Oct 6, 2005 - Coral Sea "Cruising"
by Scott and Wendy Bannerot

	Returning to find all well with Elan in Australia was a big relief for all three of us. The floating jetty works well, and the canal is protected and with a soft, sandy bottom.

A balmy recent spring morning found us heading north in Hervey Bay, the Australian mainland clearly visible to port and Fraser Island in the distance to starboard. Gentle southeasterly breezes kissed our starboard transom quarter, and we were fresh in from the Coral Sea, following nearly the same track as we had aboard Elan one month short of three years ago on the morning we got our first glimpse of Australia.

This past month - September, 2005 - gave us a kaleidoscope of fantastic memories: Wreck Reef, a 15-nautical-mile string of reefs and sand cays; and, further offshore, Kenn Reef, shaped like a backwards "L" with a gap in the vertical leg. Each time we rounded Breaksea Spit, north of Fraser Island, the waters churned with schools of surface-feeding mackerel tuna and the frantic flocks of seabirds over them, and numerous humpback whales spouted, slapped, and breached all around us, several scant yards from the boat.

Here's a look at Odyssey 2 at work, at 80 feet, 70 gross tons a very comfortable living platform for fishing and diving way out in the wilderness. Seaplanes will deliver and collect charter groups from up to 300 nautical miles offshore in the Coral Sea next month. We will refuel the plane from the mothership.

Now our destination is Cairns - a brief haulout for boat work; and then the month of October based near Lizard Island, 100 nautical miles or so north on the Great Barrier Reef; followed by five more weeks back out at the most remote sunken atolls and reefs in the Coral Sea.

There have been some changes since our first time traveling these waters three years ago. The big change is that instead of our brightly-colored spinnaker carrying us northward, it's now the muted roar of powerful twin Cummins diesels. Instead of lounging in the cockpit, one leg draped over the tiller, I'm high on the bridge of a spanking-new 80-foot, 70-ton aluminum power catamaran named Odyssey 2, standing in air-conditioned comfort, an array of state-of-the-art computer screens spread before me. About the only similarity (besides the familiar stomping grounds) was the sight of Ryan standing at the bow, Wendy beside him, enthusiastically communing with a pack of bottlenose dolphins riding the bow pressure wave...a scene that has played out so many times on Elan.

Flashback to Florida

	It's all smiles during our afternoon wine tasting along the Rhine River in Germany, making everything we can out of our 36 hours or so in the country en route back to Australia.

Several last-minute medical turns of fate, and a near miss with a hurricane, made for a close call leaving Florida. With the help of my neighbor Jonny, I raced to pack all of our worldly possessions into a 40-foot high cube shipping container; we loaded all night long and slammed the doors shut a scant 15 minutes before the tractor trailer arrived to pick it up for the ride to Port of Miami. It made the scheduled sailing aboard the container ship Gensmaersk, bound non-stop for Brisbane with an ETA of only 5 weeks. My long-time friend Roy Bogue, now a senior sergeant for the Monroe County Sheriff's Department, thankfully accepted the position of managing our house rental, and darned if it didn't get rented out to the first people that came to check it out - a teacher from Ryan's school, and her brother - despite the fact that we had yet to finish preparing it for tenants.

Before we knew it, we were aboard a shuttle bus headed for the Miami International Airport. Our Star Alliance Special tickets (the cheapest path back to Australia for our time schedule) mandated that we stay a night and day in Frankfurt, Germany, and another night and day in Singapore, arriving in Brisbane about four day on the 29th of July, four days after departure.

Upon return to Australia, our new country of primary residence, we re-experienced the same kind of feeling as at the beginning of our sailing voyage, albeit on a smaller scale. Once more we'd finished a significant stint of intense work, and once more we were coming free and embarking on a new adventure. Elan waited placidly at the floating jetty behind the Australian house we'd leveraged with the recently increased equity of our Florida home. Our good friend Gavin Platz had everything in perfect order.

Many questions remained about finances and exactly when we'd be casting the mooring lines for another Pacific Island interlude, but I can tell you the cruising dreams feel infinitely closer when one is standing there on the boat rather than slugging it out doing hard labor half a world away. Ryan scampered aboard immediately, dug out familiar toys, and inserted a favorite video tape, exclaiming, "Dad, it feels so good to be back on the boat!" I couldn't have agreed more.

