Here’s this month’s short story for your enjoyment. A love story which starts on a faraway shore.

Living on an island makes me more aware of shorelines and the sea. A shoreline is constantly changing as the tide comes in and bestows its offerings on the beach. Sometimes they are beautiful - a piece of driftwood shaped like a seahorse or a tiny glistening shell. Other deposits make me shake my head as I pick up plastic bottles, broken glass and lengths of fishing line.

So too do our lives change and I try to always find time to sweep my own personal “beach”. There’s a lot of rubbish there but sometimes I find a pearl.

Swallows and Amazons is a series of twelve children’s books by Arthur Ransome. The twelve books involve adventures by children during their school holidays in England in the 1920s and 30s.

As they revolve mainly around sailing. the Sailing Master of our local Boat Club decided to hold a Swallows & Amazons weekend. We spent four days on the waters of Moreton Bay with a group of up to twenty-eight boats from our Club, the Moreton Bay Wooden Boat Association and other boats from Macleay Island.

On Saturday, we sailed across to neighbouring Coochiemudlo Island for a capuccino in the island general store. Saturday night was a Pirate Night at the Tingira Boat Club, where Guy and I won first prize for our costumes, with special mention of our attention to detail, viz swords and treasure chest.

 

Sunday saw the boats on a “secret raid” through the cutting on nearby Garden Island. Not a race, the prize went to the boat who completed the course in the time nearest to the secret time. Sadly, we were far too fast.

On Monday, Guy and I exchanged our borrowed 12′ Vagabond for our own 30′ sloop, Bonnington and joined a number of wooden boats who sailed to Blakesleys on North Stradbroke Island for an overnight camp, sailing back to Macleay on Tuesday.

Glorious Queensland weather. Who could ask for anything more?