So far sailing the coast of Australia has been exhilarating, enlivening, extraordinary, and at time exhausting. Roo Bin Esque has given us a mostly comfortable ride in style, if not at any great speed. We’ve met many amazing people and visited beautiful and remote islands, but now it’s time to step outside our comfort zone. The siren call of New Caledonia is too strong to ignore.

Some time very soon we’ll hoist sails and head out of Moreton Bay in an easterly direction. The crossing will take at least six days, possibly more. Roo Bin Esque is as ready as she can be, and so are her crew. We’ve mastered our Iridium Go Sat phone, worked our way through the Predictwind weather forecast programme and ensured we have checked all our safety gear – the new life raft will hopefully never be required!

Much like aviation, sailing is hurry up and wait, but the rewards will be worth it. I hope you’ll come with us on our journey. I’ll be tweeting and posting on FB during the crossing, although the quality of photos is pretty poor since it’s uploading via satellite. Once we’re in New Caledonia we’ll go local and be back on-line and I look forward to sharing our adventures! You can follow us on the track map – RooBinEsque

It’s always sad to leave a place I love and Brisbane will forever have a special corner reserved in my heart, but it’s time to throw off the bowline and dare to explore new horizons. Carpe Diem, I say. We may only have one life so live it!