Rather a coincidence but at some point today, we realised we were sharing a rather significant date and location with previous adventurers …

On this day, 22 August 1770, 253 years ago, Lieutenant James Cook was in our neighbourhood, having landed on and named Possession Island and taken possession of the whole of the eastern coast of Australia.

We were all too relaxed to take anything in our possession other than great pleasure in our surroundings and pure joy in continuous sailing on our amazing run up the north east coast of this vast country, only periodically adjusting our bearings and sails under the prevailing north east winds.

Also on this day, I (Angie, guest blog writer :-)) turned the hand held vacuum cleaner on and took five years of Skipper Phil’s life.

He’s had a few major moments in the last couple of days, the latest being the manual bilge pump playing up. After half an hour down below deck in the boiling heat of the engine room, he was proudly telling Baz he had fixed it and suddenly the screeching noise of the vacuum cleaner threw him back into horror-ville, thinking the pump or the engine or something else was busted again! Sorry Phil.

Happily today we also had a small group of four dolphin join us for about 30 minutes of frolicking and whizzing about our bow.

When I mentioned the intended title for today’s blog, Kingsley agreed with “It’s just a blur really”. We are settling in to our daily rhythms of shifts, meals, sleeps and warm tropical weather interlaced with a few moments of intense activity. The passing glimpses of sand or rock islands, the mainland coast lined with stark white dunes, the vivid blue green sea so clear with its regular swell and Sliver Fern in the distance is our hazy reality.

Wednesday, 22 August 2023 started somewhere along the north east coast of Australia and finished anchored alongside our fellow sailors, Silver Fern at the Adolphus Islands.

A Team Angie Out :)