July, when island life truly started feeling like normality and when finally crossing the entire Pacific to Australia became fact.
Looking back at this month makes my heart so full, and also bittersweet. We said goodbye to so many of our fellow fleet friends who weren’t going to carry on sailing the second half, but we also celebrated and treasured all of the memories made to that point and life long friendships which would continue.
From the dancing and sunsets of Fiji, to crossing the Pacific from there to the incredible islands of Vanuatu (possibly my favourite location of the entire circumnavigation), erupting volcanoes, an earthquake, raising enough money fleetwide to donate guitars and footballs to the local school we visited on our first and second Vanuatan islands, being presented with the Spirit of the ARC flag, wearing a jumper for the first time in 6 months, snorkelling over giant clams, singalongs, our first fleetwide dinghy float, arriving in Mackay, Australia, stepping off Pure Joy and briefly on to Living the Dream - a hint at things to come. It’s all too overwhelming to look back on.
But I will look back on it, over and over again until the reality of it all finally starts to sink in.
