I hope this week's artwork will offer you a few moments of relief during this difficult time, with our wishes to be well and stay safe...
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Fulfilling a Dream...
Part II
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We continue to travel the globe using Artist Brechin Morgan's artwork as our guide to some of the most beloved and exotic harbors in the world. In 1998, at the age of 50, Brechin Morgan left New England aboard his 27' Pacific Seacraft Cutter "Otter" to sail alone around the world. During his voyage, he sailed 32,000 miles and visited 32 countries. He returned in 2003, becoming only the 232nd person to solo circumnavigate the globe, receiving
The Joshua Slocum Society Golden Circle Award
in recognition.
We hope you'll enjoy sharing this journey in sketches and paintings, brought to you by Artist Brechin Morgan...
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Using Brec's paintings and sketchbooks and his own words, we'll follow his route from East to West - This week from Tahiti (8) to the Caledonia (14) as shown on his charted map above.
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(8.) Passing Squall, Tuamotu Island
"The squall came suddenly from upwind, as occasionally in the tropics, with heavy black clouds rushing toward me. Underneath, the telltale line of whitecaps on black water and a curtain of gray rain dragged between the two...I had enough time before it hit to roll up two thirds of the genoa, double reef the mainsail, dog the hatches and don my rain gear . It hit like a freight train, Otter heeled rail to the water on a beam reach. As I bore off the rain bucketed down sluicing the crusted salt from rigging and decks. The surface of the sea jumped and danced as the banshee wind ripped the tops of the whitecaps. Twenty heart pounding minutes and a short lifetime later the clouds rolled off to leeward toward the nearest Tuamotu Island, the archipelago I was threading my way through. The sun broke through creating a rainbow to starboard under the receding dark cloud. Transfixed I watched the shimmering arc of color as the dark waves settled and rolled away, raindrops still fresh on the boom. It would be another four days and nights before I reached Tahiti. This rainbow, like Noah's, brought an end to the storm and maybe a promise of sailor's paradise ahead."
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(8.) Cook's Bay, Paopao, Tahiti
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(10.) The Otter in Huahine
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"The Society Islands in French Polynesia, were the imagined paradise of my boyhood made real. I island hopped from Tahiti to Bora Bora stopping along the way in Huahine, the anthropomorphically named island meaning pregnant woman, her breast and swelling belly apparent from the anchorage. Otter had her weather cloths bent protecting the cockpit from passage spray and her self steering wind-vane cocked up on the transom. Her anchor was set securely in 25 feet of clear water. The rolling clouds lifted off the warm land behind her in the afternoon light. As a young woman,my mother had dreamed of sailing these exotic islands. Often we find ourselves fulfilling dreams of our parents. I sent her postcards and brought home stories."
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(12.) New Zealand
"The Cape Rienga lighthouse sits at the northernmost point in New Zealand. It overlooks the sea at the boundary between the western most South Pacific and the Tasman Sea. The confluence of currents and weather can produce oddly colored hovering mists over the waters. To the left below the cliffs is a long beach that the Maori believe their souls visit after they die just before their final passage to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. I was six months in New Zealand and between boat jobs I did a lot of exploring, both North and South Island in a used car I picked up. It was a Mazda Familia, and had served as a dog house for the previous owner. I picked it up for $300 and sold it six months later for $300."
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(13.) New Caledonia
"I sailed into Noumea in New Caledonia in late June. After provisioning and preparing for the next leg of the journey across the Coral Sea to Cairns in Australia, I took some time off. I got on a bus over the mountains to the tiny village of Yate on the windward side of the island to spend a few days which coincided with the Fourth of July. I spent it in a thatched hut on the edge of the beach with my journal and sketchbooks. "
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(14.) Approaching Flinders Island
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"
Sailing up the Great Barrier Reef above Cairns, the channel through the reefs was narrow, poorly marked, and not easily navigated at night, especially single handed. It was the season of southwest trades which blew over 20 knots every afternoon. I spent the days sailing as far as I could to the next safe anchorage behind a sheltering islet, or small finger of land. Anchored south of Bird Island one night I read a passage in my well worn copy of "Sailing Alone Around the World" of Slocum's sailing 'Spray' through this stretch. He fell asleep on watch at night starting awake before dawn with the rocks of Bird Island only feet away. He immediately changed course to avoid a shipwreck. The next dawn I passed the same dark jaws that almost took the Spray. In this area the primordial coasts were silent, the charts outside the channel were white with no soundings, marked instead “unexplored." With the wind at 30 knots the main was furled down tight, the genoa out halfway. Late that day Flinders Island rose ahead. Strips of sunlight raced across milky green water from the slits in broken cloud. In the lee behind the island I found shelter anchoring near two slumbering shrimp boats. That quiet late afternoon the clouds blew away, the sun came out and dried the decks as I cooked dinner, sketched, and set my way-points for the next day's sail.
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Next Week....Onward to Bali and Sri Lanka!
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Looking Forward to Being Able to Opening Our Doors to You Again Soon!
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Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of the artwork on my website, or to put my resources to work for you, at
rjinishian@gmail.com.
You can also regularly review new works on our website:
We're now located at:
52 Water Street
Stonington, CT 06378
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I'm currently Available by Phone: 860-245-4400 or
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rjinishian@gmail.com
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