The moon rose full and golden in the darkened sky, lighting up the lake, the park, the houses and the nearby jetty.
It was hot. We had pulled some mattresses onto the deck and were lying back, sipping on Baileys and relaxing after our very first day of sailing together.
It was a magical evening following a magical day.
We had explored starting the motor up and it had worked. We’d figured out how to get off the mooring and had found three sails. We were doing well!
We put up the foresail thinking it would be enough in a light breeze to get us going. But Selah, well she’s a heavy old thing and it soon became apparant that we would need the main sail if we were to get anywhere at all. This was our first time exploring Lake Macquarie and we did want to head out a bit and see more than just what was around the corner of Summerland Point where she is moored.
Peter got the right sail. Started to attach it. I looked at him. He was frowning, struggling to get the sail cleats to slide into the opening on the boom. We put the motor back on to get us moving a little and while I steered, he persisted. For nearly an hour he was going hard at it with a hammer and grippers pushing each cleat through and into the far-to-tight space.
‘This sail hasn’t been put up in years,’ he called out to me over the sound of the old Bucatti motor chug-chug-chuging along.
‘Nearly there,’ he announced finally and I looked up to see the sail almost fully attached.
He had sailed a few times before, but I was impressed at his knowledge. His capacity to work out what went where, how to do things. He has almost an innate ability to see things as they ought to be – as they once were.
Thats part of the appeal of the boat I suppose – the notion of taking this old thing and restoring it to how it once was.
Later, under the starry, moon-lit sky we spoke of relics and restoration.
We both felt like we’d been relics ourselves – people who had once been defined by our faults and weaknesses rather than our strengths and achievements – people who had been rejected and cast off as broken, failures, of no use. And yet we saw so much more in each other and together discovered a life rich and full. Felt that we were being restored daily to all we were ever meant to be.
‘Thats what I want for the boat,’ I smiled over at Peter – ‘I want her to be restored to how she was always meant to be.’

A relic, I read, is an item that remains from a past era. Well our delightful Selah is definitely that.
Our desire is to restore her to her best condition, and then sail her around the world – or as much of it as she can manage!
This blog is about the adventures we have along the way and a place to document what we do, both with her and because of her.
Already we have replaced the boards on the base of the cockpit that were rotten through.
Beneath her glass covering, Selah is made of Kauri Pine. We used a hard wood to replace the base of the cockpit and will fibe-glass over it.
We have rust-sealed the cables throughout and have painted them black – contrasting beautifully with the white exterior, and we have begun re-painting the deck and mast in a white gloss. She is beginning to gleam!
This is her before we started any work.