This is a photo of "Jacana ll" under sail. John, who is normally a solo sailor, depended heavily upon the reliability of his 9 metre, Simpson designed, catamaran. They have sailed many thousands of miles together since leaving Brisbane in 2009 to join the "Sail Indonesia Rally" that left from Darwin in July 2009. It wasn't until 2010, that Rees & I really got to know John because of participation in the 2010 "East Malaysian Rally". It was then that we realised that we all wanted to travel back to Australia in the same direction after the rally, so we stuck together from Terrenganu, where we departed for Kuching, to sail across the South China Sea.
"Jacana ll" has proved to be a great little sailing boat, keeping pace with both "Hanalike" & "Windy spirit" during our long voyage from Malaysia, to Australia. John, who lives aboard, found her stable & reliable, only disappointing him over the last stages with the auto pilot failing, causing him to hand steer from the Louisiades in PNG, to Townsville in Australia. At times we all wondered just how he coped with being a lone sailor, especially with the many overnighters that we'd done over the past few months, but "Jacana ll" was always there on our doorstep, ready for the next leg!
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