OCTOBER 2002 Tuesday October 1st – Tuesday October 8th, 2002 Latitude: 19 degrees 15 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 30 seconds East Break Water Marina, Townsville, Queensland, Australia David has been working on a few annoying boat projects while I just keep roller blading and swimming. We are waiting for the southeasterly winds to let up and that illusive northerly to kick in. I of course secretly hope it takes awhile for I love being in Townsville. I’m starting to get my serious swimming arms back now getting in 50-60 laps a day. That’s around 2000-3000 meters. I know that’s nothing compared to what I used to swim, but not bad for an old gal. They have a fabulous veggie and arts and crafts market to stroll through on Sunday mornings. We’ve had several barbecues in the park with the other yachties at night and David and I even took in an Australian German October fest on Saturday night. It was more like a drunken fest with a few people dressed in German clothing and a Pokka band. The beer steins were decorated with kangaroos in German clothing.  I guess that’s one way to put an Australian twist on things. The best thing about the whole deal was the good sauerkraut.  We have once again enjoyed our time in Townsville, but looks like we will be heading off soon for the south. Wednesday October 9th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 04 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 26 minutes 20 seconds East Cape Gloucester, Queensland, Australia 106 Nautical Miles traveled in 13 hours 45 minutes Today looks like it could be a good day to head south. The Australian weather report predicts a light southeasterly to northeasterly in the afternoon, which would be perfect if it actually materializes.  We hope to sail all night and land in the Whitsunday’s somewhere at first light. We stopped by the fuel dock on the way out of the harbor at 6:30 am. Many of our friends were there to cast us off and say good-bye as we motored out into the channel.  It was a beautiful day, and once again flat calm seas and what little wind there was, was on the nose. We decide to keep going and hope for the best. By 2:00 in the afternoon the wind is starting to fill in from the northeast and we can finally put up the sails. We motor sailed for a while before we were able to turn off the engine. By 5:00 pm we are really booming along at 7 knots. Hoping that this will last through the night we decide not to anchor at Cape Upstart and sail past around 6:00 pm with a beautiful sunset in the background. Only an hour later the wind starts to switch direction and increase! We have been headed, which in sailing terms means the wind is now coming from the direction we want to go, making sailing a little difficult when we are so close to shore. We decided to take down the sails and see how motoring into it will be. Well, the wind is really howling and we are now bashing into it at a very slow 3 knots. Never wanting to go backwards we decide to keep going to Gloucester Island and see if the winds might die down in the night, like they usually do. Well tonight is not our night. We pounded our way into the night for the next 5 hours. Somewhere around 11:00 pm David noticed that the transmission was making a strange noise. When he went to investigate he discovered the cap had vibrated loose off the transmission and was lying on the floor of the bilge in pool of transmission fluid. Oh-boy this doesn’t seem good.  He quickly grabbed the bottle of transmission fluid to pour some more in and it began to smoke. Holy cow! What next! All we could do at this point is add more fluid and hope for the best, and that the transmission wasn’t ruined. No stress here as we motor through the dark into big seas. (I’m trying to remember which one of my friend’s thinks I have no stress in my life any more as I think about all the horrible things that could happen to us.) Around midnight we were motoring by the lit skyline of Bowen and we knew it wouldn’t be long before we could stop for the night. We set our new waypoint for Cape Gloucester, a place we had been before and knew we could get to and anchor safely in the night. At least there wasn’t any coral in the way. We were finally feeling some relief from the seas as we made our way behind the giant Gloucester Island.  We are both sitting in the cockpit trying to make out the difference from lights on shore from the fishing boats floating around, for when we went to use the radar we discovered that the wiring for this has now been shook to pieces as well. By 2:00 am we close in on our anchorage, David warns me that the transmission may be ruined, which means he may or may not be able to get the boat out of gear and into reverse. If this is the case I should just throw the anchor in and hope for the best. We slowed down to a crawl and then the big test. … out of gear she went and into reverse. Whew! What a relief, we appear to be safely anchored, no other boats in site and its very calm hidden back here out of the wind. Hopefully we will get a few hours of sleep and can assess the damage in the morning. I wish I were still in Townsville as I try to fall asleep. Thursday October 10th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 15 minutes 45 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 56 minutes 30 seconds East Cid Harbor, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia 28.8 Nautical Miles traveled in 5 hours 40 minutes Needless to say we tried to sleep in this morning, but we forgot to turn off the vhf radio last night and early morning calls for Francis and chatter woke us up at 7:00 am. Well, at least we got 4 hours of sleep. After a slow start David took a look at the transmission, topped off the fluids and tightened down the lid. By 9:00 am we were ready to continue the journey