We have now been aboard Sengo for a year and I thought I would reflect on some of our activities and achievements over the past 12 months.
Moving aboard, and learning to sail a catamaran, has to be the biggest and most prolonged learning curve I’ve ever been faced with (which I acknowledge may continue for quite some time) and to some extent, Andrew, although an experienced sailor, has also had to learn new skills and adjust his style from one which suits a racing monohull to a style to suite a more reserved, cruising catamaran. The boat is bigger than anything either of us has sailed regularly on and she performs differently from a monohull, doesn’t heel, and sails (optimally) a little further off the wind.
We have had to change the way we approach all our daily activities: shopping, cooking and travel, and even just going for a walk; all of which we may need to plan days in advance to ensure things run as smoothly as possible.
In some respects we have become a bit obsessed with weather forecasts and predictions via the internet and whilst I keep going back to bom.gov.au, Andrew regularly checks other internet weather sites.
I read somewhere recently that those surveyed six months after the change from a land-based to a boat-based lifestyle said that that they had adjusted well, but more seasoned life-stylers suggest you don’t really get used to the changes until you’ve been aboard for at least two years. I think, even, now, I am just starting to settle down and enjoy it, but that may also have something to do with the fact we are no longer beholden to anyone else’s timelines.
Statistically speaking, in the past year we have:
- travelled over 3000 nautical miles – from Sydney to Melbourne and back up the east coast of Australia to tropical Queensland
- anchored or moored at 32 bays (some multiple times)
- visited 13 National (or other) parks (including 5 RAMSAR listed sites (www.ramsar.org))
- stayed at 9 yacht clubs, marinas or private jetties (and popped into many more for coffee, cake, lunch or hardware)
- been shopping at 16 different towns (some requiring public transport trips (train and/or bus) of over an hour each way)
- sailed 8 overnight passages (some of multiple nights)
- sheltered from numerous (mild to wild) southerlies
- visited 20 different hamlets, towns and cities
- visited 3 lighthouses (and nearly got a tour of two!)
- been out of the water twice: firstly on a travel-lift; secondly on a traditional slip
- been racing in Airlie Beach Race Week (on catamaran Two Up Together), and
- enjoyed our travel partners of whales; dolphins; albatrosses; penguins; seals; shearwaters and other pelagic (seafaring) birds.
The boating community is quite close knit and the most memorable thing of all is that we’ve met some of the most fabulous, welcoming and supportive people.
Below is a summary of photos from the past year Aboard Sengo.