AUSTRALIA had been calling us home for some time. Finally we turned away from Greece, south east towards the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean and through Asia to home.
Our destination, somewhere on the east coast of Australia, was over 10,000 miles away. Compared to going west to Australia, our route was 5,000 miles shorter, or one ocean less.
PREPARATION
Ivory Moon had crossed the Atlantic in 2011 and all the equipment bought or installed then was still on board. We checked the SSB, the EPIRB, the liferaft, the ditch bag and all the systems. Everything seemed OK.
We assessed the piracy situation. There had been no attacks in our transit zone since 2014. There was a joint naval force patrolling the high risk area with…