Cairns, Queensland.
March 2017
Rallying for the Rally
During the wet and cold August in Bunbury WA, last year Leanne and I had gone for several weeks, without even mentioning it to each other. Leanne was suffering from dry eyes syndrome and had developed planta-fasciitis in her foot, which made going outside and walking quite a painful experience. I was working from early in the morning to late evenings. Thinking that this was all towards our goal of getting back on the boat, but at the same time getting quite despondent about it ever actually happening.
Out of the blue, Leanne got a face time call from our sailing buddies, Melian and Ian on Indian Summer. They had left Mandurah (Perth) six months ago to sail north through the Kimberleys to Darwin from where they had joined the Sail Indonesia Rally.
Melian's tales of adventure and fun sailing in the warm climate of Indonesia visiting many small villages the and Orang-utan sanctuary along their journey rekindled Leanne's sailing spirit at exactly the right time. She couldn't wait for me to get home from work. By the time I did trudge through the door, she had done quite a bit of research into Sail Indonesia.
It was inspiring to see Leanne so upbeat about our sailing adventures again. I was a little horrified about the idea of travelling through Indonesia as the last three times I have been to Bali I've suffered from Bali Belly (aka; dysentery) Also last time we were there Leanne caught a bout of denghy fever. so, no Indonesia didn't hold great memories, but at least it was nice to be discussing the possibilities and destinations and dreaming of sailing adventures again.
Over the next week or so Leanne did more research on yacht rallies in general, which is when she came across the Down Under Go East Rally. This was a rally, or if you like a convoy, that heads out to the South Pacific. The more we discussed the idea the more we like the sound of going in a convoy to the South Pacific and visiting the beautiful islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
The work I was doing at the time was four days on and four days off. As luck would have it, the Down Under Go East Rally was holding an information day in November at the boat works (where Easy Tiger was in storage) and on a day that fell right in the middle of my days off. So tickets were booked and arrangements made. We got to spend a few days on Easy Tiger and got to attend the information day for the Down Under Go East Rally. The best part, though was that we got to see so many of our sailing friends as they were packing up their boats after the cruising season that we had just missed.
Our arrival at the Boatworks coincided with Neville and Amanda lifting Bossa Nova out of the water for six months storage. Also, Brain and Eva from Sofia had come down from Brisbane for a short sharp visit and to attend the information day.
There were about 40 people in attendance at the information day, where the promoter of the rally, John Hembrow spoke. He showed us the barrier reef of New Caledonia and the lovely small villages and islands of Vanuatu.
New Caledonia certainly seems like a wonderful place to cruise for a few months. This French province has the second biggest barrier reef in the world that forms a huge lagoon full of differing islands.
We also heard from a guy who did the rally last year, which gave us confidence that we could do it.
After "expressing" our interest we started talking about it more. We discussed the possibilities at length with others that we knew. Most seemed quite interested. For me there was a fair bit of trepidation at taken on another long passage, as we had a bit of a rough time crossing the Great Australian Bight. This trio would be couple of hundred nautical miles longer. But the more we talked to each other and to other cruisers we knew each and every problem could be solved. Also we started adding up the costs, looking into things like national registration for the boat, Insurance for overseas passages, searching for crew and a whole host of other items.
While their seemed so much to think about, so much information to be sought and so many decisions to be made it could have been a bit overwhelming. The nice part was though that since that day we have approached our sailing adventures with a new sense of vigour and excitement. A dream was generated. It was just like the year before we left to sail around Australia. A whole new adventure.
We had started to rally for the rally.
It was inspiring to see Leanne so upbeat about our sailing adventures again. I was a little horrified about the idea of travelling through Indonesia as the last three times I have been to Bali I've suffered from Bali Belly (aka; dysentery) Also last time we were there Leanne caught a bout of denghy fever. so, no Indonesia didn't hold great memories, but at least it was nice to be discussing the possibilities and destinations and dreaming of sailing adventures again.
Over the next week or so Leanne did more research on yacht rallies in general, which is when she came across the Down Under Go East Rally. This was a rally, or if you like a convoy, that heads out to the South Pacific. The more we discussed the idea the more we like the sound of going in a convoy to the South Pacific and visiting the beautiful islands of New Caledonia and Vanuatu.
The work I was doing at the time was four days on and four days off. As luck would have it, the Down Under Go East Rally was holding an information day in November at the boat works (where Easy Tiger was in storage) and on a day that fell right in the middle of my days off. So tickets were booked and arrangements made. We got to spend a few days on Easy Tiger and got to attend the information day for the Down Under Go East Rally. The best part, though was that we got to see so many of our sailing friends as they were packing up their boats after the cruising season that we had just missed.
Our arrival at the Boatworks coincided with Neville and Amanda lifting Bossa Nova out of the water for six months storage. Also, Brain and Eva from Sofia had come down from Brisbane for a short sharp visit and to attend the information day.
There were about 40 people in attendance at the information day, where the promoter of the rally, John Hembrow spoke. He showed us the barrier reef of New Caledonia and the lovely small villages and islands of Vanuatu.
New Caledonia certainly seems like a wonderful place to cruise for a few months. This French province has the second biggest barrier reef in the world that forms a huge lagoon full of differing islands.
We also heard from a guy who did the rally last year, which gave us confidence that we could do it.
After "expressing" our interest we started talking about it more. We discussed the possibilities at length with others that we knew. Most seemed quite interested. For me there was a fair bit of trepidation at taken on another long passage, as we had a bit of a rough time crossing the Great Australian Bight. This trio would be couple of hundred nautical miles longer. But the more we talked to each other and to other cruisers we knew each and every problem could be solved. Also we started adding up the costs, looking into things like national registration for the boat, Insurance for overseas passages, searching for crew and a whole host of other items.
While their seemed so much to think about, so much information to be sought and so many decisions to be made it could have been a bit overwhelming. The nice part was though that since that day we have approached our sailing adventures with a new sense of vigour and excitement. A dream was generated. It was just like the year before we left to sail around Australia. A whole new adventure.
We had started to rally for the rally.
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| At home we had to make do with our inflatable friends while our sailing buddies were cruising without us. |
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| At the Down Under go East Rally information day we caught up with Brian and Eva off Zofia among others. Didn't take long for the Champers to come out. |
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| Really hope this guy isn't leading the Rally! |
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| Quite a crew got together for the Down Under Go East Rally |
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