Rewiring engagements

Time has come around again for my annual update.

My trip to Darwin started just as planned. With a provisioned boat and no reason left to stay in port, I left my berth in the Brisbane River and meandered out onto Moreton Bay, where I planned to wait for a southerly change to sweep me up the coast. I tucked in behind the wrecks at Tangalooma, prepared a lovely big pot of bolognese (a tradition which begins all my passages) and ment ashore one last time to say goodbye to sweet old dry land. My southerly change was due just after dark. Back on board with the dinghy stowed away, I had the main up and the anchor up short before discovering my tricolour nav light refused to work. The subsequent tiff with the dilapidated wiring resulted in my returning to Brisbane and a couple of days aloft rewiring the mast.

And what a difference this one little setback made to my plans. Instead of Darwin and art centres, I found myself engaged to marry my wonderful Cate, packing up old Kalitsah on the hard in Scarborough and moving to Honiara in the Solomon Islands. In between I managed to squeeze in a cruise up to the Whitsunday Islands, finally acquire my Coxswain’s certificate, and sail back to Brisbane with Cate on board, the first of many cruises we will surely undertake together.

Four months in Honiara with no boat and an unsuccessful search for work began to take their toll, so I write now from Port Vila where I am to take charge of a yacht run by the organization Oceanswatch, a charity which specializes in marine conservation for remote communities in Melanesia. In store is a few months of fine sailing and diving through Vanuatu, surely one of the most exquisite cruising grounds around. Cate has had to stay in Honiara due to work commitments, so we will have to endure this period apart.

I have a few days in Port Vila before my boat arrives; just enough time to rekindle my affection for this sweet little town. And after Honiara, how sweet it is! Birds in the morning, water from the taps and blissful silence at night. And a harbour full of glorious cruising boats. I feel like I'm home.