Tomarrow Is Two Days After Yesterday

Sometimes it's more fun to start in the middle of a story rather than what might appear to be the beginning! Fourteen days out of San Diego I realized that sailing, " Down-Hill ", isn't all it's cliched about! I had heard amazing stories about , " Trans-Pac " racers, boats with crews headed to Hawaii and then, to points unknown. People headed onwards and frowards to see the imaginings of worlds only accessible to vessels with hearts- to find treasures and places only shallow draft boats could access! I had only delivered boats whose dreams were unrealized. These boats needed to be returned to ports on the mainland coast of the Pacific Ocean. I was a paid sailor who loved sailing so gained experience. And for that I have no regrets. I was fortunate to have a command of the English language. Naught to sound like an arrogant POME but an American from the " Colonies " ! So Be It! I barely was allowed to sail from Shelter Island, San Diego, on a Cullen Archer,32ft, Faro-cement, slutter to Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, if Judy had said to me, " You got my husband Mark drunk on the night of our sail"," How dare you, stand on this pier, drinking three Budweiser's! And the clock ticks three o'clock in the morning? Little did I know that I had 2,800 miles of water to flow under Sea Rover's hull. Damn it! It was always harder to sail from Hawaii to the mainland than it is to sail from the mainland to Hawaii!!!.. In all my travels I have never experienced a puke fest that I witnessed with my friend. I always thought I could coach anyone out of motion sickness. I am wrong and yet I am right! I met a human being that loved her husband to a degree that defies understanding.A wan-a-be sailor meets a true sailor! Judy met Mark in a place called " Cabo San Lucas "! Mark had a sailboat and not only is a marine surveyor but is a master sailor and shipwright! Judy fell hard for Mark and married him hoping that she could follow his dream. I had the pleasure of meeting Judy's Dad and Mark's mother and father and consider myself a friend of these two people and family.. Judy puked from California to Maui, Hawaii. Nineteen days and six-teen hours. She lost weight and her palor was death warmed over! She married a sailor and she is a sailor! No one that I have ever sailed with has fought so hard to stay in something so diametrically opposed to her very nature and yet has fought so hard to find a place that fits with the one she loves that is contrary to her nature! I love you Judy because I saw you sail. I sail into Coff's Harbor Aus, and find out that you had berthed a son, Eric, in Australia! It was written on a yacht club board! I was on my way to Perth with my New Zealand wife. Having no children and being newly married ( two years ) we were driving from Cairns, Queensland to Perth! Oh what a long drive that was! The fog in San Diego at times creates a mood. Mark and I drank but three beers, contemplating a passage. Regardless of what all had done before, racing, sailing, motoring, etc, so what? Mark is sailing with his wife and child and a crew member and a cat!!! And what? We are in the sucking S.D. fog on the only fisherman's pier drinking the devils own drug- alcohol!!!! Forsooth! I'm being facetious. So after fourteen days of Judy puking I was worried. Not just for Judy and the weight she was losing but what was happening in the cockpit with Mark and I!! "Sea Rover " is a double ender with a Norwegian keel! It took all of our strength to hold Rover on course. We hooked up a double cockpit return hook center to drive with sails set properly low maintenance steerage! Mark and I blew out a Tiller-Master because the helm on Sea Rover required constant attention and a body that could drive the boat. I learned that when sailing to Hawaii you may cross some major shipping lanes. What I wasn't aware of was that that in order to survive as a small boat on a vast ocean , regardless of your radar deflector, is you must pay attention because they ( cargo cruisers, Matson Container Ships ) are not! Mark and I became tired when standing watch after watch. We placed a ten minute timer on our chest so we could visualize the horizon so that as we two stood watch after watch, three on, three off, and fatigue came upon us, day after day, hour after hour! Aw fuck, Ain't sniveling! You got a visual on the horizon! If a cargo ship is smoking at 34 knots, you have six minutes. Either get out of his way or don't! Nobody is at the wheel ( on their boat ). Might is right! They will run you down as if you didn't even exist! So you set your egg timer and it wakes you up even though you have slept in the cock-pit for four daze and you drop your pick off the Buddha on Maui and say, " Let's do it again real soon! Ha! And I say O.K. Can you imagine solo? No! Love you two RB ARH-H-H!!!!!

Ship High In Transit- sailing's a gas

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common..




It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed alot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.



Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!





Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening



After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.





Thus evolved the term " S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

I had always thought it was a golf term!

