Friday, June 1st, 2001
Latitude 24 degrees 54 minutes 08 seconds South
Longitude: 153 degrees 33 minutes 09 seconds East
Day One- approximately 126 nautical miles traveled
Even though it’s been relatively smooth sailing, Dewey and I are having a hard time getting used to the motion of the ocean again. We both have taken seasick medication and managed to make it through the first night of sailing ok. Deweys wondering where it is that he used to be comfortable while sailing. He tried out all kinds of places today until he finally remembered his top step. He wedged himself in there for the next day. He didn’t feel like eating much either so he was pretty frozen there. It wasn’t as cold as we expected it to be while sailing at night so we were pretty comfortable as well. Passing tankers and ships kept us on our toes during the night. Haven’t seen another sailboat yet. I guess most of the ones going north have headed that way already or are on the inside of Fraser Island. We spent another beautiful day of sailing along the coast of Fraser Island. By 3:00 in the afternoon we had finally cleared the top of the largest sand island in the world and enter the Curtis Channel heading towards Lady Elliot Island, home of one of the turtle breeding grounds along the coast. I kept a look out all day for turtles but never saw one.
Saturday, June 2nd, 2001
Latitude 23 degrees 35 minutes South
Longitude: 151 degrees 36 minutes East
Day Two- approximately 140 nautical miles traveled
Were not exactly sure how many miles we are traveling at this point because we don’t believe we have the speedo entirely cleared of barnacles. The speedo seems to be 1 to 1.5 knots behind what the GPS says we are going. We don’t believe that we have that much of a current flowing with us all the time, so until we get a chance to get in some clear water and check out what’s going under the boat we won’t be exactly sure of our speed or our mileage. So for now it will just be an estimated miles and speed. We survived our second night at sea and by 7:00 this morning we were passing by Polmaise and Irving reefs to our east and Curtis Island to our west. At approximately 8:00 am this morning we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at latitude 23 degrees 30 minutes south and longitude 151 degrees 30 minutes east. Very rare to cross over a corner of the grid, but to have it happen on this momentous location was pretty amazing stuff! With this crossing of the grid we have passed from sub tropical to tropical latitudes. The Tropic of Capricorn happens to be the southern most limit in the sky that sun travels as it goes north and south back and forth across the equator. In the northern hemisphere this line of demarcation is know as the Tropic of Cancer and runs just north of the Hawaiian Islands at 23 degrees 30 minutes north. Around 9:00 am we pass by Cape Capricorn named in honor of the Tropic of Capricorn. Off in the distance we can see the Keppel Islands. We have heard this is a nice place to stop. I was tired and David wanted to take a look at the alternator so we decided to stop there for the night, so we changed course and made tracks to the Great Keppel Island. By 3:00 in the afternoon we were anchored in a bay on the northwest side of the island hoping that it would offer some kind of protection from the southeast trade winds. There were around 20 other boats looking for the same thing there, so we weren’t able to get into too close to shore. This ended up being a very rolly anchorage, but it was nice to have a stop over, although it was so rolly that it was still causing me to have a bit of sea sickness and caused Dewey to find a new favorite spot to wedge himself into. We made some dinner and then called it an early night for we were exhausted.
Sunday, June 3rd, 2001
Latitude 23 degrees 09 minutes 05 seconds South
Longitude: 151 degrees 57 minutes 02 seconds East
Day Three
Wow, hard to imagine I got much sleep at all last night in this rolly and windy anchorage. I got up several times in the night just to make sure we hadn’t dragged or anyone else had dragged either. Some how I felt refreshed this morning and by 7:30 am we were pulling up the anchor to continue our journey to the Whitsunday islands. We spent most of the day maneuvering around reefs and islands. By 6:00 tonight we enter the Northumberland isles, which is littered with little and big islands as well as reefs. Heading into this area just at sunset made me a little nervous, but we do have a full moon with us, which helps light the islands. As we weave our way through the islands I mark our position on the chart every 15 minutes to make sure we don’t get off track. Can’t afford any mistakes going through here. To make things a little more interesting we started getting hit by squalls around 9:00 PM and had to deal with them the rest of the night. Toward the end of the night we near the southern most group of the Cumberland islands. This group known as the Whitsunday islands and are part of a larger chain of islands known as the Cumberland islands. Cook named these islands after the Duke of Cumberland (the younger brother of King George the third). When Captain Cook sailed through this area he arrived on Sunday June 3rd, 1770, which happened to be Whit Sunday, so he named the Passage between the islands the Whitsunday Passage. How funny that we also arrive on Sunday June 3rd, Whit Sunday, but in the year 2001! What are the odds of that? Looks like we are following in Cook’s footsteps.
