SEPTEMBER 2001 Saturday, September 1st- Sunday, September 2nd, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia Saturday I spent the whole day at the cultural festival. I was entertained by everything from Polynesian dancing to Irish dancing. It was indeed a day of cultural diversity. As I watched the Beautiful Cook Islanders perform with their grass skirts and beautiful flower and shell tops it made me realize how much I miss being in French Polynesia. As I look back on our two years of travel, French Polynesia has to be my favorite. The lovely music of ukulele melodies and rhythmic drums has turned out to be something we have never heard or seen the likes of again. It was great to see a little glimpse of it again here in Australia. I also wandered the cultural village to take in the arts of the various cultures. The day was topped off with a cultural parade that snaked its way down the strand ending at the cultural park. Sunday I only managed to make it in the afternoon. The afternoon was dedicated to performers of aboriginal decent and the events culminated in a reconciliation parade. This reconciliation parade was to honor the current movement going on in Australia to reunite in friendship with the aboriginal people. As a result there were many aboriginal people milling about apparently making the organizers a bit nervous, for I noticed that the security and police were increased during this event. I’m not sure this is sending the reconciliation message, but I guess they wanted to make sure everyone would be safe. Monday, September 3rd - Friday, September 7th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia We have heard from our friends Dudley and Philippa from the sailing vessel Happy Now. We met them last year in Fiji and have not seen them since. They have just recently arrived in Australia with their boat and would like to visit us. They are a few hours south and said they could drive up to Townsville to see us. So we will stay here until they arrive and then when the wind blows from the north we will head south again. We enjoyed our week in Townsville seeing old friends, rollerblading and swimming.  Thursday night we decided to have a get together on our boat for our Townsville friends. It was a fun night of visiting with friends we may not ever see again or at least for another 9 months. The Prime Minister John Howard has now come up with a plan for the Afghanistan boat people. They will go to Papua New Guinea for processing and then 150 will be sent to New Zealand and the rest would go to a little Tropical island called Nauru, which is north of the Solomon Islands.  All seemed like it was going to work out until there were a couple more boat loads of refugees that had to be rescued. These people from Iraq also had paid people smugglers in Indonesia to bring them on dilapidated boats to Australia. Around another 200 were transferred on to the naval ship Manoora, making the total refugee count over 600. Papua New Guinea hearing this decided that they didn’t want these people landing in their country. They were afraid once these people got to land they would not leave after processing. So now a new problem has arisen. Australia now is going to set up detention camps and processing centers on the island of Nauru. All the building materials were sent to Nauru and the camps began construction as the Manoora made its way to Nauru with the 600+ boat people. Australia is spending millions of dollars getting these people taken care of. Mean while another boatload from Sri Lanka has arrived at Cocos Keeling (another Australian territory). This has turned into a big political mess here on the main land. Not everyone agrees with the way these people are being dealt with so they are having a huge debate in their parliament about if these people should be brought here or not. They have also passed legislation that will take Cocos Keeling, Christmas Island and Ashmoore Reef out of Australian migration territory. This means that just by landing there, it doesn’t mean a free ticket in to Australia. Saturday, September 8th  - Sunday, September 9th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia I was up early to head over to the Home Show being put on in Townsville. I probably wouldn’t have gone, except they are advertising an Eco pavilion. So I thought I should go check out what’s going on in the world of green design. It was a very small exhibit but at least they had one. It mostly consisted of solar panels and composting toilets. I did attend a very interesting workshop put on the EPA. It was a lecture about the benefits of building an environmentally friendly home.  Right now if you are a resident in Australia and are a first time homebuyer you can receive a $14,000.00 grant from the govt.  If you add a solar water heater you get $1500.00 grant from the govt. and if you use it you get a $1,200.00 rebate from the govt. every year. If you install solar panels to generate most of your own electricity you could receive as much as $15,000.00 grant from the govt. and $2000.00 a year rebate for using it. In addition if you generate more electricity then you can use you can sell it back to the grid at 13 cents a kilowatt.  