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Published: April 7th 2012
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Bonjour! Remember me? I haven’t done a blog entry in 8 or 9 months. I know, I’d make a terrible freelance journalist.
Last you heard I was celebrating Christmas in July, and the snow was deep on the top of Mt. Wellington. Since then, life has been a bit of a blur - lots of work and a couple of trips, but some pretty good times too! I'd best share some with you.
I hit the road with a few friends to return to our sapphire panning spot in the spring (September?). The river was high, and subsequently there was a lot more bounty to pan for. I scored a hefty haul of fair sized sapphires, but none of which I can turn into anything worthwhile. That was a great trip though, despite some torrential rain.
Nina and I went to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales for our good buddies' wedding in November. The Hunter Valley is home to some pretty well known Aussie vineyards, and we rented a house in a small town. There were 10 or so of us in the house, and it was a ridiculous weekend of over-indulgence. On our first night
we had a superb dance competition in the living room that lasted into the wee morning hours. The wedding took place the next day at a gorgeous vineyard called Margan, and the ceremony was beautiful.
I had been looking forward to fly fishing in Tassie ever since I had first arrived, and the spring and early summer finally gave me the chance to explore some of the nearby world-class lakes and rivers. So far I've fished the Tyenna River, Brady's Lake, Little Pine Lagoon (my fav so far) and a couple of other small lakes and lagoons. I've so far been unsuccessful fishing - whether it is because I was using the wrong fly or fishing in the wrong spots, I don't know. But it was great to get out and explore Tasmania by myself. I'd throw all my stuff in my car and head off at the crack of dawn without a plan. On the drive I'd decide where I'd go, and I spent many hours bushwhacking (and watching out for snakes) in search of my own little slice of fly-fishing heaven.
I had an amazing experience at Little Pine one day. I arrived at the lake
to see many fish moving along the surface of the water, feeding on mayflies. I got overly excited and quickly rushed to the lake shore to get my fly in the water as soon as possible. But as I bounded towards the lake, I nearly stepped on a platypus that was just sitting on the grass near the water's edge. He freaked out and bolted for safety, but an hour later he swam up to me as I was waist deep in the lake, and he hung out with me while I fished. What a bizarre animal! Did you know that they are venomous (like everything else in Australia)? When the Europeans first arrived in Australia, they drew sketches of these animals and brought the pictures back to England to show people. Nobody there believed these crew members, so the crown sent naturalists on the next expedition. These men killed a platypus and brought it back to England, but nobody believed them still. They thought it was a joke, that the dead creature was a fabrication made in Hong Kong out of the parts of other animals... I love it! But I still haven't caught a damn fish yet!
Anywho, what else can I say? Sailing has been a blast, and easily remains the best thing I have experienced here in Tassie. In November we entered the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's Maria Island Race. It was a 290 nautical mile, open ocean journey that saw us leaving Hobart at 7:00pm on a Friday and returning at 9:00am on a Sunday. Even though we botched the start (crossed the line too early and didn't realize for 5 or so minutes) it was an amazing adventure. The first night was beautiful - we were on two person shifts, so my buddy Dan and I got to helm
Wildfire at night by ourselves. It is an eery endeavor - you have to hold a course very accurately on long distance races or you lose a lot of time. And the only way to do this at night is to stick to a compass heading as best as possible. But steering by compass is very tricky, so you have to pick a star in the sky that touches a part of the boat and hold your course steady that way.
That night the phosphorescence in the water was stronger than I've
ever seen, and we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins for about 5 minutes. Because of the water's glow, you could see them so clearly under water, and we could also hear them clicking and squealing as their sound waves reverberated in the hull of the boat. That was a once in a lifetime experience. However, a few hours later I was leaning over the side of the boat, sick as a dog and making a mess of
Wildfire's freeboard. I shook the seasickness about 24 hours later and I stayed on deck for the last 7 hours of the race to make up for my earlier uselessness.
Here is a link that mentions us:
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=90896&refre=y&ntid=0&rid=1
We entered another long-distance, open ocean race earlier this year. This one went around Bruny Island, was 89 nautical miles, and took just over 24 hours. We went around Bruny clockwise, and had amazing views of the south end of the island in the late afternoon and evening on the first day. The shoreline there is very rugged (as it is around the Tasman Peninsula and Maria Island), and the waves were great fun. I nearly tossed my cookies again
when the sea became a bit confused (from waves coming from multiple directions), but I managed to hold it together. My buddy Alexey, on the other hand, did not fare so well, and he decided to re-decorate the deck around the cockpit. But he did a great job on his first proper race, and the two of us were on shift together throughout the trip, which was very, very fun.
Alexey and I were alone on deck at 2:00am (everyone else was sleeping below) when our nice steady wind died out in the channel between Bruny and mainland Tassie. We drifted aimlessly for the next 6 hours, making way at a blistering half a knot (if we were lucky). But we finally caught some wind at around 8:00am and made it quickly back to Hobart.
So now it's April, and I've been busy teaching, tying flies, playing guitar, and brewing Celiac-friendly gluten free beer!
And my book is done, and I have completed a handful of edits. It is called
The Chechen, and it is about terrorism in - you guessed it! - Chechnya. Why the hell did I choose that subject? Well, one day I was
readying BBC News Online and I came across an article about how the Russian Federal Security Service killed al-Qaeda's representative in the Caucasus. Something popped inside my noggin, and I ran to my computer and started writing out a plan and the first few pages. A few days later Bin Laden was killed, and that added another twist to my evolving storyline.
The book clocked in at 95,000 words, and I am currently getting it peer-reviewed by a couple of fantastic individuals. If you are interested in helping me out, let me know and I'll send you my manuscript if you let me know what you think. But be honest, and criticize the hell out of it. I am sure that I will need a few more edits before it is good enough to send out to literary agents. Or maybe it an awful idea and I should erase it from my computer... You decide!
Enjoy the pictures I've added to this blog entry. Beware however - you need to scroll down a fair way to see most of them.
Toodles poodles!
F
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Happy to hear from mr blogger again!
Great photos and a good catch-up xxoo