Jan Mitchell – författare

Crossings in Realitas, is a 16-year tale of family cruising. The story is, like the Mitchell’s boats, a no-nonsense and honest look at life.

Four years cruising around the world during the 1970s (Two in a Top Hat) and the addition to the family of two young sons, took more energy - emotional and physical than either had expected. Buying a house in Sydney, finding jobs and bringing up a small family took its toll on both parents, but they never lost sight of their ultimate goal, buying the next cruising boat.

A visit to the builder of Phantom Yachts in 1984 allowed Ian and Jan to satisfy themselves that this was no fly-by-night operation. The Phantom 32 is a well-built cruising yacht with a deservedly good reputation.

With a safe cruising yacht, their first long trip was to Tasmania and then the Bass Strait islands. Each year, there were new destinations and it was not too long before the Tasman beckoned with that long ago attempted trip to Lord Howe finally being realised. Meeting up with friends from their Coastal Cruising Club provided an additional highlight of that trip. Many other cruises followed, including two more visits to Lord Howe Island, the latter being extended to the mid-ocean reefs on The Lord Howe Ridge.

This book has shown how ordinary people, despite major financial and health setbacks, can enjoy the freedom of life at sea. Now with another boat, they are still enjoying the cruising life, but that is the topic of Jan Mitchell’s next book, Hear the Ocean Sing.

In Hear the Ocean Sing, the final volume of Jan Mitchell’s cruising memoirs, she takes the reader to sea with her and husband Ian. Despite experiencing a dismasting, they also wonder at the beauties of the ocean, its creatures and the pristine wildernesses they visit. They sail to remote places most people will never visit, like Bathurst Harbour in Tasmania and Stewart Island in southern New Zealand, showing what can be achieved by ordinary people who have the determination and persistence to follow their dreams. Jan also documents her observations of changes in the oceans over the past forty years. She notes the decline in fish numbers and seabird populations as well as changes in ocean currents, leading to increases in water temperature – all effects of climate change.