So right now if you took advantage of all these govt. grants you would end up with $30,500.oo in grants from the govt. plus around $3,500.00 a year just for using solar power. Wow, what a deal. But that’s not all if you are building your home you can take your plans to the EPA architect and have him look them over to make sure you are taking advantage of all the natural elements to help make your home more energy efficient. Such as the best site location to take advantage of the winds and sun direction. He will also help you incorporate the solar panels as roofing material so they wont be too much an eye sore. When I asked how much this service cost, the reply was “ its Free” hard to believe. I can’t believe everyone in Australia isn’t building a home right now. The govt. is trying to stimulate the economy with this offer as well as help to reduce green house gas emissions. Sounds like a good deal to me. Saturday afternoon our friends from Happy now arrived and we spent the rest of the day catching up with them and walking around Townsville.  Sunday morning David was up early to run in race being sponsored by the city of Townsville. He had talked another gal on the dock into running the race as well. So at 7:00 am I saw him off at the starting line to run his 11.2 K.  I didn’t stay for the finish, since I didn’t know how long it would take him.  I thought I should get back to Dudley and Philippa to see what they wanted for breakfast. We were sitting in the cockpit drinking our coffee when David arrived back. He looked pretty good for having just run that far. After he got cleaned up we pulled out the charts and books and began to make some plans for next year. Dudley and Philippa are going to leave their boat in the Whitsunday’s during cyclone season and they we will meet them here next May to hopefully make it out to the reef. While the Dudley had a car we took a driving tour of the surrounding Townsville area and finished up the afternoon with a nice lunch before we said goodbye to our friends. Monday, September 10th  - Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia We stocked up on groceries and thought we were ready to go. We planned on leaving Tuesday morning if the winds looked good for going south. Just as luck would have it the refrigeration gave up working late in the afternoon. David immediately began tearing apart the pump to see if he could fix it. He stayed up until 11:00 at night trying to get it working again. He finally gave up and decided to give it another go in the morning, but this meant we would not be leaving in the morning.  By noon Tuesday it looked like the refrigerator was working once again.  We walked into town to do one last email check and stop at the travel agent. We have decided that we will go to Bangkok, Thailand for our 6-month leave. We got a lonely planet guide to Thailand and have our tickets all booked to leave on Nov. 8th, since we have to be out of the country by Nov 9th.  We said all our good byes to our friends in Townsville and went to bed early for we were going to get going very early in the morning. Wednesday, September 12th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia We had planned on trying to leave today and start our journey south.  David got up at 5:30 am to turn on the early news and get the latest weather report. I stayed behind with a pillow over my head. All of the sudden I heard David shout, “Oh My God, the United States has been attacked!”  What a ridiculous notion I thought, he’s just saying that to get me out of bed. I certainly thought he could have come up with something better than that.  But then he turned up the volume and I too heard the tragic news. I still didn’t believe it.  I couldn’t believe anyone would attack the United States, my sleepy brain was trying to think whom we were in conflict with.  I ran out to the TV all blurry eyed only to see the images that will be burned into all our minds of the twin towers on fire and collapsing. I thought this can‘t be real, it must surly be some kind of Hollywood prank.  Something like Orson Wells "War of the Worlds." But as we switched the channels it was everywhere! It slowly began to sink in…. this is really happening, how could this be? We were glued to the TV for the next few hours still trying to believe what we were seeing. We finally made some calls home to the USA to make sure everyone was ok and that this terrible thing we were watching was indeed real. Well, we couldn’t possibly leave today with this going on. We stayed glued to the TV all day watching the event unfold. We couldn’t believe that it was on every channel in Australia and on all day. Direct and live coverage from the United States. During the day the computer repair shop called to inform us they have finally fixed the computer and they would overnight ship it to us where ever we were. This is wonderful news so we agreed to stay another day and wait for the computer to arrive. We were the only Americans in the marina and several people came by during the day to make sure we had heard the news and were ok. The Australians took this very hard. Their Prime Minister John Howard is currently in Washington D.C.  He has been having meetings with George Bush and happened to be in the pentagon the day before! He was very near the pentagon when it was hit. He was immediately evacuated to the Australian embassy with his wife and son. The bunker there is two stories below ground that they sheltered him in until it was deemed safe for him to come out. Australia tennis star Llaytin Hewitt having just won the American Open had left the New York airport hours before the hijacking.  The Australian swimming star Ian Thorpe was in New York and was at the trade center earlier that morning. The Australians had 3 people who were on the planes and believed to have another 86-90 in the buildings that are unaccounted for. It’s very strange to be in a foreign country watching these events unfold and see it through the eyes of the Australian public. As you would expect, everyone is in shock.  A lovely Australian couple invited us over for dinner tonight to help us get our minds off it for a while. I must say I had a hard time pulling myself away for while. But we had a lovely dinner and met some other kind Australians there as well.  