit it and slid over it. Very lucky. Not much damage as far as they can say.

I have also completed 8 week BoatMaster course organized by the Coastguard and got my silly certificate. Thats right watch out silly boats, I can take you on now. That was quite a bit of memorization of all of the sea road rules, lights, buoys, sounds signals, fog signals, distress signals, navy alphabet, distress calls, reading weather maps, gps, basic radio, etc…

I am really excited about new year. I have some great plans and hope to have lots of fun.

16:52:03 – the time it took Stratocaster to complete the Coastal Classic 2007. Six of those hours were just freezing about 6 degrees Celsius or so. Add a windchill factor and yeah it is really cold. Sitting on a rail, water in your boots. I am thinking why the hell am I doing this? I have a very good understanding of what hyperthermia is from my weekly Coastguard training. I understand how critical the core body temperature is. I am recognizing all of the signs of beginning stages of mild hyperthermia. I am shivering underneath my wet offshore sailing suit. The wind is howling. Every ten minutes or so it feels like someone is throwing a bucket of water over me – just to remind me that it could be worse. Winds are reaching upwards of 20 – 25 knots (46.3km/h) and increasing steadily. Should we take our kite down? (spinnaker) Someone asks. We all know we should because this 35-foot boat has reached 15.5 knots and is averaging around 13 -14 knots last half an hour. This is a race – I see Iolanthe II far behind us.

The sun is coming down and we have maybe 10 minutes left of daylight. Another rouge wave goes over the deck. I have salt water in my mouth and fresh cold water in my boots. Keep looking at Iolanthe II – oh shit – their spinnaker is tangled, boat is healing over, boom and main are in the water. I see them letting go of all of the sails. They are trying to get the spinnaker down – snap – the spinnaker tears into two pieces violently flapping in the air. The boat is back on the even keel. Everything is good. Couple of us look at each other: “ oh well, that sucks” This all went down and lasted no more than 40 seconds. “Should we get our spinnaker down?” Same question lingers in the air again. Yes we should but instead we decide to wait another five minutes. We still have some daylight and we are doing great speed. We’ll have to get it down because we are not going to be able to hold it when the night comes. Just another 5 minutes.SNAP !!! a buckle holding the block which the spinnaker sheet is going through smacks into Coen’s back. Too much wind and the buckle holding the block snapped. Right into the Dutch guy who was just telling us how he hurt his back last week. He screams from the pain. The block ends up in the cockpit just about the same time when our boat is heeling way too much. Loud voices on the boat everyone is releasing all the sheets; the spinnaker is being brought down. Everyone is doing something, the boat is heeling, the clew of the sail is in the water. Coen is hurting. … Somehow we get the spinnaker down. Boat stands up and we put up smaller Genoa jib and keep sailing. Another minute has passed. We still have our daylight yet the spinnaker is down. We check on Coen. Are you all right? Yeah. I am ok. I sit down back on a rail. Last two minutes have warmed me up but I still have water in my boots. It is still about 6 – 8 degrees and the water is still gushing over the deck. I get up and go change. Put my 3rd and last dry under gear and t-shirt on. Not much longer only another 5 – 6 hours to go. Anyone wants a tea? I pass the cups with the tea around. We all pretend like this is what is going to warm us up. Coen is doing ok. Well he does not say much and keeps staring ahead. If anyone asks him how is he doing – he gets annoyed. I guess he is all right then.

So this is what two minutes of sailing feel like. Then there was another few hours sailing but nothing really happened. We all joked and pretended like we are not really cold. HA. Its feels like my life. Everything is humming along when shit happens. Then there is excitement and then everything is humming along again. Well, most of the time. There was a catamaran – Silver Raider that capsized 10 nautical miles south of Cape Brett and 4 guys spent hour and a half in water before another boat rescued them. They never found the boat. Another boat suffered a broken rudder and the mast snapped on a third, which needed to be towed.

I woke up around 11 am and went out to check out the town. Russell is tiny but cute – cutie little town up in Bay of Islands. Some guys were already drinking on another boats. Or maybe they just have not stopped since they got here at night, especially the one unaware of families walking on a pier about 10 meters from where he somehow managed to walk up from the cabin of his boat onto the bow. This is where he delightfully proceeded to relieve himself into the water. Everyone was having a great show watching him carry on with his plan. It was amazing to see his ability not to fall into the water. It was a beautiful morning, sunny and windy. His ability to balance (unfortunately for him and fortunately for everyone else) has made him oblivious to anything else. Unbeknown to wind direction he proceeded as planned with an obvious result. Maybe it was just my imagination that I saw a little boy standing on a pier, watching and learning one of his life lessons. Do not pee against the wind.

