Sailing Around Pluto and Other Changes

Greetings, friends, from tropical Cairns! Let's take a look at how far we have sailed in the past two months. Hmm. About 850 nm. We're not exactly setting the world on fire. I can't say: "We've sailed a tenth of the way around Australia," - it has no zing. We need to reframe this whole discussion.

Lucky for me, Australia is a similar size as Pluto.

(Pluto-on-Australia photo credit: David Murray.) Waypoints added by yours truly.

"We've sailed a tenth of the way around Pluto." Aha! Much better. Henceforth, Australia is now Pluto, because I have deemed it to be so.

And so, here we are, sailing around Pluto, and enjoying the tropical breezes. After a few lovely weeks in the Whitsundays (once we escaped Resort Island), we waited for the winds to die completely, hauled out the new spinnaker, and made our way to Cairns. We've been here barely 24 hours, but we have already done the crucial things: showered, reprovisioned, made To Do lists of varying urgency, and had lunch with a friend.

Our main purpose in Cairns is to get ready for the next leg of our trip. We expect this to be the last port where we can easily get jobs done - repair what needs repairing, buy spares, buy food, buy guidebooks and make plans. Then it's on to Indonesia!

Oh, yes. That.

Do you remember back in the dawn of time when I told you our plans couldn't be trusted?  I hope you took that seriously, because our plans have changed. Again. In short, it was getting far too late in the season to make it all the way to South Africa. The mere thought of rushing through the Indian Ocean and dodging cyclone season was too stressful. Then we remembered that a) we live on a boat, and b) we can therefore go where we want, and voila! A new plan was born.

Slightly modified from the original.

No crocs, no irukandji, hopefully no pirates. Just beautiful reefs, friendly people, and a leisurely sail to Malaysia/Thailand/somewhere for the end of the year.

In the meantime, we'll enjoy this piece of Pluto.