Monday, June 4th, 2001
Latitude 21 degrees 02 minutes 01 seconds South
Longitude: 149 degrees 25 minutes 05 seconds East
Day Four
I started out the day with the 12:30 am to 4:00 am watch. The moon is almost full so that is helping as we continue through Northumberland isles. Just to keep me on my toes a few squalls came my way with heaps of rain along with a fleet of fishing boats that didn’t seem to pay attention to us. No matter which way I turned they seem to get right back in my way. I finally had to wake up David and ask him what I should do. One boat was heading our way and was within one half mile of us. He barely passed by our stern and I was at last by the fishing fleet. Now if I can just get by the last of these islands ok I will be ready for my turn to sleep. David had watch from 4:00 am to 8:00 am and when I awoke he had mentioned that it had been a very bad night. Constant squalls and he had listened to the weather report and they were predicting strong wind warning and more rain! Well this caused us to make a decision to head to land to the safety of a marina. We are both exhausted from the night and don’t need to find and anchorage on island we don’t know and fight strong winds all night. We could do it, but why if we don’t have to? The closest place is a marina called the Laguna Quays. We called them on the single side band radio and advised them that we would like to come in. Our estimated time of arrival would be between 2 and 3 this afternoon. They said they had plenty of room for us to come on in. What a relief! We changed our course and head into the Hillsborough channel. This is shallower water close to land and the color of the water has turned a beautiful turquoise blue and I even saw a dolphin. Things are looking up. By one in the afternoon we are in Repulse Bay and sailing beautifully by the Repulse Islands. According to the guidebooks this bay and islands got their name from Captain Cook. He was sailing through here and thought there would be a break in the land to get through, when he discovered that there wasn’t he was repulsed and named it Repulse Bay for he had to turn around. Around three o’clock I heard the marina call us on the vhf radio. It appears there is a problem. We are 7 miles away which will put us at the marina entrance around 4:00 PM. Turns out low tide is at 4:16 PM and the depth in channel will not be deep enough for us to enter. We will either have to wait until tomorrow or come in after dark at around 6:oo PM! Even though they advertise a 2-meter depth channel at low tide, apparently it has silted in and she is pretty sure we won’t make it in. This is not what we wanted to hear. Now we know how Captain Cook felt, for we too had to turn around. We decided to sail around in circles for the next 3 hours until we can enter. At just about dusk we had ourselves lined up with lights and began to enter the channel at 6:00pm. At first it didn’t seem too bad, as we passed the first two markers the depth finder was reading 11 feet. We know we can go down to 4 feet 6 inches before we will hit bottom. All of the sudden the depth finder was reading 4 feet, 3 feet, 2 feet 6 inches. David roared the engine as we plowed through the silt. We finally rounded the corner and the depth finder returned to 6 feet and we were out of the mud! The folks from the marina were there with flashlights guiding us into our slip. At last we were tied up and safely in. That proved to be interesting, good thing we didn’t come in at low tide or we would still be sitting out there until high tide lifted us again. Laguna Quays is situated in the southern part of the Whitsundays so we will be able to head right back out there when we leave. I’m sure well sleep good tonight.
