OCTOBER 2001 Monday, October 1st, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 06 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 13 minutes 08 seconds East Mackay Marina, Queensland, Australia We decided to stay another day in the marina and wait for the southerly winds to die down. I took this opportunity to get some laundry done while David topped off the fuel tank. The marina is not within walking distance of the town of Mackay and we had missed the only daily bus that goes into town. We called a taxi to get a lift into town, see a little bit of Mackay and replenish some groceries. Later this evening we walked over to the very tiny yacht club for dinner. The big news in Australia today is that the last of the asylum seekers finally left the navy ship Manoora. With the refusal to get off they held this navy ship hostage in the waters off Nauru for over 30 days.  The last of these asylum seekers were very angry with Australia for not letting them enter Australia. They claim they paid lots of money to the people smugglers to get them into the country and they believed this entitled them to come here. Seems to me that their anger is focused on the wrong people. They should be angry at the people smugglers, after all the Australian govt. rescued them off the container ship and housed and feed them for the last month and half at a cost of millions of dollars.  Should be interesting to see how the new migration and refugee laws passed last week will effect the future of these boats coming to Australia. Tuesday, October 2nd -Wednesday, October 3rd 2001 Latitude 23 degrees 09 minutes 05 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 57 minutes 03 seconds East Great Keppel Island, Queensland, Australia 171 nautical miles traveled Sounds as if there is a chance of north wind today, David being very anxious to leave was up and ready to go at 5:00 am. By  5:30 am we were pulling out of the slip and heading south in the company of 5 other sailboats and two powerboats. Everyone must think it is a good day to head south.  Due to the very light conditions and clam flat seas we spent the day with the engine running. What wind there was ended up being from the southeast, the very direction we are trying to go, so it got a little lumpy, but not unbearable. As we leave Mackay and head south we leave what is know as Tropical Queensland. This was most apparent by the vegetation we observed along the way. Most of the islands we passed are now barren and brown, the coastline was brown and barren as well. Australia has just entered spring and for this part of Northern Queensland it means the end of the dry season. Soon the Tropical North will begin to get 100’s of millimeters of rain.  Possibly this brown barren land may get a little green. We spent the day sailing by lots of little islands of the Northumberland Group. First we went through the Beverly Group followed by the Percy Isles off in the distance, by six- o- clock this evening we were passing by Outterbourne Island of the Duke Island Group. The sun was setting in the west creating a crimson orange sky behind us while the full moon was rising in front of us in a periwinkle sky.  In the oceans of Tropical North Queensland a miraculous natural event occurs with the first full moon of spring. With the timing of the full moon there is a massive spawning of the corals of the Great Barrier Reef.  This occurs for only a few nights of the entire year. Million of eggs are released and float to the surface of the ocean.  As we sailed through the night we saw huge slicks of this coral bloom on the surface of the ocean.  The fertilized eggs hatch into planula larvae and become part of the zooplankton. They will eventually settle onto the reef to begin a new colony of coral.  As we neared Cape Townshend we had to watch the charts very carefully, for this is a military exercise area and they happen to be having exercises there until October 5th. We will have to sail out and around the boundary of this area. By 4:30 am we were passed the military zone and the Great Keppel Islands are within view. The wind did pick up a little bit and we were able to sail the last few hours to the Great Keppel Island. By 8:00 am we were anchored in a shallow sandy bay off the Great Keppel Island and ready for some sleep. Thursday, October 4th – Friday October 5th, 2001 Latitude 23 degrees 09 minutes 05 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 57 minutes 03 seconds East Keppel Bay Marina, Rosslyn Bay, Queensland, Australia So much for a good night sleep. At 3:30 am I was awoken to a large thud as the boat shook. I quickly ran out to the cockpit to see what was going on. As luck would have it the wind had switched direction on us putting Francis on a lee shore, thus meaning less water for us to float in, to make matters worse I looked in the tide table only to find out that low tide is at 4:00 am. I turned on the depth finder and it was reading 4 feet something. Oops! I went and told David of our situation. Before he got to the cockpit the keel bounced off the bottom a few more times sending a noise and vibration throughout the boat. We would probably be fine, since it was all most low tide and then the water would come back up, but a few more bangs of the keel made us decide to try to move. So at 3:40 am we started up the engine, brought up the anchor and