My journey from buying an S&S 34 in 2013 (with little sailing experience) to becoming a confident coastal and ocean single hander

My journey from buying an S&S 34 in 2013 (with little sailing experience) to becoming a confident coastal and ocean single hander. This project took me 30 days of a 115 day severe lockdown in Melbourne Australia. It saved my soul.

My journey from buying an S&S 34 in 2013 (with little sailing experience) to becoming a confident coastal and ocean single hander

So I had to get away on Mendana, but the weather forecast was a shocker. I decided to steal a day trip through the Port Phillip heads at 9am arriving in San Remo just before dark...Then the fun started as the wind really blew up for a few days.

John and his wife have looked after the tracks and aerodrome on 3 hummock island for the last 8 years. 3 Hummock Island is a small island off the north west coast of Tasmania. Beautiful! Am I a goose or a geese! dooooh.

Great day with 25-30 knot winds from the North on The Bay. This means flat seas - a great environment to test some newly installed heavy weather systems.

A beautiful day on 3 Hummock Island, N. Western Tasmania. Looking over to Hunter Island and the Tasmanian mainland

Sailing on a fine day without touching the tiller or using autopilot - magic!

This is my journey from buying a great open sailing vessel with no knowledge of boats or little knowledge of sailing in 2013 to participating in a non-stop single handed race around the world - the MOD global 2019-20 single handed race!

Leaving Geelong on a beautiful day. I'm not good t doing this, but survived it once again....I think its all in the head Andy Burnip

A great day on my way from Geelong to Beaumaris Bay (Port Philip- Melbourne). Very cold and a long day eventually weighing anchor at about 8pm.

The chain ran away from me and I let 69 metres go... Lifting anchor was excruciating!.. I'm glad I was diligent in choosing a good anchorage with land to windward all night

Mendana showing her true colours as a vessel built to sail to windward. An exhilarating trip to Geelong in 30 knots of wind. Great solo experience...Later we had rain and hail with a few squalls.

Quick tour of my squeaky old boat

Beating back to melbourne

Bouncing along under the command of sir Edward

A Springtime trip to Clifton Springs near Port Arlington on Port Philip Bay....I later got caught up in some Mussel nets, but managed to set myself free in the dark...a tad stressful though!...A big learning about using GPS...if you don't zoom in you don't see the detail..Not the same with paper charts as it is all in front of you...

Short trip to Western Port, out of the Port Philip heads and west...About 5 days in all although most of the footage is very boring... Its all a journey to the big stuff...At that point I did not envisage I would enter the MOD Race 2018-'19... But I've done a lot since then and I'm building confidence in my boat (and me)!

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Great trip this one to Western Port and back from St Kilda Melbourne....This was my first offshore trip solo.