It will be Christmas in four more days – our first Christmas as cruising sailors.
Back in October, when we left Albany after our months of organising and preparing and readying ourselves, the plan was to be at Bateman’s Bay by Christmas, celebrate all we had achieved with our wider family and friends before continuing along our way.
I have always been an organised, list-writing, plan-loving person, but all that has had to chang! I do still love to have a list, and I do still love to have a plan – but these days I know that a plan is a guide – or something to aspire to rather than something locked in that will likely happen!
Once we ran into the problem with the auto pilot when we were crossing The Bight, we knew that the delay caused by having to wait for a new one to be shipped to us would make our plans to be at Bateman’s Bay by Christmas a little tight. But after that we had so many days where the wind was right against us as we sailed not only slowing us down but making the sailing really hard work, that we were beginning to appreciate that having a date linked to a destination was an unnecessary pressure. So we began to take it a little more easy.
I’m so glad we did. The whole point in this cruising life is to enjoy it – see the country in a stop-and-smell-the-flowers sort of way, not hurry from place to place trying to meet a deadline. Yes, it’s been much slower than we had anticipated, partly due to Argos being a slow yacht to sail, but it has certainly been more rewarding for us all.
So we are not even close to Batemans Bay, but are still in Port Fairy, relaxing and enjoying each day!
As it turns out, one of the local yachties we met on our first day mentioned to a mate that we were here, heading off soon back to the East coast where we hoped to get some work to keep us going. His mate had been doing some renovations and they had got a bit out of hand. He came down to see us and asked if Peter could finish the jobs off for him. So far Peter has had three days there with at least two more to come. That will take us up to the end of this week, two days before Christmas. So this year we will celebrate Christmas in Port Fairy, and you know, I couldn’t think of a nicer place really, apart from where our family is, to celebrate this joyful and peaceful time of year.
Because we are staying here now for a bit, and not sailing off in a few days, we have put up Christmas lights on the boat – they look quite enchanting twinkling away high above the deck stretched out between the front stay and the back stay, reflecting in the windows of the house alongside us and lighting up the night sky in a most charming way. We have the tree up inside the boat and presents scattered around beneath it, and every day we hear over and over again, as children walk past the boat with their families, squeals of delight as they notice the tree. One child was worried about how Santa would find us on the boat and how the children would get their presents! As always, Argos draws attention!
So the ‘plan’ now is to stay here in Port Fairy until after Christmas day and then consider the weather. We will not leave without at least one day of wind going in our direction. We’ll head down towards Apollo Bay and then on to Flinders on the Mornington Peninsular, pop over to San Remo if possible and take the children to see the Fairy Penguins on Phillip Island and then head towards Refuge Cove on Wilsons Prom. Then we’ll head around to Eden, Bermagui and finally Bateman’s Bay. What we don’t know is how long it will take us to get there – and finally we are appreciating that that part doesn’t matter!
For many years the idea of living in the moment has been a practice that has influenced my life and the lives of many of the women we worked with at Inanna, the crisis service I was employed by. It is a practice which encourages me to slow down, de-stress and enjoy each day and each part of the day, and not be borrowing trouble (as the Bible puts it) from tomorrow. Our cruising life affords me so much opportunity to do this, but more than that – it promotes it. It really often forces us to ease off on the stress and pressure we so often put ourselves under!
So when the wind isn’t blowing our way, or we are waiting for something to be fixed before we leave or any one of a hundred reasons for a delay, we are focussing on enjoying the moment we are in, not worrying about the moment we expected to be in! While in Port Fairy we have had many lovely moments walking - looking at wildlife, historic places of interest, quaint shops and the like. We’ve enjoyed moments with a local couple who have built a replica of a 1600’s ‘caravel’ – a boat similar to the one Christopher Columbus sailed in. It’s fascinating and after looking at it I came home to Argos, very thankful that she is different and interesting while being comfortable and safe!
We have enjoyed many hospitable moments with local yachties and enjoyed drinks on board visiting yachts passing through, all the while making new friends, learning from others’ experience and sharing aspects of our own adventure. This is fun for us, but wonderful for the children too. And all the while we continue to unwind, de-stress and relax.
Aside from anything else, it is nice to be somewhere a little settled for Christmas, and we have been so blessed by the way locals have made us feel welcome – one family even allowed me to use their oven to cook my Christmas cake, while another loaned us a car so we could go and have a look at the 12 Apostles and other local places of interest, and do some Christmas shopping in Warrnambool. How special!
So Santa, if you are wondering how to find us, just lift the butterfly window at the back of the boat!

So from all of us, and from Argos, we hope you have a very merry Christmas, and a new year that is filled with things money can’t buy – a happy family, love and thankful hearts for the blessings around you.