Many of our friends already know via social media that we have arrived in Northern Queensland after a 5000 nm crossing from Langkawi via Sumatra, Lombok , the Kei Islands and Thursday Island.

We keep on having the question but how did you manage that in lockdown? There is a long answer to this, but the short answer is that we applied to Australia before lock down and we kept on believing that 2500 nm upwind in fierce trade winds was possible in our Lagoon 440.  The little clip above is taken at anchor…

With emotional support from our friends worldwide we made it! It was a long and hard journey and sometimes I thought we had been overconfident as storm after storm hit us. We cannot say enough how much we appreciated the support of friends and family in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US who looked out for every tiny bit of connection we had to give us a pep talk.

So what now?

We are currently applying for longer term visas in Australia as we want to extend Impi’s stern here in Queensland at the Goldcoast. We had planned to do this in South Africa but it remains unclear as to when it may be possible for us to arrive there safely as the virus is still spreading in its first wave.

We are already super busy with servicing all major equipment and are enjoying seeing all our Ozzie friends. We have also been re-engaging with our friends in New Caledonia and have some good news regarding the animal welfare project that we were engaged with.

Penny Cairns and her daughters Summer and Abbey have raised just under $3000 towards a clinic to sterilize dogs in Mare the most Southern Island of the Loyalty group. Penny started her project after she did a cruise from Queensland and was deeply shocked by the poor state of the dogs on the beach. They were basically dying before her eyes. The family got particularly attached to a pregnant dog that was just too weak to move. It was very distressing to leave the poor animals behind and Penny vowed to make a difference to the life of animals on this island.

Unless we kill all the stray animals, there is only one solution to stop the pain and hunger of so many dogs and that is the mass sterilization of the animals.  This is what Impi has been involved in ever since we encountered Moose, the abandoned Island dog on Ilot Casy.  To see the life of Moose on his island have a look at our movie Rest in Peace Moose

Meanwhile after our successful campaign in Ouvea 2 years ago, new funding was used in March 2019 to treat some 40 dogs and cats on the island of Lifou, the middle island of the Loyalty Islands.

The Society for the Protection of Animals in New Caledonia has now raised enough money together with Penny and an organization based in New South Wales called Pacific Island Animal Welfare to sterilize and treat about 100 dogs. However, there are about 400 dogs needing care on the island.

We now have two veterinaries available ready to do the work in October. We have funding for one who can treat up to 100 animals, but we would like to add a second one assisted by a volunteer which would cost another 8500AU$ including all equipment , transport and medicines. With two vets we would be able to help 200 animals in one week.

We know that times are hard for every one and we hope we do not offend anyone by asking for help for animals when so many people lost a lot of money, jobs and loved ones.  We hope that during these immensely stressful times we can keep on demonstrating our humanity by caring for our animals.  Animals bring us such joy and are such loyal friends and they help us to remain healthy in these stressful times.