Some thirty years ago and a few years before our son was born, we sold up everything - house, cars, furniture we didnt need, etc, rented a small townhouse and used company cars for transportation. With both our job offers in Sydney finalised, we awaited our final documentation to immigrate to Australia.

Then, both Elaine's sisters gave birth to a son each a few months before Christmas of that year and she realised she didn't want to move country, away from family and friends. Although exasperated, Roy went along with the decision not to move to Australia and our lives took a very different path. Two years after that decision we had a son of our own and a few years later we moved country anyway. In fact, we moved country five times after that, ending up in the USA before moving on to Paw Paw and becoming full-time cruisers nearly four years ago. There is definitely a surreal feeling at the idea that we're now sailing to Austr alia all these years later.

Reaching Australia is a momentous occasion for any sailor on a circumnavigation, since it denotes halfway, but for us it feels like we're coming full circle.

On this, our last day at sea before reaching our destination, the winds and seas have moderated substantially from yesterday, thank goodness. We started today sailing in light north-westerlies, then motoring in light westerlies, but as the wind swung back to the southeast at around 0800 we enjoyed another fabulous day of sailing at 8.5 Kts in 12 Kts of wind and flat seas - It doesn't get much better than that! Tonight we're "drifting along" on a slither of a head sail, since we have to wait on the flooding tide tomorrow morning before we can cross the sand bar at the entrance to Southport.

In many ways this passage has reminded us a lot of our Pacific Ocean crossing, with the exception of yesterday, wher e the very tumultuous sea state reminded us of our New Zealand to Fiji passage. Fortunately it was only for a few hours and not days. Our praise goes out to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and their extremely accurate forecasting, which allowed us to plot our course for the most favourable conditions, something which has been hit and miss using the other available weather forecasting services. Having accurate information to make our decisions has made the world of difference!

For now though, reaching Australia and getting settled as soon as possible means we get to fly back to the USA to see our family, especially our beautiful grandchildren - nearly a year from our last visit has been far too long!