At the helm of the new ride out in the Coral Sea…Odyssey 2 is the state-of-the-art mothership just commissioned by Nomad Sportfishing to support long distance charters to remote fishing locations in northeastern Australia. For more information check out www.nomadsportfishing.com.au, a very complete website with lots of constantly updated photographs and even video clips. The spacious conditions, resident French chef, and all of the luxuries are a different kind of cruising for us, and despite the fact we'll still be back out on Elan, it's something to which we could become accustomed quite easily for the moment. Grey Poupon, anyone?

Four weeks flew by. Wendy unfortunately had complications with the interthecal pain pump installed just before we left Miami, causing her Australian physician to do a remove and replace, which kept her hospitalized for 15 days. Ryan and I scrambled to get him back in school and settled, finish some large jobs in the house, and then it was time for me to head off to the new job for the mothership charter operation Nomad Sportrfishing.

The deal was for me to work alone the first five weeks in the Coral Sea; Wendy and Ryan would join me for the next five weeks; then I would wrap up the year on my own with five more weeks in the Coral Sea. This was my first time at sea without Ryan and Wendy since the formation of our family. The loneliness was blunted by the intensity of commissioning the brand-new Odyssey 2 at Cairns, hustling down nearly the length of the Great Barrier Reef to Hervey Bay to pick up the first of three consecutive week-long charters far out into the Coral Sea, and pulling off the successful trips. The sheer joy of moonlight glinting on deep sea swells, sunrise over uninhabited sand islets on a perfectly calm morning, the multi-hued glow of profuse coral glimmering in crystal-clear tropical waters - and yes, the smashing hits of monster wahoo, dogtooth and yellowfin tuna, giant trevally to 110 pounds, and all manner of other denizens including assorted groupers, snappers, and even a pod of hungry sailfish - made the time fly. We had one group of Australians and Europeans, another of Malaysian Chinese, and the last group was all from Japan except for a Frenchman, an Italian, and an Australian interpreter. The smiling faces of all of those people witnessing such beautiful, pristine reefs, and the results of casting lures where quite possibly none had ever been cast before, was simultaneously thrilling, fulfilling, and soothing to the soul. I was totally immersed doing work that is a personal passion in arguably the world's most attractive possible conditions. How lucky can one person get?

	This is the kind of giant trevally that hangs around reefs out in the middle of the Coral Sea. Our Japanese anglers are at the very top of the game of casting huge plugs on souped-up spinning rods for these monsters. If you're forced to put a pause on the sailing voyage, to stop and make some money, this is an awfully fun way to do it.

Before I knew it, we were tying back up in Hervey Bay and Wendy and Ryan were running down the dock to greet us, sea bags in hand, some fifteen hours prior to getting under way for Cairns. I'm writing this during a brief couple of days off back home in Mooloolaba. Tomorrow the three of us fly back to Cairns to go back to work. Ryan is extremely proud to be a professional crewman on a big "ship" with a salary of $5 a day. He has his own cleaning kit, and he helps scrub down the four custom fishing skiffs as well as the mothership. He has already had to go over some places I missed, reprimanding me for my inadequate standards. He also runs food and drink orders up to the bridge from the galley. Wendy is helping stewardess Nicole and our French chef Alan, and will likely begin helping with the desalinator system and other light engineering duties. Ryan does his home-school work first thing in the morning. Both he and Wendy are looking forward to exploring Lizard Island and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef during the daytime while the fishing crew seeks 1,000-pound black marlin.

Now, with all of the contents of the container cleared and at the house, we'll return near Christmas to get the 20-foot Seacraft that came all the way from Florida in commercial survey; complete Australian licensing requirements; and split time among several jobs. These include running charters through Tie N'Fly Outfitter here in Mooloolaba; stints with Nomad Sportfishing; and working at a new job consulting, promoting, and booking trips to a brand-new sport fishing enterprise at Penryhn Island (Cook Islands) that will focus on fly fishing for bonefish, as well as general tackle fishing along the reef and offshore.

If all goes as planned, we will have a very good shot at having things under sufficient control to get Elan back out this next South Pacific sailing season...which, after all, is the entire point of everything we've been struggling with the past three years.