I thought about Something~

I love my only rock carving. It's called a Nuso"nuso. It is from the Solomon Islands! I almost got to jump ship in Honiara, " Guadalcanal "! I simply ran out of money. But I did have a ticket to fly from Cairns, Australia back to my point of origin. I loved being fought over to see who got to keep me! You see? There is an island called " Maita" in the Solomons. A couple of dreamers put their money together and built a great "Junk", on the island of Maita. This is an island that is rugged, in fact up until about 20 years before the building of this boat, built out of natural timber, indigenous to this particular island! ( If they allowed your presence to be a part of what they are about)! They were cannibals! Thats not what you think. But it is something to think about! You know there is a story here? I was and am still surprised they were allowed to build and sail their vessel to Townsville, Aus! They invited me to sail their new junk with la teen sails from Honiara to Cairns and were going to pay me. I needed the money and would have loved to sail that newly built boat to Cairns. I will cut to the chase. My skipper ordered me to continue to be his friend and to help him care for his family and boat til we got to where we were headed. A year later I ran into the owners of the junk. It sailed well. Their passage from " The Solomons" was great. The tourists loved seeing what was built without understanding what it was all about! To this day I know I would not have met my wife and would not have been blessed by the two children (adults) I have known and been known by if I had made one small (large) decision. To sail on Maita or to stay with Dave and Leslie on Guinevere. One small choice and destiny or fate forks the path or road and so we go, so it seems children. Remember that a door you open only leads to other doors that you decide to open or close. I say to you, NOW

whitsundays or Monday will be alright!

The bottom end of " The Great Barrier Reef " is the Whitsundays" If my spelling is wrong it only fits into the story! In my life at sea I have never been blessed by no wind. And yet, just North of Sydney, Australia, I was allowed to draw on a chart our headway which was nowhere! The vessel's name is "Wind-I-Go". The owner and master of the vessel's name is John Main. We had two sheila's aboard because they wanted to go home to N. Zed. Only one of them was a blond but her sister ( being a brunette ) was a blond also! If you ketch my drift? At this time, us having sailed from Yorkey's knob ( Just barely kidding )Port Douglas is for real! WE sailed to the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef, to corkscrew in a 24 hour period making " O " headway so that our chart looked like " The Mask Of Zorro ", revisited. I am telling you that we backed ourselves up losing headway in a period of time that the z'sssss on our chart were erased by us, ( Me and John ) It was embarrising!!! So we were four days outbound to New Zealand when my wife was forced to teach the blonds how to use the head! They hadn't pooped or pissed for four daze! Or eaten! They never did learn galley duties. They had never sailed before and I am sure, since! When we cleared customs on boxing day, I met their mother and father. He, at the pub,took me aside and asked me how I had managed to put up with them? I liked him immediately! We crossed the Tasman with no weather. You could have water skiied on glass conditions. The blonds wanted to know what was taking so long? Little did they realize that under normal weather formats they would be below and begging for mercy from weather conditions that prevail most days of the year.The weather hit us at the Northern tip of N.Z. Three Kings. I've got to share this story with you. We were ghosting through the Tasman when a piece of white bread drifted by with one perfect bite out of it! It was still floating on the glass ( the infamous- Tasman Sea ). We got on " the horn " to find out if any boat was near us? No boat was. Where did that floating piece of white bread come from? do de do do!!! Truth is stranger than fiction! When we arrived at the " Bay Of Islands" We had had a following sea of 15'+ our anemometer read 68 knot winds, boats had been driven ashore past Russel. We had to start our engine to come about to drop our sails! John and I couldn't bring windigo into irons without the motor. We tried twice just to see if we could. But could not and we are good. You should have heard the two blond sheilas moan! They were so happy to get off that fricken sailboat. Next time they will fly! Maybe I will fly too! After all my name is Robbin! Ha!

Cairns Customs

The only time I've ever been aboard a boat that couldn't leave until customs had thoroughly gone through it was in (not California)(not Mexico)(stop trying to guess)Cairns, Australia. I know it's hard to believe, I couldn't believe it either! It was 100 degrees and the humidity was also 100% but they insisted and they had their reasons or so they had been informed! Usually customs shakes down your vessel when you enter a country but never (or rarely) when you are leaving! They held the owner/skipper John Main and my wife DOWNTOWN while they went through the boat " Windigo", a Roberts "45" foot ketch, looking ( they took the vacuum cleaner apart) for God knows what! Yea, we're going to smuggle Morioris into N.Z. to piss off the Maoris. These customs officers were serious. The reason I can say this is I am the only person aboard. They were in full dress! All three of them were soaked by their own perspiration looking for anything to indict John for wrongdoing! You see, the Australian government had made a deal with Sargent Major John Main and the men underneath his authority in Viet Nam. All were given an income if they would not go to the media and reveal any information regarding an " Incident" that occur ed that could embarrass not only Australia but some people in positions of power. Tick, tock, went the clock. I was in Port Douglas when John got his last check! I knew what happened in " The Nam"! I couldn't believe they pulled a King's X after all those years of silence! Since none of us do drugs, it took me a minute to figure out why the shakedown! I have no problem ever with customs boarding a vessel I'm on. Coast Guard cool too! Two thing's came into play in this affair. John had a friendship with a married woman whose husband was a chandler. He thought John was topping his wife and was going to run out on his bill! So he set John up and failed. He got paid in full but that is another story. I had so much fun telling my wife and John how long I kept the custom officers busy, watching their shirts turn a deeper shade of blue as the water released from sweat glands they had forgotten they possessed! I have such a warped sense of humor, I closed all breathers, hatches and basically everything I could because they were following a false lead. They ended up apologizing for any inconvenience they may have caused us. I asked , " So my wife and skipper are on there way?" They said, " Yes"! They gave us permission to leave as long as we stopped nowhere. Yea, right! We pulled up to our pre-arranged loading dock, laughing, taking on our green supplies that were refrigerated to the point of departure. The reason we were laughing is we could have been taking on anything but weren't! Only fresh vegetables for our ride to New Zealand! Ain't life grand?

