The bowsprit From the editor
Knockdowns and lockdowns Welcome to the March/April issue of SisterShip Magazine. If life was an old nautical chart, I imagine we’d currently be in the region marked ‘here there be dragons’. Somewhat less romantically, our location on a modern chart would probably read ‘area not surveyed’. Navigating life during the current pandemic certainly seems akin to winding a safe passage through a myriad of razor sharp coral bommies, or perhaps on some days more like drifting with flogging sails through the doldrums. Most, if not all, of us are now in lockdown of some kind, our boats tugging impatiently at their mooring lines. We know it’s for good reason, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the thought of being kept off the water wasn’t filling me with sadness.
The current restrictions led me to realise just how often I turn to the beach or ocean in times of sadness or worry. Many of the most significant times of my life have been spent on the water. I was on the water when I learned of my sister’s death last month. In her younger days
Steph worked on dive boats and islands on the Great Barrier Reef. During her short sharp battle with cancer I sent her daily photos of the sea and dolphins. We hoped that the radiation would buy her a little more time, enough to get back out on the waves again even briefly. It wasn’t to be. It was to the ocean I turned, unable to attend her funeral, to say an emotional farewell to her in true yachtie fashion, accompanied by Jimmy Buffet (not in person unfortunately)… and dolphins. She would have approved. Losing Steph has knocked the wind from my sails, and we dedicate this issue to her. Moving on, under jury rig... the fifth annual Women Who Sail Australia Gathering on the Bay, a highlight on the nautical calendar for many of us, suffered a figurative knockdown earlier this month. For obvious reasons, the event was cancelled. However, the event’s major sponsor, Topsail Insurance, generously sponsored this issue of SisterShip Magazine, making it free not only to the event’s attendees but to everyone! For those of you whose lives are currently ‘hove to’ or in ‘dry-dock’, the SisterShip team SisterShip 4