tried to move to deeper water. We appeared to get stuck on a little rise in the sand along the way for no matter how hard David poured on the engine we weren’t moving. Finally with the rise of the tide and the final push of the engine we found our way to deeper water and re-anchored. We then tried to get back to sleep for a few hours, it seemed like only a few minutes had passed when David was waking me up to get moving again. The wind situation was still not getting any better and we needed to get more fuel. We began to make our way to the Rosslyn Bay Marina just few short miles away. As we entered the marina we spied another boat on the fuel dock and it only had room for one, so we called the marina and took a berth for the day. This turned out to be a good thing for the boat at the fuel dock was there for several hours. We got settled in and cleaned up and explored our new surroundings. This marina is a gathering point for fast catamarans going out to the resorts of the Keppel Islands.  There was a nice restaurant and lots of people passing through all day. This area of the coastline is dotted with old volcanic plugs from the volcanoes of thousands of years ago. There was a national park encompassing one of these plugs within walking distance of the marina, so the geologist in me had to get the camera and go exploring.  As it turns out it was the finest example of columnar basalt I’ve ever seen! It was fascinating to walk to the top and see great cross sections of the plug along the way. Of course the view from the top was pretty spectacular as well. I could see for hundreds of miles across the bush with other volcanic plugs dotting the horizon. I had a great afternoon of exploring. Friday David and I had made arrangements to be picked up and visit the near by town of Yappon. We found a little shopping village where we picked up a few supplies and then made our way back to the boat to prepare for an early departure tomorrow. Two big events made the headlines of the news tonight. The first was yet another boatload of illegal immigrants spotted in the waters between Indonesia and Christmas Island. This boatload is believed to be mostly Iraqis. Will be interesting to see how the new laws will handle this one. The second big news item is that the Prime Minster has called an election. This is a very strange process compared to the USA. The Prime Minster is elected to run a 3-year term, when it gets close to the end of his 3 years he can choose to call the election whenever he wants. Then in 30 days from the day he calls it, everyone in the country votes, and I mean everyone over the age of 18. Voting here is compulsory, which means you have to vote. If you don’t vote, its considered breaking the law and you fined 40 dollars! So from now until the election the campaign begins, with all its commercials, debates and mud slinging. But at least it only lasts 30 days! The advantage to this is that the Prime Minster has a good idea of when he is leading in the polls and then calls the election. Very interesting tactic.  Seems like the current Prime Minister, John Howard, has a lot on his plate right now. Saturday October 6th, 2001 Latitude 24 degrees 00 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude: 151 degrees 44 minutes 22 seconds East Pancake Creek, Queensland, Australia 72.8 nautical miles traveled The fuel dock doesn’t open until 7:00 am, so we were there waiting when it opened. By the time they showed up and we got fueled it was close to 8:00 am. When we left the harbor it was nice and sunny, but there was not enough wind to sail, so the engine stayed on as we motored our way south. By 1:00 in the afternoon the wind had picked up enough for us to let out the sails and get moving. At latitude 23 degrees 30 minutes south we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn once again.  With this crossing of the grid we have passed from tropics back into sub 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. By 4:30 in the afternoon the wind had picked up so much that we are now reefing the headsail and flying over the waves at 7 to 8 knots. It was beginning to become painful clear that we would not be able to make our destination of Pancake Creek before dusk. As we got closer it looked like it would almost be possible, but as we neared the entrance the sun had set and it was a little past dusk when I was taking down the mainsail. Fortunately for us a nice gentleman on another boat called us on the radio and guided us in through the dark. This was a narrow entrance and there were several boats already anchored. There was a huge cliff and rocks on one side of the entrance and a large sand bar on the other side, so we were grateful for the words of help that came across the radio as we made our way in.  We found another boat to anchor behind and dropped the hook. It was hard to tell exactly where we were in the channel. We had wanted to go to the far end of the anchorage to get away from the swell of the ocean, but it was too difficult to make our way back there. High tide was to come at 11:00 pm tonight. We had a feeling that it could get a little lumpy when the waves came crashing over the sandbar. Fearing we wouldn’t get much sleep later in the night we turned in early. Sure enough around 10:00 pm I was practically bounced out of my bunk by the swell and waves that were breaking over the sand bar. For the next 4 hours it was a bumpy ride on the hook. Finally around 2:oo am in the morning when the tide had receded back over the sand bar we were able to fall back a sleep.  