The Dan and Alex show

Jonquil - Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 25 - She's Ours!

2011-05-25T07:51:00.005Z

After crewing on Jonquil on and off over the last few years I finally had the opportunity to make her mine. The long time owner wanted her to go to a good home where she would be maintained and sailed regularly.

Jonquil is 32 foot over all and was designed in 1914 by Nathaniel Herreshoff in the US. There are four original boats remaining in the US, Jonquil is a replica built by Roy Harris of Auckland, launched in 1988 she is the only example in NZ. Jounquil is built to the original plans with modifications to the cockpit coamings.

With that huge gaff main she is a hand full and will surprise many modern keelers of similar size.

Married

2010-03-30T20:30:00.007Z

Alex and I are now married. We had a lovely beach wedding at Long Bay on Sunday the 21st March 2010

Labour weekend 2009

2009-10-27T07:34:00.007Z

Another great weekend camping. Excellent weather this year. We enjoyed a few crayfish and an excellent catch of Snapper including a 15lb specimen. Alex and I got engaged while we were camping. Mark Kirby and Bean Sprout had their first family camping expedition.

Plans

2009-02-07T20:32:00.007Z

After some research I have ordered plans from MIT in America for a Herreshoff Buzzards Bay 25.

Hilux

2009-02-07T20:20:00.003Z

Last week I sold my car, partly because Alex gets a company car soon and partly because I wanted a ute to kick around the house and beach. We took a day trip to Mt Maunganui to collect our new green Hilux.

Additions to the family

2009-02-07T20:13:00.004Z

After a weekend away with work I arrived home to find Alex had acquired an eight year old giant ginger cat called Gordon. He's is exceptionally grumpy.

The cupboard is no more!

2008-06-29T00:41:00.012Z

inally we got rid of the stupid cupboard that the previous people had put in the lounge going through into the bedroom's wardrobe. In the process to pulling it out we found the teenage boys stash of dirty magazines!

Here are a few pics of Daniel in action....

Christmas on the boat

2008-01-23T08:43:00.001Z

After working through Christmas and New Year I managed to get a weekend out on the boat with Mum and Dad. It was a great week away and nice to spend some time with them.

We caught up with Jo and Paul and the Lidgards which was fun.

Dad and I ate scallops nearly everyday and we had some good diving. Late one afternoon on an incoming tide I was cleaning scallops when Mum and Dad were fishing, Dad hooked up on this beautiful snapper in the most unlikely spot.

Nicky and Bryce's wedding

2008-01-13T06:55:00.000Z

Friday 11th January saw Nicky and Bryce tie the knot.

We all had a wonderful time dancing the night away. A few shots of the evening:

Paula, Hilary and I doing our own photo shoot with the timer on the camera whilst Nicky slipped into her dress with the help of Jo the head bridesmaid.

The beautiful bride.

The girls

Seresin Estate

2007-11-21T08:55:00.001Z

Alex and I have just had a great weekend in Marlborough. We landed in Blenheim and went through the Seresin estate vineyard and winery. We stayed Friday and Saurday night in the Bay of many coves in Queen Charlotte Sound. We walked up to the Queen Charlotte track and took some great photos.

House

2007-11-09T20:38:00.000Z

Alex and I finally managed to buy a house. It's in Browns Bay on the north shore. Close to work and about 2 mins from the beach. Check out the pics.

Labour weekend

2007-10-25T17:42:00.000Z

Yet another great weekend at Whananaki. The whole team turned up and the weather was on our side. We ate crayfish everyday with plenty of cold beers.

Base camp

The perfect campsite

Poor Knights in the background

Kirby VS Radler

Red's Hotel

Crayfish for lunch

Coastal classic yachts on the way home in the background

Easter Fun.

2007-04-10T03:55:00.000Z

Tim Burnie, Daniel and I had an amazing Easter on the boat. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather... A few wee snaps from the weekend. Will let Daniel put more up later.

