A SAIL OF TWO PARTS

We are off again after a twelve month pause to sell our family house in the UK and buy a lock up and leave so we can continue the second half of our circumnavigation with fewer worries. 

As always the process of buying and selling in the UK is torturous, but we had a particularly bad experience with our rogue estate agent, Tom, the manager from Gascoigne Pees, who we increasingly became very suspicious of. Eventually he was caught-out inventing viewings and even fake offers on our house.  He said he did it because he liked us.  Go figure!

We had 22 years of very happy memories at Thicket Meadows

Needless to say we wasted quite a few months, Greg had to come back to Australia on his own to move Viridian down to Sydney out of the cyclone zone and then back up to Brisbane, which was a tough and lonely 4 month gig, in some difficult weather conditions.  He did get to anchor in Sydney Harbour in pole position to see the fireworks though and spent time with our good friends Mel and Brian on Go and Gill and John on Mehala.

Anchored ready for the fireworks

In the meantime Ed got married to Moere in Tahiti and is now living and working there.

Moere made her own dress.  She is a very talented seamstress

Greg then came back to UK to help with the sale of the house and buying our new place. We have bought a two bedroom flat with a balcony overlooking the River Thames near to Maidenhead Bridge.  Greg is here on the balcony, admiring the views and celebrating the fact that he no longer needs a lawn mower! 

On the bright side of the delays, we have had quality time to spend with family and friends plus Miranda and I got to celebrate milestone birthdays in our old house in Paine party style. So many sailing friends that we have met around the world on our travels, over the last eight years, managed to make my birthday party and others dropped into Maidenhead if they happened to be in the UK during the year. 

The girls celebrating big birthdays 30 and 70

Taken out to lunch by the fabulous Sue Johne

Great that Tim and Shane managed to make the party between filming

We were not playing statues.  I was blowing out candles at the time, but this is a good shot of many of our friends who made the effort to help me celebrate

Sally Rae popped up in the UK last seen in New Zealand and previously Tonga and Bora Bora. It was great to see her smiling as always. 

Sally Rae and Krystina Lushey sharing a joke

Great to see Glen and Oana when they dropped in for dinner

Glen and Oana paid us a visit on their travels, last seen in Whangerai when Glen sold his beautiful boat Cloudy Bay.

My mum turned 94 while we were at home and she came to stay several times before we sold the house.  She's on good form but her cooking days are over.  Still known to manage the occasional swear word though! Here she is lounging about on a sofa in John Lewis at High Wycombe, supposedly helping me do shopping. 

Miranda bought a puppy for Jake for Christmas.  She is a Bernese Mountain Dog named Winnie. Spending the first few months of life with her has been adorable, even though she did keep wallowing in the mud in the pond then running into the house.

Its very hard to be cross with Winnie 

I was more tearful about saying goodbye to Winnie than my house!

So after many unanticipated delays we have finally got back to Viridian in Australia. 

We recently left Brisbane, wearing our sea boots, multiple layers, fishermen's jumpers, bobble hats and socks (including in bed).  It was really cold and dull, so we were keen to get going, heading north to sunnier climes.  

Trying to get into Mooloolabar was not a great experience at the restart of our journey. We ended up circling in the bay in a huge swell for several hours, waiting for the water to be deep enough for us to cross the bar at the river mouth, during which time we saw several boats floundering, running aground and being flung by the massive breaking waves towards the stone harbour wall. One lost steering and had to call a Mayday to be rescued, another broached and was full of water when they came back upright.  Not pleasant, but it seemed to entertain the crowds that gather to watch on the 'mole' when the seas are treacherous.  

Because of our deeper keel we were the last boat to get through, just before dark.  Well done to Greg for navigating us through what turned out to be very difficult conditions.  A celebratory beverage was required.  

We have now reunited with Mel and Brian on catamaran Go and over the last few days have literally had a whale of a time sailing along the same route the humpback whales use for migration.  Not only have we had some close encounters ourselves, but we witnessed Maggie and Hugh on catamaran SiSi being literally surrounded by whales playing around their boat.  No harm was done, but it was tense for about half an hour.  Once anchored in Island Head we had drinks together and watched the amazing footage.

This was one of three whales we watched playing around
SY SiSi for over half an hour

This whale leapt out of the water next to Viridian  
Greg managed to catch it as it breached about 20 metres away 

We are now in Mackay just inside the Great Barrier Reef.  We have made some changes to our plans.  We had originally intended to go north from Darwin to Indonesia, but we have decided to cross from here or Cairns through a pass in the Great Barrier Reef to the Solomon Islands, then along the north coast of Papua New Guinea and onto Indonesia from there.  It seemed silly to miss the opportunity to visit more countries when we have the chance. 

Given that the next places have fewer facilities for repairs, we are getting lots of work done here in Mackay before we go.  We have decided to get a new set of sails and to get some spares for the auto helm plus a few other repairs and improvements that we have been putting off for a while.  So we are hopeful that we will be ready to leave Australia in the next month.

I had to go right to the top of the mast in the bosun's chair this week, to help get the foresail down which was stuck.  Greg winched me up to the top.  Not doing too badly for two oldies.  We know we have to stay as fit as possible to carry on with this life. 

In retrospect I think after 8 years of continuous travelling on Viridian and getting half way round the world, we were due for a break. I had lost some of my enthusiasm and as a result I have been very negligent on writing the blog for the last 18 months; but the break has given us new energy to continue and we are feeling excited about our next phase, so hopefully there will be interesting tales to come in part two as we cover the other half of the world.