quick update from the last 8 months (though perhaps i am deluding myself in the belief that anyone reads this anymore?):
january: got job on soren larsen as hoped for.
january - april: worked for 3 months as deckhand during nz sailing season and refit.
met carl (more on him later! :)
april: got kicked off soren larsen day before the ship left for easter island with the words "thanks for all your hard work", though had been promised a spot on the crew for the trip because of all that "hard work" i had been doing... had just enough money for a one-way ticket to vancouver, and no work visa for nz, so flew home.
may - august: been home in vancouver working as a bike courier downtown. until last week when had a bad fall from bike and buggered my elbow and knee pretty badly...
am leaving in 2.5 weeks to return to sailing in nz with carl (mentioned 3 paragraphs above...). yay!
so about carl: assistant engineer on soren larsen, met when i joined the ship and became an item right away... by the end of my time on board we were both sure it was meant to be. carl stayed on soren larsen so i haven't seen him since they left (sadness), but we will be together soon!
so the plan now is to sail together on his family's boat ATAHUA, around the coast of nz from september until december. in december we fly back to vancouver to spend 3 weeks before xmas with my family (holiday with the rellies! yay!), before flying to denmark for xmas/new years with his family. back to vancouver january 25th and getting married (yes, married!!!) on january 31st . back to nz on february 2nd.
the plan at this point does not extend beyond our return as a married couple to nz in february. we do plan on sailing, but in what capacity we do not yet know. with our combined sailing experience and his engineering degree we should have no problem picking up paid work on yachts (big privately-owned luxury yachts), which pay well and would give us the opportunity to continue sailing the south pacific and get paid for it!
another option (and my preferred one) is to buy a boat together, maybe 60-70 feet, refit the boat for sailing charters and give the soren larsen some competition. again, with our combined experience i think we could be very successful at this. we could run sailing charters around the nz coast and into the south pacific.
whatever we do it will be on the water. very exciting!