NZ Summer

2007-02-05T20:28:00.000Z

Some pictures from our summer. Check the flounder I caught in my catch bag when scallop diving.

Arghh....Where's me ship

2006-12-11T07:45:00.000Z

Devon was launched !!
Thursday the 7th December 2006 - Big Day
A great accomplishment for Dad. Proud as punch mate! Who else could build something like that in their back yard ?

All went well. I will post some pictures of her on the water as soon as I get some.

Leaving home

11000 volts.... no worries mate.

Arrival at the ramp.

The gnarly builder and his ship

The family christening her

On the high sea's

Home again

2006-12-11T07:31:00.000Z

Sorry for the slack posts. Or lack of posts. Been flat out since arriving home.... Job, Car, onto my second flat, sold my old house, trying to find a suitable house to buy. I'm working at ASB Technology in Albany, neat job, great bank to work for.
Alex and I are both missing London TO THE MAX BRO and are trying to devise a way for me to get back into the UK (visa's wise).

Alex is temping at the moment, looking for a full time position. Our current pad is an apartment on the 5th floor in Ponsonby. Ok for now.

Summer is kicking in and we've been for a great camping mission with Tim / Kelly and Red / Kelly at Whananaki. A quick dive and we had crayfish on the beach, yeah boi.

Looking forward to Tim BE and Daniela heading over around new years.

You want motorbike ?

2006-09-21T09:15:00.000Z

We are in Siagon now, staying with Alex's old boss Greg. The train down from Hanoi was good, slept well both nights. When we got off the train at 04:30 AM there were around a million vietnamese men asking if we would like a motorbike taxi, crazy guys that can carry half a ton or five people on a single 50cc bike.

Bit nervous about the next step to Bangkok, with the coup and all...should be fine.

I had a chance to upload some pics. check them out.

Hal Long bay Vietnam

2006-09-21T08:56:00.000Z

Our junk was the big one with the single sail. They let us dive off the top...yeah

The team after seven days....no showers

2006-09-21T08:52:00.000Z

Kashia, Brad, Adam (dingo), Cam, Matt

Alex and Dan

Milk bottles lollies were a hit

2006-09-21T08:49:00.000Z

Station somewhere in the Gobi

2006-09-21T08:44:00.000Z

Gravy train

2006-09-21T08:40:00.000Z

Trains....Yay

2006-09-16T12:18:00.000Z

Just a quick one. We made the Trans-Siberian, seven days on the train was a push, great adventure though. Gobi desert was mad, and Russian borders guards are terrifying. Beijing was cool, the hostel we stayed at was in the middle of a Hu Tong and there was a dog restaurant. The beers were 630ml bottles for 2 yuan that's seven for a pound !!

Another big train mission ( 2 nights) across China and into Vietnam, which is where I am now. Going to Ha Long bay in a Chinese junk tomorrow, yay.

Will push some pics up when we get home.

Van tour 2006

2006-08-29T12:54:00.000Z

Well we made it back to England in one piece yesterday. The van ticked away like a champ the whole tour, clocked up just over 10000 Km. It was the trip of a lifetime. San Fermin (running of the bulls) was the biggest party on earth, we pretty much bathed in Sangria for three days straight. Lagos was epic, the van tour crew are insane. Once we left the tour we met some really great couples that we spent a week or so with through Croatia and Bosnia. Anyway check the pics.

Mirror

2006-08-29T12:51:00.000Z

We hired a kayak on lake bohinj in Slovenia. Crystal clear and calm.

Mostar

2006-08-29T12:49:00.000Z

This is the Mostar bridge in Bosnia, it was all destroyed in the war but has been rebuilt. The local blokes do some mean Gorilla's off the bridge to impress the Ladies.

Dubrovnik

2006-08-29T12:44:00.000Z

I stitched this together but only have the trial software on this PC (hence the watermark)

On the edge

2006-08-29T12:39:00.000Z

This was the best campsite of the tour, just over the border between Spain and France. Tim check the vis !! You can spot our van right on the edge, we walked down the little path on the cliff and went swimming. Amazing view from bed.