We stayed awake as long as we could keep our eyes open watching the live coverage from the United States. The thing I found most interesting was that every Australian TV station cancelled all regular broadcasting and only showed this live coverage. Even though there are currently several big news events that are going on in Australia. To me this showed the enormity of this tragic event. Thursday, September 13th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia We spent the morning still glued to the TV watching the news from the United States.  After a few hours we decided to venture down town to the internet café and get a few groceries.  We walked as we always did through Anzac Park. This is a war memorial park with memorials for all the Australian solders and even one for the United States. I found it very comforting to see the American flag flying next to the Australian flag both at half-staff. As we walked down the main street of the Townsville we noticed that there was another American flag flying at half-staff. I thought how nice that here in little Townsville a world away from the United States that they are sharing in our grief. I decided to go for one last swim at my favorite 50-meter pool. On the way there I heard a strange squawking noise coming from the grass. I looked down only to see a rainbow lorikeet in some kind of trouble. They have mostly green feathers so he was well camouflaged by the grass. As I bent over to see if he was ok it became apparent that he was wounded and could not fly. I walked over to the nearby workshop to see if they knew of some kind of wildlife hotline I could call. The guy said he didn’t know whom to call but gave me an old T-shirt get the bird with. I gathered up the lorikeet in the shirt. He made quite a noise until he realized he wasn’t getting away and then he calmed down. I carried him over to the Marine Parks and Wildlife center to see if they knew where I could take the little guy. They said they would be happy to look after him and see that he gets the proper care. So I hope I left him in good hands. Later this afternoon our computer arrived and appears to be working fine. What a relief, now we are free to leave tomorrow. I’ve had about all the mass media I can take for a few days. Friday, September 14th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 07 minutes 05 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 35 minutes 04 seconds East 107 nautical miles traveled By 6:30 am we were at the fuel dock filling up the diesel tank and topping off the water tanks. By 7:00 am we were on our way. It was a lovely but warm day and we actually had a light northeast wind to help us get south. We were able to put up the sails, but still had to run the motor to keep us going. By noon the wind had picked up and we were able to turn off the engine. By 2:00 in the afternoon it appeared to be the perfect wind to fly the spinnaker, so we rolled in the genoa and put up the spinnaker. This gave us quite a boost and we were sailing along nicely at 7.7 knots.  We flew the spinnaker until sunset when we put the genoa back up. With this northeast wind it made stopping anywhere along the coast not a safe option. There were no safe anchorages for us until we actually reached the Whitsunday’s.  This means that we would have to sail well into the night.  Saturday, September 15th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 12 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 37 minutes 04 seconds East Western Double Bay, Queensland, Australia 12:30 am we plugged the GPS into the computer and our using our electronic charts to help guide us around the little islands on the way to the Double Bay area. By 1:40 am we have entered into the Eastern Double Bay and have anchored. Its about time, we have had a long day of sailing and we are ready for some sleep.  We thought we would stay here for a day to rest up and head over to some of the Whitsunday islands. By noon today the wind has really picked from the opposite direction, putting us once again on a lee shore. We felt we were very secure so thought we would wait it out and see if it calmed down any. By 2:30 we were bouncing around pretty good. The wind was coming straight in the bay creating a large wind waves. David felt we should make the move over to the other bay. So we raised the anchor and motored over to the other bay where we were in the company of several other boats looking for shelter as well. We weren’t thrilled with our spot, but it was way better then where we were. So here we will wait out the wind and see what tomorrow brings. Sunday, September 16th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 12 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 37 minutes 04 seconds East Western Double Bay, Australia Listening to the weather this morning didn’t give us any encouragement to try to leave.  They are predicting 25 –30 knots of wind from the southeast. We sat here all day listening to the wind howl around us and the wind waves bump us around. Most of the time it was ok, with a few big gust every once in awhile. Hopefully tomorrow will better.  Today is a national day of mourning in Australia. They are having services all around Australia to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks.  The Prime Minister spoke at one of the services as well as the premiere of Queensland.  Another big event in Australia today is the collapse of one of their major airlines- Ansett. There are many protest going on at the airports as well as many stranded people.   