to the Whitsunday’s. The Gloucester Passage does need to be timed with the tides and lucky us we can go now. Our friends on Sedona are in a anchorage just north of us on Gloucester Island and want to follow us through the passage, but have 3 more feet of keel to watch out for. So we will go through first and let them know how the depths are. We made it through just fine and looks like Sedona can get underway as well. As usual the day starts out relatively calm, although the wind is still on the nose, we really want to get to Whitsunday Island to hide out. At least there we can have some options besides sitting on the boat for days waiting for weather. There are many islands between here and the Whitsunday’s and we try to keep in the lee of these islands for protection from the seas. Sedona has called us several times with the wind report and it seems to have gotten up to 22 knots out of the southeast. They have decided to head to Double Bay for the day to get out of the lumpy seas, but David is determined to get to Whitsunday Island, so Dewey and I will just have to gut it out…… literally! We only had to really bash into it for a couple of hours until we were in the shelter of the Molle Islands. Once we went to cross the Whitsunday Passage we were actually able to sail for a bit as we made our way to Cid Island and then Whitsunday Island. This is the 4th time we have been in the Whitsunday’s and it is the 4th time we have terrible weather. We were laughing as we read the Whitsunday cruising guide, for it said this is the best month to sail in the Whitsunday’s. Ha! We are not impressed. By 3:00 pm we have found our beautiful and very sheltered anchorage in Cid Harbor. It’s nice to have that anchor down and not be bouncing all over the place. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and being entertained by all the different anchoring styles of the charter boats coming and going. It’s really amazing some of them don’t get killed. We have finally made contact with Philippa and Dudley, who are at Hamilton Island getting their boat painted. They will be back in the water tomorrow and we plan on meeting them on the other side of the island.  This seems to be a good, safe and non-bouncy place to be for the night and I plan on getting some rest! Friday October 11th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 17 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 57 minutes 30 seconds East Gulnare Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia 5.6 Nautical Miles traveled in 1 hour When I finally awoke from my comatose state this morning it was 8:00 am and the sulfur crested white cockatoos were squawking around the little island next to us. Many of the charter boats had already left, but the one that had come charging in at 10 knots last night at dusk, throwing the anchor over as they went by was getting ready to leave. This ought to be interesting. I made my coffee and sat in the cockpit to be entertained. They tried to put up their main sail, but couldn’t get it up all the way, so they let out all of the mainsheet and let the boom swing from side to side as the wind blew them around the anchor they were trying to bring up. They were motoring along at around 5 knots dragging the anchor along side the boat as the poor chap at the front tried to bring it in. They eventually got it up and off they went with their main sail swinging back and forth with the swell. Finally the wind caught it and slammed it all the way to the side until it looked like the spreaders were going to poke through the sail. We watched them sail out of site in this condition. Really glad it’s not our boat they are renting. Those charter boat people should really sit in one of these anchorages and watch what goes on. Some how they should check these people out before they turn them loose on the rest of us. We enjoyed a peaceful morning and then around 11:00 decided we should get going to Gulnare Inlet where we were going to meet up with the Happy Now’s once again. Gulnare Inlet is on the south side of the Whitsunday Island and the guidebook shows that it is offers protection from all directions. The only trick is getting in the coral infested entrance with a rising tide. We managed to get in without any drama and found a nice place to anchor near the back of the inlet. Seems to be a peaceful and quite place. Around 4:00 pm the Happy Now’s arrived and we enjoyed a great reunion with them. We both had many stories of our adventures to share since we last parted at Lizard Island.  Sounds like Dudley has a day of adventures planned for us tomorrow. Saturday October 12th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 17 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 57 minutes 30 seconds East Gulnare Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia Looks to be another windy day here in the Windy Sundays, so after some study of the weather report we decided to stay put here for the next 24 hours. David and I thought we would explore the inlet in the dinghy, but being low tide we couldn’t get down the inlet very far before we hit mud. So we’ll try later in the day. Another Boat in the anchorage called Iron Bark had us for coffee this morning. They are an Australian couple who has recently finished their 9-year circumnavigation of the planet. Its always fun to meet people who have accomplished such a feat, are still sailing around and still like each other. High tide is at 4:00 this afternoon so Philippa and Dudley in the kayaks and David and I in the dinghy head down the inlet for some exploration. This inlet is like a giant fjord with steep mountainous tree lined sides. The edges of the waterway are lined with beautiful green mangroves. At this time of day the tops of the mangroves are glowing yellow from the sun. This inlet is so long it was like traveling down a giant river in northern Minnesota. The hillsides are covered with pine trees whose branches reach up to the clear blue sky.  