That's a wrap Part 4 – by Gary

Best Experience(s)

Gary:

• Watching my children, indeed my whole family enthused, growing and thriving as we participated in a wide range of experiences simply unavailable had we stayed at home.
• Taking Vicki to Europe.
• For me, as skipper, my primary concern had to be the safety of the boat and my family.  The flip side of this responsibility were the feelings associated with arrival when, after a long passage, we'd make our way safely into port.  I'd get quite a distinct buzz as the tension, tension that I hadn't even always registered was there, would fall away.  Sadly the euphoria was often quickly replaced by fatigue (approaching landfall was often accompanied by severe sleep deprivation) but still mixed with a certain calmness and serenity. Nice!

Scariest Experience

Gary:  A thunder storm that swept off the coast of Mozambique just a couple of days out from Richards Bay, South Africa.  It was my watch and the rest of the crew were fast asleep.  I'd watched the cell's fast approach and reefed way down, and put the navigation computers in the oven (oven=Faraday cage=static electricity protection – well that's the theory anyway). The front hit hard; screaming wind, armour piercing rain and deafening thunder all seemingly competing to blast our boat to extinction.  The self-steering gave up and Mojombo careened out of control.  Thunder bolts as thick as old oak trees were striking the water all around the boat.  I knew we must cop a strike – it was simply impossible we wouldn't, we were right in the heart of this violent cell.  

Miraculously the storm swept passed quickly, leaving us becalmed in an oily swell but absolutely intact.  The crew slept on oblivious!

Gary's Favourite Photos (A Captains Pick)

Rasta-man, Grenada.

School house, Sri Lanka.

Salt works, Bonaire.

Marine Iguana, Galapagos.

Mojombo up for urgent repairs, Christmas Day 2013, Panama.

Drumming trance, Nuku Hiva Marquesas.

Dunes, fog and more dunes, Namibia.

The boat we first set out with, Kallisto in Vavau Tonga.

A rainy day, Moorea Society Islands.

Having fun in the Norfolk Broads, England with Paul and Fin.

 Buginese fisherman, Wangi Wangi Indonesia.

Trading boats, Makassar Indonesia.

Smurfs, Langkawie Malaysia.

Assembling for the Miss Samoa parade, Apia.

Anchored in the lagoon, Bora Bora.

Madagascan trader departing Nosy Be.

Ten of us going 'collective' in an
ancient  Renault taxi, Nosy Be Madagascar.

Street art, Olinda Brazil.

The Christiaan Barnard heart transplant museum, Capetown South Africa.

Sand art,  Durban South Africa.

Lemur, Ankarana National Park Madagascar.

Dancers, Kwa-Zulu Natal Province South Africa.

Unloading 250 kg bags of rice the hard way, Nosy Be Madagascar.

Saint-Pierre with Cirque de Cilaos in the background, Reunion.

Close

Our five-year-plus world circumnavigation has been a truly rich experience full of places, people, culture, nature, food and friendships.  A huge thanks goes to anybody and everybody who has contributed along the way, particularly our extended family who have been so supportive, Zeke and Nina's fabulous teachers at Tasmanian eSchool and the wonderful friends we have met/made/visited along the way.  

But now we are done and it's time to get on with something else, so this blog is officially ended.  

Love to you all, Gary, Vicki, Zeke and Nina

Mojombo in Hobart's Constitution Dock with Kunanyi (Mt Wellington) behind.

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That's a wrap Part 3 – by Vicki

Best Experience
Vicki:
The Panama Canal transit.  To experience this engineering marvel first hand – taking us from one great ocean to another.  Highlights I particularly remember:

• entering Gatum Lake, looking back down into the Caribbean across the stepped locks
• having a great big ship behind us as we went back down on the other side of Gatum Lake
• the thrill of going out into the Pacific Ocean – the door opens out you go!

More generally, just traveling was has been a wonderful experience, with the three big Cs, country, culture and cuisine, not to mention the making of wonderful friendships along the way.

