Irony

Nor would this go where I wanted. A view from 'Lion'

For some reason I can't get this further down where I wanted it

We have looked at the word irony in my writing class more than once over the years. It's a word my son Gordon uses regularly, I think mostly in the wrong meaning, but what the heck. For some reason I just can't retain the meaning of irony and I'm too lazy to go looking up the dictionary just now. I will tomorrow and maybe due to this post it will finally sink in to my poor ageing brain which has had its share of binge drinking and concussion (football) over time.

However it is ironic that I should meet a man in Beaconsfield some days before our NZ trip who gave me a book he wrote ten years ago when he was aged 50. Peter Sweeney is his name, a journalist working out of Perth for most of his working life but Berwick born and now residing thereabouts. It was a chance meeting, his book titled 'Half Time' (He intends to live to 100) is one of three he has written.

On our day sailing trip we walked down to the wharf half an hour before the ferry left for Russell about 20 minutes away (big ferry fast speed) as instructed to do so. The Maxi yacht Lion left from Russell as its port had more water depth than Piahia which is why it was a base for whalers and sealers and therefore vice and whoring and drunkenness one hundred or so years ago, reportedly the wildest location in the South Seas.

The crew of Lion were three, a skipper with the gift of the gab,competent, as were the other two, an attractive and strong lady and a man about my own stature who had incredibly powerful forearms from years of 'grinding' on the winches that enable swift changes to the sails on these racing yachts. The skipper told the history of the yacht with almost reverential tone to it's original owner who had it built, Sir Peter Blake.

It was a nice day as we headed out. Dolphins rose and played, dozens of them all about. The crew told us not to look at the dolphins as we hadn't paid for a dolphin tour. It was magic to see these beautiful creatures in such numbers and so close you could almost touch.

The skipper explained that the conditions were not ideal for sailing and the motor would need to be used quite a bit if yesterday was repeated. We didn't mind, it was just nice floating over the blue water. After a couple of hours under sail at reasonable clip with lessons given to the tourists in the work of grinding to change sails we pulled up at the 'Isle of the Princess' for a one hour break. A few swam ashore, Lib and I took the inflatable dinghy which did three trips to get everyone off.

A highlight was a pair of little birds Lib and I saw on our way up to the lookout. Black with a bit of white, I said to Lib they had the beak of a robin, but were not like anything I'd seen before. I asked a couple of Kiwi people if they knew what it was, both replied negative, and I asked the crew member with the huge forearms who also didn't know, but said he did believe a type of  rare bird had been released on the island because of the lack of predators there and a program to save this endangered bird. Later in our motel we were watching the tourist TV channel and a segment came on about the Stewart Island Robin which had been bred and released here and there, and was the little bird we had seen.

After a great lunch we sailed off again. The wind picked up and the resultant sailing was magnificent with the maxi  leaning so far over you'd swear it would capsize as it sped across the water at great speed. The crew and us tourists alike whooped it up in the excitement in what was a fantastic experience.

The irony? After we left Piahia I read Peter Sweeney's book. In one chapter he talked of interviewing Sir Peter Blake the renowned sailor. An amazing man, he won the around the world race at his third try, he won the America Cup. He was killed shot dead by pirates sailing up the Amazon river at age 53, so Peter Sweeney informed me.

I enjoyed Peter Sweeney's book and related to his thoughts and feelings on many scores, in fact most.

It was not possible to photograph when she really got going as it was hang on or go overboard