Port of Darwin, Australia -Dec. 26, 2000

Position: Port of Darwin, Australia -Dec. 26, 2000

We spent the month of November in the US to fulfil some of our needs at home. Time was spent with June's mother in Mpls, with Tamie's family, and in St. Croix with Tracey's family who were vacationing during Thanksgiving on St. Croix. We were updated on the new Carden Beach construction nearing completion in St. Croix. We do not have a condo at this time of our own but one will be completed for us to call home by March 2001.

Tracey and family spent two weeks in St. Croix on a Thanksgiving vacation that let us get acquainted with our new grandson, Jacob. Of course we found him perfect like all our other Grandies. It was their first visit back since they moved away 2 years ago so was very special in numerous ways. Our old boat, now La Mer Sereine, was in St. Croix for us to all have our Thanksgiving dinner on board at Buck Island. Thanks to Jeromy and Gill, Carl and Carol it was wonderful! La Mer Sereine will be chartered out of Antigua. Our visit was too short, but great to be back to St. Croix.

We returned to Seaquell in early Dec. to a new crew. Peter and Gabby have left sailing to spend time ashore. We will miss them and wish them well as they enter a new vocation. After 10 or more years at sea they decided it was time for a change. We have a new crew; Bill and Rubi McGrory our Captain and chef from England, our first mate and engineer, Mike Lawrence, New Zealand, Second mate Toby Bott from New Zealand and Julie Miles from Texas. We are getting acquainted as we cruise from Cairns to Darwin, a 1000-mile trip.
From Cairns to the top of Australia we are inside of the Barrier Reef in a well-travelled passage used by commercial and pleasure boats. This inside passage is natural deep water extending over 1500 miles on the east coast. This makes it safe travelling in all weather. At the top of Australia you turn west to Darwin. The weather was favourable making a pleasant passage with our new crew.

We arrived in Darwin in time to have Christmas Day together with the crew. Santa found everyone way out here in Australia, isn't he great. Darwin was totally wiped out by a 200 mph cyclone (same as our hurricane) on Christmas Eve in 1974, then a town of 40,000. It has since rebuilt and is now a modern town of 80,000; 2000 miles from any other major city. Japanese bombings in 1942 heavily damaged this city.
We were sorry to bid Good-Bye to our first mate, Mike Lawrence, who has been with us since New Zealand. He went home to continue his instruction hours needed for his Captain's rating.

This is the end of our tour of Australia, and the end of our year 2000 web pages as we depart on Dec. 27 for another 1,000 miles and 5 day passage to Indonesia. A second mate, Cole (BC) Sheehan from New Zealand, has joined us for this longer passage. He has sailed with us on several long passages, Tahiti to New Zealand, Auckland to Sydney. We have always enjoyed having him as a crew member with his jolly disposition, fishing skills and extensive sailing experience that includes three round the world Whitbread races, winning two and placing second on the third.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!

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