On Thursday 17th August we took Heraclitus out to sea, returning to the crystal clear waters of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia for our last dance together. We anchored next to Michaelmas Cay.

Seabirds soared over our masts, settling on their protected sand strip where they made a cacophony of cheers, encouraging us in our final celebration of the years we have spent with Heraclitus. The south east trades continued to blow over us, winds carrying the energy required to carry through this completion and take the first steps into the new.

We took the time to be with the ship, to glory in her beauty, to swim around her in the fresh turquoise waters of this coastline, to admire her from below the surface swells, to contemplate on the experiences she has given us and to concentrate on our imminent future on a new vessel.

We toasted to our life at sea, our life with Heraclitus and our friendships with each other. We reflected on our past, gathered ourselves for the present and visualized our future.

On Sunday night, the distant song of humpback whales reverberated through our hull, the cetacean songline that has threaded together our journey on this Great Barrier Reef played to us once more. On Monday we weighed anchor, in the hope of a visual sighting. Our wishes were fulfilled with a splash in the distance and chatter of their presence on the VHF radio between ships at sea. By nightfall, despite the continued rolling of the waves and rattle of the wind, peace had arrived – inner and outer.

Our last morning at sea with this black beauty was filled with colour and light – the sun shone behind the eyes of the ship that has taught us. The ocean lapped against the hull that has carried us. The sails billowed with the winds that have propelled us. This weekend has filled us with a readiness to move on, to continue our sea people dreams and to keep the voyage going, going, going and never gone.

At five miles off the familiar entrance into the channel that leads to Cairns, we sat on the bow and asked each other ‘could this be any more perfect an ending?’ Five bottlenose dolphins answered us as they surfaced just beneath our dangling feet. Always ask ‘is there anything more, is there anything more, is there anything more?’
 

'Change is the only constant' -
Heraclitus (c. 535 - c. 475 BC), Greek philosopher