There are many sulfur crested white cockatoos flying around squawking as well as a few hawks. When we reached what we thought was the end of the inlet we saw a thinner waterway going off to the left and right. We decided to explore the estuary on the left. Along the way we saw a few turtles swimming amongst the mangroves. The guidebook for the Whitsunday’s describes this section of the estuary as the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River. We let Dudley and Philippa lead the way in the kayaks. Several times we watched them disappear into the thick mangroves and they would come back to assure us we could continue on in the dinghy. It was a very watery bush ride as we pushed our way through the low branches of the mangroves. Glad we are out of crock country! We managed to find our way out of the mangroves and back into the main waterway around dusk. Just before dark we made our way back to Happy Now for some liquid refreshment before calling it a day. Sunday October 13th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 17 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 57 minutes 30 seconds East Gulnare Inlet, Whitsunday Island, Queensland, Australia Awoke this morning to the horrible news about Bali. Not a lot of details yet, but a lot of Australian causalities expected. Dudley had invited us to go along with them today for an adventure to the other side of the island. Based on the weather report today it looked good to poke our heads out of Gulnare Inlet. If it remained calm enough we would stay at Whitehaven beach for the night. We had problems with our alternator belt slipping on the way in here so David went to give it a check before we left. Good thing he did for we discovered that the metal bracket that held the whole alternator and cooling system together had broken in two places. We can not move our boat until this is somehow fixed. Of course nothing is open on a Sunday, so Dudley said we could just go out for a day trip on the good ship Happy Now. With lunches packed and worries behind us we left Francis sitting in the inlet while we went out for an excursion. We motored our way against tidal current and wind through the Fitzalan passage. Philippa and I on the bow keeping a watchful eye and getting quite a ride as the bow bounced up and down through waves. We eventually made our way through the Solway passage and then to our left I finally saw the beautiful long white stretch of beach lapped by turquoise waters. Whitehaven beach is one of the most photographed and visited beaches in the Whitsunday’s and now I can see why. We anchored Happy Now close to the beach and within minutes we were off swimming to the beach. The white sand was like walking on a beach made of sugar. We enjoyed a nice long walk on the beach and swam back to Happy Now for lunch.  After lunch we moved a little northwest to the island of Esk where we were able to take a mooring buoy.  In for a short snorkel. One side of the island had cold water while the other side had luke warm bath water. It was quite shocking as you swam around the point. Blue stage horn coral and parrotfish dominated the view in this little spot. We were soon back on the boat and heading back to Gulnare. Now the wind is really blowing and we are able to sail back. The sun is slowly setting while fish are jumping in the golden glow. We arrive back at Gulnare just at dusk. By the time the anchor is down and we are dinghied back to Francis it is dark.  Another day of Dudley adventures comes to an end. Monday October 14th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 41 minutes 0 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 08 minutes 40 seconds East Goldsmith Island, Queensland, Australia 24.6 nautical miles traveled Dudley and his fast dinghy came by at 7:30 this morning to pick up David and were soon zooming off to Hamilton Island. There is a metal shop there that can weld our part back together. To my surprise they were back by 9:00 am and David was soon working on the engine putting all the pieces back together. Philippa and Dudley are now leaving to head to the outer reef, so we say our good-byes to them until next year as we watch them motor out of the inlet. David and I motor out around 10:30 am with everything working. We thought we would go into Hamilton Island for some fuel and find a newspaper. We called ahead to let them know we were coming, and no problem was the reply. When we arrived, both berths at the fuel dock were full. Called again, this time heard that both of these boats had not fueled up yet and we were asked to putter around the harbor until one of them was finished. Just as one was leaving and we were heading in a powerboat whizzed by us and pushed his way in front of us at the fuel dock. The guy running the dock just shrugged his shoulders and asked us to stay put. That’s easy for him to say he’s not the one floating around out here with million dollar boats all over the place. Needless to say David’s patience was wearing thin. Just as this guy readies to leave and we repositioned ourselves once again, doesn’t another powerboat come up and sneak in behind this guy! This is too much, we have been waiting 45 minutes puttering around out here. David had a few words for the fuel dock and then we turn around and left. We figured if we could sail, we have enough fuel to get us to MacKay. So, not big success in Hamilton Island. David says this just tops off his opinion of the Whitsunday’s. Once we were out of the channel between Hamilton and Dent Island we were able to put up the spindrifter and keep a steady 6 knots to Goldsmith Island. We arrived at Goldsmith around 3:15, a few minutes behind