There has also been a decision made about the boat people on the Australian navel ship Manoora . It has been found that they were not illegally detained on the Manoora and can be unloaded at the island of Nauru. Lots going in the world today. Monday, September 17th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 12 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 37 minutes 04 seconds East Western Double Bay, Australia This morning on the weather radio they are predicting bad storms for the next few days so we thought if we were ever going to get out of here today would be the day. So by 7:30 we were motoring out of the bay.  Once we left the safety of the bay it became apparent that it was going to be a rougher ride than we had expected. The bow was being buried in the water with every wave that came at us. Water was spraying up over the dodger getting us wet in the cockpit. After about ten minutes of this we decided that it was not going to be worth it, so back to the shelter of the bay we retreated. We found a better place to anchor and stayed put for the day. Today the Australian parliament opened with a memorial to the United States. Again the Prime Minister gave a speech and then parliament sang the Australian and American anthems with both flags flying half- staff in the background. As you can see the Australians are very shaken up by this event.  The Afghanistan refugees on the Australian navel ship having heard that they are now going to be unloaded in Nauru are saying that they are going to refuse to get off until they are taken to Australia. What a mess. These people I’m afraid are going to have to take Nauru or go back home. Australia is very firm in their decision to not to let them on to Australia soil.  They believe they have every right to protect their borders. Tuesday, September 18th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 12 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 37 minutes 04 seconds East Western Double Bay, Australia Looks like another day of being stuck in this bay, they are predicting 40-50 knot winds from the southeast, the very direction we are trying to go. It’s very lumpy in this anchorage, but I’m sure it’s far worse out there in the open. So we keep busy by working on little boat cleanup projects. David serviced many of the winches and I devoured the Lonely Planet Guide to Thailand and organized a list of the places I would like to see.  As the day progressed we watched several more boats come in this little bay to wait out the storm. We were surprised that by the afternoon it didn’t seem too bad, but I’m sure it is deceiving being tucked away at the end of this little bay. I spent the day listening to the public radio taking in all the news. The prime Minster here has his plate full right now with the Ansett airlines going under, the Afghanistan boat people and the United States. Wednesday, September 19th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 12 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 37 minutes 04 seconds East Western Double Bay, Australia Believe it or not, another day stuck in this bay. Today they have actually issued a strong wind warning, like 40-50 knots didn’t deserve it yesterday. They are also saying that there will be showers and rainstorms today as well, which we are already experiencing. We are getting really anxious about getting out this bay. We only want to make it another 6 miles south to Airlie Beach so we can be by a town and get supplies. But I guess we will stay put at least one more day. David ran the generator so we could watch a movie today and we both spent a lot of time reading. This morning we watched this bay fill up with more boats seeking refuge from the wind. By the end of the day there were 21 boats in this bay. Guess it’s a good thing we stayed. It rained and blew most of the day, but it is predicted to get better tomorrow.  Today on the news we heard that the first 100 of the Afghanistan asylum seekers were unloaded on Nauru. Another 150 are to be flown to New Zealand, while the remaining 400 are refusing to get off the boat until it reaches Australia. I’m afraid it will be a long wait. Thursday, September 20th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 15 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 42 minutes 08 seconds East Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia This morning I awoke to the engine running, when I got to the deck, David was already bringing in the chain and anchor.  He was really anxious to get out of here and wanted to get going before the wind picked up. By 7:00am we were motoring out of the bay. It still wasn’t great as we headed out of the bay into the wind and waves. I slept through the 6:00am weather report this morning so I didn’t hear what the predicted winds were, but they sure seem a lot less then they have been the last few days. We beat into the waves for a good half-hour before we turned into the next bay and headed towards Airlie Beach. By 8:30 am we had found a place and put down the anchor amongst the 100 plus other boats in this bay. This bay is the launching place of many trips to the Whitsunday’s so it is a mecca for barefoot charters, charter boats and cruising boats.  Even in this bay the wind is howling. I sat on deck for awhile making sure that we weren’t moving before we began getting the dinghy ready to go. David decided that we should put the second anchor out if we wanted to go ashore. With the 2nd anchor ready and the dinghy ready to go, David took the 2nd anchor out and got it set. This is the first time in almost a year that we felt the need for the second anchor. Now we could ashore and get off this boat for a few hours.  When I got on land and tried to walk my legs felt like wiggly concrete.  