ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

These short boating memories are written cathartically. For the liberation of past escapades. They are channel-markers left astern in a search for freedom. Written for family and friends and anyone who dreams of escaping a menial existence.

This obsession with boat’s, or what I often refer to as my genetic affliction, can be largely attributed to my mother, Eve Zeeman and her fisher-cestors and also, possibly being born on a full-moon.  The name Zeeman, translated from Dutch, means sailor or man of the sea. Not that it’s unusual for any Dutchman to be linked to the oceans I suppose, as the Dutch were once a great seafaring nation, charting the oceans of the world, and with about half the country lying below sea level, we should all have been born with gills.

My practical maritime experiences began at 14 restoring a sixty-foot Halverson motor cruiser with my Dad in Sydney Australia. Since then, I’ve owned and restored a dozen or more boats. Timber yachts, fiberglass cats, speedboats and cruisers. I’ve sailed in two Sydney Hobart races, through storms, cyclones and had cruising adventures in the South Pacific. I raised my three kids on and around boats we owned and now at 74 have just completed the restoration of a motor-cruiser and keen to get on with the next ?.

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