Stray Kitty was first (because you're only known by your boat name, you know!). We made it just in time: their boat had just sold, and two days later they were flying out to go land touring Southeast Asia for a few months. A couple of days in Manly were perfect for us to catch up, and make a few more memories.
Taking leave of the Kitties, we went up the river towards Brisbane to find the slip we've been anticipating calling our home. It's immediately next to Merlin, a family we also met in French Polynesia. Tearing around the bend in a dinghy from their spot at the Gardens Point harbour to catch our lines were the crew of Ceilydh. This reunion was very sweet! I was a little busy with docklines, but Diane took some great pictures.
She also perfectly captured how these happy reunions feel for me (being a pro writer and all I suppose that's not terribly surprising):
There are friends who you just know will always be your friends. People who months or years after you say goodbye can sit in your home and pick-up a conversation like it was yesterday. Friends where it all seems easy—where they know you, and you know them, and being together feels like you’ve come home.
I think we really needed this, to be reminded that we were home. That home is where ever our family is, but it's also the warm comfort of the extended circle of our cruising community. Tying up to the dock, with the help of our friends last seen an ocean away, really did feel like a homecoming. And that it can happen again, and again, and again.