Sadly whilst on the Great Barrier Reef we received the news that Stephen’s father, Peter, had been taken into hospital and was deteriorating. We made the decision to get to Cairns quicker than planned to enable Stephen to fly back to the UK and for Debbie to hold the fort on Amelie. Apart from an overnight stopover in Wallaby Reef, totally alone in the middle of the ocean, we motored constantly for several days to Cairns. Unfortunately Peter died within hours of us reaching land and plans changed again for Stephen to fly back to the UK for the funeral.

Reeling from grief, Stephen organised his trip and helped Debbie prepare Amelie for her extended stay in Cairns. The watermaker was preserved, we hooked up to marina shore power and had dock water passing through our external filters to fill our tanks. The frustration of intermittent communication which has haunted this trip, reared it’s ugly head again. We were desperate to communicate with family in the UK but at times the quality was poor.

Emotional goodbyes saw Stephen flying to the UK with Debbie in charge of Amelie and providing .Stephen’s trip to attend his father’s funeral, whilst very emotional and tearful was also a chance to celebrate his 86 years and share the grief with children and family. Peter had only given up his farming last September and was to rejoin his wife, Val, who only passed on in January of this year. The church was packed to the gunnels and the village, Ashcombe, where he had farmed for 60 years put on all the food for the wake in the village hall. The attached picture shows Peter enjoying a spin on the Rib whilst we were in Jersey, he never did have his own passport but could use his drivers license to join us in the Channel Islands on Amelie.

Despite the sadness of the reason for Stephen’s UK return there was the chance for catching up with his three; Katie, Tom & Sam and reliving some memories of his Dad’s haunts, surfing at Putsborough and an evening in the pub at Instow.

Dad, God Rest.

Leaving Mackay early morning in glorious sunshine and a decent breeze for sailing, we glided up the Coral Coast to Hamilton Island for the Oyster party the following day.

We always check the weather before leaving port and our GRIB files predicted E to SE prevailing winds, averaging 25 knots. Perfect sailing weather for Amelie and our route to Mackay. We had heard that local bad weather was expected in Vanuatu on Wednesday, so at 14.30 hours on Monday afternoon we set off in a moderate sea to arrive in Mackay for the 23rd of July for Amelie’s annual antifouling, replacement of anodes and new batteries.

Vanuatu was first charted in 1774 by Captain James Cook and he named the archipelago, New Hebrides. The islands became an object of rivalry between the UK and France until 1906 when they jointly administrated the islands.