Tuesday, June 5th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
We had a great sleep last night and the day is looking pretty nice. Hard to believe there is a big storm on the way. We set to work doing laundry and cleaning up the mess from the last 4 days of sailing. By noon all our chores were done and we were ready to explore our surroundings. We went up to the office to see what the damages are for staying here. Boy, have we hit the jackpot. Turns out they are having a sail boat race here on Saturday and if we enter the race we can stay here for two weeks for 50 dollars! (That’s approximately 25 American dollars!) So of course David signed up for the race. This marina is part of a large resort with all kinds of amenities. As a guest of the marina we are entitled to use all parts of the mega resort! Wow! this place is fantastic. If you call the main lodge they will send down a van to pick you up and take you anywhere on the grounds. We decided to explore on foot and stretch the legs. The main focus of this resort is a golf course and most of the events and places are woven around the golf course, which has lots of beautiful ponds, wetlands and birds. We had a nice walk up to main lodge, which is a beautiful new fancy resort. They have two large swimming pools, spa, sauna, restaurants, exercise gym, pool tables, and beach club. The beach club has little racing catamarans, lasers sailboats, canoes, sailboards, kayaks and kites to use all for free! What a place, it’s hard to believe we have stumbled on to such a great deal. We spent several hours strolling through the beautiful grounds. Later we were informed a Japanese company spent 360 million dollars on the resort before they went bankrupt. Later an Australian company was able to buy it for 20 million dollars in back taxes. What a sad story. This may explain why parts of it don’t look finished yet. They also have many beautiful hiking trails through the woods. I was so excited I got my mountain bike out and went for a ride on these trails. Everything was going along smoothly, I was having a great time until I was attacked by giant spider web, which caused me to wipe out on some rocks. My first concern was making sure that giant black spider was off of me. They have many very poisonous spiders in Australia and I didn’t want to see if this was one of them. After the spider was gone I attended to my wounds. They weren’t as serious as all the blood made them out to be so I continued on my way. Despite my crash I had a great ride exploring the grounds for the next few hours. Later that night David and I called the van to take us to the lodge so we could use the spa and sauna. What beautiful surroundings we have found ourselves in. Where are we and who are we anyway?
Wednesday June 6th - Friday June 8th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
The storm has finally hit. We spent Wednesday and Thursday inside listening to the rain and wind blow. David worked on few electrical projects while I worked on some drawings and paintings. We did spend some time at the lodge using the spa, reading the newspaper and playing chess on their giant sized outdoor, but covered chessboard. When Friday arrived so did the sun! We spent the morning getting the boat ready for the race tomorrow. David took off the dinghy and some other heavy items. We pulled out the spinnaker to dry out. Later in the afternoon David and I went over to the boat club and checked out one of the small racing catamarans. I had never used one of these before, but we had a great time racing across the lagoon. After our catamaran racing I had a great time riding my bike around looking at all the fantastic birds. The birds I see in Australia consistently amaze me. Today I saw 3 black swans, close to 40 rainbow lorikeets grazing on the grass by the wetland and several kookaburras. Blending in nicely with the bush I spotted a wallaby and kangaroo. What a beautiful places this has turned out to be. Well looks like we will call it an early night so we are well rested for the race tomorrow. I guess we’ll see what Francis is made out of. I wish David’s ol racing buddy Phil was here. I might be a cruising sailor but I think there’s a big leap making me into a racing sailor. Well see what tomorrow brings.
