Commemorating ANZAC Day

Australian War Memorial 2017

On April 25th each year, Australians come together to remember and honour those brave men and women who have served and sacrificed for their country.  We could not join you this ANZAC Day but our thoughts were with you.  

We'd also like to salute all those front line workers who keep our country safe, free and healthy.  Trinidad, 2024.

Well done, Tumbi Vale Scout Group 2024 with Miss Phoenix wearing her
Great Grandfather Middleton's medals.  (Photo by V. Middleton)

Artwork & Ode on a Truck 2017

DO'Neil, via Wikimedia Commons

At the going down of the Sun, And in the Morning, We will remember them.

Christmas Present

Graphics courtesy of  Graphics Fairy

Yes, it’s that time of the year again.  Amazing how quickly it sneaks up on you!  Rather than sending out newsletters this year, our adventures have been mostly covered over our 7 months of Windjammer3 travels anyway.  Of course, you're reading the blog now, so there's no need for a Link to it.  It's surely guaranteed to get you snoozing!

We trust Santa brings joy to you and your family this festive season, where-ever you are; under a blanket of snow or basking in tropical sunshine.  Have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas and New Years, and allow at least some time to kick back and relax.  After all, you will need to be match fit for a game of cricket (or tennis) and have that barbie fired up, ready for Australia Day.  Lamb chops and lamingtons essential.

WJ3 & The Motley Crew 

Languish No More

Changing of the Guard

Before we begin this year's (2022) saga, we'd like to announce yet another milestone.  Miss WJ3 has been our good companion in many adventures over now, 15 years.  It seems hard to believe.  Time certainly flies when you're having fun!

We slowly surfaced for air in 2022.  Travel opened up, both inter-state and abroad, so the Cap’n packed his trusty bags and set off mid-winter to Deltaville for a 3-month work-a-thon.  He was concerned for the welfare of his other woman; as you would after some 2½ years and living half a world away.  Thanks to the wonderful Deltaville Boatyard, WJ3 was in good nick and only in need of a good clean-up and minor repairs.  The Cap’n filled in his time despite the heat and humidity of a southern summer, and managed to make headway on a good number of projects.  Except for that fickle generator.  One day soon, he may get round to adding detail of these exploits (along with the long-awaited detail from 2019) to his Hunter 460 site, just don’t hold your breath.  Well, he is busy and we’ve been doing a lot of planning… 

Our original idea of leaving the Med and coming back to the US had been a good one.  WJ3 is an American built craft and it’s so, so much easier to source spare parts and have them delivered to the yard.  And there’s still an awful lot for us to see and do there…  Like Aus, it’s a big country and no matter where we go, we are always made to feel at home.

However, one member of our team has salt water pulsing through his veins.  And he wants to bring his muse home.  Not in a rush, mind!  So, we find ourselves researching, planning, and preparing to slowly traverse the Pacific.  That translates into buying just a few more boat bits…as one must.

Next year then, becomes the first step of many in this madcap plan.  We will leave Deltaville and make for Panama, where we will hold-up in a boatyard on the south-east coast, just below the Canal entrance.  This all needs to happen before hurricane season, which means leaving here in February 2023, making us now, a touch anxious.  Let’s also hope the snow in Deltaville has melted by then!

We will keep you posted!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best of good things in the year to come.  (PS.  If Santa should mistakenly deliver you boat bits this year, then kindly forward them on to us!) 

It’s a Tree (not Sea) Change

Back in February 2020, we began planning for our usual overseas adventure.  It always takes a few months to organise ourselves.  The Galley Slave had found some great fares for our flights to the US and consulted the Cap'n.  “I’d wait,” he said.  “Things don’t look good.”  So here we are at the close of 2021.  Still waiting.  Still not looking particularly promising…

That’s not to say, of course, that we’ve been idle.  The Cap’n turned his hand to maintenance of his “home fleet” and those many outstanding home repairs (long neglected) that go hand in hand with living in a timber shack in the land of termites.  The Galley Slave began a major photo re-organisation project.  It’s finally nearing completion in 2021.  (I know, I know, she’s leaning towards the OCD type.)  However, with a gentle slide into Autumn and cooler weather this year, it was time to take a (sanity) break and tame the garden.  She, meanwhile, hit the garden shed, her quilt room in the garden, before winter sent us both back inside to sit by a warm cosy fire.

View over the Hawkesbury River
(and the Cap'n hard at work scrubbing bottoms)

After 12 years of summer seasons and some 25,000 nm on the good ship WJ3, it was rather nice to take time out to live in our local community, to spend time with our boys and get to know the grandkids better.  Lockdowns (within the confines of our local government area) had put a bit of a muzzle on any travel ambitions.  Even a 20-minute drive to the local supermarket added a real thrill to our week – it was outside the 5km limit!  So, to otherwise amuse ourselves, we’ve undertaken some big clean-ups inside and out, replaced a few bits of furniture & the barbie, ripped up a deck or three (ehem, still “under reconstruction”), put up a pole to fly the flag and otherwise enjoyed our life on the river.

Stuck on the mudbank!  Our trusty Cap'n & neighbour Chris
doing a bit of rescue work in the tinnie, yet again...

Fortunately, both boys have remained employed in steady jobs, although one moved out into country NSW, to an arborist’s job in Bathurst.  Managing to successfully combine raising the littlies, study and work, Miss V finished Uni and almost immediately found a great job in Gosford.  Under her watchful eye, Dancing Queen, Miss P, has just finished her second year of school (and home schooling with school closures) and possible sailing apprentice/crew, Master D turned a big “4”. 

Celebrating a significant birthday with a floating picnic
(Monty tied down to protect the food!)

A bit of tree trimming, Bathurst style

We’re beginning to wonder how we ever found the time to go sailing.  WJ3 sits quietly in the boatyard in Deltaville, just metres away from the beautiful Chesapeake Bay, on the North American east coast.  She is being well looked after but must by now, feel somewhat neglected.  Our long-term plans change by the day, dependent largely on inviting travel doco’s on the telly.  We’ve become such couch potatoes!  The Cap’n though, still dreams of completing his 1975 circumnavigation...  In the short term though, it’s really back to just pottering about in a boat, and any boat will do for now. 

Sailors in the making

Merry Christmas to all and here’s hoping for a much brighter Year in 2022.