STEAMING INTO 2017

The start of 2017 finds me standing on the bridge of a vessel steaming up the Malacca Strait, passing Port Dickson.  It’s a beautiful balmy night with a faint offshore breeze bringing out the smells of vegetation and wood smoke wafting the water.

There’s searchlights ashore piercing the sky, must be part of the New Year’s celebration.  A few of the ships passing up and down the straits are giving New Year’s greetings over the VHF radio, they are a bit disjointed, it looks like they are on different local time zones.

I am now on my way to the UAE, delivering a new ship from China, a fairly routine voyage.  Looking back on the last year there has been a lot of water passing under the keel of various boats I have been on.  2016 has certainly been a year full of adventure and interest.

Sailing on a calm sea in the early morning hours is a great time to have a look back and reflect a while.  Since I took delivery of Truce last March in Canada I have had an amazing journey, visiting so many interesting places, awesome Alaska, wildlife, meeting so many different people and learning a new kind of freedom and peace away from everyday distractions that don’t add to the quality of life.

But it doesn’t take long to start thinking about the coming year and the return of spring to Canada and the preparation that needs to be done for the coming year.  In 2017 I want to bring Truce back to New Zealand, that will entail a long ocean voyage across the Pacific.  I have crossed the North Pacific countless times in ships and I have a deep appreciation of its awesome power.  The South Pacific is somewhere I have never ventured and I have not crossed any ocean in a vessel as small as Truce.

So, steaming into the New Year and thoughts turning to preparation for the next adventure.