May 2022

Return down under...

27 months! Enough time to have three children ! 27 months away from the sea, away from Banana Split, away from this part of the world I appreciate so much, the South Pacific. I was finally able to take a plane (first flight since January 2022) to Australia and the region north of Sydney, where my catamaran had been waiting for me for over two years. Well kept all the same by the Lake?s Yacht Club and its friendly manager Patrick, an absolute fan of Bernard Moitessier.


And I am on board for two months, facing a huge to-do list , because a boat without anyone on board during all this time means a lot of work. Fortunately I have some help, Serge and his smiling wife Claudie, who emigrated to Australia with two trunks, a total ignorance of English and not even a place to stay, nearly forty years ago; their son Morgan is more or less me thirty years ago. I also feel comfortable with my friend Patrice, who came from Belgium, he had once been in charge of maintaining Banana split in Panama in 2000-2002 and in the Leeward Islands of Polynesia a few years later.

The erea is very nice, even if the temperatures are a bit cooler than in the southern summer; where else but here can you meet kangaroos peacefully camped on the roadside? A few other natural wonders, a 16 kilometer long beach, and spectacular caves, such as the Pink Cave. The other day, a beautiful rainbow barred the entire shoreline of the lake, seeming to carry a message of hope in this crazy world...

By the beginning of June, Banana Split will be ready to set sail again, but it will be winter and the sailing conditions may be difficult on the way to New Zealand, so I will return to enjoy the mildness of summer on the Puy de Dôme mountains. Best wishes to all, this is the month fot it, do what you like ! ( in French En mai, fais ce qu'il te plait )
Antoine

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