Saturday June 9th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
Race day has arrived. The weather is fine with a southeasterly blowing at 15 knots. At 9:00 we attend the pre-race meeting to find out what the course will be and how we will go around it. Today’s course is a large triangle. We pass between the committee boat and a buoy and head southeast to the windward mark. Passing the marks to port the next two legs are starboard reach and a port reach back to the committee boat and then back to the windward mark and a run back to the committee boat. There are 14 boats in our race (division two) and about 6 boats in the division 0ne. The two races are to start within 5 minutes of each other so there were a lot of boats heading out of the marina at the same time. There is another American boat here called Gandalf. They draw 8 feet, because of the shallow channel and low tides there were unable to get out for the start of the race. We were tacking and gybing around waiting for our time to start when the flag went down. We had a good start at the favored end of the line and we soon were making up good time heading to the first mark. We had to tack back and forth several times before we found the first mark. The first mark was several miles away and very hard to see. It was hard to know where to go on that first leg until you could see the mark. I found it pretty nerve racking being out there with 20 other boats going back and forth in front of, beside and behind us. It was a lot of action and a lot of hard work. Poor Dewey didn’t know what to think. He would just get comfortable on the starboard side when we would tack to the port side and then he would have to move again. As we rounded the first mark we rolled in the genoa and put up the spinnaker. There wasn’t enough wind to keep it flying very good so we soon took it down and readied to go around the second mark and make our way to the 3rd mark. We noticed that Gandalf finally joined the race. We later found out that they started about twenty minutes late, but at least they gave it a try. We really made some ground on that 3 leg, we passed several boats along the way and soon were going around the 3rd mark on our way back to the 1st mark. This time we had a good idea of where we were going so we could plan our strategy a little better for getting there. When we rounded the 1st mark I rolled in the genoa while David pulled up the spinnaker. We were now sailing gently downwind towards the finish line. We had to gybe the spinnaker twice on the way there, which meant we had to pull it in change over the lines and pull it back up again. This is a lot of work for just two people. Good thing we had our third crewmember Mr. Auto pilot. As we neared the finish line with our big turtle spinnaker flying a dinghy zoomed out and took pictures of us. As we crossed the line they blew the horn and we were done. A rest at last. Turns out this race was 17 miles and took approximately 3 hours to complete. There was to be another race today, but due to the race being too long and the problem of the tides and the shallow channel into the marina they decided to call off the second race and have two short races tomorrow. After we got things put away David and I went up to the pool for a relaxing swim and spa. Later tonight the marina is hosting the annual Turtle Ball. This was a large outdoor barbee and party. It was to start at 6:30, but the barbee wasn’t done yet and didn’t get started until 8:00pm! There were a lot of hungry drunken sailors by then. They also had a band playing in the tent next door so people we dancing the night away as they waited for their dinner to be served. While we were waiting they posted the results of the day. David and I placed a respectable 6th in the first race. Even though Gandalf started twenty minutes late they still finished 8th, not bad! Everyone was commenting on what a great job we did with just the two of us. Most boats had crews of 4-6 people to handle all the lines and sail changing. I think David thought we would do better, but I was happy for my first race. After all we are a cruising boat not a race boat.
Sunday June 10th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
We decided not to participate in the races today. It was just too much work for just two people to handle this big boat. We spent the day at the lodge going to the gym and using the spa and just plain relaxing. Later in the afternoon a girl showed up with photos of all the boats she took yesterday. We didn’t realize that this girl in the dinghy was a professional photographer taking pictures of all the boats to sell to us the next day. We found the photos she took of Francis. They were wonderful. She got several shots of us with the spinnaker up and several with full sails. We were very impressed with the photos and the price so we decided to buy a few from her. I say this girl had a good business going. David and I decided to attend an event that the resort was hosting tonight at the horse stables. The cowboy who hosted the event showed us how he was breaking in a new quarter horse to be a cutting horse. It was very interesting. Then we sat by the campfire and made damper and roasted marshmallow. Damper is bread they make in the outback. The only ingredients are flour, sugar and beer. You mix it all up and throw it in a cast iron oven to bake and the then you have a kind of bread. It was interesting. We had fun visiting with folks from all over Australia and seeing all the little animals they had at the stables. There was even a little pet possum. Before we new it our van was there to take us home and it was time to call it a day.
Monday June 11th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
Today is a big holiday in Australia…. It's the Queens Birthday holiday. I don’t know why they still celebrate this since they are independent of England now. Maybe just a good excuse for a holiday. So there was another day of planned events sponsored by the resort. This time they were having little laser sailboat racing on the lagoon at the boat club. We strolled over around 10:00 to discover that about 7 people had entered the event. David decided to give it ago, but those little boats looked a little too tricky to handle for my skill level. They only had 4 boats so they ran two heats of races. They had marks set up for the boats to go around. The horn went off and the first heat was off, which included David. He was off to a good start until his centerboard hit ground and then he had to work himself off the beach. By this time the other two had made good ground on him. But Micka, who was in first missed the first mark, then Dieter who was in second also missed the first mark, it looked like David was going to make it around the first mark which would have made him the winner, but alas he missed it too. So they were all disqualified. They ran the second heat of racers and then the official decided to run David’s race over again so those three would have a chance. This time David was off to a great start. They all were sailing along great. Around the second mark Micka passed David and that’s the way it stayed for the rest of the race. It was very entertaining to watch and I think the boys all had fun as well. David ended up coming in 3rd for the day. After the races we over us girls took out the little racing catamarans for some zooming around the lagoon. It has turned out to be a wonderful day and great fun was had by all.