Scariest Experience
Vicki: The water spout we saw south of Sri Lanka.  It was so big, so close, and because if it hit us we were going to be SO dead.  Our EPIRB, liferaft, HF radio, none of it was going to help in the face of something so big and powerful.  There was nothing we could really do.

Vicki's Favourite Photos

Entering Gatum Lake looking back down into the Caribbean.

A huge ship behind us as we head down into the Pacific.

A water spout like the one I saw in the Indian Ocean

We inadvertently hijacked a Bouginese wedding

The vegie market in Pt Louis Mauritius

A deli window in Sienna.

Cartagena Columbia streetscape.

Racing a sandeq trimaran, Makassar Indonesia.

SE Asian fishing boats, Langkawie Malaysia

Lady in Sari, Haputale Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka England test cricket seen from the walls of Galle Fort, Sri Lanka

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That's a wrap Part 2 - by Zeke

Best Experience 
Zeke: The Ariane 5 rocket launch in French Guiana.  The museum was a great build-up, I learnt how rockets are built, what they do, how much they cost.  Then to actually see one go up!  The engines fired, the rocket lifted off and then, after a while, a huge wave of sound slammed in to us.  As it went up I watched the booster rockets coming off and falling away. Awesome.


Scariest Experience
Zeke: Seeing a friend's boat wrecked on a reef – scary because we knew these people quite well. By no fault of their own their boat was wrecked on a reef.  My boat is my safe home – it made me realize this could happen to me.


Zeke's Favourite Photos

Mojombo at Honey River, Madagascar (photo by Kim).

Madagascar traders leaving Hellville in the late arvo.

Zebras in South Africa.

Kolmanskop, Namibia.

Napoleon's tomb – the original on St Helena and the final in Paris.

A delicate stack of  rocks, Lajada Pai Mateus Park Brazil.

Mont-Saint-Michel, France.

Carcasonne lollee shop.

Chameleon in Ankarana National Park Madagascar.

The lagoon at Salomon Atoll, Chagos from our mast head.

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That's a wrap Part 1 – by Gary and Nina

Yum, a candy shop in Norwich England.

Our circumnavigation is complete and this will be my final series of blog posts of our family's adventures in Mojombo. Wanting to finish with a retrospective in some form, I was on the lookout for ideas. Over Christmas in South Australia we went camping with some of the extended family and a 'campfire' quiz of Mojombo's crew revolved around ideas on 'best experience' and 'scariest experience'. Formalising this great idea, I interviewed each of the crew (including myself), also requesting a catalogue of ten favourite photos. I'll present the results in the next few days, starting with Nina below.

Gary

Best Experience
Nina:
Sailing around the world – because it was fun. I saw a lot of things, had great experiences, like:

• a rhino charging us in South Africa
• a lemur on Zeke's head
• the wild, awesome landscapes of St Helena
• sailing the Broads of England
• exploring Carcasonne [a castle in France]
• New Caledonia – pastries and chocolate
• Galapagos – very cool – saw a seal pup steal a fish from a boobie, awesome tortoises
• winning a sailing race in Tonga
• eating fried rice in Sri Lanka.

Scariest Experiences
Nina:
The Tana Toraj caves in Sulawesi, they were dark with hidey holes everywhere with coffins in them. There were coffins, skulls and bones lying around everywhere. Our guide told us of one group he took in and the battery in his torch died – how scary would that be? The cave floor had many holes and chasms, I was very afraid of falling – falling in to dead things.

Tanna volcano. We stood on the edge of a cliff with a pit of boiling lava down below. The ground would shake, lava would bubble and splutter, some would go flying in to the air. Most would fall back but one bit landed on the path next to us.

Nina's Favourite Photos

Me and my friend Ann on an elephant in Sri Lanka.

More yum – pastries in New Caledonia!

Lava erupting from Yasur volcano, Tanna, Vanuatu.

Out front of the Roman Colosseum, Rome.

The excavated city of Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background.

A White Rhino (much more placid than the Black Rhino that charged us).

Me patting a cheetah.

Watching a rocket launch.

NYE fireworks in Sydney.

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