Monday January 1st - Tuesday January 2nd, 2001
Latitude 27 degrees 11 minutes 06 seconds South
Longitude: 153 degrees 06 minutes 03 seconds East
Scarborough Harbor Marina
Just when we thought the celebrations were over, it turns out that January 1st, 2001 starts the yearlong centennial celebration in Australia! January 1st marks the 100 years of Australian Federation. It is the day that 6 separate British states came together to form the Australian Federation. So the country as we know it today is now 100 years old. As most things in Australia, any cause for a celebration brings out the best of everything. We settled in to watch the 3-hour parade on TV that was taking place in Sydney. We learned a lot about Australian history by watching this parade and all the achievements that Australians of proud of. How lucky for us that we are here for this celebration. There will be many wonderful events taking place while we are here to celebrate the 100th birthday of this country. Tuesday we drove back to Southport to deliver Anne back to her parents. We did a little exploring in Surfer’s Paradise before we took her back. The big find of the day was the Starbucks coffee shop! The first one we have seen since we left California. It was fun to go in and have a coffee. It was a little taste of home in this somewhat foreign land.
Wednesday January 3rd- Friday January 19th, 2001
Latitude 27 degrees 11 minutes 06 seconds South
Longitude: 153 degrees 06 minutes 03 seconds East
Scarborough Harbor Marina
The last few weeks have been spent working on a few boat projects. David has been working hard in the engine room. I’m not sure what’s going on in there, but I hear a lot of noise! Both mechanical and verbal! We also thought we would investigate some of the leaks we developed from our long passage. The first one to be tackled was the leak around the mast. I went out and pealed off the rubber seal over the metal, only to discover that the metal piece attaching the mast to the haul was disintegrating! In many places the metal was crumbling to pieces, so obviously this is where the leak was coming from. We pulled off the metal piece and took it over to the metal shop to have a new one made. We thought as long as all this is apart we would hire a rigger to come inspect the mast and the rigging to make sure we don’t have to have the mast pulled before we go to all the work of replacing everything. In a few days the rigger finally showed up. He climbed to the top of the mast just like a monkey! He inspected everything at the top all the way down to the keel. Then he inspected all the rigging and the boom. The good news is everything is in good condition except for the boom. So one of these days we will take off the boom and take it into the shop for an overhaul. So now we can get back to fixing the hole around the mast. I’ve been busy repairing the bug screens that fit over the hatches as well as designing and making a new sun awning to protect us from this Australian sun. We found a new material called Coolaroo. It has 95 % protection from UV rays, which is what we as well as the boat need in this harsh Australian sun. We also had a new stainless steel arch made that is positioned at the aft of the cockpit. This will allow us to extend the dodger over the cockpit while we are sailing to protect us from the heat and the sun. Unfortunately we had to tear apart the ceiling in the bathroom and the stateroom to attach the thing to the hull. This was a messy couple of days. We got the mast boot all fixed and poured in a new mixture that would harden around the mast and hopefully cure the leak problem. David also took apart a couple of the leaking chain plates holding the shrouds in place and resealed them with some waterproof sealant. A couple of days after the fix we were hit with a giant thunderstorm and pouring rains. And much to our delight, no leaking! Next on the list was the cockpit instrument panel. This had almost come completely loose from the hull of the boat. David took it apart to see what was going on. The pieces of wood that held it in place had come loose from all the saltwater and banging around. So he made a fix with some fiberglass sheets gave it a good cleaning and put back together with some sealant. , The boat is looking pretty good with all this hard work done, and its nice to get some of these projects out of the way. Hopefully soon we can feel like we have enough projects done that we can start touring around this big island of Australia!
New Australian terminology for the day:
Chock-a-block : if something is crowed or packed
queue- is a line…ie: get in the cue or waiting in the cue or the cue is long
Don’t drink drive- no drunk driving
Mucking around – messing around, goofing off
Poste- the post office
Mate- friend
Mates- friends
Saturday January 20th, - Wednesday January 31st, 2001
Latitude 27 degrees 11 minutes 06 seconds South
Longitude: 153 degrees 06 minutes 03 seconds East
Scarborough Harbor Marina
Every morning we awake to the chug, chug, chug of the shrimp boats returning to the harbor with the squawking of the seagulls and terns circling the boats as they return with their catch of the day. Soon we will hear the most beautiful song of the Butcherbird. These birds have the most beautiful sound I have ever heard come out of a bird. There are usually at least two singing their melody in duet. Its sounds much better then the alarm clock I used to wake up to. Soon we crawl out of bed and David gets ready to go for a run along the shores of Scarborough while I strap on the roller blades and hit the trail through Red Cliffe and Margate. I’ll have to say there is nothing like a good morning skate along the beautiful shores of Morton Bay. As I skate along I see the occasional swimmers out for an early morning swim and a few other runners and walkers along the trail. I still get serenaded by the beautiful melody of the Butcherbird and also hear the occasional squawk of the parrots. There are so many new birds here and I have gotten a pretty good look at some of them along the way. The most unusual bird that walks the beach looking for something to eat is the Australian White Ibis. This is a large white bird with black tail and black on the tips of the wing feathers. But the most unusual thing about this bird is its large long downcurved bill. Another unusual bird pecking around at the grass along the trail would be the Crested Pigeon. It looks fairly similar to the pigeon you would see in the United States except it has a crest on its head made of feathers pointing straight up into the air. It was a very strange site the first time I saw one. Sometimes if I’m lucky I will see a tree filled with Galahs. This is a bird that is in the cockatoo family and looks very similar to a cockatoo except that the body is covered with pink feathers while the wings and tail are covered with grey feathers. The head has a little tuff of pink and white feathers topping it off. They are very beautiful birds and it seems very weird to see them flying around free and not in a zoo or pet shop. By far the most colorful bird along the way would have to be the rainbow lorikeet, they are similar to what a parrot would look like, they have beautiful blue heads with a red beak, green wings and tail, while the body is covered with yellow, orange and blue feathers. I’m still amazed every time I see one. Occasionally I will get to see a great white egret sitting so gracefully along the rocky shore in the company of the enormous Australian Pelican.
On January 23rd we drove out to the international airport in Brisbane to pick up the family from Voyager. They were coming back from spending Christmas in the United States. The weary travelers soon arrived after making it through customs with all their boxes. They were really in shock from the heat wave after coming from the deep freeze from the Midwest. Friday January 26th is Australia day; this is a celebration very similar to our Fourth of July. They celebrate it with things like cockroach races and fire works. One of the neat things they do to celebrate this day is pick 100 outstanding Australians from the last year. Being that the Olympics were held here this year, quite a few Olympians made the top 100, but there were also war heroes, people who had preformed great volunteer projects and a few kids made the list as well. I thought this was a great way to celebrate your country pride. January 24th was the beginning of the Chinese New Year celebration in Brisbane. On Sunday we went to China Town to see how they celebrate here. Chinese dancers and the long traditional Chinese dragons entertained us. We topped the day off with a late lunch at a Chinese dim sum restaurant. In all January was a month filled with activity and trying to find ways to keep cool! This has been one of the hottest months on record in Australia! Glad we were here for that! I guess they are feeling the full effects of the hole in the ozone from the green house gasses!
New Australian terminology for the day:
sheila : is what they call a girl
ute- is what they call a pick up truck
Good on ya – means “Good Job!”
Sticky beak – means you are nosy, or having a look around
Togs – swimsuit
Mozzie- mosquito
Boot – car trunk