Welcome to the story of John and Alison sailing their yacht Liberty around Australia.

After buying Liberty three years ago we began to discuss what our next cruising plans would be. A number of thoughts were tossed around which included a trip to Vanuatu, the Solomon’s and Papua New Guinea. Because the boat was fairly new to us and we had not done a lot of sailing with her we decided that a circumnavigation of Australia was the way to go. With this decision made the serious planning began.

There was a large list of jobs to be done as Liberty had sat in Bowen for about two years before we purchased her and most of the systems on board were about 15 years old. The first thing we did was have her hauled and all the blisters on her hull repaired. This was a major operation as she was in pretty bad shape. The next job was to replace the old head with a new Lavac system. The old head was no longer working so this seemed to be one of the more pressing jobs. We then had the toe rails repaired where they had been damaged during transport from Bowen and at the same time we had the cabin sole revarnished.

The table in the saloon was very large and had been built with storage cupboards underneath. It blocked the access to the fuel tank and bilge so John designed and built a pedestal table with drop leaves and storage in the centre. He also designed it to be easily removed. This made things very easy when the fuel tank sprung a leak and needed to be removed to be repaired.

Other jobs included replacing the pressure water system with foot pumps and new plumbing. The sheets and halyards were replaced. We built a new dodger, stack pack and splash guards. All the safety equipment in the boat was renewed and this included a new EPIRB and safety harnesses.

The gas bottles were replaced when one rusted through so we took the opportunity to relocate the bottles to the transom instead of in a locker as the bottles in use were not available in Australia. We also decided to go with just one large bottle instead of two small ones. We also installed a new SSB radio, chart plotter, AIS receiver, batteries, stereo and a wind generator.

Fortunately all the sails were in relatively good repair. All that needed doing was the weather strip on the genoa needed restitching.

We picked a leaving date of the end of February 2011. The flat was packed up and all our worldly goods were put into a storage unit. We moved aboard at the beginning of October 2010 and made our home at Cammeray Marina. Cammeray Marina is a small marina but very friendly and has a great sense of community especially in summer when a large number of overseas cruising yachts visit. It was also the scene of some good leaving parties for boats setting off on their first cruise, including ours.

On the 26th February 2011, we untied the lines from the dock and set off out under the Spit Bridge. This departure was slightly delayed when the engine began to overheat. After a quick pit stop at our mooring, where we discovered that it is usually a good idea to put coolant in the engine, we were once again on our way. We anchored for the afternoon in our favourite spot on the harbour and caught up on some sleep and nursed the hangovers. At 5pm we up anchored and set off on our first overnight sail of 75nm to Greenwell Point where we planned to spend a few days visiting Alison’s family.