Samurai, PNG---Cairns Aus......

Forget the Phillipines! We ran out of money! We headed to Australia to make money to haul "Guinevere" out of the water and go through her, heal Her from the many battles she had fought and won not only functioning as our house or exo-skeleton but as an extension of who and what we were about: who drove Her into strange harbors and filled our imaginations with truths that were the truth and not subject to whims created on "Wall Street" by think tank anal-ists! Ha! I saw You because You wern't there! The sail from Samurai was uneventful until we found the outside lead into Grafton Passage! That will be a story you need to remind me of for a future telling. For now this story is about after the green flag. When customs in Cairns took away a canned, sealed,unoperned tin of ham, manufactured in Aus, but bought in Papua, I knew we were in for some fun. It started raining so hard, if you put your hand to cover your eyes like a baseball cap you still couldn't see! We finally cleared customs without making any enemies but I had no visa so they gave me one for $ 35 for 24 hours. Dave, my skipper, paid and Royal Gage and I ran through rain that I had only experienced on Kauai, Hawaii before! Places where you measure rain in feet! We made it to the Cairns Yacht Club, laughing because this is the first, first world country we had been in for awhile and a rum and coke was not far away and the view inside "The Club" was a site to behold! We were so happy to see all these wonderful people having a great time we never realized we were being laughed at until later. At least we hadn't stepped upon the Cairns Yacht Club logo, on the floor! If we had done that we would have been forced to shout a round for the entire house! However, we did seat ourselves at the bar (never wondering why with a full house there would be three open chairs next to the service area) and were completely neglected. We finally with a few ( tongue in check) references found that we were siting in the gereiatrics section! Susan( the bartender) became my friend and many friendships spun off of Royal's and my unawareness of Yachtie behaviors. My future wife witnessed this event having no idea that we would fall in love and someday be married and have two children that are now adults! ( According to them) Guinevere got fixed! Royal and I got our rum and cokes! Customs got their's. We worked hard in Cairns and we all made it to New Zealand but that can be another story. It will be about " The Tasman" and " The Bay Of Islands"!

Truth, Embelishment Or an OutRight Lie?

All the boats with sails I have sailed kept a log. All the sailboats I have sailed on I have written or recorded my watch; as all other crew members recorded their watch. Signed/ witnessed by the " Skipper", the hourly occurrences of day by day moments of import, events that are important when your life is at sea. Some of the ships I've sailed on keep a log but it is not my business to know what is in those logs because of my position or rank on that particular vessel. Fishing boats I have sailed on keep a log and some of their logs I am party to because of my position on that vessel and some I am not. Historically, sailing logs are more accurate than even the records of the greatest historians. All good sailors are story-tellers because they have a wealth of experiences to draw upon and have had all the time in the world to shape change ( in the telling and re-telling ) of special " Happenings "! A story is good because not only his self but his shipmates experienced it also! Witnesses!! Like how many sailors have seen " St Elmo's Fire "? Mermaids? The " Green Spot " on the oceans horizon line as the sun sinks off the face of the earth? Truth or embellishment never matters when a sailor is telling tales! Read " The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner ", and tell me it couldn't have happened! Read " Moby Dick ", I know it's based on truth! But an outright lie has nothing to do with what is mentioned above. Why would a sailor lie? To impress a land lubber? I think not! A true sailor has such a vast wealth of experiences to draw upon that I am absolutely certain that if anything he must play down the wonders, (whores) horrors and majesties of what he has witnessed and been subjected to so that maybe just a few will believe that while he embellished his story it is based on truth and it was pleasant to the mind in the hearing of it! But I will tell you the truth now! If a sailor ever tells the black and white of it not only will it sound like a lie but the understanding of it will miss the mark! It will sound so unbelievable to anyone who isn't comfortable away from land that the romance and illusion you have allowed to exist in your Hollywood imagination will be forever excised from your thoughts! Remember what the movie, "Jaws " did to your relationship with sharks and the ocean? So I say now to all of you that this may concern. If anyone is within hearing distance of a story that comes out of my mouth, pay attention! I don't waste my time or yours with a lie! However, I will embellish the truth but only with anything I can use to color in the harsh realities of an uncrossed "T" or an undotted "Aye" matie! I only lie to ' Customs Officers ", I try not to! But sometimes you gotta! Tell um I said so!