Only having about 30’ to walk back and forth in for the last 6 days made my legs feel like I was walking on Jell-O! We had a nice stroll through town and found the little grocery store, picked up a paper to see what’s going in the world and headed back. Today on the news we watched a memorial service that took place in Brisbane for the United States. The park was packed with Australians, a few Americans and few tourists paying their respects to the victims of this terrorist attack. The scenes on the news showed people draped in American flags, holding American and Australian flags, and laying flowers at a memorial with tears running down their faces. This tragedy has struck them very hard as well. There were Australian lives lost, but many of them fear that this same thing could have happened here just as easily as it did in the United States. All this fear is not helping the boat people crisis any. Today they also showed the first of these refugees getting off the naval ship Manoora. Some of the ones who were interviewed had no idea what was currently going on in Afghanistan. One lady said she had paid the people smugglers 30,000 dollars to get out of the country and into Australia. Imagine how bad it must be there to take this risk and spend that kind of money. Friday, September 21st  - Sunday September 23rd, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 15 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 43 minutes 04 seconds East Abel Point Marina, Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia Friday morning the rain has finally stopped, so we decided to get to shore. The wind is still blowing great guns, as a result we were soaked by the time we got to shore. We had taken in our shower stuff in hopes of getting a shower at the yacht club, but it doesn’t open for another hour and half.  We strolled along the beach and down the hill to the Abel Point Marina. We heard that they are always full and don’t like to let cruising boats in, but thought we’d see if they would let us take a shower. David asked about getting a berth and sure enough they did have one, and they let us have a shower as well. I don’t know why we got cleaned up only to get soaked going back out to the boat and then get covered in mud bringing the anchors up. Oh-well.  By noon we had squeezed into the marina. We were told it would only be for one day so we decided to make the most of it. We cleaned up all the accumulated mud of the past week, filled the water tanks, did the laundry, and they walked to the giant grocery story on the other side of town. We were in search of Dewey’s favorite cat food, which he was out of (only a major crisis). We had a very full day and I was exhausted, my legs ached from actually getting some exercise again.  I will sleep good tonight not having to worry about the wind. Saturday the marina office said we could stay one more day if we wanted, so we took advantage of being on land and walked around town. There is a fantastic organic shaped swimming pool in this town and its right on the beachfront. We spent a few hours there relaxing as well. David enjoyed the sites while I enjoyed the swimming. The town of Airlie Beach besides being a mecca for charter boats is also a mecca for backpackers. It rivals Cairns for backpacker population. As a result the town really caters to this young clientele. There are many little cheap eateries; swim and surf shops as well as many bars with drink specials running day and night. It really only has the one main street and it seems if your not on a trip going out to one of the Whitsunday islands then you are hanging out at the public pool. It is the place to be seen! Tonight on the news they showed yet another memorial service for the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States. This one was held at Bush Stadium in Sydney. This is the stadium they held the Olympics in just a mere year ago. It was filled to the brim with people. They said it was the first time since the Olympics that there were that many people in the stadium.  As for the asylum seekers, well all the original ones from the Tampa have disembarked the Manoora and are now living in detention camps on the island of Nauru. There are still close to 200 from the Iraq that are refusing to get off the Manoora until they are taken to Australia. Some of the ones they interviewed in the detention camps are saying they never would have paid the people smugglers if they knew they couldn’t come to Australia. Some are even asking to be sent back to Iraq! I think the problem is the people smugglers taking advantage of desperate people! By Sunday at noon we had to be out of the marina. David went for a run in the morning and then we walked back to the grocery store to get some more of Deweys favorite food. We could be stranded somewhere again and we certainly don’t want to run out of his food! We barely made it back in time to get out of the marina. Just as we are pulling out of the marina a squall comes through making anchoring outside the marina amongst all the other boats very interesting. It was predicted to blow 25-30 knots again today so we decided to put the 2nd anchor out once again. We spent the rest of the day bouncing around in the swell from the wind waves. I think it will be hard to sleep tonight. Monday, September 24th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 15 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 42 minutes 08 seconds East Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia The wind howled and blew all night long. I was practically bounced out of bed several times. This is one of the most uncomfortable anchorages’s we have been in for a long time. It is protected from the impending storms they are predicting today as well as the wind warning. So we will