Seeing Mary

At long last, we were sailing Galactic into Storm Bay! There was a nice breeze and we had a few dolphins and albatross to keep us company. Mike and I couldn't resist comparing the sail to two years ago, when we first arrived on Pelagic.  This time around the dolphins weren't breaching, but otherwise the comparison held up pretty well.  Tasmania is a truly rugged and magnificent landscape.

Sailing past Cape Raoul

Before landing in a berth at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, our plan was to linger a few more days and see friends.  Our first detour was Kettering.  De and John were waiting to take our docklines.  Seeing them after a year I felt in some ways like we had never left.  After all, these were the last two friends that I saw when I flew with 10-month old Eric and 4 ½ year old Elias to meet Mike in San Francisco and climb aboard Galactic.  And so it was a year and a week later, after their sendoff at the airport I was seeing those same friends welcome us back to the Hobart area. Full circle indeed.

In the easy fashion of good friends it almost felt like we had never left.  Almost, but not quite.  You see, two miles prior to our arrival in Kettering we were taken completely by surprise at seeing the Swedish ketch Mary motoring toward us. We last saw Mary at Huahine Island in French Polynesia, and right away Mike recognized her lines. So there we were, going in opposite directions and waving passionately at each other – big hellos of people who anchored near each other several times in French Polynesia and then never saw each other again.  Seeing Mary allowed us to absorb the long distance we had traveled to return to this one spot and resume our journey.

De and Eric reunited!