February 25, 2011

Maui; Bridges and Towers; America’s Cup boat sail

Youngest brother
This is the story of a youngest brother, Maui, who lived thousands of years ago and who wanted to go out fishing with his two older brothers. They wouldn’t let him go so he hid on their boat and when they had gotten offshore, he appeared. They still wouldn’t give him a fishing rod so he started chanting a magical chant, and after a few minutes, something hit the bottom of the boat and the boat kept rising until it was entirely out of the water, with the boat perched on the back of this enormous fish. Maui stopped chanting, marveling at the size of the fish, and he told his brothers not to cut up the fish, and he would swim back to the village and tell them the good news. Of course, when he left, the older brothers cut up the fish and that is how North Island was formed - the chunks being all the hills strewn all over the North Island. Or you can believe the story that it was created by earthquakes. The moral of the story is (are you ALL paying attention?), “Always listen to your youngest brother. “

Why they make bridges in NZ
In the USA and indeed throughout the world, when we visit a tall building, you always find glass or fencing at the top to prevent people from jumping off. And when you cross over a tall bridge, we have fencing along the side, again of such a height to prevent people from jumping off. Not so here. Not only are you allowed to walk around on a narrow ledge of a very tall building, it is such an honor that they charge you over $100 to do so. And if you want to jump off a tall bridge, like Harbor Bridge crossing Auckland Harbor, by all means, go right to it. But first, fork over $159 for the honor of being allowed to do so. Of course, there’s the harness they make you wear when you walk around the 3’ ledge of the Sky Tower (seen in the picture in yesterday’s blog), and when you jump off the bridge, you would usually be wearing a bungee cord.
So as we sailed toward the Harbor Bridge, which is, at its tallest, about 125’ high, I said to Joseph, the skipper, “That bridge. They actually allow people to jump off that bridge?” “That’s why we built it.“

Force 6
After a nice breakfast at Repo’s on the other side of Sky Tower, and a hike (Sugar thought it was more like a Forced March) over to Albert Park and the University, we then descended down Queen Street to the harbor and made our way to the booth for the America’s Cup boat sail. We boarded at noon, all 30 of us and a crew of 4. The boat is 70’ long, and the mast is about 110’ high; the size of the crew when racing was 17; and other than adding an engine, and changing sails, the boat is pretty much the same as it was in 1995 when it was used as a test boat for Black Magic to race against. Subsequently, it was purchased by the British to use in their next challenge and they built a boat based on the design of this boat and named the new boat, “White Lightning.” It later became known as “White Elephant” because it was slower than the boat it was designed after.
Being shorthanded in crew, the skipper asked for volunteers to man the winches to hoist the double-reefed main, and the jib. There are 4 grinders, two to a grinder. We got the sails up in a jiffy, and we tore off on a broad reach heading west in the 25-30 knot winds. It was just the perfect day for sailing - puffy white clouds, temp in the mid-70’s, small waves in the protection of the harbor, and the power of an America’s Cup boat in strong winds. We all took turns on the helm, and it became more challenging as we hardened up and then tacked to sail close hauled back up the harbor. Gusts would hit us, and the bow would swing to windward as the strong winds hit the large mainsail. The lee rail would go under and gallons of water would wash into the boat, causing squeals from many and smiles of joy to others. The picture is of Sugar at the helm during one of these gusts that hit us. She handled it like a pro having learned a lot sailing on Story’s boat and also on a return sail on Ben’s boat from Bermuda. Everyone was very impressed.
After the sail and a lunch in the pub right next door, we visited the Maritime Museum which has a wonderful collection of sailing dinghies and the victorious America’s Cup boat, Black Magic, possibly the greatest racing boat of all time, having lost only 1 of 64 match races, I believe. And best of all, it was Aerohydro’s (of Southwest Harbor) program that was used by the Kiwis to design this boat. You should hear John Letcher, owner of Aerohydro, talk about that experience. He couldn’t give it to the US team since they had Ford engineers (Ford was one of their sponsors) so John then was approached by the Kiwis who were most interested. I wonder if John is a “youngest brother.”
We’re off to Queenstown tomorrow, tucked next to a huge lake in the mountains of the Southern Alps, and Home of Bungee Jumping and other extreme sports. We’ll check in then if we can.
Cheers, Nat, Dad, Matt, DB and other names people call me

P.S. Happy Birthday, Bethany. Although it’s the 25th here, it’s still the 24th there. I hope you had a good one.