The Sandgate Savant

This is my second attempt at describing my friend…it’s hard to put a person of Peter’s calibre into words.

I’d like to introduce you to Peter Davies (known only to me, in my head, as ‘The Sandgate Savant’): Sandgate*, owing to his place of residence, and savant, owing to his intellect, wisdom and knowledge.

I came to know Peter through a centuries old practice that I was eager to learn. You see, it was a requirement of mine that I navigate celestially, when possible, on my Pacific Journey. For the past year I had been asking every old sailor and mariner I knew if they could use a sextant. Invariably my question would elicit the same response. “Jeez, I used to know, but that was a long time ago now.”

It would seem that as soon as GPS became commonplace, every sextant on the east coast of Australia was put away, next to the Walkman and the spandex, never to be used again, along with the skills needed to operate it. This too was the case for my father, who was kind enough to give me the SAURA sextant his father bought for him in 1975.

So, I had a sextant and a desire to learn. All I needed was a teacher. Eventually, after many months of searching, a friend of mine gave me the phone number of a guy he knew who could navigate celestially. I didn’t get my hopes up, but it was worth a shot.

I picked up the phone, dialled the number and it began to ring. I was greeted by the friendliest and most genuine of voices. After a bit of back and forth it was decided I would come down to his place on the weekend and we’d have a chat. From that weekend onwards I gained not just a tutor, but a mentor and a true friend.

Our first meeting was a success. We got along well - the perfect combination of a top-class teacher and an eager student. From that day on our catch-ups became more regular, finding time whenever I could to drive to Peter’s home to shoot the sun, stars or just have a lesson at the dining table. I have very fond memories of going to Peter’s, just in time to walk down the road for a noon sight, then heading back to his place for some lunch and a few more hours of tuition, story telling and laughs. Invariably I’d stay until the sun went down, to shoot the stars. Dinner would be made by Peter’s amazing wife, Leonie, and we'd sit around the table while Leonie and Peter shared stories about their travels overseas, grandkids, and owning a trawler. I really enjoyed these times. It seemed like a true friendship was born. One night I learned that Leonie and Peter met at a music festival! Way cool.

Peter is a man of many talents. Over his lifetime he’s been a fisherman, commercial skipper, teacher, writer, boatbuilder and trawlerman (a painting of Peter's vessel, "Matchless", is below). And that’s just what he’s told me about! At present I’m pretty sure his main passion is birdwatching … or is it painting?

The majority of Peter’s working life was spent prawn trawling and teaching other young seamen at college. Therefore, our classes were enjoyable and there was always a daring story to be told. You could write a book full of Peter’s funniest quotes.

Learning to pinpoint my location within a few miles (on a good day) on the globe, using centuries old technology, was a genuinely rewarding experience. I haven’t had a learning curve that steep since the beginning of my apprenticeship. I’d almost forgotten how good it felt to be mentally challenged to that degree. Peter said I had an advantage being a boatbuilder. The sextant is a precision measuring device, like the callipers and rulers in my tool kit. The sextant is a tool whose functions needed to be second nature to me, like picking up a circular saw or a handplane.

Peter grew up in North Queensland. I don’t think he got a very good schooling, but that didn’t stop him from pursuing a scholarly outlook on life. Everything seems to interest Peter, from birds to boats, mathematics, science, computers, world events, art. Peter is the modern man. Not only has he taught me how to navigate, he has given me an insight into a new approach to life. There’s a right way to do everything. Throw a rope, draw columns on a worksheet, service a four wheel drive, use a program (did I mention he’s also a computer nerd?), or navigate using the stars - Peter’s got a professional approach to every task in life. Combine this with his jovial nature and fair dinkum Australian spirit, and you’ve got yourself the recipe for a life well lived.

I owe a lot to my friends Peter and Leonie and will never be able to pay them back. I just hope that one day, a few years down the track, I'll have absorbed enough of Peter’s wisdom to pass it on to the next generation.

What a guy.

*Sandgate is a Brisbane bayside suburb.