Maritime Carol

The second world war had just finished when Dad brought a 20' narrow gutted double ended wooden launch.  Her engine was under the aft hatch and the cabin was so low that you had to crawl into it. As she had been sitting for a while, her Rugby engine was rusty and in a very sad state.   Dad nursed the engine back to life, fixing one of the holes with a saucepan repair kit. AVALON 1 was berthed at the bottom of the farm, in the mud of Hellyer's Creek, Birkdale. When Dad and Mum married they were away in the boat all the time. Sometimes they'd go up to Pine Island (Herald Island) and other times, down to Rangitoto and Waiheke Islands.     In the middle of winter, I was born. The following summer we were away in the boat, my pushchair in the dinghy.     And although the old engine let Dad down a few times, only once did he need a tow...

                On this day in 1839 (177yrs ago) the captain of the 832ton sailing barque TORY, ordered his crew to drop anchor in Ship's Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound. They had just completed a ninety six day passage from England with cargo and eight passengers on board.   TORY was the first ship dispatched by the New Zealand Company on a mission to locate and take possession of land purchased by the company in England before her departure.  Her name is forever etched into our history as the channel where the Cook Strait ferry enters the Marlborough Sounds. For the next thirty six days, they took on fresh water, food and wood, then sailing into Port Nicholson(Wellington).  Chaffers Passage in Wellington is named after her captain, Captain Edmund Mein Chaffers, a former sailing master in the Royal Navy. TORY then sailed up the west coast to Hokianga where they loaded spars.    On the 19 December...