Getting back into the groove.

After 6 months of non-stop sailing, having crossed the Pacific Ocean and 12,000 miles, we took a break to look around.  The Pacific had great cruising grounds, and after cruising the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the next best cruising grounds would be in the Eastern Mediterranean.  As members of the ARC Rally, our course would be southwest around the Cape of Good Hope and across the South Atlantic and then onto the Caribbean.   A hard slog of another 15,000 miles.  In order to get to the Eastern Med, we would have to sail back across the Atlantic adding at least 10,000 extra miles.  The purpose of this route was to avoid Somali pirates operating in the vicinity of the opening to the Red Sea. That just seemed silly, so we looked for a way to get to the Med through the Red Sea.  We interviewed the organizers of the Blue Water Rally.   Their traditional route was through the Red Sea and had a long history of safely getting their Rally boats through the area.  It would be an additional $10,000 in costs to join them.  We were on the edge.  Should we? or Should we not?  Then there was an explosion of piracy off the coast of Somalia.  We looked at each other and said “We’re exhausted, let’s stay here for a while”. Besides, here was a country where we could quickly learn the language. “Throw another shrimp on the barbie” and “Mate another tinny please” .  So it was going to be Australia for a while.... and this ‘down time’ allowed me to go back to my next favorite thing... painting.  This website is all about the visual and emotional experience of sailing across vast expanses of the world.