Tuesday June 12th – Friday June 15th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 40 minutes 08 seconds East
Laguna Quays Marina
We spent the next few days enjoying our surroundings, going for walks, bike rides and working out in the resort gym. Not a bad place. This is a place I could live forever. The wildlife is incredible. We’ve seen all kinds of birds and several wallaby and kangaroos on the grounds. The only thing that concerns me was a policy I was reading about fishing in the area. There is no fishing in certain areas and if you do catch a fish where it’s ok it’s not suggested that you eat it for it will probably be contaminated with chemicals from the golf course and not fit for human consummation. In the same paragraph though it stated that you might see egrets and peregrines fishing for their nightly meal while on a walk on the trails. Wow! Not ok for human consumption, but ok for bird life? I wonder how far down the food chain that stuff works itself.
We heard on the radio Wednesday that an American sailboat off the coast of Australia was dismasted and needed to be rescued. We were all wondering who this could be? On Thursday night David and I were watching the evening news when we saw Ed’s face on the screen. (Ed is the guy we met in California and was at our marina in Scarborough) turns out he was the one who was dismasted on his way to Papua New Guinea. He had 3 crew with him and something happened to his propeller that prevented him from motoring back as well. Apparently the Australian coast guard rescued him and towed him back 19 hours into Cairns. We really don’t know the details at this time, except that everyone is ok. We will be in Cairns in another week or so. I suppose he will still be there and we’ll get the scoop then. Then tonight on the radio we heard that our friends on Skimmer (from North Carolina) went to help out another boat in trouble near the Cape of Carpentaria. In the process of helping them a rock punctured a hole in the side of their boat. They were apparently taking on about a bucket of water an hour. Heyward apparently got it fixed good enough for them to cross the golf of Carpentaria with an Australia Navy escort. They still have to sail all the way to Darwin to get it fixed properly. They are pretty brave souls to keep going under those circumstances. These two incidences do remind us that we are very vulnerable to the elements out here and we still have to be on our toes and be careful! We’ve had a really nice stay here and enjoyed ourselves a lot, but now its time to get heading north. So tomorrow we will leave at around high tide which is at 7:10 am.
Saturday June 16th, 2001
Latitude 20 degrees 11 minutes 01 seconds South
Longitude: 148 degrees 36 minutes 02 seconds East
Western Double Bay
Today is the day we must leave out little tropical oasis. The high tide is at 7:10 am so we will be leaving close after. When we awoke Gandalf was already gone and there was a boat heading out of the channel. We quickly got ready to go and followed another boat out of the channel and we were quickly followed out by yet another. To get out of Repulse Bay we will have to sail against the southeast trade winds for the first couple of hours. This turned out to be fairly brutal. There was a good 20-25 knot wind that we were going against making it around 30-35 knots of apparent wind. The waves were about 5- 6 feet and short and steep making for a very bumpy and ruff ride for the next few hours. We were taking on big waves baring the bow every 3rd wave or so. Everything is now covered with salt water. I guess they properly named this Repulse Bay. Dewey showed his repulsion for the whole experience by giving out a huge meow and then throwing up his breakfast at the foot of the stairs! Glad I took some seasick medication. We finally rounded the peninsula that formed the bay and were able to ease the sheets and turn to the north towards the Whitsunday Passage. We were soon passing between Long Island and Dent Island. They are both hilly, green grassy islands. There were quite a few sail boats and power boats crossing in front of us on their way to the largest island in the group, the Whitsunday Island. We were planning on going to Hook Island and finding refuge in Butterfly Bay, we had heard it was a beautiful spot and great for snorkeling. As the day progressed the wind picked up and a high wind warning was issued for the area. We decided that we should probably find an anchorage that would offer a little more shelter from the wind so we headed towards the Molle Islands and followed the Molle Channel towards the mainland. The islands and the whole area are very beautiful. David and I were surprised how much it reminded us of the sailing around the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest. Except for the turquoise blue color of the water, the birds and the occasional loggerhead turtle it was very similar. We thought the Double Bay area looked like it would offer the shelter we were seeking. Early afternoon we rounded the point that lead to the Eastern Bay of the Double Bay area. I guess lots of other boats were looking for shelter from the wind as well, for there were 20 plus boats in there, so we decided to check out the Western Bay. As we rounded the next point it appeared we would be the only ones there. As we were looking for a place to anchor a couple of dolphins swam by to welcome us, then two huge beautiful eagle looking birds circled overhead to check us out. Later I found them in my bird book only discover that they are actually Brahmiy Kites. These birds are a beautiful chestnut red color with white heads and chest and about the size of an eagle. We anchored and enjoyed the rest of the day in our quite little anchorage listening to the wind howl through the night.
