We like to think that our pilot books and guides are inspirational as well as practical so we thought the following story was worth sharing

Francis Hawkings is researching a new edition of the PXG and has been in touch with John Hembrow, an Australian who runs a relatively new rally organization between Australia and the islands called Down Under Rally. He told Francis this story:

"In 2002 I was at a chart store here in Australia, purchasing charts and cruising guides for a voyage we were planning from Brisbane to Lizard Island (Queensland Coast).
I came across the Pacific Crossing Guide when I was looking in the cruising guide section of the store. I decided to buy it with the idea of reading it along the way.

At that stage, a pacific crossing had never entered my mind; however, after spending hours reading the guide, I was so inspired that I hatched a 5-year plan to sell everything, buy a bigger boat and then spend five years cruising the Pacific. It actually took seven years, but in 2009, we set off on our first ocean voyage from Australia to New Caledonia / Vanuatu & New Zealand. We sold our boat in New Zealand in 2010 and bought another yacht in California in 2010, and began our time cruising/crossing the Pacific. It would be another four years until we were back in Australia. We were then motivated to help others do the same, and the idea of the Down Under Rally was born in 2014, with our first rally being run in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history. So THANK YOU RCC, The Pacific Crossing Guide literally changed our lives."