​Well it is about this time that we would have been heading back to Greece, popping over to Leros and dropping our beloved bateau in the water, with a newly anti-fouled hull and a new port engine propeller, amongst other small improvements.

​After 6 months of enjoying the Australian summer, despairing at the destruction of bushfires and sharing the joy of those much need rains, who would have thought we would all find ourselves in this bizarre situation. We have had droughts, fires, floods and now pestilence – the Earth is really trying to tell us something!

​For pretty much all of my sailing career (coming up for 30 years now) I have kept to my preference of daytime, inshore sailing, making sure I was always home for dinner or Saturday night’s party. Yes I have done the “odd” yacht delivery (also known as “effed up camping”), a couple of longer passage races and 4 Bol d’Ors (circuit of Lac Leman, Geneva), which all involved sailing overnight. However when it comes to say a Sydney to Hobart, I am more than happy to take Qantas and be the welcoming party on Constitution dock!