The Beginning.....

Hello from Navman, I'm a virgin blogger, so hang with me for a while as I get into the flow of the blog. I think it will be a good story to tell if I can get it all out. The aim of the blog will be to be both informative and amusing, and any comments or feedback are always welcome.

Today's blog is really just to set the scene for the story, so here's the outline:

Plot: One man's dream to sail his boat to the Great Barrier Reef.

Principal characters:

"Sea-Dog" - He's the boat owner (with his good wife Marina),  a raconteur, and the architect of the dream

"Captain Bligh" - Experienced skipper and man of the sea. He will be leading us on our merry (we hope) journey. He's a great skipper, but does like things done his way.

"Navman" - yours truly. Navigator, gadget man, comms officer, photographer and most importantly, cook.

"Endless Summer" - A 32 foot Caribbean motor cruiser

There are other characters, but I will introduce these as we progress.

The story so far.......

One morning a long time ago, Sea-Dog woke up and said to Marina  "Wouldn't it be great to have a boat we could take up to Port Douglas, and cruise around the Barrier Reef." Marina, ever supportive, agreed, and so the dream was born.

Flash forward 20 years, Sea-Dog and Marina have retired and are well positioned to fulfil the dream.....

House on the water - tick
Jetty for boat - tick
Suitable boat - tick
Formal boat training - in progress at the local TAFE
Crew - some ideas but nothing concrete


By great good fortune, Navman was also at TAFE, getting qualifications for use with Marine Rescue. Sea-Dog and Navman met and were immediately united in a common passion about boats and boating. There followed a year of preparation and training for the big trip north, some 1500 nautical miles from our river base on the beautiful South Coast of New South Wales, up to the ever-warm Port Douglas in sunny Far North Queensland.

We have had some sea trials down to the big bay south of us, anchoring practice in quiet roadsteads, overnighting on the boat with our good wives, and now we are making the final preparations. New electronics have been fitted by Matt, our  local boating electronics genius, so we now have DSC radios, AIS transponders, backup GPS chartplotters, and a high-tech comms system which gives us phone and internet wherever we go.

The boat went on the slip yesterday for its final antifouling (and to clear oysters from the raw water intake to the head (aka toilet to landlubbers). She is also having a polish, so she will be looking her resplendent best when we set off in a few weeks time.

Anyway, that's enough for today. I'll write again tomorrow when Endless Summer comes off the slip.

Happy boating,

Navman