Sedona. Patsy and I were soon off to shore for some serious beach combing. We saw many lizard tracks and many beautiful shells. Patsy and Alan came over to enjoy the sunset from the cockpit of Francis tonight as we enjoyed a peaceful anchorage. Tuesday October 15th -Wednesday October 16th, 2002 Latitude: 21 degrees 06 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 13 minutes 30 seconds East Reef Marina, MacKay, Queensland, Australia 26.5 nautical miles traveled The anchor came up at 7:00 am and we were heading off to MacKay in light northeasterly winds. I put up the spindrifter and we got a nice boost from it, but not enough to turn off the engine. This lasted about 40 minutes before the wind totally died and I had to take it down. We motored for a while and then the winds switched to the northwest, so I put up the spindrifter again to see what would happen. We were able to get a couple of knot boost out of it, so we kept it up until we neared the harbor entrance. It’s a good thing too, for we entered the harbor on fumes left in the tank. We have arrived just in time to catch the bus into town, so we quickly clean up and rode the nice Mercedes air-conditioned bus into the shopping center. When we returned from town we found our long lost friends on Sumana, Ken, Margaret and Morton the bird. We all had a nice dinner (except Morton) at the brand new yacht club where Margaret now works. Wednesday was reserved for boat projects and chores. David worked on the transmission and oil change while I attended to the laundry and cleaning up the engine mess. (It’s not all fun.) After this was done we puttered over to the fuel dock to make sure everything with the transmission was working properly. Looks good, lets hope we don’t rattle apart again. The Big event of the day was Morton’s 2nd Birthday. This was celebrated with a new seed stick, snow peas and bit of birthday cake. Morton was very excited by all this attention and tried to eat my neck! I guess even birds enter the terrible twos. We’ve had a fun, productive and short stay here, but the winds are looking very good to head south, so we will be heading off in the morning. Thursday October 17th -Friday October 18th, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 11 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 57 minutes 0 seconds East Long Beach, Great Keppel Island, Queensland, Australia 160 nautical miles traveled in 27 hours David wants to leave by 7:00 am, so we were up early putting everything away and filling the water tanks. Margaret and Ken came by to wish us good-bye and we were soon shoving off. Looks like there is enough wind to sail, so up with the main and out with headsail. We motor sailed through the morning but by noon the winds were picking up a bit. We rolled in the headsail, put up the spindrifter and we were able to keep a steady 6-7 knots with out the engine on. We spent the afternoon gently gliding across the seas with our beautiful turtle spindrifter leading the way. Now this is my idea of sailing. Sedona is not far behind us and decide to put up their spinnaker as well. They are going to stop at Curlew Island, but David thinks we are having too lovely of sail to stop so soon. If we can make it to the Duke Islands before dark we will stop there, otherwise we will continue through the night. Around 4:30 the knot meter is reading 8-9 knots and we still have the spindrifter up. This wind is getting a little strong for the spindrifter so we take it down and put out the headsail. As the sun is getting close to the horizon we near the Duke Islands, but it doesn’t look like we will make it there with enough daylight to anchor. Looks like we will keep going, which is fine, the wind is perfect, there are no rough seas and half a moon to light the way. These beautiful conditions lasted until 1:00 am when David had to turn on the engine to keep the sails from flogging around.  Around 3:00 am it picked up enough to turn it off again. We sailed through the night with the orange glow of the half moon lighting the islands and mainland around us. This is as good as it gets sailing at night. By 7:00 am the wind has died again and engine is back on. We can see the Keppel Islands off in the distance and there is a good anchorage on the south side of Great Keppel for the anticipated northerly winds that are coming this afternoon. By 10:00 am we have anchored at Long Beach on the Great Keppel Island. There a few other boats in this anchorage when we arrived, I think I counted 13. Once we were all secured we settled in for a long nap. We awoke around 3:00 pm with the wind howling. There are now whitecaps in this once flat anchorage and there are now 30 boats! Doesn’t even resemble the place we came into this morning. The wind howled a good 25 to 30 knots the rest of the night, but despite the wind it was a calm anchorage. The day ended with a beautiful sunset over the Great Keppel. On a sad note, we have been listening to the radio and found a newspaper to read about the bombing in Bali. Australia is in a state of shock and mourning from this tragic event. I never would have guessed that there were so many Australians there. One report said that there are up to 12,000 Australians at any given time in Bali. It just so happened that their football season just ended in Australia and most of the teams were vacationing in Bali, as a result some of their footie heroes are now lost. Of all the nationalities caught in the bombing, Australia has lost the most citizens, besides the local Balinese. So far around 40 are dead, and hundreds wounded with hundreds more unaccounted for. I think they now realize that terrorism is indeed on their doorstep. It wasn’t just a week ago that some of their political leaders were criticizing the USA for their strong assault on terrorism, now their tune