Ian's dream machine with a verse that tells all

Let me share this amusing and yet most informative and clever verse with you.

It was written by an admired friend, a great poet and a considerable yachtsman,

a boat-builder, a housebuilder, a man who very cleverly has found what must be Paradise, even if it is on our war-mongering world.

I met Ian Allen in Cape Town, who proved to be a source of great seafaring and navigational advice for that very tricky sailing region.

The Cape boasts sudden wild storms, a breeze-stealing mountain, and waiting beneath the keel - hopefully well below the keel - the notorious Agulhas Bank.

Perfect location

Ian, fortunate and wise man, has moved to God's Own, but not just anywhere in New Zealand but in the most fabulous part, at least in the estimation of this Cape Horner.

His gorgeous home faces Cook Straight, named after Captain James cook, of course, between the two main islands.

It stirs a pang in the breast to relate more about it, but if Ian looks to his portside, he is staring into the mighty Southern Ocean.

Look to starboard, and there's the Pacific. The air doesn't, couldn't, come cleaner anywhere else on our planet.

Ian told me, 'I was clearing out old documents on my computer and came across this.

'I was asked by friend Natalie to define gaff cutter, the rig of Tiptoe which I was in the process of building.' This was the brilliant fellow's definition ...   Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/481-ian-s-dream-machine-with-a-verse-that-tells-all