Sailing Around Australia; 100% Success Rate

10/12/2014 = Crown Marina, Adelaide

100% Success Rate

In february this year I wrote a blog titled "who you know not what you know".  It was about the really amazing people we had met during our sailing around Australia adventures.

At that point, we had made it across the Great Australian bight and found refuge in Streaky Bay. Since then we have sailed via Port Lincoln to Adelaide.

From Noel and Sue Seymour's water cannon greeting at Bunbury, Brian (b5) at Albany, Heather, Peter, Jill and Bill in Bremer Bay, Ken at Hopetoun, Fud and Faye as well as Ray in Esperance and then Geoff and Heather in Streaky bay the people we have met up with have really made this adventure.

Amazingly, we have maintained our success rate with meeting terrific people have helped us out in each and every port we have visited.

In Port Lincoln we met Gary, who helped us out with a lift to here or there. One day he took us to Bunnings, but unfortunately his car broke down while we were there. I managed to get a lift back to the boat with Pamela Price. We didn't know it at the time but we would later get to know Pamela's thoughtfulness and generosity.

When we first arrived in Port Lincoln, we anchored out the front of the Port Lincoln Sailing Club. We  went  ashore to do some shopping. On the beach a fellow came up to us asking questions about the catamarans. His name is David Kerr. He had just bought a catamaran and was busy organising the trip back from the sunshine coast to Port Lincoln.

We invited David and his wife Sonia to join us on board for dinner that night. We had a lot in common, although David has far more toys than I could even dream of. They run a business based in Alice Springs that keeps them busy travelling back and forward. With David and Sonia, we shared fun trips to the pig farm, (where everyone should order the "elvis" pancakes) and  lunches at their house. They have become firm friends.

David has really earnt my respect. Having never sailed before, he sailed his catamaran all the way  from Sydney to Port Lincoln (including Bass Strait) with only himself and another inexperienced  mate on board.

After several months in Port Lincoln, we sailed around to Adelaide. While we were away from the boat
working, a fire in a boat yard up the road brought fireman Ian Sulley to the marina. Ian is another who has a dream of sailing off into the sunset. Easy Tiger caught his attention and as we had our phone number on the side, Ian sent us a text and we kept in touch during our stint in Arno Bay.

When  we got back to Adelaide, we invited Ian and his wife Susan on board.  After a tour of the boat and bit of story telling, Ian and Susan offered us the use of their car... for two days. How helpful. Then they offered to have us around for dinner. Then, they told us they were off to India for three weeks and we could stay at their house plus use their car while they were away. How generous!

The need to work took us from Adelaide to Arno Bay.  Leanne was working in the local Grain storage silos. In a strange twist of fate, I was offered a job truck driving for a family with a large farm in the Arno Bay area. It turns out that the guys I would be working for were Pamela Price's sons. The lady who gave me a lift back from Bunnings in Port Lincoln.

We got into working pretty hard and long hours in Arno Bay. After Leanne had worked a  long and particularly frustrating day, there was a knock on the door. It was Pamela with a bunch of flowers, some home made cheesecake and a smile. Pamela  introduced Leanne to another lovely lady called Barbara, and these simple, generous gestures made our stay in Arno that much easier.

In each and every port that we have visited, the biggest highlight by far and also the biggest revelation for us has been the fantastic people that we have met. We have a 100% success rate at meeting great people in each port we have visited.

Leanne says that the greatest lesson for her is about "paying it forward". That is, when one person helps another, it motivates that person to help someone else and a chain reaction is created. It has changed our focus from ourselves to wanting to help others. What a really nice mindset to be in.