Sailing Around Australia; Best Wishes

East Coast Marina, Manly, Brisbane

12^th January 2016  

Best Wishes

I think Christmas and new years compliments, greetings and best wishes for the new year are just about done. It’s now the 12^th of January so I think it’s time to dispense with the seasons greetings. If there is possibly anyone we missed during the festive season, then happy new-year and best wishes to you too.

Thinking of all the best wishes that we received and that we sent for the new-year, got me thinking. What if we were actually granted three wishes for our sailing around Australia adventure? What would we use them for?

I am pretty sure that we would wish for good health first and foremost.

We have kept very good health on our sailing adventure so far, except Leanne has been suffering from very dry eyes for the last six months. Her eyes are most affected by wind and bright light so sailing hasn’t been a whole lot of fun for her. She has been having treatment while we’ve been based in Brisbane, so hopefully the problem will soon be fixed.

We also would extend the wish of health to our family and loved ones. 2015 had us feeling very blessed we are ok. Sadly, a much loved extended family member was struck down with motor neuron disease, another had open heart surgery (at 80 years of age), my dad lost all independence courtesy of another stroke and my mum has been suffering a debilitating liver problem.

Even our sailing buddies have had a horrible cancer scare.

These loved ones had a terrible year. Proof that no one really knows when health issues will strike. Without sounding uncaring, Leanne and I use these peoples health issues as sort of motivation. If we had sat back and waited for the “right” time or until we were ready to retire, we may not have been physically able to do it.

The second wish is that we have enough money to continue our sailing adventure for another year.

Money, for me, is like oxygen, you can’t do much without it.

The end of 2015 has seen share market woes and a lot of investments and therefore peoples incomes knocked.  Almost all the fellow sailors we have met along the way are retired and about 5 to 7 years older than us with many relying on their super for income.  I hope things are ok for all of them, if we were the only ones out there it wouldn't be as enjoyable.

We rely on rent income that is contracted for another year and dividends from a business we are partners in. I can read the writing on the wall and can see our business finding the going pretty tough this year.  But Leanne and I are fit and healthy and quite capable of doing a lot of different things, so if it comes to that we will go and get wwww……k. (the W word is unmentionable on board Easy Tiger).

The third wish I would use is all about enjoying the moment.

There is no doubt that we are restless souls. We want to experience a number of things before our time is up, but there is a saying, “The past is gone, the future hasn’t happened yet, so be in the present”.

It is so easy to get caught up in wondering where we will be at the end of the year, or where we will live once we are done sailing, or who we are going to sail with next month, that we actually miss the interesting things and the opportunity right where we are.

For example, had the weather allowed us to use Bundaberg as an overnight stop only, as we intended, we would have missed the turtle centre at Mon Repos. That turned out to be a real highlight. It was where we saw huge loggerhead turtles crawl up the sand to lay their eggs on the exact same beach where they hatched twenty or more years before.

I must say it is also hard not to feel a bit, well, guilty, to be living our fantastic adventure as our friends and family work through the hardship of fly in fly out jobs, suffer  job also financial loss.

We do realize that we can’t control others fortunes though and if we were at home with 9-5 jobs, our friends and family would still have there ups and downs no matter how much we wished they didn’t have to.

So with the festive season done, this week we will take down the Christmas lights, dust off our sails and head out into the wide blue yonder once more.

We are hopeful of health wealth and content, but more importantly we want to inspire all to throw caution to the wind, get up, get out and stop dreaming, start doing, because you will never know what’s around the corner.