The keynote speakers at BBYC on Saturday 7th June will impress you. With only 5 years sailing under their belt they took off and did a very successful and safe Whitsunday Cruise.
Their introduction to sailing came, by chance, from reading a book about a solo female circumnavigator, Tania Aebi . Her book, Maiden Voyage, is a wonderful story and it inspired them to start sailing lessons at the Botany Bay Sailing School in 2002. They thought they would then crew on other people’s boats and continue learning until they could afford a boat of their own.
Before they finished the Competent Crew they had decided that they didn’t want to sail on anyone else’s boat, they wanted to be SKIPPERS of their own boat. They then started looking at boats to buy and ended up buying the Top Hat 25 “Shalimar”. While they were looking for Shalimar, they saw a boat they loved, but it was out of their price range. It was a Compass 29.
They then became quite mad about sailing and went out nearly every weekend. They then made the decision to take Shalimar to the Reef. They started researching equipment and systems they would need and came to the conclusion they didn’t have the right boat.
It was about this time, while they started studying navigation with the Coast Guard, where they had the happy chance of meeting Tish Ennis and Jim Brown. By the end of their course they become good friends. Jim and Tish really broadened their horizons by inviting them to crew for them in an offshore race from Sydney to Bateman’s Bay on the far south coast. It was Tish and Jim who introduced them to the broader Compass group in Sydney and surrounds. At this point they started seriously looking for a boat to take us north and found “Kareela”. Their journey had really begun.
Their preparation had started in earnest- from lists of boating equipment, costings, boat show purchases, and endlessly working on the boat, to sailing further afield, from Jervis Bay in the south to Lake Macquarie to the north. They increasingly put themselves into situations, deliberately or otherwise, that they expected to encounter such as night sailing, going out in 25-30kts (the scariest part was getting to and from the yacht in the dinghy) and dragging anchor on a windy night in Jervis Bay with no working motor after a couple of glasses of wine. You know, the usual!!
They also decided that they needed to broaden their experience, so they signed up as crew to do some yacht racing at the RMYC Port Hacking. This gave them a different understanding about yacht performance and they started to develop some new skills in that area.
In April 2006, after a wonderful send off from their sailing and other friends, they commenced their journey from Botany Bay to the Great Barrier Reef. After two weeks they had reached the Gold Coast and they were elated. They had survived a gale, the east coast current, docking at some awful wharves and seasickness, and felt triumphant as they sailed past the high rise and through the Gold Coast Seaway. The plan was to leave Kareela there until June, then fly back and continue the journey. In the intervening two months Ivor was diagnosed with heart failure due to a virus and their future was no longer clear.
The next six months, was very much wait and see, but fortunately for them, Ivor recovered and by February 2007 they had the doctor’s permission to go sailing. During the six months of Ivor’s illness, Debbie had gotten a crew together and brought the boat back to Sydney, so they left Sydney for the Reef a second time, in April 2007. In 2006 they had left on Good Friday. They’re not really superstitious but in 2007 they delayed their trip until the Saturday.
They pushed very hard for the next two months until they reached Mackay. They probably learned more in that time than they did in their entire previous sailing experience. In a very positive way they learned about the pitfalls of navigating, equipment or lack of, anchoring, risk assessment and staying cool in a crisis. They also met some interesting people and made new friends. From Mackay it’s only two days sail to the Whitsundays where they spent the next two months.
Now that they’re back, the future is coming into focus. Their next big challenge will be offshore, to the Pacific or possibly Thailand. They have an enormous amount to learn. It’s one of life’s buzzes to live their dreams. There’s no greater excitement or joy, and even though those dreams may scare the hell out of them at times, the journey is rich.
I like to think they are a product of our “little yacht group” and typify those people who pass through the Compass ranks before deciding whether they want to keep sailing keelboats or not and what their new course will be.
Geoff Raebel