Saiing around Australia; Family Matters

Blackwattle Bay, Sydney Harbour.

28/5/2015 – Family Matters

To tackle an adventure such as Sailing around Australia there has to be some sacrifices. Probably the biggest sacrifice is family time.

Somewhere I read that Leanne and I are now classified as Sandwiches. That is we are in between our now independent children and our aging parents.

With our son working on a super yacht and travelling all over the world and our daughter settled in Cairns, we probably wouldn’t have had seen much more of them than we do now, had we stayed in Bunbury working jobs.

Our parents are also ok health and care wise at the moment as well. We do feel a bit guilty for not being on hand to help them out and miss sharing time with them, but we figure they will need us to be close by at some stage in the future.

So with these factors opening a window of opportunity, we set off on Easy Tiger to have ourselves an adventure.

Little did we know, as we sailed into the sunrise, that this adventure would allow us time to reconnect with extended family and how rewarding that experience would be.

This week I have clocked up another birthday, which I could have done without. Except, that Leanne, Bree and Luke all put together and brought Bree to Sydney for a few days on the boat with us. A better birthday present I couldn’t think of.

Also, We have been joined on board Easy Tiger by Leanne's sister Sue. Sue arrived on my birthday so that helped make up the numbers for my birthday lunch. As a real treat 1/3rd of our sailing family, the Zofians, joined us for my birthday lunch as well.

Probably the most important item on my agenda for coming in to Sydney harbour for me was to see and spend time with my sister and her family. They have been in Sydney for 8 or so years, while we were in Bunbury building our business, so time together has been rare.

Unfortunately, the timing of our stay in Sydney harbour wasn’t great for them. They were moving out and then back into their house during renovations and then had to contend with the grief of the sudden passing of a family friend in the same week.

We had some time one afternoon, not nearly enough to get time to reconnect, but the hectic pace of everyone’s life in Sydney is evident in all that we tried to do while here.

Being from a small country town and farming community, my parents’ family seemed to be far more “connected”. Maybe that is because my dad’s brother is married to my mum’s sister, so rather than having to go to see “her” side of the family then “his” side, we could cover them all with one rendezvous and that meant we were a bit more tight knit. I remember many trips to the city to visit either grandparents or to the city cousin’s place.

Living on a farm in the country, I was often left up to my own devices, which I wouldn’t change, but it did leave one out of the social loop so to speak.

During visits to these uber cool city cousins on school holidays or the occasional weekend, I would learn so much. I would come back home with the latest hip sayings that I delighted in repeating to the other farm kids on the school bus. For example, everything was “dead set” until the next visit.

During one of these trips I was taken to my first footy match, to watch my older cousins Mark and Peter play little league. That was where I discovered Aussie rules footy existed. It became an interest of mine from then that I still have now.

Sadly, my dear Aunty Jo and John and their four kids left Perth in 1973. When I was 12. The tyranny of distance and the necessities of life from then saw visits become a rarity, so with our time in Sydney, the second item on my agenda was to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

Our first Sydney stop at Cronulla, allowed us to make the first visit, my Aunt Jo and Uncle John. Even the conversations on the phone to arrange to meet, but especially within seconds of our meeting in person, one thing struck me. We are family.

The sense of family was not only instantly recognizable, but also, very strong. It was little things. Uncle John at one time had his own aeroplane. He had a picture of it on a wall when we visited their home. I instantly remembered the time he landed it at our farm and how I thought on that day, that they were the coolest family…ever. They arrived for a family visit in an aeroplane! Give them the trophy.

Next, we spent an afternoon and evening with my cousin Sue and her husband Doug. Leanne really liked these two, probably because they arrived at the boat with a bottle of Moet. Leanne’s kind of people, my family. These two sure fit a lot into a week. The visit reminded Leanne and I of all the hours put in to building our business, so that one day we might be able to realize our dream of having an adventure.

On a Sunday we had lunch with my cousin Peter, his partner Kirsty and friends Simon and Anna. We really appreciated this time as Pete commutes to Brisbane each week for work, so time at home must be very precious. After the restaurant, we went back at Peter and Kirsty’s home, and found photo’s of the old days including the little league team photo that jogged more memories.

During the next week, we had my youngest cousin Michael, his wife Polly and daughter Grace on board for morning tea. Again, it was an absolute delight to meet up with another member of my extended family.

We invited Michael and his family to come on board for a night sail around to Circular Quay we were planning. This was to take in the Sydney “Vivid” light show.

We were absolutely blessed to have Michael, Polly, Grace, Bella and Phoebe on board for the evening. Easy Tiger probably didn’t even need to move out of the anchorage to look at the spectacular light show that includes the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House having images projected on to them. The conversation between all of us continued at full pace all evening.

One thought that did cross my mind while I transferred our guests to shore in the dinghy was, as my last name is Ludemann, it would not be very often that you would find a dinghy with 6 Ludemanns in it would you.

I have seen though, that the family I thought were uber cool city cousins are just that, family. Even though in some cases it may be 20 years since we have spent time together, I still think they are all very cool. Dead set.

Our time in Sydney Harbour, taking in the sights, the vivid light show and the iconic landmarks has been very special and memorable, but has been well overshadowed by family matters.