So now we are half-way - not to our next port, but to our next cruise - the destinations, route and timing are still not firm but we have told all who need to know that we are off again in April.
John has resumed working part-time at the Skin and Cancer Foundation, doing clinical work and teaching, along with a monthly visit to Coffs Harbour (by air not sea, unfortunately) to work in the Outreach Clinic. Those commitments, along with some consulting work for the State Health Department, seem to be replenishing the funds for next year's cruising. Shauna has busied herself taking French courses at the Alliance Francaise de Sydney and doing a little part-time nursing at Concord Hospital. We postponed our haulout from October/November and Destiny will now be hauled on December 23: this will keep us busy over the Holiday period scraping, priming and painting, but with the yard basically closed and most staff on their Christmas break, we will be paying no hardstand time charges, so it will be a very inexpensive option. We always do the work ourselves so nothing will be very different to normal.
"Obelia" arrived back in Sydney a couple of weeks back and are at home in Cammeray Marina (a really nice, cruiser-friendly family business with a killer rock stairway leading almost vertically up the steep slope to the road above). They, like us, are thinking about what next cruising season might bring them, while Helen is back at work and David continues the endless process of maintaining and upgrading a metal yacht (being alloy rather than steel like "Destiny V", "Obelia" tolerates bits of bare metal exposed to the elements far longer than we can get away with).
"Bauvier" came into Sydney Harbour on Tuesday of this week, at 02:00. They anchored, at our suggestion, in Spring Cove off Quarantine Beach and are now in Blackwattle Bay snug in the cruisers' anchorage (that is "Bauvier" in the photo above). Yesterday was St Nicholas' Day so we took Thibaut and Olivier to Bondi Beach for a surf and a ride in the Inflatable Rescue Boat which John pilots on weekends during the Summer; last night we had a feast on "Bauvier" that would have satisfied the most demanding of the emperors of ancient Rome: Dorothy must have spent all day preparing this lovely meal. Bart and the family are obviously tired after the cruising they have done, constantly moving for the last couple of years, and with visas valid through to next August they are looking forward to settling into Sydney for a time and doing some land cruising.
Dave and Ruth on "Islay", and also Co and Carla on "Lotus", will both be down the coast over the next week or so and we are expecting "Noorderzon" here shortly so we are looking forward to a Christmas of happy reunions.