To Iluka

One of the great things about traveling by boat is how you miss the too-quick transitions of jet flight. You have plenty of time, in the days or weeks it takes to get from one place to the next, to digest what you've just seen, and think about what you might find in your next destination.

Suddenly, though, it seems that everything has gone too quickly. We're sailing down the east coast of Australia again, and I'm wondering where the last year went.

We had a great six days in Bundaberg, visiting with relatives and re-immersing ourselves in Australia. A moment of excitement was provided when the swift arm of justice, in the form of 20 customs agents and Australian Federal Police, fell on the yacht two down from us in the marina one Friday night. Seems it's still a really bad idea to use your yacht to import quantities of illicit drugs into Australia.

And now we're on our way to our favorite place in Australia, north of Hobart - Iluka.

Poor Elias had his worst tantrum ever this morning, working himself up to the point of vomiting. I wish someone could tell me how to deal with those scenes calmly. Aside from that, we're back in the passage-making groove - trailing dirty nappies behind the boat and parsing the night into tiny little compartments of sleep that we trade back and forth. Weather and whims of the sea aside allowing, we should be in Iluka Tuesday morning.