[□=□] | □
[tag=□] | □
[lemma=□] | □
After supper a fine old yacht flying the Stars and Stripes came in under sail , dropped anchor , and dug it in by reversing the boat under mainsail alone . Late in February a seasoned , well-practiced , race-hardened , swashbuckling , supremely confident Italian team began its series against little ol ' New Zealand , who had not yet sailed a single race . We saw nothing for eight days , no land , no lights , no other ships , no aeroplanes , nothing except for two albatrosses and a school of flying fish . For the venue she found a bird sanctuary near the Thames estuary , with cooking facilities and dormitory-style accommodation . A huge black-painted concrete bull lounges near the hill temple in Mysore , horns garlanded with flowers . We've been out sailing every month except when Ian was in Europe . She got another job in a health club near where we used to live , but public transport from her apartment was difficult . Another noteworthy event on that trip occurred in a taxi to Newark airport : they ran out of gas in the middle of a tunnel under the Hudson river during rush hour . Except that one of his hosts in the International Development Center he was visiting at Tulane University , an expert on disaster cleanup and management , was spirited away to the Nevada desert by the US Army for secret meetings for most of the duration of Ian 's visit . We lowered the mainsail and bore off under jib to seek shelter , but Beulah handled so well under jib alone that we decided to continue . They tried to poke upwind of us but our rounding had been impressively tight and they had to back off and sail through our lee - - almost swallowing our dinghy during the manoeuvre . By a strange twist of fate a partner in our doctor 's practice , a family friend , was at Great Barrier Island on her own family 's boat , and Ian was tested on arrival , diagnosed not with plain old seasickness but with a grumbling appendix , and put to bed on the hospital ship ( the doctor 's boat ) following a preliminary radio call to the marine emergency centre in case a helicopter had to be summoned during the night . The next morning was nice enough to tempt us into a circumnavigation of Waiheke , but once we were committed to this plan the wind increased to 25 knots with big gusts , and we had to tack against it all day . Talking of the volcano - - although Ruapehu is only a couple of hours drive from us and can be seen from the top of Hamilton 's tallest building ( a mere seven stories ) , life was not in the least affected by the eruptions except that the airport was sometimes closed at night because of drifting , incredibly gritty , volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere . Within three days she had chosen her courses , found a house very near the university with about six other students ( it varies ) , and was working part-time to support herself . She went to France to stay with Pam 's brother Steve , who runs a hotel in a tiny village near Toulouse , and had a great time there . Of many amazing sights the most stunning was Matai Bay , on a remote and deserted peninsula with no services except a campground : a beautiful , symmetrical , double bay , with white surf and golden sand , backed by lurid green bush and , once beyond the vicinity of the campground , apparently untrodden by human foot . Well , we did , but spent over 24 hours running under bare poles in four metre waves with no sails up at all . And one of her friends committed suicide in Wellington during the year . Security is excellent , not only guarding against unwanted visitors but also checking that boats remain properly moored and do n't sink ! She got a little temp work , but spent a lot of time alone in the house during the day . We had a cozy farewell party with friends at Jo 's place on New Years Eve , during which the temperature plummeted and snow - - long overdue , we thought ! No , not the dinghy bumping against the side , the keel on a freak rock ( it was low water ) .