November 4, 2016
by jackieandnoel Leave a comment

A Christmas Gift

Win a Christmas Gift

If you’d like to win a free audio copy of This Is It – 2 hemispheres, 2 people, and 1 boat, just share this blog post on Twitter or FB and make sure you copy me in:

Twitter @nandjjourneys

FB: Jackie Parry or Noel and Jackies Journeys

On the 11th November I’ll number each share and ask someone to randomly pick a number.

A5 reduced for web

Here’s the blurb:

“We are from Australia, we have cash, and we have jet-lag and a desperate stare in our eye. In short, we are mugs ready to be led down the path of nautical slavery. If you can’t sell us a boat, there is something very wrong.”

The pull of the ocean was too strong to ignore any longer. Four years prior, they’d circumnavigated the globe on their 33-foot boat, Mariah. Now they wanted a new challenge.

So they sold all their belongings and flew to America from New South Wales in search of a boat.

Then Jackie and Noel set sail south, meeting descendants of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn, taking in the grand statues of Easter Island (the remotest inhabited island in the world) and making lifelong friends in Suwarrow.

Along the way, they lost a friend and came nail-bitingly close to losing their new boat. But they gained so much more.

This is a story of storms of emotions and oceans, travel, love, and relationships, and two people figuring out life and fulfilling their need to move and be challenged.

This Is It – a new cover too!

May 17, 2016
by jackieandnoel 2 Comments

Travelling The World Traumas

Excerpt from This Is It – 2 hemispheres, 1 people, and 1 boat

Intro: As we made way for La Paz, Mexico on our sailboat Pyewacket, throughout the last night before landfall we towed a sailboat (Windsong) that required assistance…

With immense relief, dawn tinted the sky a light blue, and at a critical moment in the clutches of gusting wind and the narrowest part of the canal, the tow line parted. Engulfed with fatigue, the nervous energy galvanised me into action.

The dawn turned grey as if angry with the fracas beneath it. The unforgiving currents picked up Windsong and guided them, side on, to the quintessence of jagged rocks. Meanwhile, opposing winds lifted the flowing currents, turning a placid passageway into an angry, frothing nightmare.

$Before the fracas it was lovely and calm$

Before the fracas it was lovely and calm

With no time for a text book tow, we leaped into action.

‘I’ll tie a fender to the end of this line,’ I yelled into the whipping wind, while putting my knot training to good use. ‘We can drag the line off our stern to see if they can pick it up with their boat hook’

‘Good work,’ Noel agreed, while concentrating on the safety of our own vessel.

With winds strong enough to lift and twist our boats sideways and the solid, bumpy waves bashing against the hull, we had to manoeuvre far enough away from Windsong for safety, but drive close enough so they could pick up the line.

Fenders float; therefore, it kept the line on the surface of the water. When boats’ propellers rotate, they can easily suck lines in and around the propeller shaft, stalling the engine and potentially causing expensive damage. Many possibilities and dangers existed and had to be considered and accounted for.

We couldn’t enjoy the typical Mexican views

‘I’ll come around again,’ Noel called out while the wind viciously whipped away his words. ‘Haul in the line for a minute.’

‘Okay,’ I yelled back, and Pyewacket bumped and heaved in a circle, while I prepared the line to sweep it past their bow once again.

We watched the crew of Windsong valiantly try and fail to retrieve their life-line as we swept by their bow, time after time. Their taut faces matched those of an athlete, poised for the starter’s gun. On board Pyewacket, our concerns for our own safety deepened; the engine strained against its mounts as we asked for the almost impossible. As Windsong slid closer to the awaiting rocks, we had no choice but to keep our distance. We couldn’t risk our boat and us.

We stood by helplessly, watching a fine boat surely become dashed on unforgiving boulders.

Did we all make it safely into this spectacular anchorage area?

Noel and I were safe and enjoyed the safety of land!

For more great pictures and stories look here

Our current boat is a 1920s Dutch Barge – would you like to look around (she’s for sale!) – look here

Author blog: www.jackieparry.com

Travel blog: www.noelandjackiesjourneys.com

Horse: http://helpinghandforhorses.weebly.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackie.parry.7543

Travels: https://www.facebook.com/NoelAndJackiesJourneys

Horses: https://www.facebook.com/pages/For-the-love-of-horses/1048526295173146

Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00OT9CWV8

Amazon book links

A Standard Journey: viewBook.at/astandardjourney

Of Foreign Build: viewBook.at/OfForeignBuild

Cruisers’ AA (accumulated acumen): viewBook.at/cruisersaa

This Is It: viewBook.at/thisisit

Audio Excerpt Of Foreign Build: http://goo.gl/AnsKRr

Twitter

https://twitter.com/NandJJourneys

https://twitter.com/StandardJourney

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7157763.Jackie_Sarah_Parry?from_search=true

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jackieparry7543

Linkedin https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jackieparry

Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113148478675680852619/posts/p/pub

Photo album of A Standard Journey: http://goo.gl/1QgMp2

Photo album of Of Foreign Build: https://jackieparry.com/of-foreign-build-photo-album/

Photo album of Cruisers’AA: https://jackieparry.com/pics/

Photo album of This Is It: https://jackieparry.com/photos-this-is-it/

A Standard Journey FB Page: https://goo.gl/uV7NGY

Cruisers’ AA FB Page: https://goo.gl/2vEnkB

Of Foreign Build FB Page: https://goo.gl/VvLT3M

Listen to me chat to Carol Graham (Never Ever Give Up) about sailing, pirates, adopting horses, and surviving life! http://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/69073/41215218

November 7, 2014
by jackieandnoel 2 Comments

Navigation: great links and me!

I love navigating, whether by stars, chart or GPS. Usually, on a voyage we navigate via GPS but back-up this wonderful device with good old chart work. On occasion we do sun-sights too.

Here are many diagrams on good navigation skills. Both recreationally and commercially, Noel and I have used every single one of these methods.

For example:

Parallel indexing in fog

DR when the GPS has lost its signal (or as back-up)

Set and drift when heading to GPS co-ordinates, on an urgent rescue

Always learning

A few years ago I was a skipper on different ships in Papua New Guinea (Noel had his own-different-ship), with thirteen local men as crew. The charts were out of date, there were chart errors* and GPS errors. I HAD to rely on my navigation skills. This wasn’t easy, I was in new ports, fast currents, narrow channels and a boat with its controls labelled in Japanese (plus 300 passengers).

Coupled with all this fun, some of the boats were air-started… use too many forward and astern manoeuvres when docking (on a busy commercial wharf), and you run out of air, run out of….. engine!

My skills
I was told today that I don’t have enough skills to be a trainer – which is my job in Australia. Assumptions were made after reading my blog. So I’m giving myself a shout-out today.

Proud
I am proud of my skills, they have been earned. I’ve not only been a commercial skipper on the high-seas, but busy inland waterways and canals too. As a commercial skipper (up to 80 metres) I have had, not only, to sit tough exams (written and verbal and practical), to gain my tickets, I have to prove my commercial sea-time and prove my skills and experience by signed reports by Captains of a higher level. My qualifications were only granted after the assessments were done and, in some cases, years of sea-time had to documented.

So, yes, this is a shout out for me! …and…

By the by, combining Noel’s experience with mine, both recreational and commercial, into a book isn’t easy (it’s a big book) – but it is amazing value at $4.99! – more pictures here and here. Plus another great resource here.