No denying call of sea

BY REBECCA WALSH

Eight months after the yacht he was sailing sank near Great Barrier Island, old salt and historian Dr David Lewis is ready to go cruising again.

After weeks of bad dreams brought on by the sudden sinking of the Taniwha in April, the 83-year-old says he is not worried about taking to the sea in his "new" boat, Leander.

"I'm not nervous at all. It was just a one-off accident. It's not going to happen again."

Dr Lewis, who sailed single-handed in Antarctica in 1972, was one of four people rescued from a liferaft after one of Taniwha's masts broke loose below the deck and gashed the hull at the start of a trip to Fiji.

At the time Dr Lewis said the sea had its dangers anywhere.

"It can jump and bite you as easily in the Hauraki Gulf, Great Barrier Island, as it can off Cape Horn.

"I think possibly to a certain extent I've been living on borrowed time."

Although Dr Lewis has done little sailing since the accident, he has not let it slow him down.

Speaking from Sydney, where he is living with family, he says he has been busy restoring the 40-year-old Leander, an 8.5m wooden yacht.

He plans to cruise up to the Barrier Reef and would like to visit the Pacific Islands again. A trip "back home" to New Zealand is also likely.

"I've missed it [sailing], naturally, but it's no use living in the past. If you have a setback you have to put it behind you."

Last June, Dr Lewis, who has studied ancient Micronesian and Polynesian sea travel around the Pacific, flew to the Micronesian island of Yap to return a sacred barnacle recovered from the wreckage of the Taniwha.

The barnacle, considered to be a navigational tool by the Micronesians, had been placed in his care 25 years ago on the understanding that if it was no longer at risk of being destroyed by religious people it would be returned.

The islanders were excited to have it back, Dr Lewis says.

"The climate has changed a lot. The [Catholic] church has become more amenable to the old beliefs."

Recording his adventures in an autobiography entitled Shapes on the Wind - his 12th book - has also occupied much of his time over the past three years.

HarperCollins released the book here in November.