Sunday June 17th - Monday June 18th, 2001
Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East
134 nautical miles traveled
Breakwater Marina
We awoke to a beautiful day, the wind seems to have calmed down although it did wake me several times during the night to check and make sure we weren’t moving. Looking over the charts we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it to Townsville in one day unless we did an overnight passage. We thought we would aim for a bay called Bowling Green Bay and anchor there for the night and then head to Townsville the next day. We left Western Bay around 9:00 am and were having a great day of smooth sailing. The wind was very light and we were only sailing along around 5 knots. At this rate we knew we would not reach our destination so we went to plan “B” and decided to head to Upstart Bay. The cruising guide showed several anchorages’s there, but did warn of the rocks you wouldn’t be able to see at high tide. We spent most of the day sailing by big beautiful Gloucester Island. By 4:00 in the afternoon it became very apparent that we would not even make it to this destination by dark. We didn’t want to try to anchor in a rocky area in the dark so now our only option was to sail through the night and we would arrive in Townsville sometime in the early morning. The chart showed a fairly clear route to Townsville. Well the night started out ok, but around 10:00 PM the wind had picked up and we were now cruising long at around 7-8 knots, when a large wave would go beneath us we would get up to over 9 knots. Now were making fantastic time, it was just a little uncomfortable. At midnight we finally rounded the Cape of Bowling Green. This is an area of large ship traffic so we had to steer clear of the large container ships through the night. By 2:00 in the morning the wind and the current were so strong that we decided to totally roll in the head sail and double reef the main. This left us little sail area but we were still flying along at 6 knots. We were afraid we would now get to Townsville in the dark, which is not desirable. So we did what we could to slow the boat down. Around 4:30 in the morning we rounded Cape Cleveland and finally found the shelter from the wind we were looking for. We only had 12 miles to Townsville so we slowed the boat down to 2 knots so we could arrive in daylight. We were both exhausted from the lack of sleep and all the bumping around in the night. We arrived at the fuel dock at 7:30 and were soon issue a slip at the marina. At last we can rest!
Tuesday June 19th, 2001
Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East
Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia
We’ve had some good rest and now have the energy to check out our surroundings. Townsville is a very busy tourist town in the Great Barrier Reef region and has lots of services to offer its guest. There are lots of tour boats taking people out on dive trips to the Great Barrier Reef and to hang out on the surrounding islands. There are several fantastic parks and beaches all connected by a network of paved trails. They also have several swimming pools along these trails for people to swim in when the “stingers” are out, the Australian word for jellyfish. Stingers are apparently quite bad here in the summer. Glad we are here in the winter. David and I have been enjoying the trail, David runs while I roller blade. I don’t know how much exercise I’m getting for I’m constantly stopping to look at the birds. The birds seem to get more fantastic as we head north. Today I saw 5 huge black birds flying around. They looked like some sort of parrot. I asked a local what they were and it turns out they are the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo. They are huge birds that are around a foot and half tall when standing on the ground. They make a horrible squawking noise for such a beautiful bird. At dusk David and I found ourselves walking along the main shopping area in town and were amazed by all the birds coming into roost in the trees for the night. Hundreds and hundreds of parrots and lorikeets were zooming in on the trees. The sound of all the birds was deafening. We could barely hear each other talk. But what a site to see the trees filled with bright rainbow colors of the birds. They were darting around too fast to get a good look at them; all I can recall is the blur of the reds, yellows and greens zooming overhead. It was like Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" in real life! The guy washing the sidewalks obviously has a fulltime job and job security. This little town looks like it has a lot of interesting stuff to explore so we will be here a few more days.
