CONTENTS

Map: blackwattle’s route

Prologue

1. The dream begins

Before the departure

2. Sailing in circles and sinking by the bow

Sydney to Darwin

3. Shooting stars and flying fish

Ashmore Reef, Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling to the Maldives

4. The lessons we learn

Addu Atoll

5. The magic of Kochi

The Maldives to India

6. Through Pirate Alley with the Spanish navy

Oman to Eritrea

7. Wild, wild desert and flying sand

Eritrea to the Sudan

8. Angel Gabriel and a sting in the tail

Egypt and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean

9. Away in a manger

Israel to Turkey

10. Turkish seduction

Istanbul

11. The lesser-known Med

The Greek Islands, Crete and Malta to Tunisia

12. Land of volcanoes

Gibraltar to Graciosa Island

13. Skippers are from hell

The Canary Islands to the mid-Atlantic

14. How strangers meet

Mid-Atlantic to St Lucia

15. The green silk nightie

The Windward Islands

16. Kings, carnivals and AK-47s

Trinidad and Venezuela to Colombia

17. The vanishing island

The San Blas

18. Wilting military cities and howling monkeys

The Panama Canal

19. The home ocean

Into the Pacific

20. The demise of Fantasy1

The Galapagos

21. Heaven, hell and too many bananas

The Galapagos to the Marquesas

22. Floating coconuts

French Polynesia

23. The story of Taia

The Cook Islands

24. The Old Man of the Sea

Tonga to Fiji

25. South Pacific dreaming

Vanuatu

26. Arriving home

Vanuatu to Bundaberg

27. Discovering my Australia

To Sydney

28. Through the looking glass

The awakening

Acknowledgements