stay put. If we didn’t move in all that wind last night we will stay put during what ever happens today. We took the dinghy to shore and had a walk around town and checked the email. We checked the meteorological web site to see what the 4 day forecast would be. Looks like we might be able to make a break for it on Tuesday. Still no north wind, but a very light southeasterly that we could most likely power through. Not much else going on today except for the news of asylum seekers. They are still refusing to get off the Manoora. The Australian govt. doesn’t want to force them off, but this naval battleship may be needed in the Middle East. So they will go along for the ride if they don’t get off. Could be interesting. The govt. is also trying to figure out what to do with the collapse of Ansett and how to get all the stranded people to where they need to go. If you want to fly from Melbourne to Perth (which is like flying from Alabama to Oregon) you have to fly from Melbourne to Bali and then to Perth. Not a bad arrangement if you have a couple of days to spend in Bali. Like in the U.S. the airlines are not doing well and several thousand people lost their jobs with the collapse of Ansett. Tuesday, September 25th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 02 minutes 08 seconds East Shaw Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia 29.1 nautical miles traveled The wind blew hard all night long making for another bumpy night of sleeping. The weather report this morning said light 10-15 knot southeast winds with a possible switch to the northeast on Wednesday. This is just what we have been waiting to hear. At 7:20 am we were motoring away from the anchorage by Airlie Beach and heading toward the Whitsunday Islands. We thought we could go down the Molle Channel for a while to stay protected from the southeasterly winds and then we could cut across the Whitsunday Channel to motor down the channel between Dent and Hamilton Island. This proved to be a good plan for it never got to bouncy. In addition it was a very scenic route through these mountainous lush islands. After we left the this channel we stuck close to the western side of the Lindeman Islands until we came to our destination of the day at Burning Point on Shaw Island. By 12:35 p.m.  We were anchored in this beautiful bay with a big sandy beach with only one other boat. This is a very sheltered bay and if the winds pick up we should be fine here. We were immediately greeted by a curious turtle that poked his head up to check us out. During the afternoon boat after boat came into this little bay as well. By nightfall there were 12 other boats in this little bay. Later on this evening we noticed a large fire on Dent Island. The island we had sailed by earlier in the day. It burned for hours and was definitely a large brush fire. Every time I got up during the night I could still the flames. Thank god it is mostly an uninhabited island. Wednesday, September 26th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 02 minutes 08 seconds East Shaw Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia We actually had a relaxing night in this little bay. It was like being at anchor in a lake. I noticed that Dent Island was still smoldering this morning. That was a monster fire. We were up wind of it so we didn’t get the smoke or smell in this bay. We listened to the marine weather station this morning only to hear that the northeast wind did not materialize. While the southeast was light it is predicted to get back to 25-30 knots by Thursday. This would not give us enough time for our next destination. We would have no place to go ashore because there is a military exercise going on that we can’t go near. So we will wait here till the strong wind warning goes away or the military exercise ends, which ever comes first. We put the dinghy in the water and decided to go exploring on shore. Shaw Island is a national park and as of October first we can’t go to shore because of an endangered bird that breeds here between October and April. So we thought we better go explore while we can. Even though the charts show coral in this bay we never saw any coral on the way in, in fact it was soft silt sand. We went in as the tide was coming out so we left the dinghy on anchor figuring it would eventually be left high and dry.  We walked to shore in the fine silt sand for a good half-mile, there is a very shallow shelf of beach here and as the tide went out the beach grew to 4-5 times its size. We saw a couple of catamarans take advantage of this by motoring right up to the beach before low tide. As the tide went out, it left their boats sitting high and dry on the beach. This is the first time I ever saw anyone do this. It looked pretty funny to see these big boats high and dry on the beach. We spent the next few hours wandering around the mangroves looking at the shells and plant life. It seemed a little different here then we were used to seeing. The beach was totally a shell beach, no matter how far you dug down; it was broken shells of many varieties. There were no coral fragments, which is very unusual. I did see a new bird for me. This was the Pied Oystercatcher.  It was roughly 15-16 inches tall, had a black and white body, bright scarlet circle around the eye, as well as a large matching bright scarlet beak and legs. It was very distinctive looking as it peered down at us from his perch on the above rock. The island appears to be made up of pink granite and some lava as well as a lot of shell debris. Very interesting place. Thursday, September 27th  - Saturday September 29th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 02 minutes 08 seconds East Shaw Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia As predicted the winds picked up greatly out of the southeast. We put out the second anchor so we wouldn’t blow away.  