This is not the best anchorage in a north wind! Sunday October 7th, 2001 Latitude 24 degrees 45 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 23 minutes 01 seconds East Bundaberg Port Marina Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia 64.8 nautical miles traveled At 6:00 am the anchor came up and we left Pancake Creek.  We weren’t about to spend another uncomfortable night of no sleeping in this anchorage. There were 5 other boats that left near the same time as us as we jumped out into the ocean with the stiff northwest winds. As the morning passed, the winds and the sea grew to great heights. The wind was reaching speeds of 35- 40 knots with the very strong occasional gust while the seas were reaching heights of 6 to 12 feet. It’s a good thing this wind was behind us! As Francis surfed down the big waves we reached speeds of 10.4 knots. This is close to a top speed for this boat. We spent the afternoon making our way to Bundaberg coasting down big waves at speeds of 8-9 knots. At least we will get there fast. By 2:00 in the afternoon we were starting to see the coastline of Bundaberg. We had to be very careful not to turn into shore too soon, for there is a big sand bar and shallows just north of the Burnett River where we would enter. With the aid of the binoculars I spied the channel markers. Due to the strength of the wind and the height of the seas we would not be able to turn into the wind to take down the main sail so we jibbed and turned once we made it into the channel. We made our way through all the channel markers and finally into the calm waters of the river. Finally we were able to take down the mainsail and prepare to enter the Port of Bundaberg Marina. It was blowing so hard that when we arrived they had around 7 men standing on the dock to help us come in and fend us off from the dock. Thank god they were there; the wind pushed us right up against the dock. It would have been hard to handle by ourselves. By 3:30 pm we are tied up and glad to be on land after an exhilarating day of sailing with out much sleeping the night before.  One of the boats that had come in just before us said his wind gage actually blew off his mast today and the last recorded speed was 35 knots. So I would guess it was blowing pretty hard! Four of the boats that had left with us this morning came into this marina today as well. I guess it was a little too rough for everyone. Big events in Australia today include the opening day of cricket season. This is a sport, which I have yet to figure out. But this was a huge event for all sports fans. Similar to opening day of baseball season. The other newsworthy event includes the desperate attempt of the illegal immigrants to get into Australia. Hearing that they were going to be forced back to Indonesia by the Australian Navy the people on board the fishing boat began throwing their children off the boat and into the ocean. They were lucky to have life jackets that they put on them before they were thrown off, but still a few of the children were lost before the navy was able to rescue them. This was a desperate attempt by these people to have their children brought to this county. The rescued children were taken back to the fishing boat as it began its escorted journey back to Indonesia. These people must be crazy; the seas between Indonesia and Australia are very similar to the seas we experienced today. There is no way I would jump off our boat and into the ocean, (with sharks and jellyfish) even with a life jacket on. Not only did this endanger the lives of the children, but also the lives of those who attempted to rescue them. Monday October 8th  - Wednesday October 10th, 2001 Latitude 24 degrees 45 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 23 minutes 01 seconds East Bundaberg Port Marina Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia We decided to stay in Bundaberg a few days and wait for some good weather. The marina is a long distance from the town, so they run a free shuttle bus to take you into town to get groceries and do a little site seeing. They only allow you a couple of hours so there isn’t much time to see anything. We walked around a bit and then got our groceries on the way to bus stop. There is a nice little café at the marina where you can hang out, eat, play chess or watch TV. We noticed that there were a lot of boat names carved into the chairs in this little café and we even had fun finding names of boats that we knew. When inquired about how to get your boat name carved into a chair, we were told that if you fill out their guest book and insert a picture of your boat, the owner would then carve your boat name into some part of the chair. I set to work making an artistic entry in the book and then asked if we could have our name carved in the same chair that most of our friends were on. Our wish was granted and we will now go down in history in the chair diaries. Today the news of the Asylum seekers was pretty grim. The boat, which yesterday threw children off into the ocean, was today being escorted back to Indonesia.  