It's been a long, long time ... not many musings, mostly news

Much has happened. My poster girl, Jessica Watson, has ceased to give me sleepless nights and is safely back in the Land Down Under. Jessica called in here briefly but I didn't even know it was going to happen and she was off up the coast to her final port before I even knew Pink Lady had even visited. Oh dear! Abby Sunderland has been rescued. I admire her optimism in choosing an Open 40 for her circumnavigation but she finally came to grief in that black hole 2000nM south west of Perth and had to be rescued. A French fishing boat picked her up repaying us for the rescue of Thierry (cranky) Dubois and the irrepressible Tony Bullimore many years ago. It's a bad spot and many people have simply disappeared down there. Abby liked giving the Open 40 its head to race away and, given that she was only sixteen and on her first circumnavigation, we can forgive her optimism and poor judgement in such a place. More experienced and older sailors have done the same. I question the role her land-based team played in such a situation. The Australian government acted quickly in sending a Qantas jet to the spot where her EPIRBs (2) were signalling and all ended well in a French fishing boat. Quick reaction with the jet was laudable. I don't know what they could have done but there is no telling what the experience and equipment on board the plane was, so I won't second-guess them. The government, the jet, AMSA, Abby and the fishing boat all did well in their respective roles.

The Wandering W***** Women are off again and the advance team of three is now checking out Rome - Liz follows soon and Europe and North Africa will be closely examined. Carolyn is scoping out teaching positions around the world as she goes. Hugo's hair is getting longer and his body fatter. We seem to be headed in opposite directions as I lose weight and keep (?) my hair short. I haven't heard anything from Alex in ages and can only presume no news is good news. He is proselytizing for Utah in the south of Malaysia which seems to me to be a tough call and I wish him well. Mum is OK and hasn't fallen over in ages but another fall could see her in a nursing home and I would not wish that on anyone.

Both my 6X binoculars and my 10X Fujinon binoculars have arrived and the Fujinons would have to be the far better buy of the two. They are a heavy lump, big and difficult to focus and don't close focus at all but they are truly wonderful binoculars to look through. I am sceptical of all this "SX-2" and "Flat Field" stuff but they are, as I said, very good and that is the point. I had a good look at Jupiter rising last night and saw one moon apparently occult another at about 1am AEST local time. The 6X binoculars are just fine for the bike and the boat and it's good to know that, when I fall off the bike, it's not going to cost me three thousand dollars to replace my Leica binoculars - a most sensible purchase. They have been tried on the water - the 6X binoculars - and work very well indeed. The 6X magnification is excellent to hand-hold in a rocking boat.

All around me, things seem to be mostly going well at the moment. The only change I need to make is to get more exercise. That's a big one and I'm working on it.

Our elected Prime Minister has been deposed by the unions and never mind who the voters put in the job. I reckon it's the job of the voters to choose who our Prime Minister should be, not unionists in Sydney and Melbourne. I'm old fashioned enough to believe that the voter has a big say in a democracy. As the saying goes, democracy may be a lousy system but it's better than the next best system. At least we get a say every three years. As many people have by now found, I guess there's no use crying about it.