The bowsprit From the editor
Whales and serendipity Here in Australia the days are shortening, jumpers and beanies are making an appearance, and the humpback whale migration has begun. While the whales are free to head north to sunny climes, the annual pilgrimage of southern sailors to the tropics is in doubt. Of course, this is not restricted to Australia. Long before Covid-19 was a speck on the horizon we were sent a wonderful story on the advantages of cruising home waters. Oblivious of just how relevant it was to be, I tucked it aside for a future issue. Kate Gilgan’s reasons for staying in home waters had nothing to do with a pandemic but the story could have been written especially for these times as many boaters (and holiday makers) appear restricted to local waters for the foreseeable future. Emily Whebbe’s account of struggling to adapt to life on shore, written for our Changing Places short story competition last year and in the recently released anthology, is another story that could have been written during the current pandemic.
1988? I was living on the Queensland coast, sailing a small van der Stadt called Bunyip, and spending as much time as possible on the breathtakingly beautiful coral cays of the southern Great Barrier Reef. The southernmost of those cays is the stunning Lady Elliot Island. Sarah Miller contacted us recently after seeing her story about Lady Elliot in a scanned back issue (Issue 3 1988) of SisterShip. Sarah sent us a follow-up piece (see Page 36) and will share more of her recent adventures in an upcoming issue.
These serendipitous threads that are woven through SisterShip constantly amaze and delight me! Stay safe and, as always, look for the dolphin!
Shelley Wright At the helm of Bunyip, Port Curtis, Queensland. 1988.
Can you remember what you were doing in SisterShip 4
