Merry Christmas

[seafox]

Merry Christmas to everybody from Seafox.
With less than four weeks to go now what are you all doing for the holiday? Where are you sailing to?
We wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday and look forward to your continuing opinions, stories and advice.
Oh, and don't drink too much....

[Alan Wheeler]

Now that is a truely worrying photo ;-) :-) Darryl, How did you score someone as cute looking as Paula?? :-)

Nah actually that is a really good photo.

Best wishes to everyone for Christmas from me as well and Darryl,
hope we do a catch up and a raft up sometime in the break. We will be out there somewhere from boxing day onward, so we should be able to run into each other. Ummm, not literaly of course

[seafox]

We will have some beers in the chiller with your name on them. Look forward to it.
cheers

[tdw]

Originally Posted by seafox

We will have some beers in the chiller with your name on them. Look forward to it.
cheers

As a Western Islander who is hoping to visit the North and South Islands next year please enlighten me. Where was the pic taken ? That has got to be one of the most beautiful looking anchorages I've ever seen. Damn, the colour of that water is gorgeous and the backdrop, wow.

Me and madam are taking the Raven up to Port Stephens (NSW) post Boxing Day. If it's too crowded then we'll probably mooch around the coast for a few weeks, either drift south or head out to Lord Howe and back. Lord Howe itself will probably not have any vacant moorings but I'm itching to spend a night or two at Middleton Reef even if it will be a tad uncomfortable. Tasmania also an option but maybe too much rushing around required. As you can see we are totally organised and allowing no vacillation.

I'm not a Christmassy type I'm afraid. All hype and ******** and I'm not much for religion or fireworks. If I have to sit through another Sydney NewYearsEve ooh aah whiz bang spectacular I'll scream. Made worse by the fact that every other fecker is on holidays and wants to go to the same secluded anchorage as me and me lady friend. I crave solitude and I guess the only place I'll find it post Christmas is out at sea unless the weather is complete crap and then hopefully everyone else will stay at home.

Memo to self - forget your happy pills this morning ?

I'm not really as grouchy an old bugger as the above would indicate, honestly I'm not.

Cheers

Andrew

[seafox]

Hi Andrew,
really just wanted an excuse to post the picture. What day is Christmas again?
That photo was taken at Tawa Bay off Tory Channel in the Marlborough Sounds. It used to remind me of Canada with all the pines in the distance...until some idiot went and cut them down. You can see the start of the logging in the picture.
There are lots of lovely bays in the Sounds with the green water (a reflection off the native ferns and punga trees that grow right down to the waters edge). The water is deep and you often find over 20 metres of depth within a few metres of the shore. You can anchor up under native bush and listen to Morepork owls during the night. In the early morning in some bays you here the bird chorus. It is just like music, they seem to start off slowly and more join in and they harmonise with each other. Lasts for about half an hour and well worth waking for. The first time I heard it I thought it was a cd being played.
The sounds are uncrowded and quite often you are the only boat in a beautiful bay. There are hundreds of nice bays in the Sounds and you can spend years exploring them.

[tdw]

Cheers and thanks. Couple of questions.
1. I found a Tawa Bay off Endeavour Inlet, is that it ? The map is indistinct and i might be misreadin Tawa (possibly Tawi)
2. Seafox - She a Lotus ? 10.6 ? If not wot ? Looks like a lovely boat and I've admired the Lotus from a distance for some time. You don't see many over here.
Salute
Andrew

[SkiprJohn]

Merry Christmas to you too. Saw that photo on your website. Great. What a figure!! Woo woo.
Regards, JohnL

[Alan Wheeler]

Darryl, shut up dude. You'll have every man and his dog across to the bays if you aren;t careful.;-)

Yeah tdw, you got the right bay. It is just one of thousands that look like this. It is a special place. Go take a look at the gallery under my name as well. You will see a few more shots of this area we call teh Marlborough sounds. I am on the Pelorus Sound side.

[seafox]

Hi tdw, yes a lotus 10.6 We have just put a new motor in her and had the rigging done. The remaining cabin soles are on my garage floor at the moment about to get 2 potted. Got the low down on how to do it from Alan and they have come up like pianos. There are two Tawa bays in the Sounds. The other one is off Endeavour inlet. It is a lot prettier and is surrounded by ferns and ponga trees.

They got to get here first Wheels. Our barb wire protection is the regular 50knot storms that pass!!

Thanks JohnL, it's amazing what a few beers and some trick photography can do

[Alan Wheeler]

They got to get here first Wheels. Our barb wire protection is the regular 50knot storms that pass!!

Yeah that maybe, but remember, the winds on their backs. If they do get blown here, they may never leave ;-) :-)

[tdw]

Originally Posted by Alan Wheeler

Darryl, shut up dude. You'll have every man and his dog across to the bays if you aren;t careful.;-)

Yeah tdw, you got the right bay. It is just one of thousands that look like this. It is a special place. Go take a look at the gallery under my name as well. You will see a few more shots of this area we call teh Marlborough sounds. I am on the Pelorus Sound side.

It's the glory of NZ and Tasmania. Everyone is so convinced that the only place to sail is in the tropics so they remain relatively unscathed. Me, I can live without 40 degree heat. I'll check out those pics. Thanks

Andrew

ps

[seafox]

You can say that again tdw

[seafox]

Wheels, once they get those winds behind them, they will just sail on by to Australia. They won't know when to turn hard to port.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by seafox

You can say that again tdw

Apparently I already have !! No idea how that happened. Ah me, such is life.

Ref the Lotus - Lovely boat but for whatever reason you just don't see them in Oz. While we were looking to buy ,Wendy and I decided to go for a charter in the Bay of Islands where quite a few of the charter boats were Lotus's (Loti ?). In the end we didn't go cos we found Raven but I remain a fan of Allan Wright's designs. One question as i've never seen a Lotus out of the water, what's the underwater shape ? Fin and skeg or fin and spade ?

Cheers

Andrew

[seafox]

fin and spade. Have you got the raven 38? Not many of those here. Lots of Raven 31s.