While being escorted they sabotaged the boat causing it to sink! This was their last ditch effort to be rescued and brought to Australia, but alas they will be taken to Nauru for processing. I’m sure this is not going to make them happy. President Bush called Prime Minister John Howard late last night asking for the full support of the Australian military forces in the war on terrorism. John Howard was on the news this morning explaining all the forces, navy and air, that would be deployed in the next two weeks to the Middle East. Meanwhile this spurred antiwar protest in Melbourne and Sydney against the USA action in the Afghanistan. With John Howard calling the election on last Friday, this has now put the country in what is called caretaker mode. Not really sure what this means except that if there are any decisions to be made or any big events happening the Prime Minister has to let his opponent know and together they discuss what to do. So for the next 30 days the two men who are slinging politically mud at each other have to also work together. Add to this the world war on terrorism and the boat people crisis; it makes for some very interesting times in Australian history. Wednesday David and I decided to make a trip back into Bundaberg to tour the famous Bundaberg Rum factory. The marina shuttle bus took us in but we would have to find our own way home. We paid our 8-dollar fee for the tour and off we went. The tour started with a 15-minute movie about the history of the factory and the products they now make. We were then taken on tour through out the factory. Rum has its beginnings in sugar cane, which they grow a lot of here in Australia. After the sugar is processed from the cane they are left with brown syrupy goo known as molasses. They have huge buildings housing the millions of liters of goo. We were all given a small taste of this molasses goo. We were then taken through the fermenting process of the molasses into rum. This distilled product is then placed in giant sized barrels, close to 100 feet tall. Some caramel is added to the distilled liquid to add the light brown color. The liquid remains in the barrels for two years while it is fermenting. We were then taken to the bottling area where the liquid is taken from the giant barrels and bottled and then boxed up and distributed through out the country and world. The next part of the tour was the part everyone was waiting for……. The taste testing. We were guided to a room with a bar in it and allowed to pick two drinks from a list of about 16. David and I picked different drinks so we could have a little taste of a few. Well, that was about all I could handle this time of day. With our happy rum faces we trotted down the road to look for the city bus to hitch a ride a home. We ended walking for a good 45 minute before we found the bus stop and waited for our carriage ride home. It was a fun day, but the thing that made it even more fun for me was that October 10th is NATIONAL BLONDE DAY in Australia! I knew I loved this country. I don’t know what happens on national blonde day. I hope it’s not a day to tell bad blonde jokes. Later on the news we saw that it turned out to be some kind of charity fund raising events that blondes promoted. Sounds ok to me. At last I have a day! Thursday October 11th, 2001 Latitude 25 degrees 11 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 53 minutes Big Woody Island The Sandy Straits, Queensland, Australia 47 nautical miles traveled At 7:00 am the weather and the wind looked good so we pulled away from the slip and made our way out via the Burnett River and into Harvey Bay. The wind was good and from the right direction so we were able to sail. Harvey Bay is one of the largest whale watching areas in Australia so we will keep our eyes open looking for any signs of them. It has turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and with a nice light wind. We were cruising along nicely at 6-7 knots, probably one of the nicer days of sailing we have had. We soon found the channel markers that would lead us out of Harvey Bay and into what is known as the Sandy Straits. I was very sad to think we had been sailing in this bay all morning and never saw one whale! Oh well. The Sandy Straits is the waterway that separates Fraser Island from the mainland. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the whole world so we will spend a couple of days going behind the backside of it. I don’t know why they call it the straights, for it is far from straight. To follow the channel markers through the so-called Straights there is a lot of turning and a lot of gybing of the sails. This channel is so wide that there are actually other islands within the channel and we have decided to find shelter behind Big Woody Island for the night.  