Journal Entries

December 2005

3 December - I can't believe it is December already. Sadly my website is becoming more about life in general than my life sailing. This will hopefully change soon as I will spend more time sailing. I'm so excited about my trip at Christmas.

Tonight I went to a wedding. The young Romanian girl who cleans the marina asked me to attend her wedding. I was surprised and flattered when she handed me an invitation a month ago and I gladly accepted. It was to be held at a soccer club on the south side of Brisbane. I had no idea where it was so left plenty of time to get there. When I arrived it was a little tin shed overlooking a soccer field next to the railway line. I was one of the first to arrive and I felt a little uncomfortable as I did not know anyone.

People soon started to arrive and I made conversation with some of them. I was shown to my seat and was at a table with 2 couples. One was Romanian the other from Yugoslavia. As the night progressed I learnt more about these people and how they had come to Australia less than 10 years ago. They explained to me proudly and in their broken english that they had arrived in this country with only $20.00 and a plastic bag. Through hard work they had secured a future here. One of the couples had 2 children and even managed to send some money back to their family sometimes.

Just listening to their stories of how they had endured war and hardship made me feel so fortunate and also to appreciate my life even more. By the end of the night that little tin shed on the soccer field was filled with the sounds of people laughing and dancing to Romanian music. Some people spend a fortune on a wedding but tonight was something money cannot buy.

6 December - I thought I should mention that since I got my ICOM handheld vhf radio back it seems to be working fine. The problem appears to have been the battery pack. I wanted to mention this because despite being a week or so out of warranty (6 months for batteries) ICOM replaced it, no questions asked. It obviously was a faulty battery pack as it never did hold a charge since new and I had only used it a couple of times. So thank you ICOM. I have 3 vhf and 1 HF icom radios onboard and thoroughly recommend them for their quality and back up service.