Hanging out with cruising legends
Issue 102 : May/Jun 2015
When your universe is an island the size of a sailboat, your perspective naturally will be dramatically different from the point of view of city dwellers. If you live aboard for many years, your perspective may well be permanently changed.
Lin and Larry Pardey have been sea dwellers for most of their lives. Is it any surprise, then, that when they moved ashore on New Zealand’s Kawau Island their home would be as self-contained in many ways as their boats have always been?
Where they once caught rain with their sails, they now catch roof runoff. Trash removal on Kawau Island, where there are no roads and no services, is just as do-it-yourself as it was aboard Seraffyn and Taleisin. Some trash is burned and the rest must be hauled back to the mainland.
Their food supply depends upon planning almost as much it did on their voyages. This is a skill Lin has developed well over the years. Except for the vegetables she grows in their garden, provisioning requires planning in advance for expected and unexpected contingencies. Lin buys groceries when she gets to town and hauls them back to their jetty on a small passenger ferry. Just as when she lived aboard, her trips ashore are subject to weather. The ferry’s rounds are cancelled when wind and seas in the Hauraki Gulf are particularly nasty.
A craftsman of the highest level, Larry built Seraffyn and Taleisin and he later built (or rebuilt) their home and the outbuildings on their property. The materials were delivered by a barge pulled by their runabout, with the help of a 95-foot cargo schooner, or in some cases by helicopter. Building anything on Kawau Island requires considerable planning. Only Lin and Larry really know the complications that were involved when they installed each part of their home from doorframes to picture-window panes. Looking around their home from that perspective is enlightening. Imagine being the project manager for the construction of a home on a narrow waterfront site that hugs the side of a hill.
Don’t misunderstand me. Now that they’ve come ashore, the Pardeys do have more amenities than they had when cruising. Their mindset, however, continues to be one of self-sufficiency. Their sewage is managed with a septic system rather than the traditional bucket-and-chuck-it. Lin’s famous sitz bath beneath Taleisin’s companionway steps has been replaced by a large spa-style tub with water jets, although one must still conserve water when area rainfall has been limited. Electricity is conducted to the island by underwater cable from the mainland. Their refrigerator has eliminated the icebox and the problems that occur when ice runs out two weeks into a voyage. A washer and dryer have replaced the bucket and plunger and clothes hanging on the lifelines.
A dinghy ride to shore from Taleisin aboard Cheeky, their Fatty Knees dinghy, has been replaced by the ferry ride to town. In a blow, it’s reassuring to know that, no matter what, their home is firmly anchored on ground with good holding.
It was good to visit our favorite cruising couple in November and to see the direction their lives have taken them: twice around the world (with many side trips along the way) and now contentedly anchored on beautiful Kawau Island. Taleisin was in the process of being sold to a young couple who will care for her as if they had built her themselves. A diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease has slowed Larry down, although his strong body, positive attitude, and sense of humor keep them both going.
After writing many books and magazine articles, Lin has become a publisher, introducing other sailors’ books. She started by republishing Blown Away by Herb Payson. Up after that in November 2015 will be Voyaging with Kids, A Guide to Family Life Afloat by Michael Robertson, Behan Gifford, and Sara Johnson. More will follow.
Keep track of this new adventure and other news at www.landlpardey.com or follow Lin and Larry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lin.pardey.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
