John, the male and experienced sailor of the lifestyle sailing couple

1955,    I was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on the shores of the Manukau Harbour, the oldest of, soon to be, five brothers and sisters..

1967,    Dad bought me my first sailing boat, a 2.1 metre (7 foot) P class.  And so started my life of boats. Every year since, including the years ashore, I’ve always had something to mess about in, as Ratty says in ‘Wind in the Willows’, “…nothing so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

1975,    In the winter instead of sailing, I built my first boat, a 3.7 metre (12 foot), Bruce Farr designed, single person on a trapeze, sailing skiff.
I completed the year by quitting university study and went walk about.
While walking the coast of New Zealand, I asked myself  “Can I build myself a boat good enough to cross the Pacific?”

1976,    With the success of this first building project and the confidence of youth, I decided to build an 8 metre (26 feet) bilge keeler with the intention of crossing the Pacific.

1980,   February 23rd; I launched ‘Liu Shueng’, after four years building her in the back yard of a student flat in the middle of Auckland, and moved aboard.

1981,   19th May, Departed NZ with my girlfriend Liu Shueng, aboard ‘Liu Shueng’ bound for French Polynesia.
20th June arrived Rapa Island, the most southern of the French Polynesian Islands, after 31 days at sea.
For the rest of 1981 cruised French Polynesia and Cook Islands, visiting Raivavae, Tahiti, Moorea, then on to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and back to Mopelia in French Polynesia for Christmas.

1982,   Visited Huahine, Raiatea, Tahiti again and met the owner of the coconut plantation on Mopelia, where he equipped me with the tools of a Copra Cutter and returned to Mopelia, to work as a Copra Cutter for the next three months.
28th June retuned to Rarotonga to provision up for sailing to North America.
19th July departed Rarotonga, bound for Hawaii, arriving Maui Island having had a mostly calm passage that took 34 days.
With no entry visa, it was a brief visit for repairs to the battens before heading off again on 29th August arriving at Victoria, British Columbia 34 days later.  Winter was coming, it was getting cold and we had no heating on the boat.
Installed a wood burner and secured work building the yacht La Contessa for Glen Yarbrough and settling in to live in Port Townsend, Washington for the winter.

1983,    7th May we headed north via the west coast of Vancouver Island in search of hot springs, glaciers and Alaskan wildlife.
13th September, back from our Alaskan summer, we departed Tofino, Vancouver Island arriving at San Diego 17 days.
14th Dec we left San Diego, with Liu Shueng’s two teenage children on board 26 feet to spend Christmas  with the Grey Whales at Magdalene Bay, Baja California.

1984,    24th March we departed San Carlos, Baja California arriving at the Marquesas Islands 30 days later at Hiva Oa.  Once more back in French Polynesia we visited Fatu Hiva, Papeete, Raiatea and Scilly Island to visit my old friends Calami and Sophie, finally returning to Mopelia.  Hit the coral edge of the pass at Mopelia while entering and spent a month repairing the broken rudder and its gudgeons.  Once repaired, continued my single handed journey to Aitutaki, Cook Islands to meet up with Liu Shueng who had flown back to NZ from Papeete.
9th September we departed Aitutaki, sailing south for Rarotonga, 142 miles away.  Due to bad luck, a storm coming through and bad tacking decisions, we never got to Rarotonga instead ending up 70 miles to the south of Rarotonga, with the wind still blowing from our destination. We had spent 11 days going right around the island but not getting any closer.  We made a decision to give up and sail on to New Zealand.  Got some fresh water and provisions from Manaia, while heaved-to off the island (no harbour) and then set sail for what turned out to be a very calm final leg back to New Zealand.  All in all we had been at sea 42 days.

1985,    I took the boat out of the water at Span Farm, Auckland for a much needed coat of paint inside and out.  It was back to boat building to refurbish the coffers, completing a 32 foot twin keeler. Then off cruising a New Zealand winter, firstly around Auckland, then south to the South Island of New Zealand via North Cape.  Ending the year cruising around the Marlborough Sounds.

1986,    This was my first attempt at adventure tourism; I’d take backpackers for four day sailing camping tours out of Nelson.  It was lots of sailing and fun but not very financially rewarding.
I passed my CLM (Commercial Launch Master) Ticket and secured my first ferry skippers job, back near Auckland, at Tairua on the Coromandel peninsula.  This meant sailing back north completing my circumnavigation of the North Island.
I spent two summers, 86-87 and 87-88 ferrying passengers across the Tairua Harbour, with the winter between spent working in Germany with Isolde, my German girlfriend and her family, rebuilding their old family home.

1988,    The summer at the end of this year saw my last year as a ferry skipper, now doing harbour cruises on the Whangaroa, in Northland, N. Z.  Entertaining at first, moving passengers had lost its appeal.  No adventure to be found gently steaming around a mostly calm harbour.  Plus there was no money in it.  Time for a change…

1989,   I now abandoned my life of living afloat and going where the mood took me.  I came ashore and set up an Eco-Tourism business, combining my love of adventure with my love of people.  Called the ‘Green Beetle’, I started out running 6 day tours of Northland.  This went on for five years, expanding to trips up and down the North Island and then seeing the limitations of the business, I sold it.

1994,   The next ten years involved a number of business exploits as I studied business, people and the world of work, first working as a staff trainer, studying HR and all the relevant courses I could find.  I moved on to be a careers consultant, then a business coach, finally ending up teaching my own programmes on prosperity and leverage.

2004,    This was also the year that Wilma and I began our conversations about building a live-aboard sail boat and once more return to the life I love, living and exploring the world and its oceans.

2004 - to the present day:    We have been going sailing and talking sailing as the occasion arises. However our current focus is not on the coean but on cyberspace. We are building an internet learning business, WomenLikeMe first, as every boat building project needs a steady flow of cash. So first things first, get the business profitable then build a boat. In the meantime, we have relocated ourselves from living in the city of Auckland, NZ to rural Northland (Waipu) a much better place for building boats.

We have stopped posting on this blog for the time being but our story can be followed on Wilma’s Blog which does publish every week. Look forward to seeing you there.

Joyful sailing
John Channings