27 February 2010, Lemon Tree Passage

I'm exhausted! After 5 weeks with my head in the engine room, I emerged
yesterday for a test run of illywhacker's new Yanmar in the waters of
Port Stephens. Never has she moved so quickly under motor - and looked
so clean afterwards! So now it is the big cleanup, get the boat ready
for sea again and have a short break before heading to Sydney then
further south to Tasmania. This has been a successful and very pleasant
port. I've made so many good friends that if I stay any longer, I'd
never leave. It has always been Lyndall who reminded me how short life
is and how much of this wide world we haven't seen as a means of
dragging me onwards. Now it's up to me - another step forward.