Its almost 2014, New Years eve this evening, about 9 hours to go.
This year has been a horrorshow, with a few exceptions, just enough to keep me sane ( but thats a matter of opinion, mostly mine!).
But the next year is shaping up better, I'm in much better shape, I've two SCAMP Camps plus the Academy sailing skills courses to teach, a third one here in New Zealand, plus the chance of more teaching about design.  I'm working hard to be fit enough to cope, not like last time where I had to creep away for naps and meds to get through the day.

I'm part of the time resident on my ship Kairos, and thats working out nicely, have done a bit of cruising in her, some with family aboard and some with friends Maureen and Jamie Orr from Victoria on Vancouver Island.

It was nice cruising, and the ship is proving to be both comfortable and reliable, perhaps some work to do on damping out the clatter from the big Ford diesel, and there is quite a bit of deferred maintenance in terms of paintwork to catch up on, but its nothing major.
I've run about 400 litres of diesel through the engine so far, thats about 50 hours of running and its not smoking like it was, starts instantly now, and its initial problems seem to have simply been caused by being too often run sitting in the marina with no load on.
As a by the way, I got a 12 m marina berth in Marsden Marina as part of the deal, its got 3 years to go on the lease and I'd be please to sell it, very cheap if anyone is interested.

While out with the Orrs, Jamie got me to drop him in the dinghy way out in the middle of the passage between Rakino and Whangaparoa, and run back and forth to get some photographs of her under way.
Heres a nice shot, we're running at about 8 knots , if you could see me behind the starboard side windscreen in the main cabin you'd see a big smile.

So from me here on New Years Eve, all the very best to everyone for 2014, its going to be a good year!

John Welsford

Stillwater
Auckland
New Zealand