For the next several days it would be too windy to even try to get to shore in the dinghy so once again we are trapped on the boat. We passed the time bouncing around, watching a few movies and reading a lot. We watched many other boats come in this little anchorage to seek protection from the strong winds.  The whole country is getting excited about their big Footy weekend. This would be the equivalent of the super bowl in the United States, except this rugby instead of football even though they call it football here. There will be two major games Saturday and Sunday. One is for the Aussie Rules League and the other is for the National Rugby League. Apparently they have two different sets of rules. The whole country is making its move to the locations of these two games, which has proved interesting with one of the nations largest airlines still closed down. Many people are going in car caravans, buses and charter planes. Ironically Ansett was flying again on Saturday, but this was too late for the fans of these games. Consequences of the terrorist attack continue to impact Australia.  A major international event was to take place in Brisbane next week.  This was the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Prime Minister’s from around the world. They had been preparing for this event for the last 5-6 months, but on Saturday Tony Blair from England announced that he would not be attending.  Because of events going on the world, he didn’t believe this would be a good time to leave his country. This was followed by the cancellation of the Prime Minister from India and several other countries as well. The govt. here believed that it should be postponed until everyone felt comfortable attending. This was very disappointing for the city of Brisbane, especially the hospitality industry, but they all understood and hope that it will be held here next time. Other unfortunate events seem to be the attacks on the Muslim communities in Australia. There is an estimated 600 thousand Muslims living in Australia. Even though the govt. is pleading with the country to not associate their fears of terrorist on all the Muslims, it culminated this week with the burning to the ground of a Muslim Masque and school in Brisbane. A pretty sad state of affairs. Meanwhile the last 200 asylum seekers on the Manoora are still refusing to get off the ship in Nauru. Another navy ship has picked up an additional 200 plus refugees off the Ashmoore reef and is transporting them to Nauru. Sunday September 30th, 2001 Latitude 20 degrees 06 minutes 58 seconds South Longitude: 149 degrees 13 minutes 08 seconds East Mackay Marina, Queensland, Australia About 3:00 am I awoke to some strange noises outside, I grabbed a flashlight and went out to take a look. It looks like the wind had switched direction on us several times and the two anchor lines were now twisted around each other making a funny noise as we bounced up and down in the swell. Now that I know what that noise is maybe I can get back to sleep. The wind howled and blew and bounced the boat up and down making it hard for me to get back to sleep until around 5:30 am, David some how managed to sleep through the whole thing and got up at 6:00 to listen to the weather. The next thing I knew the engine was running and he wanted to get moving. So I quickly pulled myself together and got on deck to help untangle the anchors, by 6:30 the anchors were up and we were moving. He said that they were predicting east northeast winds and that we should get going. As soon as we were out of the shelter of the bay it became apparent that these predicted winds had not arrived yet.  Large white caps crashed over the deck as we plunged up and over the next wave. They kept marching right at us, this was not a pleasant thing to wake up to, and good thing I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink yet!  We were having a very rough ride and it became very apparent that we would not be able to make our destination at this rate. We decided to pull in to a bay on the next island along the way. This would be Goldsmith Island and it was very calm in this little bay. By 7:30 am we had the anchor back down and I was watching the turtles swim by. This island reminded me very much of the San Juan Islands in Washington. They were deeply forested with dark green evergreens, with a few palms here and there. Being that I had very little sleep, I decided to get a nap while the boat wasn’t bouncing around. At noon David woke me up, we were going to try again. He thought that the winds had calmed down enough to give it another go. So up with the anchors and on the way we were again. This time as we pulled around the corner of the bay we noticed another boat just in front of us. With the aid of the binoculars I see that it is an American boat named Xephyr and from Seattle! David called them up on the radio and had a little chat with them.  When we finally left the shelter of the islands once again the waves and the wind were still from the wrong direction. Ugly! So we decided to just take in the bumpy ride and power to the Mackay Marina about 40 miles away on the mainland. Turns out that this is where Xephyr is going as well. So we powered next to them for the next 5 hours watching each other crash and bash through the waves on the way there. Still glad I hadn’t eaten anything but a few crackers. By 5:00 PM we were safely in our slip and ready for a nice hot shower. The folks from Xephyr came over to meet us and we joined them for dinner at the marina restaurant. It was great to be on land again!