The evening was great. Live band and plenty of people sharing their stories. Lots of fun. Met this really great girl – but she was married. Oh – well (must keep going). I heard another story of a guy who fell asleep on a wrong boat. When he woke up he asked everyone what the hell were they all doing on his boat. Well, this is our boat – your boat is over there. Just funny stories all around. Good times – good times. Well – to be honest, I really do know why I am willing to freeze my ass off when sailing. It’s the sense of accomplishment when you run down the events of the day in your head. It’s the sense of freedom and understanding the massive power of wind, ability to conquer the distance same way they used to do it hundreds of years ago. It’s the camaraderie that builds while under pressure while pushing yourself further and further. It’s the challenge and ultimate understanding of your strength…and then there is beer of course.

The big Coastal Classic race is this weekend and I will be heading out on a boat Stratocaster. You can follow the race @ www.coastalclassic.co.nz . So far 226 boats have registered so it will be really messy at the start line. The weather is supposed to be fair and I only hope that we will have a good southerly wind so we do not have to sail against the wind. The race will start off Devonport Wharf and finish off Russell Wharf in the Bay of Islands. It is just a short one about 16 hours but if the wind will be bad we could go much longer than that. We will take some rest Saturday morning. Drink a little Saturday evening and then there will be a price ceremony on Sunday. We will be heading home sometimes Sunday afternoon so we get back by Monday evening or so. It is a holiday on Monday so I only had to take Friday off.
I have been really good last few days. Just had these few days when I was in a really good mood for no apparent reason at all. I still miss my friends from Cali but I have so much on the plate right now that I am happy when I get to bed at night. The coastguard 3 days a week + weekends out on a water if I am not sailing with Stratocaster. I am still learning a lot everyday in my new job so sometimes I take a nap on the ferry going home. I wanted to post something because I will be gone but I hope to take some great pictures an post them when I get back.

Awesome week and weekend. I wanted to write but had little too much fun to stop and reflect. I just made a schnitzel with some lovely potatoes and I am sipping gin and tonic with lemon because the limes cost $19 a kilo – $9.50 a pound more or less (oh no … he is going to talk about what he drinks and eat…this blog is taking a huge dive). Anyways so I have been really busy with getting to know my work which is great and what makes it even better that I take ferry to work everyday and then walk about 40 minutes each way to get to the office. New Zealand is such a funny country. Things are so different here everything seems to not work the way it should but somehow it always works out at the end. Its like that cartoon “A je to”. (for those who don’t understand the reference – this is a czecho-slovakian cartoon about these two “handy” man who always manage to do the job with fairly “interesting” result. To put it more in daily terms – its like their broadband. It works, it is slow and expensive but it works. It works – just not everyday. People in here dont like to buy new stuff. They fix everything and there is a saying here that everything can be fixed with number 8 wire. Its not a bad thing but really not everything CAN be fixed with a wire.
I am really enjoying my ferry rides. I have some time to wake up while listening to my podcasts. On Thursday the captain said – if you look to your port side (I mean how great is it that he uses boating term when he talks to public? – Port is left by the way) you will see about 6 dolphins swimming by the boat. So everyone looks…its just too cute not to. There are bunch of great creatures and it was so much fun. It looked as if they were showing off. I think I heard them laughing too. Well I didn’t obviously (too much engine noise?) but it looked like if they could laugh they would.
Then on Friday the ferry was bit fuller than usual – so the Captain asks the passengers in the back to go into his cabin because the boat had a hard time getting on a plane (PLANING – A boat is said to be planning when it is essentially moving over the top of the water rather than through the water.) So about 25 of us went up to the cabin until the ferry hit the plane. I just cannot imagine something like that in the USA. Its so human here. Nobody really worries about anything too much. When ferry just leaves the dock and the captain sees someone who is running late he reverses and docks again so that person can jump on the boat (and I mean literally jump) I remember Julia telling me how buses on Waiheke island do not really follow their route when there are only few people on the bus. The driver simply takes them to their house. Just like a really big cheap cab. Try to ask the cab driver to drop you off in of front of your bus in New York City!

