What ­Next?

this is the song of mehitabel
of mehitabel the alley cat
 - Don Marquis

A few weeks ago I noticed Graham Cox had listed his boat Mehitabel^* tentatively for sale. In the advertisement he wrote,

having decided I want to go cruising again, I am debating whether to develop Mehitabel into a cruising yacht, or buy one that is already set up. I recently came across a steel-hulled boat that interests me, having previously had steel yachts, hence the decision to seek expressions of interest for Mehitabel.

I was curious about what he thought was wrong with Mehitabel and whether she might be right for me - so I called. Graham as it turned out is a charming chap with a lifetime of sailing anecdotes. Luckily we both had a time that morning for a good long yarn. Graham talked about his boats like old friends and it was touching to hear. Almost in passing he mentioned that he had recently finished writing a couple of volumes which he had published via Amazon. I dislike Amazon and their awful practices but love good writing. Luckily Graham writes as well as he talks.

Grahams first book Last Days of the Slocum Era: Volume One has been a great read. I was halfway through it a day or so later when Graham posted this on his FB page,

I was honoured this week to be invited by Don McIntyre to take on the role of race commentator for the Mini Globe Race (MGR), a solo around the world race for 19ft, one-design, epoxy / plywood sloops, which he has organized as a tribute to John Guzzwell and his 20ft 6in yawl, Trekka, aboard which John circumnavigated the world between 1955 and 1959. At the time, Trekka was the smallest yacht to circumnavigate the world, a record held for many years.

I had recently listened to an old interview with John Guzzwell (parts 1 & 2) and had not heard of the MGR. Being antagonistically uncompetitive I generally ignore anything with the word race in it. Nonetheless this sounded like my type of thing. I scoured the MGR site and read up about the McIntyre Class Globe 5.80 boats. I began to wonder if I could use one of the Broken Hill sheds to start building one of these little boats. The next race was in 200 days, not enough time…
Would there be another one the following year?
I sent a query to Don McIntyre, am I too late to enter?.
I knew I was definitely too late.
I don’t know why I sent it.

A few days later Don answered. There was a completed boat for sale, Hull 46.
If I was serious and Joe, the owner, was amenable it could be mine for a very reasonable price.
By crikey I was keen.
Before answering I spoke to my beloved (and insanely patient) Re. She rolled her eyes and told me I was mad. I worked a shift in the hospital and my patients were all unanimous that I should go for it. When I got home Re had come round - of course I should do it!
I love this woman.

A final nervous check on whether I could afford it (probably not but definitely enough to get started). I sent the message and waited.
And waited…
A day passed, I let Don know I had sent a message.
We waited…
After a day or so Don chased up it up, no message recieved. I sent another one. Still no answer.

A week passed. The questions crowded my buzzing mind while I waited. Had Joe seen my message and deemed me unworthy of his fantastic boat? Probably not. Could I complete all the preparations in time? The boat needed modifications prior to racing - eight safety rails, a new drainage hole in the transom, a windvane and an electric outboard and that was just for starters.

To comply with the race rules I also needed to learn to navigate with a sextant, complete a survival course and to get up to speed with a radio operators course. To do most of this I would need to fly to the UK (the boat’s in Dorset), move the boat to a yard to do all the work on it. I would need to convince one of my brothers or sister to tow the boat to Portugal. There was so much to do in a relatively short time.
If I could not even raise an initial response to kickstart this whole thing - then maybe the fates are telling me something?

Whilst all this was going on I had been overwhelmingly busy with too many other threads.

• I have an Army Reserves application in process, a last ditch effort to prevent me doing something stupid (like sailing singlehanded around the world). The application process has been amusing me.

• I attended a CRANA REC course which turned out to be brilliant. There are some incredible nurses working remotely across Australia. One of the highlights of the course for me was learning to drill an intra-osseous needle into a shin bone. It is surprisingly simple, like putting up shelves.

• A chap called Dan asked if I would be able to assist him to sail his boat back to Australia from Vanuatu in October. I told him I was unsure as I was waiting to hear if I was about to embark on a Round The World Race.

The other day I met with Dan at the airport as he was about to fly back to Vanuatu. He needed to know if I could crew for him. I had not heard from Joe. So, not without second thoughts I gratefully accepted the offer. We shook hands and with that any thoughts of MGR glory faded.

I messaged Joe and Don with the news.

The next day I was in a dark place. I felt like I had failed to step up. I also had a PM shift at the hospital which contributed to my mood. By the time I finished with my patients I had shaken it off. It was as if I had gone on a journey over mountains and through valleys only to emerge in the same place but with a different light.

Onwards I guess…