By 3:00 in the afternoon we had the anchor down and were taking in our new surroundings. It seems a little lumpy in here so well se how it goes tonight. Friday October 12th, 2001 Latitude 25 degrees 37 minutes 05 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 58 minutes 04 seconds East Gary’s Anchorage The Sandy Straits, Queensland, Australia After a leisurely breakfast we decided to pick up the anchor and head just a little further south to anchor behind another island called Turkey Island. This would be a day that we would have to watch the channel markers very closely. Not only were there lots of twist and turns to be made, but it was in very shallow water with shifting sandbars. I watched the charts and kept the binoculars close buy to sport the next marker while David kept an eye on the depth finder and steered in the direction I pointed. As we made our way to Turkey Island the wind had picked up and it was looking like this anchorage would not be the best. As we neared the anchorage is was full of other boats. I quickly got out the tide tables to discover that low tide had just past and the rising tide was coming in. Could be these boats were waiting for the tide to come in to proceed for this next stretch is very shallow. We decided to keep going and see how far we could get. There was another sailboat in front of us so we just kept following them. We made it through several of the hairpin turns before we saw the boat in front of us stop and put out their anchor. My guess is that they hit bottom. We kept going to see how shallow it would get; the next marker would be the shallowest, so if we could make it by that one, we were home free.  It wasn’t long when the depth finder was reading 8’, 7’, 6’ the depth alarm was starting to become a very annoying sound! Soon we were down to 5’ and then boom. We hit bottom as well. David quickly threw it in reverse and we found some deeper water to anchor in until the tide came in a little more. We had lunch while we watched the powerboats cruise by one after one. They don’t have 5-foot keels on their bottom to worry about. After about an hour we saw many boats from Turkey Island begin to make their way through the twist and turn of the shallow channel so we joined in the crowd and found our way around in 12 feet of water.  The wind was coming out of the north around 20 knots, even in the shelter of the island we could still feel its affects as we sailed down to the next anchorage known as Gary’s anchorage. When we arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon the anchorage was already very crowed with giant houseboats up against the mangroves, so we anchored out very close to the channel. The wind was blowing so hard that there were actually whitecaps in this anchorage, which made anchoring very interesting.  It was a very interesting place to be, there were many powerboats and lots of these strange two-story floating houseboats. It was nice to be anchored even if it was a little bumpy. Saturday October 13th, 2001 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia We awoke this morning to the sounds of the kookaburra birds in the mangroves on shore. It was a beautiful clear and calm morning. The wind had died down and the anchorage was now a clam peaceful scene. We had a leisurely breakfast before we pulled up the anchor at 9:00 am to head the rest of the way down the straits to an anchorage called Pelican Bay. This bay is near the entrance of the Wide Bay Bar, which is at the south end of Fraser Island. The Wide Bay Bar is the southern entrance and exit point in and out the Sandy Straits. It can be very dangerous going through this bar depending incoming or outgoing tides, the winds and the seas. Once through this bar we would be back out in the ocean. We thought Pelican Bay would be a good spot to sit and wait for the right conditions to exit the bar and head out to the ocean and on our way south. As we continued south to the bar it was very apparent that we had at least 2-3 knots of current with us. The tide was rushing out of the mouth of this bar at this point in time. The wind was behind us and we would have the current with us for at least another two hours. After assessing all this David decided that it looked pretty good to keep going. So we scratched our plan to go to Pelican Bay and quickly made plans to exit the bar. There are three waypoints that you must head for to avoid sand bars around the mouth of the bar. I quickly entered these waypoints in the GPS and we set course for the first one. Things were going great as we passed by the 3rd waypoint and then turned south towards Double Island Point.  Just as we were getting ready to put up the sails I heard a security warning on the vhf radio. I ran down to listen to the announcement, only to find that they had just issued a strong wind warning for the area between Double Island Point and Brisbane. Yikes the exact area we would be sailing through today. I asked David if we should turn around and go back to Pelican Bay. No way. We were putting up full sails and going. So off we went. Just after we got the sails up we spied a couple of humpback whales. Finally at last I’ve seen my first whales in Australia. They quickly dove down never to be seen by me again. The first few hours of the sail we fairly pleasant, but as promised by the weather station the wind started howling. We were soon rolling in the headsail and still keep a speed of 7-8 knots. The seas were starting to grow as well. It wasn’t long and we were putting a double reef in the main to slow us down even more. We are still maintaining speeds of 7-9 knots, so we going to make it all the way to Mooloolaba today, our final destination. After an afternoon of surfing down big waves with the aid of the binoculars we were finally able to pick out the Mooloolaba shoreline. Now to find the entrance buoys and not run into the shark nets they have protecting the swimmers on the beach. This turns out to be a very tricky entrance in these strong winds and big seas. We had to approach the breakwater at 90 degrees and then turn at the last minute. There were huge waves breaking and crashing over the breakwater entrance of the river.  