Wednesday June 20th, 2001
Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East
Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia
We’ve had another enjoyable morning along the trail. I saw the big black cockatoos again. Today we have a mission to find an electronics store. We are having a few electrical problems on the boat. One being that our transformer blew. That is the unit that transforms this Australian 220 power to our American 110 power. So we are cut off from shore power for awhile, which means the only way we have of charging the batteries is by the solar panels. If they fail to keep up we can always run the engine or generator. We were given directions to the local electronics store and caught the bus we thought would take us there. On the way there our bus was involved in a car accident causing our progress to slow down. We finally made it to our destination only to find out that we had been given some bad information and the electronics store was actually at a different place. This time we took a taxi to make sure we would get there. Once there we found most of what we needed, but not the transformer. We found another bus to get us back to the marina. This time the bus had to take a big detour, due to another bus accident blocking the road. Not a good day to be traveling by bus. This little mission ate up most of the day, for it was dusk when we returned to the boat and the birds were beginning to return to town for the night. Dewey and I sat in the cockpit watching all the birds flying overhead. Hundreds of green bodies with red under the wings flew by. Several birds decided to stop by and give Dewey and I a visit. 3 of the bright colored birds clung to the rigging and chirped away at Dewey. His eyes grew so big and then he finally gave out a few meows and off they flew. Well not a terribly productive day, there’s always tomorrow.
Thursday June 21st – Monday June 25th, 2001
Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East
Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia
Just our luck, it turns out that our neighbor in the marina owns a marine electronics store. He doesn’t have any of these transformers in stock but he can order one for us and it should be in by Friday afternoon. Looks like we will have a few more days to explore Townsville. Things seems to be getting better, David once again fixed the winless and then fixed the rigging on the boom vang, and figured out and fixed the problem with the auto pilot, so we thought as soon as we got this transformer we could head north. We have some new friends that arrived in this marina on a Swedish boat named Karisma. Amanda and Micke are a rare find in this cruising world, for they are the same age as us. Its very hard to find people close to our age that our cruising. Most people appear to be in their late 50’s or older or in their early 20’s. So I took advantage of this time to hang out with Amanda for some female companionship.
The transformer did not arrive on Friday like we had hoped so David decided to run the engine for a while to give the house batteries a boost of power. After about ten minutes he heard a terrible explosion and gurgling sound. The engine was quickly turned off so the damage could be assessed. Turns out that two of the large bolts that hold the header/manifold onto the engine had totally sheared off leaving all the fluids to spray all over the engine along with shooting raw salt water into the actual engine itself! This is not a good thing to have happen. David and I quickly got out the procedure to follow when salt water is in the engine and followed all the instructions to a T. If this is not done correctly the engine could be ruined. Needless to say panic and stress filled the rest of evenings events. The boat was filled with smoke and the smoke alarm could not be turned off. I’m sure other people on the dock wondered what in the world was going on.
Well, being that it was 5:00 pm on a Friday night, there wasn’t much we could do or find for help, so we cleaned up what we could and hoped for the best. I found a local phone book and began organizing phone numbers to call Saturday morning. We looked for every industrial nut and bolt place along with all the hardware stores. Being that getting around on the bus is not a good option for us I also arranged for a rental car for the day so we could find all these places.
We spent all of Saturday morning running around to all the different part stores, auto parts stores and hardware stores. The first order of business was to try to extract the sheared off bolts from the main engine. David bought some kind of extraction tool, only to have it break off when he tried to use it. Now he had to get the tool and bolt out! After several hours of working in a tight cramped space David decided to give up trying to get them out and went back to the hardware store to get a tap set to drill and tap new holes. He spent the rest of day working on this, but gave up out of frustration around dusk. We found out that Townsville was having a performance in the park this evening so we decided to go and try to forget about our problems for awhile. This event was called Bonfire. It was modern dance combined with fire dancing and fireworks. It culminated in the burning of a giant tower that was shooting out fire works. It was quite a pyrotechnic display! Of course I loved it, but David was pretty tired so we quickly returned home.
