Characters, masks and the boat

Darth and Stormy prepare to go to sea..not in a pea green boat. Inspired by the adventuring charachters of Edward Lears famous children’s poem the Owl and the Pussy Cat will take to sea in an old IOR (International offshore racing) boat from the 1970’s named Darth Vader. Not a flash racing boat by modern standards, and since having been turned into a cruising boat, Darth Vader is currently under refit by the Owl and the Cat below the Owl’s parents garden (nest) in the mid to upper reaches of the upper Auckland harbour. The boat was named Darth Vader when it was built in 1976 when the first Star Wars epic had just been released from the cinema. The previous owners children had decided what the boat was to be called and in much debation of us changing the name realised we had become fond of it’s nonsensical nature (and apparantly the charachter Darth Vader had repented in some way by the end of the series of films and wasn’t too bad a chap…? hmm) The name however will play havoc on the ships radio of course and we wonder how many ‘may the force be with you’ greetings or farewells will be mentioned on arrival or departure from port.

Darth, the Owl who is the head skipper of the ship believes himself to be Darth Vader himself. Stormy, the Cat finds this comical and plays along. We played on the idea of a favourite sailors drink called Dark and Stormy, which combines dark rum and ginger beer, the owl likes this very much too.

Masks and why ? Tired with narcissistic social media feeds and reality in general ( or some parts of) we thought it would be fun to make a blog with a fictional bent and masks seemed like a good way to cover up our faces but also able us to be more open in front of the camera.  With masks on we can be as narcissistic as we like.