Endeavour Sailing - Prologue
Back in 2019 I was lucky enough to spend four days as crew on the Endeavor replica from Sydney as it travelled around New Zealand as part of Tuia 250. Those four days were one of the highlights of my entire life, climbing rigging, hoisting sails, sleeping in hammocks where I was experiencing living history and I loved it.
A photo from my time on the Endeavour in 2019
So much so, that I have been volunteering at the New Zealand Martine Museum on The Breeze, one of only three tall ships in Aotearoa. (A tall ship, is a ship with square sails) and is a lot of fun, but nothing like the Endeavor from the 1770’s.
One day when I was volunteering on the Breeze, Wayne one of the masters mentioned that the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart was on early next year and included the Endeavor sailing from Sydney to Hobart and back again.
When I got home, I immediately jumped online to investigate, and yes, it is possible to be volunteer crew again – no experience required. So, I filled in my application for the 11 days Sydney to Hobart leg as it was cheaper. During e-mail's conversations with the Australian Martine Museum I discovered that this first leg was highly oversubscribed, so I let them know that either trip would be fine as I was keen just to get on board.
Luckily my application was successful for the longer 13 days Hobart to Sydney trip, through unfortunately money is very tight at the moment and the $4800 cost was almost enough to cancel the trip, but we had just enough to confirm which was great.
So I paid my deposit, booked my flight plus several, days in Hobart which I have never visited before.
We already have a holiday booked in the South Island, tramping the Heaphy Great Walk, plus days in Collingwood, Karamea and Nelson. This South Island trip was also expensive as four people on holiday does not come cheap. I ended up with two holidays planned, one after the other. But with all food and accommodation for 13 days the Endeavor trip actually works out as not so bad. It was actually super helpful that I ended up on the return trip to Sydney as this not only gave me several weeks between the holidays but also meant I was at home to help get the boys ready for school. This was very important, especially for Luke as this is his first year at Glen Eden Immediate School, and I needed to arrange his first uniform, chrome book etc.
I absolutely love helping Luke get ready for school, with his excitement and nerves, plus it was important to not leave Julienne with all this school starting stress.
I have most things already from my previous time on the Endeavor and just needed sailing gloves. The exception was some way to write my trip diary. On the South Island holiday, I physically wrote my diary into a small cheap note book which worked well, except I had to transpose all my writings onto a laptop I had stored in Nelson, and this really impacted on my time and fun in Nelson. I spent hours all three days in Nelson over my laptop instead of relaxing and having fun, and I don't want the same thing on my Endeavour trip.
I started researching digital notebooks with my focus on a device that was light, could convert writing to text and with plenty of battery life.
There were two options, the Remarkable 2 or the Kindle Scribe. The Remarkable 2 is a superior device for writing but the Kindle has books!! I've never used a Kindle until recently. I ran out of books on the South Island holiday so borrowed Julianne’s Kindle and found it was a nice and convent way of reading books.
I will need to get over my habit (some people might call an addiction) of buying physical books, but with Julianne’s 12 positive years with her Kindle it does save a lot of money and clearly works. Plus you can share your Kindle books within a family so I can access all of her books for free which is great.
The Kindle Scribe has only been out for several years and last month had its first update and has a really good battery life, warm light for reading and is cheaper than a Remarkable 2. Plus, it comes in this nice green colour.
All of this research took a few days as it is an expensive decision, $1000 for a device that only does several things unlike say a laptop or tablet which can do many things. But if it can solve my issue of transposing my travel diary it will be money well spent. With a major plus in that while being on the Endeavor for-several weeks, I can read on the Kindle instead of carrying heavy and bulky books around.
I reached my Kindle decision nine days before my flight and the green version can only be purchased from Amazon itself. As such I ordered my Kindle with an extra $50 for urgent delivery on a Friday and it carried on the following Monday.
This gave me six days to get used to my exciting expensive green Kindle Scribe. There were no dramas loading Julianne’s books across, order some new books for myself and importantly testing the diary/note taking.
The Kindle seems to understand my hand writing which is important, especially as my hand writing is not the easiest to read. In addition, I used it to make lists on what I needed to pack which was super helpful and a nice surprise. Using the Scribe for general lists is proving a very handy additional benefit.
I am in fact writing all this on the Kindle while sitting on a broken plane on the tarmac at Auckland Airport (story for my next diary entry).
The weekend before was family time, visiting markets and board games as I'm going away for two weeks.
Come Saturday, my bags are packed, gloves and Kindle purchased, and I’m all ready for my next adventure.