Sunday brought a new day and the refreshed David spent the morning drilling and taping the new holes. Once that was done we had to try to get the header/manifold back on. I cant begin to tell you how frustrating all this is. We are working in very tight and cramped space. The bolts that we are trying to put back on are almost impossible to reach, let a lone tighten. I can’t imagine who would design something this way unless they designed a special tool to go with it. After hours of trying to get this back together we finally gave up. We could get 3 of the 4 bolts in, but the forth one just would not budge. We decided to call it a day and try again Monday morning when we weren’t so frustrated. All this wouldn’t be so stressful, except David’s brother and family are to meet us in Cairns on Friday and that’s still a two day sail away from here and we don’t even know if the engine will work after we get it all back together!
Monday morning things went much better, we got the manifold/header back on and all the bolts are tight. David spent the rest of the morning putting the rest of the engine back together and refilling all the fluids that were lost. The gasket material that we used needs 24 hours to cure so we won’t know until tomorrow if the engine still works. We are very hopeful. Wow what an ordeal. Our other problems now looked very minor in comparison to what we had just been through. The bright side of all this was that if it was going to happen, thank god it happened in the marina. If we had been out by the reef or trying to get into a harbor when really needed the engine, its hard to imagine the mess we could have been in. So I guess we are very fortunate in that respect. Well tomorrows a new day and hopefully things will go well!
Tuesday June 26th - Thursday June 28th, 2001
Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South
Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East
Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia
Today David started the engine and it appears that all is working fine. Hard to believe we have managed such a repair on our own. He ran the engine for a long time and all appears to be well, so we both took a big sigh of relief and relaxed the rest of the day. They have beautiful trails and swimming pools for us to enjoy in this town so we took advantage of that, I even got a little more painting done. David has decided to work on installing the new transformer since it appears to be working out as well. We ran the engine again on Wednesday and Thursday and its still working fine.
Friday June 29th - Saturday June 30, 2001
Cairns, Australia
We were up early today and picked up our rental car, for we are heading to Cairns. We decided that it was cutting it too close to sail there and so we will drive there to meet David’s brother Brian. It was an interesting drive along the coast to Cairns; mostly the scenery consisted of acres and acres of sugar cane fields and banana fields. Every once in while we would get a beautiful view of the ocean and then it would be back to the sugar cane. We arrived in Cairns around noon and began looking for the place we were all going to stay. Cairns is a very big city, with tons of backpacker places, diving shops and hotels. We found our place and began to get settled in while we waited for the Peck family to arrive. Soon the 3 teenage boys and their parents arrived with bags and bags, guitar, and surfboard in tow. That was the last of any quite time we would experience for the next week! I had no idea how much work 3 boys can be. Everybody jumped into the pool for a nice brake and then it was time to feed the crew. Saturday we decided to ride the skyrail through the tropical rain forest up to the little aboriginal and artistic town of Kuranda. We only had the one rental car, so David made 2 trips in our car shuffling everyone to the sky rail. Once everyone was there, we were on our way up the mountain in little gondolas. We were lifted up through the treetops of the tropical rain forest. We had two stops along the way where we could get out and walk the trails through the rain forest and visit the natural interpretive center. The rain forest looks very similar to the rain forest of the Pacific Northwest except for the palm tress and other exotic plants. The most wonderful creature we saw flying around was the beautiful vibrant blue Ulysses swallowtail butterfly. They are about the size of a large human hand and are a protected species in Australia. These butterflies have a life span of 3-4 weeks because of their delicate wings. We spent the better part of the day and returned via the skyrail back to base camp around 3 in the afternoon. If anyone would like more information on the sky rail it can be found on the Internet at www. Skyrail.com.au. The peck family decided to visit the aborgional cultural center while David and I decided to check out a couple of marinas in the area for our trip up here in a few weeks. We got everything scooped out and then went back to pick up Pecks. Sounds like the boys had great fun learning how to throw a spear and a boomerang.