14 August 2016 | Tregoning is in Whangarei Town Basin Marina, Whangarei, New Zealand but we are in Wakefield, Great Britain
Photo: The Fox Family in Wakefield L to R; seated Andrew and Judith; standing Tori, Roger, Tom, Hannah
As I have commented before on this blog, the cruising lifestyle has some significant positive and negative aspects when it comes to making and maintaining relationships with friends and family. There are long periods, such as when blue-water sailing or cruising in remote areas, during which interactions with people outside your boat are few or none. This is not a bad thing when anticipated and when all is going well with the onboard relationships, and with the magic of electronic communication we are rarely truly isolated from family and friends. However, for those of us (particularly I think women) who are used to being surrounded by colleagues and friends, after a while the desire to establish new, or rekindle old, friendships becomes stronger.
The beauty of cruising is that it often does not take long to establish new friendships because there is already so much in common with your lifestyle and values. Once you reach popular boating areas, most of the cruising community is pretty sociable, and opportunities to establish many new friendships abound (such as the inevitable potlucks or meeting at the washing machines). Of course, the downside is that as quickly as you make new friends, either you or they will be moving on and you may, or may not, be likely to cross paths again. There are many Hellos and many Goodbyes in cruising and you either have to tolerate the latter well or become a really keen email correspondent. Typically each year, I find that we stay in touch with about one in five of the crews that we get to know fairly well (at least, invite over to each other’s boats for appetizers and drinks). A few we will meet again in other cruising areas or when we return to land in the US or Canada and with some we gradually lose contact but, in general, my Christmas email-list is getting longer!
The most major shortcoming of long-distance cruising is that it is often difficult or very expensive and time-consuming to attend important life-events and gatherings of family or friends. Such was our position when Andrew’s older son, Tom, married Hannah in July 2015. We were in French Polynesia, on our way from Mexico to New Zealand, and we did not try to find a place to store the boat and fly back to Britain for the wedding. With the help of Tom’s brother, Roger, while we were all in Mexico we had made a brief video for the happy couple, and we emailed Tom a photo of ourselves toasting the nuptials from a remote bay on Ile Ra’iatea. We also received from Andrew a lovely collection of photos from the beautiful wedding on the banks of the River Thames, so we had seen Hannah but we had never actually met her.
So 13 months later, we finally got to meet Hannah, the newest member of the Fox family. She and Tom had driven over for the weekend from Birmingham, where they both work as engineers on aspects of aircraft engines and related systems. They are a lovely couple and are both keen athletes, Tom in Ultimate (Frisbee) and Hannah in field hockey. We had not seen Tom since he visited us for a few days in Panama so it was wonderful to catch-up with all of his news and to get to know Hannah.
On Sunday morning (August 14th), all of us (other than Randall) went for a long, pleasant walk around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Straddling the border of West and South Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is located in the parkland of Bretton Hall, a 18th century estate. Although the Park does have extensive indoor sculpture exhibitions, the main features are large pieces scattered around the grounds. Some of these blend well into the landscape, utilizing indigenous materials, while others are bold structures constructed from metal, polished stone, or varnished wood. Particularly featured are the bronze or stone abstract sculptures of Henry Moore (1898 – 1986) and Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975). Both were from West Yorkshire and met at the Leeds School of Art. Given their similar styles of large, modern sculpture, they continued a friendly professional rivalry for many years. In 2011, a gallery dedicated to Hepworth’s work was opened in her hometown of Wakefield.
“Let 100 Flowers Bloom” at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park
The Sculpture Park and the Hepworth Gallery are the two main tourist attractions near Wakefield. This town of 77,500, has a fairly long history but its does not share the attractive location, significant historic events, and grand buildings that make York such a popular tourist destination. A church and settlement of Wachfeld was mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book and in 1203 the town was given a grant to hold a market. In 1765, what was to become one of the largest cattle markets in northern England was established in Wakefield. By the beginning of the 19th century, once canals had been constructed throughout the country to provide the superhighways of the day, Wakefield had become a wealthy market town and inland port trading in wool and grain.
As the Industrial Revolution (1760 – 1840) progressed, wool spinning mills using steam power were built by the river. There were also several breweries, a glass-works, engineering works, soap-works, and brickyards. On the outskirts of Wakefield, coal had been mined since the 15th century and by 1869, there were 46 small mines in the area. The glass and textile industries closed in the 1970s and 1980s, and coal faced competition from alternative sources and demand decreased. The coal mines around Wakefield were amongst the first in Yorkshire to close under the government of Margaret Thatcher. The subsequent economic decline and high rates of unemployment made for difficult times in Wakefield, but reinvestment and increases in the service and distribution industries in the 21st century have resulted in various urban regeneration projects and a more stable economy. Whether Wakefield has quite recovered its reputation from the Middle Ages as the “Merrie City”, well-stocked with cheap food and coal, is perhaps a question of personal opinion.
Heather-clad slopes along the Pennine Way; part of a walk we enjoyed with Judith and Andrew before we left for Scotland
After a late lunch, Roger and his girlfriend Tori arrived on the train. We had heard much of Tori when Roger visited us in Mexico, but we had not met her before as she had been busy when we dashed through London at the beginning of our UK trip. They had been at a friend’s wedding the day before and they had to return to London that evening so it was just a flying, afternoon visit but we greatly appreciated the effort that they made to come and see us. Tori is a professional musician, working mostly with choirs, and we enjoyed hearing about her work and getting to know her. Although we would be spending more time in London at the end of our visit, Roger and Tori would be away at that time, joining all of Judith’s family at her brother’s house in southern France. While it was wonderful to be in Britain during the summer, planning our visits to family and friends around everyone’s vacations had been quite challenging. Still, we had been very lucky so far and we were pleased to have seen most of my family members. Next, we would be heading further north to Scotland, to catch-up with several friends from my post-grad days when I lived in Glasgow.