The boat’s motor had broken down. On board with them was their two-year-old son Aaron. They rowed to an unoccupied mooring in the middle of the harbour.

“We broke the motor off Brush Island. It took about four hours to get through the harbour entrance. We had to row in because we were becalmed,” Sue said.  

Fast-forward 44 years and two months and Sue is back in Ulladulla, with her second husband Ettore, this time having taken the overland route. She and Ettore have wandered into the Milton Ulladulla Times office to show us the clipping of this paper’s report of their adventures in 1974.

Headlined ‘In the wake of Matthew Flinders’, the story chronicled their voyage from Port Phillip Bay in Victoria, which began in July of that year, on the vessel that in 1966 was the first non-powered yacht to circumnavigate Australia since Matthew Flinders in 1802.

Back then, there was no GPS, no emergency beacon, just a small radio. Navigation involved “keeping Australia to your left”, Sue recalls.

She did not tell her mother she was taking to the sea with her young child.

“I didn’t tell her about the adventure until we got to Sydney. I was worried that she’d be worried about me,” she said.

“My husband’s parents knew and tried to put us off. A lot of people said we wouldn’t get through Port Phillip Heads.”

Out in Bass Strait, the young seafarers were quickly acquainted with nature’s fury.

“It was such a gale out there. We had no sails up. We had a scooter tyre which threw over the back to slow us down because we could see a cargo should about a mile away and it was being lost in the waves, in the swell.”

When they sought refuge in Port Welshpool, the local shark fishermen were incredulous.

“They said, ‘Where have you come from? We haven’t been out in six weeks!”

Sailing with a small child was also challenging. 

“I was washing everything in salt water.”

Toddler Aaron developed sea boils from the constant use of salt water.

“The only shower we had was rigged through the motor and it was salt water,” she said.

Their intentions were to keep sailing for as long as possible but the trip ended after six months when they pulled into Gunnamatta Bay in Port Hacking. Their trip had involved short hops and stops that included Refuge Cove, Port Welshpool, Lakes Entrance, Eden, Bermagui and Ulladulla. 

“Glynn ran out of money and decided he had to get work,” Sue said.

The couple moved back to Victoria and divorced in the early 1980s. Sue went on to marry Ettore and has led a largely landlubber’s life ever since – apart from a couple of much smaller, less challenging sailing adventures.

“I guess I had a different outlook back then. I’m a lot older. Wiser? Yes, correct, not so foolhardy.”