Sailing away without him - Ep 75

A huge thank you to those who help keep our boat afloat by supporting our creative process via Patreon. You can be part of the crew for less than the price of a coffee. https://www.patreon.com/CruisingKiwis Sailing away without him The love a parent feels for their children is illustrated most vividly when their offspring incur injury, illness or setback. Our hearts were touched by a comment in last weeks episode from a man with glaucoma who expressed how amazed he is with Finn’s resilience to his visual impairment. So, we talk about that on camera and it ain’t pretty. Emotions spent, we glibly farewell Rob, set sail for Sydney with the first stop on a multi-week journey at Peel Island where we get all soppy again over a deceased turtle and speculate how it died. Finally, we pre-empt next week episode where we get hit by lightning. Music Luna Keller – I don’t know where I’m going De Joie – Paris instrumental – Musicbed.com De Joie – Oslo – Musicbed.com De Joie – All around me -Musicbed.com David Mumford – Wayfaring stranger David Mumford – Ball and Chain WHO ARE WE? In 1997, after a disastrous Olympic rowing campaign, Rob decided to row a seven-metre plywood boat, 2500 miles from Tenerife in the Canary Islands to Barbados in the Caribbean. It took 6 weeks and he and his rowing partner, Phil Stubbs, won the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race. Skip forward to 2014, we invested in Javelot a 43 ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran. Armed only with Robert's 3 years of racing P class yachts from the age of 11 to 13, and Rachel's non existent sailing knowledge, we set off to learn the ropes of ocean sailing. We broke stuff, replaced stuff and got to know our boat before heading offshore with our three children, Finn 17, Declan 15 and Ivan 12, in tow. Through trial and error, we have become confident wayfarers, kind of. Our plan? To sail around the world, meet the locals and record our adventures. Part of the journey will be retracing Rob’s eldest brother Kerry’s travels at sea. Using Kerry’s original letters from the 1970’s we will re trace his movements from Australia through Indonesia and South East Asia to Cambodia where Kerry’s life was cut short after straying into Cambodian waters in 1978. Kerry and two friends were attacked by a Khmer Rouge gun boat, captured, tortured and executed. ***** Follow us in real time on Instagram and Facebook @thecruisingkiwis @finn_hamill @declan_hamill #NeverStopWanderingNeverStopWondering. #TheCruisingKiwis