Author: helen

Dignity is finally on her way to Australia. Peter and Sam, checked out of Fiji Monday morning as a fine weather window opened up for them.

We are getting daily updates from Christina, Peter’s wife, who is in regular contact with them over the SSB radio. She is checking their position and condition and passing on essential weather information.

They had a pleasant first day sail, with 15 knots of wind, making good progress doing 6.5 kts with a swell out of the SW of 1.2m.

Yesterday their second day was a little tougher. They went through a little trough which was expected, but the wind turned out to be stronger than anticipated. Peter didn’t contact Christina at the scheduled evening time, due to the fact that they were dealing with 34kts of wind at the time. The wind continued between 24-30kts for 4 hrs afterwards. They reefed down the sails and coped well with the strong winds.

Today the winds have died down and so Peter plans to motor sail until the winds picks up again which is forecasted to soon.

If the weather continues to look good and stay as predicted, Dignity will probably sail direct to Australia without stopping off at New Caledonia. A direct sail will give them an ETA of 23rd/24th of August to Brisbane.

Steve has just finished his third round of chemo. It is beginning to takes its toll on him physically and mentally. We take each day as it comes. We take short walks to exercise Steve, read, watch movies and TV (recently enjoying the Olympics) and plan our future for possible outcomes and getting a few things sorted or going. In the evenings we enjoy dinner and time with the family, just chatting about the day and things in generally. Steve and I use to do this with our children so it’s lovely to enjoy family dinner time again.

Last weekend before Steve’s chemo, we took a trip to the bay with Sarah, Russ and Jack (who acted as our chauffer to earn hours for his driving permit). This was the first time we’ve been by the sea since leaving Fiji. It was a lovely day.

Steve was allowed home yesterday earlier than we expected. He is coping so well with the treatment. We are now cosied in our little garden flat. Cousin Sarah and Russ have added more things to make our stay even more comfortable and pleasant. They are amazing!
Our friends Janine and Brian have lent us their spare car which they said has just been sitting in their garage. This is fantastic as we now have independence and the convenience of getting around locally and to the hospital without relying on Sarah all the time. We are so grateful for their generosity.
Throughout life I have always looked for the good side of people. Always like to give people the benefit of doubt because we are all very human. During our travels we’ve met many many good and lovely people. I can’t really recall any bad ones…well maybe the odd miserable custom official!
My belief in people’s goodness and kindness has been justified over and over again during this very difficult time for us. We are extremely fortunate to know and have wonderful family members and friends so generous of heart.

Steve has completed his first course of chemotherapy and sail through it. Since he has cerebral lymphoma they had to give him a strong concoction to penetrate his brain. He coped brilliantly. No nausea and no apparent side effects so far. Physically he’s doing really well. We are hoping he will be able to come home this coming Wednesday for about nine days before his next course of chemo. The treatment consists of five, 2 weeks cycle of chemotherapy and at the end Steve will have an assessment and we will see how he is doing.

Emotionally Steve often struggles but he is strong. Our lives have completely changed and there’s a lot to take in, accept and adjust to. The heavy dose of steroids he is also taking, intensify all his anxieties and worries so that’s a battle in itself. The doctors and nurses here have been amazing. I expect in a chemo ward like this, the staff are often dealing with people like us and have the support system in place. I am certainly glad of it.

Our plan for delivering Dignity to Australia is going well. Peter on s/y Nymph will be delivering our boat for us. We know him and trust his skills and experience. He is also the boatyard manager at Norsand, NZ where we hauled out and did work on Dignity so we know he has excellent knowledge of boats in general. Sam and Dignity will be in good hands.
At the other end in Brisbane where Dignity will be delivered to, Trish and Rob on s/y Bristol Rose have been researching marinas and making enquiries for us. We now have a berth booked at Manly at the MBTBC marina. Thanks to Trish for all her efforts.

We are hoping that Sam will continue the tradition and write about the passage to Australia for our blog.

Again thank you everyone for your best wishes and kind thoughts. I am sorry I have not answered many of your emails but every message was very much appreciated.