has definitely changed. Yet there are those who believe that this happened because Australia has given so much support to the USA. I guess they won’t know until they figure out who did it, before they figure out the motive. They are saying that this is Australia’s September 11th. Saturday October 19th, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 29 minutes 45 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 58 minutes 45 seconds East Sea Hill Point, Curtis Island, Queensland, Australia 20.7 nautical miles traveled in 4.5 hours Up early to head to Pancake Creek, but wait, once we got going we had a change of plans. We would like to try Lady Musgrave one more time and we now need to wait for a southerly wind to get there from Pancake Creek. We could be waiting for many days and the weather has been very weird lately. So we will take a detour to Gladstone and wait there until we hear what’s going on with this weather. If we go behind Curtis Island we can travel through something called the Narrows, but it does have to be timed with the tides and we won’t make it today. So we will make our way to the north end of the Narrows and anchor there for the night. This should be somewhat of a challenge and somewhere we haven’t been yet. We had a lovely slow sail of around 4 knots, until we reached the mouth of the Fitzroy River at the north end of Curtis Island. The tide was coming out and the current was too strong to sail against. We turned on the engine and powered our way to Sea Hill Point on the northwest side of Curtis Island. As we approached the river we seemed to have crossed into some kind of butterfly flight path.  At first we saw one or two butterflies of pale yellow with black outlines on the wings. Then they started coming at us in-groups of twos and threes. Pretty soon it was a steady stream of butterflies making their way across the Keppel Bay, hundreds of them fluttering by in the gentle breeze. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wonder what motivates them to fly so far across the water. We first tried to find shelter in Pacific Creek, but half way in the bar we hit the bottom and had to turn around. We found anchorage behind the point in view of a lovely lighthouse. We’ll have to see how this pans out. We didn’t want to try to go any farther down the channel with 2.5 knots of current against us. We still have the butterflies flittering around and every once in awhile I will see the shadow of one on the computer as I sit and write this. Just when we thought the butterfly parade was over they started coming back from the other side of the bay to the lighthouse. How very strange, but fun for us to watch. Well, around 3:00 this afternoon the wind picked up making this a little bumpy in here. The 4 other boats that anchored by us have now left and gone on somewhere else. We decided to stick it out and see what happens. Hope it doesn’t get too rolly in here tonight. If the wind dies back down we should be fine. Otherwise David has midnight run planned. Sunday October 20th, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 49 minutes 50 seconds South Longitude: 151 degrees 14 minutes 40 seconds East Gladstone Marina, Gladstone, Queensland, Australia 20.7 nautical miles traveled in 4.25 hours We lucked out last night for the wind died down and we ended up having a very comfortable night at anchor. Last night David sat down with the tide tables and the cruising guide and calculated the times we would have to get through certain shallow sections called the “Narrows”. Based on his calculations we would have to leave by 6:30 am. The Narrows is a calm waterway between Curtis Island and the mainland.  The waterway begins at the north end of Curtis Island in Keppel Bay and dumps out at the southern end in the Gladstone Harbor. The unique feature of navigating these waters is that at low tide there happens to be a large section of this waterway that totally dries up to 2 meters above the waterline. In fact there is an area called the cattle crossing where ranchers actually have fence line down into the water where they drive cattle across the waterway when it dries at low tide. The total length of dying area is about 6 miles long, so only about one hour of nerve-wracking navigation is required. We were up and on our way down the channel by 6:30 am. Before we left I lowered our Australian flag to half-mast in honor of the National Day of Mourning and Tribute to the Australians lost in the Bali tragedy. We picked up a few boats along the way down who were hiding out in the creeks last night. So that’s good, we must have calculated the tides and timing right, or it’s the blind leading the blind. We soon crossed over the 23 degree 30 minute mark (The Tropic of Capricorn), crossing from the tropics into the subtropics again, although it feels very tropical here today with balmy temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius. We are once again in the midst of a butterfly parade, but now sand flies, flies and mossies (mosquitoes) join them. Needless to say this calm waterway is lined with thick mangroves and is home to such critters. We saw a few jumping fish and many beautiful egrets, sea eagles and other seabirds. We have about 2.2 knots of current with us as we navigate our way down the channel. We do have a catamaran ahead of us, but you can’t always tell what depths are like with one of those ahead, but it did help us to pick out the markers along the way. I stood on the bow with the binoculars and pointed the directions for David to steer. By 7:40 am we had entered the beginning of the shallow patch, it was pretty wild to go by the cattle crossing and see the fence line disappear into the water. Even with a 4.8-meter tide today we have some pretty shallow depths. Before we would exit the shallow section we would