So there I had couple of great mornings. Then on Saturday there was another one of the sailing Gold Club race. So I have been going out with couple of boats altering between them. There are about 25 boats in the race and of course Stratocaster (the boat I was on this weekend) has to have a near collision with Iolanthe II (the boat I went to Vanuatu with). So this is nearly at the end of a 14 hour saling when we come close and it gets little hairy. Both crews are swearing at each other and I am sitting back thinking – oh shit why do two boat that I know the crews from have to nearly collide. Why it could not be some other boat. Life is just amazing. One could not make this up. So next week I am going to an Iolanthe II party and will have to explain what happened to everyone. It was not really a big deal – I think Iolanthe II got little scared and over reacted. We have placed ourselves into the perfect position between two boats and started to take advantage of that. We were ahead of them until we hit an area with no wind. We were at the place where it would usually take us about an half an hour to get to finish line but since there was no wind and the current was heading in opposite direction it took everyone 2.5 hours. Iolanthe II closed on us and overtook us but then we took lead back and were able to out maneuver them in the end. It was pretty great. It was exciting but boring. We were fighting with Iolanthe II to the end but it was all happening in a slow motion. Great day never the less.

I got call from my Coast Guard unit today and they ask me if I would like to get the Boat Master Certification. Duhh… so awesome. I am really happy that I am single and can do all of this stuff now. I am happy I can do what ever I want and not worry about anything else for now. I will be really busy. 3 days a week leave my house at 6:45am and come home about 10pm. Then racing on weekends. Just perfect. Hey uncle Bill… I am glad that magical Meg term has stuck around. Hope you are doing great too. Well as much as you can being that the winter is coming.

Ok first of – new job in the bag. (insert pat on the back here) I will be starting on Tuesday and will work in the city so I will most probably take ferry every morning. Thats should be great. 45 minutes each way but no driving and no traffic. It will give me plenty of time to read and listen to my podcasts. Hooray. I have had crazy week I think I had about 6 interviews in one week and there was a day – I think it was Tuesday when I had 4 in one day. They all went well and because I felt confident I will get at least one offer (I had actually 2 offers and scheduled second interview for a third one) I just said no to a contract I was looking at with one of them. The one I choose is a business-technology solution oriented company with offices in New Zealand, U.K., and Australia. Lot of focus is on setting up and maintaining different database systems as well as designed custom applications for their (our) customers. There are also other technology solutions they are working with customers. The company is expanding and restructuring so it seems there are going to be lot of opportunities to move ahead. Oh by the way – I have been going to so many of these interviews that I have learned to tie my tie really fast and pretty much with my eyes closed. Some of these interviews (especially the second and third ones) were just little too much I think. I had to be assets on so many levels – skills, personality, reliability, etc. These were either done on company’s intranet or they sent me to a employee profiler to fill out an hour and half scribbles and comprehensions tests. I am sorry but I think its all just a bunch of bullshit. Companies were checking all my references anyway, so these home made psychologist are creating some sort of voodoo understanding of personalities. I am sure it works just as well as voodoo itself. Never the less it was experience and I know what to expect from now on in New Zealand. I guess I did good on those tests because as I said they called me back for second and third interviews.

So I got the job on Friday and in the evening I went to Iolanthe II where 4 of us from the ocean race met and got the boat ready for sailing next day. Saturday morning at 8 we were heading out to first Gold Cup series of races this year. These are all day affairs and this one took 13 hours of sailing to complete. It would take much less of a time but because it was beautiful sunny but with hardly any wind we were progressing at rather sluggish rate. Oh well such a difficult life spending a day on water drinking beer and having fun. The next big race is on the 6th of October. You know I am really loving my life right now. I feel like I have dropped huge weight off of my shoulders and just enjoying meeting new people. I went to this Czecho – Slovakian gathering today but it was quite boring and mostly family oriented. We watched some silent Czech movie with Boleslav Polivka and then I left. I went out with one of my friends. She is cute and funny and talks quite a lot which I find entertaining and to be perfectly honest I am rather used to it. I am looking forward to my now regular Coast Guard classes on every Tuesday evening.

Oh – by the way Monika…(a friend of mine who is getting married back in SF Bay) – good luck with all that marriage stuff. I will not give you any advice (I am pretty sure you got plenty of those from your “gang” out there) since the only thing I have learned is that it takes two to make things work. Not much you can do about that. Just know I miss you all and hope you are both happy.

I know this is not funny – but you know what…it really is

and this one too…