The assumption that Past the Lighthouse has reached the end of its useful life is reasonable. Our voyaging on Enki II is over, perhaps forever, and certainly for the immediate future. What further need for a sailing blog?
But when did reason ever have the last word?
Enki hovers even as we massage the rooms of our well-lived Victorian house back into their remembered form and spirit, and feel our way back into the groove of family and city rhythms. We know she's there, waiting for our return, but we're trying to focus on the task at hand, and Lord knows, our minds are often confused. Patience, girl.
Today though Enki broke through the resistance I've put up to picking up the thread of her blog. I was browsing the best sailing blog we know of and there, at the end of a recent post about Galactic's leave-taking of Patagonia, was a photo of a Swiss pennant inked with the boat name SY Enki and a date, 22 February 2009.
I recognised the hand-writing as Christophe's, her original owner (we re-named her Enki II to comply with the demands of Australian officialdom which allows only one boat of any name to be on the registry). The date and place made complete sense. It was thrilling to be reminded of the epic voyage Enki made on Christophe's watch.
The flag was tacked to the wall of the Micalvi which Mike Litzow calls "the uttermost yacht club in the world". The "club" is situated at Puerto Williams, 65 nautical miles north of Cape Horn, on a museum ship of that name. The Micalvi was built in Germany in the 1920s, and eventually found her way to Chile. In 1961 she was scuttled in a small inlet of the Beagle Channel, and now provides boats visiting Puerto Williams with a dock to raft to and a clubhouse in which to socialise. The Micalvi is famous among the hardiest of sailors, those with a tolerance for high latitude sailing and a bent for ice.
You've got to be keen to get to Puerto Williams. Galactic is keen. Mike and Alisa, and their cabin boys, spent a fair chunk of the past (southern hemisphere) winter tied up to the Micalvi. They are now now in the Falkland islands. And back in 2009, Enki was keen too.
Christophe and his crew left Opua in January 2009 after a very short stopover in New Zealand, and headed east along the Roaring Forties, with following westerlies, until they reached the tip of Patagonia. Having rounded the Horn, the boat then proceeded up the east coast of South America, ducking up various large brown Brazilian rivers, before re-crossing the Atlantic and making landfall in the Azores. She re-entered the Mediterranean in mid-2010.
This is not the usual way that a European skipper comes home after having made his Atlantic and Pacific crossings, but then again, Christophe wasn't the most usual of skippers.
He found a place to leave Enki in the Balearics, put her on the market, and went quickly back to Zurich to resume life as a husband and an architect. Enki took a year to sell, or should we say, Christophe took a year to let her go. Enki is a hard boat to say goodbye to. We understood that at the time, and we know it now. But we, like Christophe, structured our cruising on Enki as a project with a particular lifespan and committed ourselves to returning to the people we call family.
Not everyone frames their cruising this way - we've met many people whose plans are much more open-ended than ours, and from time to time we've envied them. Our re-entry to city life has not been easy. We knew it wouldn't be. But we're becoming more comfortable in our house by the day, and it's early days still - plus we have a season of summer cruising in the northern parts of New Zealand to look forward to.
But seeing that photo of Christophe's flag reminds us of how many sea miles she's done, and of how important it is that she gets back to sea as soon as possible. Ocean-going boats need to be used, and she's a boat with a lot of sea stories still to tell.
This link takes you to the broker who is selling Enki II - but you can also contact us via the blog if you want more information
But when did reason ever have the last word?
 |
| The day we moved back into our house, the temperature in Sydney was 40 degrees C |
 |
| We've missed most of Louis' short life.... |
 |
| ...and he's almost talking. |
 |
| Back on the ironing board |
 |
| Cruisers don't call the repairman until they've exhausted all other options |
Today though Enki broke through the resistance I've put up to picking up the thread of her blog. I was browsing the best sailing blog we know of and there, at the end of a recent post about Galactic's leave-taking of Patagonia, was a photo of a Swiss pennant inked with the boat name SY Enki and a date, 22 February 2009.
I recognised the hand-writing as Christophe's, her original owner (we re-named her Enki II to comply with the demands of Australian officialdom which allows only one boat of any name to be on the registry). The date and place made complete sense. It was thrilling to be reminded of the epic voyage Enki made on Christophe's watch.
The flag was tacked to the wall of the Micalvi which Mike Litzow calls "the uttermost yacht club in the world". The "club" is situated at Puerto Williams, 65 nautical miles north of Cape Horn, on a museum ship of that name. The Micalvi was built in Germany in the 1920s, and eventually found her way to Chile. In 1961 she was scuttled in a small inlet of the Beagle Channel, and now provides boats visiting Puerto Williams with a dock to raft to and a clubhouse in which to socialise. The Micalvi is famous among the hardiest of sailors, those with a tolerance for high latitude sailing and a bent for ice.
You've got to be keen to get to Puerto Williams. Galactic is keen. Mike and Alisa, and their cabin boys, spent a fair chunk of the past (southern hemisphere) winter tied up to the Micalvi. They are now now in the Falkland islands. And back in 2009, Enki was keen too.
Christophe and his crew left Opua in January 2009 after a very short stopover in New Zealand, and headed east along the Roaring Forties, with following westerlies, until they reached the tip of Patagonia. Having rounded the Horn, the boat then proceeded up the east coast of South America, ducking up various large brown Brazilian rivers, before re-crossing the Atlantic and making landfall in the Azores. She re-entered the Mediterranean in mid-2010.
This is not the usual way that a European skipper comes home after having made his Atlantic and Pacific crossings, but then again, Christophe wasn't the most usual of skippers.
He found a place to leave Enki in the Balearics, put her on the market, and went quickly back to Zurich to resume life as a husband and an architect. Enki took a year to sell, or should we say, Christophe took a year to let her go. Enki is a hard boat to say goodbye to. We understood that at the time, and we know it now. But we, like Christophe, structured our cruising on Enki as a project with a particular lifespan and committed ourselves to returning to the people we call family.
Not everyone frames their cruising this way - we've met many people whose plans are much more open-ended than ours, and from time to time we've envied them. Our re-entry to city life has not been easy. We knew it wouldn't be. But we're becoming more comfortable in our house by the day, and it's early days still - plus we have a season of summer cruising in the northern parts of New Zealand to look forward to.
 |
| At anchor in Vava'u |
But seeing that photo of Christophe's flag reminds us of how many sea miles she's done, and of how important it is that she gets back to sea as soon as possible. Ocean-going boats need to be used, and she's a boat with a lot of sea stories still to tell.
This link takes you to the broker who is selling Enki II - but you can also contact us via the blog if you want more information
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