He and his partner Michelle are sailing home over the course of a year. Nick is the skipper, a tall, manly New Zealander with lots of racing experience and, doubtless, a firm hand on the tiller. Luckily I am old enough to have rote learned the right noises to make at an introduction so passed first muster, my fears of being immediately rejected as unfit to be the fourth member of crew assuaged. I was sleep deprived and hungover - not in the best state to make that initial good impression. My great couchsurfing host, Cory, dropped me at the dock where the boat bobbed at its mooring. Maybe the day I met the crew of Taniwha should have been an indication all would not be easy? And therein lies a story.

John's has turned from a charming seaport dotted with colourful clapboard houses to a grimy, industrial purgatory. And so over the two weeks I've been here St. Newfoundland is the end of Canada and I'm at the end of my trip – this waiting is the wait for my passage home. John's I haven't the luxury of walking away. Eventually, exhausted by this endless peering, I abandoned my card and put myself at the mercy of Western Union and the goodwill of family and friends in the U.K. Their schedule is random for security reasons and I felt like a rat in an experiment conditioned to constant hope by the arbitrary release of treats. I was waiting for the men who replenished the machine to free my card. For ten days I sat in my hotel room in Real de Catorce in Mexico casting longing glances across the plaza at the ATM. That, and for the winds to come round to the south and bear us fair away on a great circle for the Southwest. But instead we depart on it's eve, stymied by an interminable wait for a delivery of high-strength low-stretch rope. After my race across Canada to get here for the 5th August, I hoped that with a fast turnaround and swift passage we could be in Falmouth for my birthday. You might be forgiven for thinking we'd already left. Today the winds are fair and we will hoist our sails. Today is grey and misty and the waves slap gently against the hull of Taniwha.

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