see depths of only 5 feet 5” and we have a draft of 5’ 6”! Yikes, we must have been dragging along some cow poop. By 8:40 am we passed by the last marker for the “Narrows” and breathed a big sigh of relief as we ventured into depths of 11 and 12 feet. We continued for the next 2 hours down the deeper part of the waterway occasionally flying the headsail. As we neared the Gladstone Harbor it was apparent this is a major shipping port. Several large tankers were docked, blocking our view of the marina. Once we were around them we soon found the marina and were parked by 10:45 am. Why does it feel like I’ve had a full day of activity all ready? The marina area and waterway are totally a flutter with these butterflies. It must be butterfly season in Gladstone. We have arrived just in time to watch the memorial services for the Bali victims. We took a walk into the city center, but being Sunday there was absolutely nothing open. So it was back to the boat to sit under the fan. Sunday October 20th, 2002 AUSTRAILS NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING & TIBUTE TO THE BALI VICTIMS Today is the day Australians will observe as the national day of mourning for the victims of the Bali bombing.  Being that we have been at sea the last few days we really don’t know all the details of what has been going on, but today is the day flags are to be at half mast and a minute of silence observed at noon. If you have access to wattle seed you are to plant it in remembrance of the dead and if you have a sprig of wattle you are to wear it on your shirt to show your support for the victims. Yesterday the first of many dead arrived back on Australian soil in a pine box wrapped in an Australian flag. Haven’t heard if they know how many are dead yet, and there are still many missing. The Prime Minister John Howard has just arrived back from a memorial service at the Australian Embassy in Indonesia. He appears to be shell-shocked. On the news they showed scenes from Bali that are pretty horrific and show little Balinese children sitting on the streets with pictures of their missing loved ones. Very heart breaking to say the least. We watched a broadcast from Sydney of the national service held there. Many of Australia’s rock stars, pop singers and actors sang and recited poetry. John Howard even gave a little speech about his thoughts on the matter. The service ended with all those effected by the bombing dropping orchards and flowers in a pond, being serenaded by an Aboriginal didgeridoo player. This is supposedly a Balinese tradition to honor the dead. Amongst the crowd were many Balinese who live in the Sydney area. There will be another national service for the families in Canberra, the Nations capital, on Thursday. Monday October 21st, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 49 minutes 50 seconds South Longitude: 151 degrees 14 minutes 40 seconds East Gladstone Marina, Gladstone, Queensland, Australia Waiting to see what the weather is going to do here to see if we can make it out to the “Lady” or not. Still no south wind predicted and it’s very hot here. We decided to take the longest ride possible on the air-conditioned Mercedes bus into town just so we could cool off. Later in the day when it cooled down a bit we walked back into the town center to see what things looked like when they were open. Not much difference. Depending on the weather we will most likely be out of here tomorrow. Tuesday October 22nd, 2002 Latitude: 24 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 23 minutes 15 seconds East Burnett River, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia We had major discussions about what to do today. I heard that there would be a strong wind warning on Wednesday and didn’t want to get stuck out in the ocean in it, or at Pancake Creek, which can be very uncomfortable in a strong northerly. Being that’s its been hard to trust the weather reports here, David decides we should go, possible doing an overnight sail with the full moon down into the Sandy Straights. So by 10:00 am we were pulling away from the dock to leave the Gladstone waters with the outgoing tide.  We were getting quite a boost from the tide. Our not meter showed us going 6.8 knots through the water, while the GPS showed us going 9.3 knots over land. Of course, just as we exited the Golding Channel and we were spit out into the sea we heard a secrete message on the vhf radio from the coast guard.  They are now officially issuing the strong wind warning to begin later today. Well, it is too late to turn around and fight the current back to Gladstone so we will continue on and hopefully make it to the Port of Bundaberg before it hits. With our current speed we should be able to make Bundaberg by 11:30 tonight. So a little night sailing and anchoring in the river by the moonlight. Sounds like fun. We spent the better part of the day making great time over calm seas with spindrifter up. The ocean was thick with a layer of brown slime on the surface. It was a very creamy brown color and looked like great slicks over the water for as far as we could see. We have heard that this is some kind of algae growth, I will try to find out more about this later. We don’t know if this alga had anything to do with it, but there are many schools of jumping fish today. Around each of these schools of jumping fish were swarms of birds, diving down on the area where the fish were. We saw the size of these fish and there is no way a bird was going to get one, but maybe they were feeding on the same thing as the fish. We put out our fishing line, but no bites. I guess what ever the fish were eating was more interesting than our lure.  