Alex on the Med

2006-08-29T12:33:00.000Z

Wow... The beaches in Spain are laden with topless bathers... even Alex gave it a go.

Bull running get-up

2006-08-29T12:20:00.000Z

This is the town hall in Pamplona where the festival starts.

Travel plans

2006-06-23T18:20:00.000Z

Hey

Well Beka and Mike arrived today. Alex and I finished work this afternoon and we move out of our flat tomorrow and start our journey, thought I’d give a brief timeline.

30th June we head to France on the ferry then make our way down to Pamplona in Spain for the San Fermin festival (Running of the Bulls) after a few days we will head to Lisbon in Portugal for a yacht regatta.

From there we will make our way to Lagos for a big party with the rest of the van's at Joe's Garage http://www.risingcock.com/joes/. From there we head around the coast of Spain (Valencia, Barcelona) and into France again, then make our way down through Italy and across to Sicily, then backup up to Bari to catch the ferry to Dubrovnik in Croatia. We will then make our way up the coast through part of Bosnia and onto Hungary then double back to Austria and up to Munich in Germany then a big mission to Amsterdam then Belgium and catch the ferry back to England on the 28th August.

I will do a big update when we get back to England and post some details of the next leg Russia to China. Yeeeha

Putney bridge

2006-06-23T18:06:00.000Z

This is Putney bridge just down the road from our flat. I stiched some photo's together so it is quite a big file.

Mr Karl Lellman

2006-06-23T17:57:00.000Z

Chilling in St Katherine's docks

The Sultans elephant

2006-05-06T21:17:00.000Z

Wow, a French theatre company put on a four day show in London called the Sultans elephant. It's about a Sultan that travels in his time travelling elephant in search for a little girl that has crash landed in her rocket. Thing is these crazy French built a huge (42 tonne) mechanical elephant and rode it around London playing out the story for four days. It took eight people to drive and had a fully operational trunk that sprayed water all over the crowd. Just about the best four days I've had in London, brilliant! Thinking about building a giant Hippo if anyone's keen.

Crowd pleaser

2006-05-06T21:12:00.000Z

The Sultans elephant and the not so little... little girl.

Padstow !

2006-04-23T19:44:00.000Z

We took a van trip to Padstow in Cornwall this weekend. It was a good test for the van. We knocked off worked at three on Friday and set sail for Padstow, it was a bit of an ambitious trip but we made the camp ground by 9:00pm. I had Rick Stein fish and chips for lunch, then dinner at the Rick Stein cafe (Massive bowl of mussels, haddock and a crème brulee) wow Rick rules! We drove up to Newquay on Saturday for a look around, very beautiful countryside and great to be out of London. Bring on the van tour...two months of work to go.

Chilling outside the van (Tim/ Kelly check the bad camping chairs, yeeha)

2006-04-23T19:38:00.000Z

Me and Rick go way back

2006-04-23T19:37:00.000Z

Row your boat

2006-04-03T21:10:00.000Z

We went along to the annual Oxford vs Cambridge rowing race, an elaborate excuse for a maa-husive booze up on the river banks. Al thought they needed and extra keel so offered his.

High brow

2006-04-03T21:03:00.000Z

Alex... I thought Oxford rowed Jolly well this year.. what what.. Jolly good show old chaps.. bravo

Blue

2006-03-31T21:29:00.000Z

Our van (Blue) ready for van tour. All decked out with a fridge, cooker, grill, oven and even an extractor fan. I'm going to get a solar shower and some NZ stickers and we will be ready to hit the road.

Paddy wagon

2006-03-31T21:28:00.000Z

Monkey at the helm

2006-03-31T21:26:00.000Z

Pot Head

2006-03-19T11:58:00.000Z

I'm sad to say that due to the abundance of readily available drugs in London Alex has developed an addiction. This is much worse than the "P" epidemic.