Of course we couldn’t take down the sails before we entered so once inside the safety of the Mooloolah River we were able to take down the main and look for the marina. We finally find the dock we have been assigned and pulled into our slip. Another exhilarating day behind us, but we are now safely parked for the next few months! This is where we plan on waiting out cyclone season and it promises to be an exciting place to explore and make our home for the next few months. Sunday October 14th - Saturday October 20th, 2001 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia We have had a busy week settling back into our semi land life again. We tried to find a bus that would take us down to Scarborough to get our car that we left there last May, but it turns out that it would cost more to take the bus then to rent a car! So with rental car in hand we spent the day visiting old friends at the Scarborough marina and getting our insurance and registration all lined up again. David drove the rental back and I drove our old car. It was very strange to behind the wheel again, but at least it didn’t seem so strange to be driving on the wrong side of the road this time. Now that we have wheels again we had to spend another day driving back to Brisbane to visit customs. Once our 6 months is nearing we have to turn in our cruising permit and get our sitting in the marina permit. Now if we want to leave the marina, even for a day we have to notify customs of our intentions. Mooloolaba is a good hours drive north of Brisbane and is located on the ocean shores in an area know as the Sun Shine Coast. Mooloolaba is a very famous tourist destination, even for Australian’s. This area has many beautiful beaches, high rise condos and resorts. This looks to be a very interesting place to spend the next few months. Sunday October 21st  - Wednesday October 31st, 2001 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia Not much exciting is going on except exploring our new surroundings. I have found a wonderful trail to ride my bike on that goes through the bush. The only problem is that my tire pump has totally rusted so it is useless to carry along. I figured I was pushing my luck going long distances with out it, but I haven’t had a flat tire in years, so off I went everyday down the trail. Well, as fate would have it when I was about as far away as I was going to go, I got a flat tire. So there I was stuck out in the bush, with a spare tube, but no way to pump it up. So I began the long walk back to town. Two very hot and long hours later I finally arrived at the park on the outskirts of town where I found a water faucet to stick my head in and cool off. You know that I was at the bike shop the next day buying a new pump! This time I found a plastic one that hopefully won’t rust. Now I can ride in safety again. Our friends on Moonlighter have arrived and are staying at the marina down the street. They have just arrived in Australia from New Caledonia. Lindy is Australian, while Jim is Canadian. Lindy is originally from Mooloolaba and has not been home for 4 years. She is very excited to be back in her old stomping grounds. To make it even better she had her birthday the first week they were here, so we were invited to big welcome home/birthday party for her that was put on her old mates. It was quite a big event with lots of Aussie folks. A fun day was had by all. The yacht club sponsors a barbecue every Thursday night for the yachties. They basically provide the space and the barbee and the yachties bring the food. We have tried to attend the weekly function to get to know more people that live here. It’s becoming a pretty lively event. David is enjoying running along the beach every morning while I go for a walk. There are several surf life saving clubs along the way teaching the young kids how to be safe in the ocean.  So there is always something interesting going on. As for the big news in Australia, the campaign for the Prime Minister is in full swing. There has been one debate between the two candidates, which got pretty ugly, but was interesting to watch. Its actually interesting to watch when its not your own country. Just one more week of this and the election will take place and all this political mud slinging will end for a while. As for the boat people it only gets worse. Since I last wrote about it there has been several more boats making the daring attempt to get here. One bunch of refugees hijacked a ferryboat in Indonesia and tried to make the journey in the ferry. Of course this is not an ocean going vessel and it did not make it. Several people had to be rescued. The next boatload tried to come to Christmas Island and was turned around by the Australian navy, at this time the boat people set their boat on fire causing it to sink and of course having to be rescued. Another boatload set off in a very dilapidated boat in bad seas, the whole boat sank before the navy could reach them for a rescue and 450+ people drowned. It was a terrible tragedy, but all of this has not weakened the spirit of the refugees from trying again. Some how Indonesia and Australia are going to have to figure this problem out.