‘A wave just flipped me over the rail’

If I hadn’t been able to cut the safety line, I would have drowned

After my wife died from cancer, my life imploded so all I wanted was to get away from home, from our life, to heal. Once I had sorted out all of the paperwork, her funeral, the will, it was time to sail away.

I found my floating home not too far away at Philip Island; a Duncanson 34 called Bison, and brought her back to Queenscliff, then set about starting a new chapter, with my elderly cat Stinky.

After a rather adventurous voyage along the bottom of Australia then up the east coast, crossing every nasty bar, entering some dubious anchorages and some quite stunning places, I experienced the crazy tides of the Torres Strait, and finally ended up in Darwin.

I planned to get my