Classic Devon

2006-03-18T17:16:00.000Z

This is Lynmouth, up the hill is Lynton, they are joined by a water powered vertical railway. There was a studio apartment to rent above the ice cream shop, cheap as chips too. They have surf quite regularly, there were a couple of guys out the day we were there, bit cold though.

Puffin

2006-03-18T17:06:00.000Z

This is a nice part of the north Devon coast. I spent all day looking for a puffin.

Obey !

2006-03-04T16:29:00.000Z

Someone parked the Nautilus in London ? What would Jules Verne think ?

Grenade

2006-03-04T16:24:00.000Z

Tim vs Steinlager

Just like a magpie

2006-03-04T16:16:00.000Z

Yep Alex topped up our glassware at the flat and stole this Kronenburg half, a Guinness full and a Fosters ashtray for Eugene. Some other munters had bar stools, drip trays, bar mats the works.

Get out of jail free

2006-03-04T15:56:00.000Z

Monopoly pub crawl last weekend, with a bit of luck it will be the last pub crawl I have to do in London town. We made it to 15 of the ?? 25 pubs that were on our list. There are some amazing little pubs in the middle of London that you would never find if it were not for Monopoly, dusty old half pints and hung over bar staff.

The thing that really got me was that there were about three other groups of Monopoly crawlers doing the same thing, a very friendly lass (check out the photo) behind the bar informed me that they get half a dozen groups every weekend ! There was one particularly drunk crawler that really knew where it was at..... He had a Monopoly board under his arm, looked like he'd been doing it for a week, slightly aggressive and was not keen on having his photo taken.

Leave the milk on the bench

2006-03-04T15:39:00.000Z

Well.... this place is like living in a polluted blast freezer, I walked out of the office on my way home on Tuesday and got smashed with a snow storm, I was covered by the time I got to the tube station.

Lazy day at home today, Alex is hung over ! big style.

I'm going to look at a van for the van tour tomorrow, it's a 1992 Mercedes Benz and it's very very square, the most un - aero dynamic vehicle I've ever seen.....Perfect. Pretty sure we should call it THE BENZ (with some sort of diving picture painted on) get it ? ?

2006-03-04T13:44:00.000Z

Monkey at the circus

2006-02-11T10:08:00.000Z

I had to put this one up, Brighton pier rules, thousands of those little machines where you put 2p in the top and hope that 50p falls out the bottom. They always get the better of me, arrrgh I have a Milo tin with a slot in the top and have been saving 1p and 2p coins for eight months, watch out Brighton pier next time i'm gonna smash you and take all you pennys !!!

2006-02-09T13:10:00.000Z

Santa no !

2006-02-05T16:32:00.000Z

Dimples!

2006-02-05T16:30:00.000Z

Beautiful part of the coast down from Poole harbour.

2006-02-05T16:25:00.000Z

Dan vs Tower bridge

2006-02-05T16:16:00.000Z

The Eiffel (eye full) tower at night. City of looove and light. Who changes the bulbs ?

2006-02-05T16:13:00.000Z

One of the first times I’ve seen it snow properly, pure happiness!

2006-02-05T16:11:00.000Z

Ok these guys were cool crazy drunk french youths in Paris, get up get boozed go play music for strangers, what a life.

2006-02-05T16:09:00.000Z

And this is just for Mark, this came from a barn in the south island and was restored to 0 hours. Very cool.

2006-02-05T15:57:00.000Z

Just for Jimmy, called a vauxhall VXR over here.

2006-02-05T15:27:00.000Z

The team at the NZ food and wine festival in June last year, you can tie yourself to your glass ! great idea. You exchange pounds for fake kiwi money and sample it up at all the tents. Golden horse were great ! Oh and they had a sheep shearing area… go kiwi.

2006-02-05T15:22:00.000Z

Ok im going to save up and get one of these, the most fun I’ve had umm ever.