Cruising World - November - December 2016

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november/december 2016

the tropics, since we had mostly found

northwesterlies on our way up the coast.

But — you can see where this is going —

the trades reasserted themselves once

we turned around and pointed the bow

south. Day after day, we got up at 0400

and sailed all through the sunlit hours at

a 30-degree angle of heel, tacking back

and forth into the wind, dodging spray in

the cockpit, and sopping up water on the

cabin sole, and at the end of each day, we

found we had made 30 miles.

Sailing to windward is uncomfortable

enough for the nonpregnant, but Alisa

was approaching that part of her preg-

nancy where everything is uncomfortable.

And Elias was 3 by this time, and didn’t

necessarily understand why he had to sit

next to us in the sloping cockpit for hour

after hour, reading the same books and

singing the same songs, and why he never

got to go ashore.

Eventually we did make it out of the

southeast trades back to Iluka. And all too

soon we were gathering with our friends

there for a farewell barbecue at the

beach. It was fun to think of settling

down in Iluka long enough to have the

baby, and we considered it. But the horizon

still called; we weren’t ready to give up our

wandering ways just yet. The draw of one

more new place was too strong to resist,

and Tasmania was in the oi ng.

Sydney was conveniently on our path

down to Tasmania. Two weeks of sail-

ing along an unfamiliar coast took us to

Pittwater, the massive natural harbor

just north of Sydney, where we caught up

with our friends Peter Addenbrooke and

Vanessa Georgeson on Akimbo, a well-

kept double- ender that had carried them

on years of adventures between Sydney

and New Caledonia. They were some of

our fi rst Australian sailing friends. We had

spent our fi rst-ever Australian Christmas

with them, and Peter had taken me for my

fi rst Australian surf. They now of ered us

the hospitality of a raft-up on their moor-

ing in Pittwater, and the visit was perfectly

timed for a second Australian Christmas in

their company. We felt the beginnings of a

tradition in this new country.

After a short sail down the coast, we

had the pleasure of sailing into Sydney

Harbour past the Opera House and under

the Harbour Bridge. After San Francisco,

this was the second great city of the

world that we had sailed to on board

Pelagic. Alex and Diana gave us more great

hospitality, settling us into the visitors

berth at the dock where they kept Kukka,

handing us the keys to a car and their

house, making us feel completely at home,

and sharing the delights of the world-

famous New Year’s fi reworks in Sydney

Harbour. Then, after another too-short

visit, it was time for us to head farther

south if we wanted to meet our goal of

crossing Bass Strait before Alisa’s third

trimester began.

Tasmania would be new to us, but it

would be a novelty within a larger pattern

that was familiar. After more than a year in

Australia, we felt comfortable in the place.

Part of being at home in Oz was the result

of our physical knowledge of the continent

— all the exploring that had seen Pelagic

up and down the 1,100 miles of coastline

between Townsville and Sydney. But our

real feeling for the place, the things we

treasured and the bits that still confused

us, had come from a hundred interactions

with Australian friends: the barbecues and

surf sessions, the anchorages shared with

sailors, and the great pleasure of taking

nonsailing companions for a sail. Pelagic

had turned into our magic carpet for dis-

covering this new country, the vessel

that had shown us the out-of-the-way

anchorages and that had put us in the path

of these new friends who fi lled us in on

what it meant to be Australian.

Cruising, like any travel, really is all

about the people.

At er a stay in South Ar ica, Mike Litzow

and his family are currently crossing the

South Atlantic and headed, very slowly,

toward home in Alaska. You can follow along

with the family’s travels on their blog (thelife

galactic.blogspot.com).

Three-year-old Elias helps infl ate the dinghy (above) while cruising

through tropical Queensland. Australian cruisers Diana Bagnall and Alex

Nemeth (right) of ered hospitality and friendship during the Litzows’

time in Sydney.

MIKE LITZOW

november/december 2016

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