Well,.. lets see what I can write about this time. I kind of feel like those days at sea, where there was always so much happening, But still I wouldn’t know what to write about. I think I will just start with the most exiting thing that happened. During our trip on Anna Rose I had been taking a lot of sights with the sextant. And doing complete Astro Navigation reductions. (of course checking myself with the GPS as well) It wasn’t all that easy – even on the days without much wind the boat was rolling and the sun was standing right above us. We were heading south while the sun was heading north and so we had one day where our latitude equaled the sun’s declination. And I realized, that taking sights at that moment isn’t that easy.
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by how well my sights turned out. Most of the time it turned out to be almost at our exact position. I had lots of fun doing it, but the main reason I had taken my sextant on this trip was to complete my last part of my ‘Yachtmaster Ocean’ exam. In order to be able to do the last Oral part of the exam you need to do a practical. Luckily my examiner was as happy with my sights as I was and he didn’t even really ask me too much about it. Instead he asked me a lot of ‘’what would you do if’” kind of question. What if you dismast for example, or in case of a hole in the boat. I was telling him everything I knew about boats, weather systems, passage planning and various other topics. I was really nervous… even though, in the end there was not any reason to be, because the examiner seemed very satisfied with my knowledge and happily granted me my ‘Yachtmaster Ocean’ certificate.
As for the rest of life, it’s good. I am really enjoying living in Whangarei. Lots of lovely people around, and also Guppy has a lot of company. Neighbours come and go, while Guppy happily rests on the pile moorings and has many story’s to tell to her mates from the past years.
At the moment Daniel & I are housesitting on a farm again. It’s quite nice not having to row and walk to shower and toilet for a while. And the big kitchen is much appreciated. Although I really do love the coziness on Guppy. Every now and then I still give presentations, and do some promoting for the English book. Last week, I flew down to Nelson for a talk at a fundraiser. We had a massive turnout and the boathouse – which was relatively roomy – seemed to get really small one of a sudden, with almost 200 people cramped inside and some outside not able to get in anymore. Everybody seemed to really enjoy my rambling about Guppy, waves, islands and life at sea so that makes me happy as well.

Laura