By 5:00 pm we sailed by Pancake Creek, our only hope of a stop for the night, but the sailing was so good David couldn’t bare to stop, so we pressed on to Bundaberg. It’s hard to imagine that there is a strong wind warning out. By 6:30pm the sun is a bright orange glow as it sets behind the hills in the haze from the bush fires. Australia is currently in the worst drought it has seen in over 100 years. Being that everything is as dry as bone, fires start very easily. There are currently many fires burning in Queensland and New South Wales. The USA has sent over some of their fire fighting helicopters to help in the battle. As a result the sunsets have been spectacular because of the smoke and haze in the horizon. Around 7:30 I saw a fiery orange blur off in the horizon over the surface of the dark waters. At first glance it scared me for I thought it was a boat on fire, but soon it was obvious that it was the full moon coming up over the horizon producing the fiery orange glow over the water. By 10:oo pm the moon was high in the sky and turned from a fiery orange to creamy white globe lighting our way. We are still having a fantastic sail, but are nearing Bundaberg so decided to take down the spindrifter at 10:45. By 11:00 the winds had started to come up and by midnight we had the full blow of the northerly hitting us. It wasn’t too bad until we turned to the west to enter the channel of the river. Now the waves are hitting us on the beam and spraying over the deck. I can’t wait until we are inside that breakwater. Soon we are inside the safety of the river and the surrounding land. We are able to point into the wind and take down the sails. Now all we have to do is find a spot to anchor. By 12:45 we are anchored in the Burnett River just outside the Port of Bundaberg Marina. We are there in the company of 7 other boats, many with Q flags up waiting to clear into the country. Two more boats entered after us and we all maintained a careful watch through the night in a what was building up to be a rough and lumpy night with strong winds. Wednesday, October 23rd, 2002 Latitude: 24 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 23 minutes 15 seconds East Burnett River, Port of Bundaberg Marina, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia 102 Nautical Miles traveled in 14 hours Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night in these now strong winds of 25-30 knots blowing this morning. Just before dawn we heard an another boat coming in calling for help. They were from overseas and not familiar with the channel or the Australian English language and hoping someone would answer them back and tell them where to go. Well after all this chatter we were wide-awake. As soon as the marina was open we were assigned a slip and instructed when to move so they could have people there to assist us. Waves were breaking over the fingers as we pulled up to our assigned spot. There were about 12 guys standing there to help take our lines and fend us off neighboring boats. Luckily we had a smooth landing. The staff at the marina began to organize the rest of the boats to come in one by one so that the crew of people could move around helping each one in.  The quarantine dock was full and they didn’t want to try to move those boats off in these winds, so they just put boats from overseas where ever they could fit them in before it got any worse in here. The poor Customs and Quarantine officers spent the morning running around the whole marina. Its been fun seeing all the boats that have come in this year from overseas. Some are even boats we met in the South Pacific that we haven’t seen for two years. Most of these boats spent last year in New Zealand and Fiji. As the day progressed so did the winds. By 2:00 this afternoon they changed the strong wind warning to a gale warning with 35-40 knots of wind and 4 meter seas. Well it certainly seemed like that’s what we had. The boat next to us was registering 37 knots on their wind meter. Everyone was out tying everything down and doubling up the lines holding them to the dock. Waves were breaking over the finger we were tied to and splashing up into the cockpit and down the companionway. We obviously couldn’t have any windows or hatches open this afternoon. The dock and finger piers were bouncing up and down on the waves, making it very interesting to walk down the docks. It was like walking through an earthquake. I’m glad we are not sailing today! It just might have ended my sailing career. We tried to get some rest, but the wind was howling through all the rigging and Francis was actually healing over tied to the dock, which didn’t make for peaceful resting. I think poor Dewey thinks we are still at sea, for he has gone into his catatonic state on his top step. He didn’t even notice the water splashing in on him. Now I know where the term “batten down the hatches” comes from! I kept thinking all day that this must be what a cyclone is like. I can’t imagine it any worse than this. We were all hoping the docks would hold together and not wash out to sea. Tonight on the news they showed a satellite image of a huge dust storm heading across Australia heading for the East Coast. It is expected to hit Brisbane sometime this evening. The dust storm has developed from the outback and farmlands as a result of all the clear cutting, tilling and lack of vegetation. They estimate that there is actually tons of topsoil blowing its way to the ocean. At 8:00 pm I went to bed with the wind still howling and blowing and waves slapping and washing up on the back of the boat. Thursday, October 24th – Tuesday October 29th, 2002 Latitude: 24 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 23 minutes 15 seconds East Port of Bundaberg Marina, Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia The wind died down some last night and this morning the marina workers were out tightening all the bolts holding the dock together! Wow, they must have really gotten a work out in those high winds and rough seas. The dock was really bouncing up and down. Glad they were checking those bolts for they are still predicting high winds.  