SOMETHING ABOUT BILL
In days gone by when cruising sailors arrived from overseas they were treated like royalty. They were such a rare and adventurous breed that in every port they arrived at they had the mana of a celebrity.
The locals would sweep them up in their embrace and lavish assistance, open their homes and take them on forays into the hinterland, showing them proudly around their place in the world. A cruising sailor’s arrival seemed to spark a warm hope in people who lived a predictable landlubber existence.
Time moved on and visits by cruising yachts are now so commonplace in New Zealand that people barely notice, or worse, treat them with disdain as some kind of nautical gypsy.
That was until Canadian Bill Norrie turned up one Thursday afternoon off Lyttelton Harbour after a 92-day solo sail from Cape Town, South Africa during one of the world’s great pandemics.