The marina sponsored a barbee for all the yachties on Friday noon.  I had fun attending the festivities and meeting new people, while David went into town for Dewey food. We thought we might be able to leave Saturday morning, but Friday afternoon they issued a strong wind warning from the southeast! Just the direction we want to go. By Saturday morning it was up to a gale warning again! The dust storm has blown over us leaving a red residue embedded on all our lines and screens.  Looks like we will be here a few more days. Good thing they have some videos for rent at the office. Monday the marina boys were out tightening up the bolts holding the dock together once again. It’s a little discerning that every time there is a good blow they have to tighten the dock up again! I guess its good they do it though. Tuesday afternoon there was a little excitement near the marina as an ex Vietnam vet went a little crazy and shot a couple of his mates. Roadblocks went up until they were able to get him under control. By 6:00 that night all was under control and everyone was able to return home who had gone into town earlier that day. The wind has finally let up and they are predicting light northeasterly for the next few days, so we better get going. Wednesday, October 30th, 2002 Latitude: 25 degrees 48 minutes 50 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 02 minutes 0 seconds East Pelican Bay, Great Sandy Straights, Queensland, Australia 73.4 nautical miles traveled in 11 hours 40 minutes The alarm went off this morning at 4:30 am and Dewey was standing by his dish waiting for breakfast. By 4:45 am we were pulling in the dock lines and leaving behind the Bundaberg Marina in light winds. We saw two boats in front us, one is our friends on Escapade. As we made our way out the channel I could count 13 other boats coming behind us. I guess everyone thought it was good day to head south. We had made plans with Escapade to sail towards Harvey Bay to the Sandy Straights behind the great Fraser Island. If things go well we will be able to make it through the shallow parts on a rising tide, so we will hope all goes well. We had a pretty uneventful sail, with winds so light we were unable to turn off the engine. By 1:00 this afternoon we begin the trek through Sandy Straights. I don’t know why they call it the Sandy Straights; it should be called the sandy curves as we picked our way through the twisting channel to miss the shifting sands. We made it through the shallow parts by 3:00 pm with 10 feet being the shallowest depth we saw. Piece of cake after the Narrows! With the current helping us all the way we were able to make it to Pelican Bay at the mouth of the Sandy Straights by 5:00 pm. There were already a few boats there and by dark I counted 12 in this anchorage. I checked in with the Tin Can Bay Coast Guard for the night and they advised us to check in with them before we left in the morning and let them know we made it out of the bar safely. We fell into bed around 7:30 after a long day and another early morning planned for tomorrow. Thursday, October 31st, 2002 Latitude: 26 degrees 41 minutes 10 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 40 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club, Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia 50.4 nautical miles traveled in 8 hours 30 minutes The alarm went off at 4:15 am this morning. As I tired to pry my eyes open I noticed that it wasn’t light out yet! What’s this all about? We are hoping that if we go out of the wide bay bar at slack tide this morning that we will have a calm trip out with no dramas. When I got myself to the deck David already had the engine on, the anchor up and was motoring towards the bar. Most of the 12 boats anchored by us were already gone. There were still 4 that came out behind us, so we weren’t dead last. Our friends on Escapade were right behind us as we all made our way to the 3 suggested waypoints to make your way out of the bar. Just as we passed the 3rd waypoint we watched the sunrise over the water with a beautiful pink glow as we turned south toward Double Island Point. Now that we are out in the ocean the swell is hitting us right on the beam, giving us a rolly ride. I of course became very seasick and David quickly administered some medication my way. Within the half-hour I was knocked out from the medication, so most of the day is big blur to me. Once we passed Double Island Point we were able to put up the sails and turn away from the swell a bit. This made Dewey and I feel much better, but I was still very sleepy.  There was never enough wind to just sail, so the poor old engine had to keep working. By 11:00 am we saw the familiar shores of Nossa and Sunshine Beach, soon we spied Alexander Headlands and the beaches of Mooloolaba. It was quite exciting to see such familiar sites. It was really strange that we felt like we were returning home. As we neared Mooloolaba we had several pods of dolphins come out to welcome us home. By 1:10 we had found our way in the breakwater, had the sails down and saw our friends there to greet us as we docked in to our same old slip we had last year. It feels good to be back and see familiar faces, knowing we won’t be moving for awhile. This seasons cruising statistics: We traveled a total of 2290 nautical miles in 5 months, one week. We used the engine for a total of 271 hours. If you times that by an average of around 5 miles per hour that would mean we motored half of the distance we traveled this year! Maybe we should change our name to mv Francis (motor vessel) no wonder the poor old engine is starting to rattle apart.