JULY 2001 Sunday July 1st, 2001 Cairns, Australia Sunday Brian rented a car so we could all drive up the coast to the Daintree rainforest and Cape Tribulation.  We tried to get an early start, which ended up being around 9 am. We drove up to the first hiking trails of the rain forest and hiked as far as we could to the swinging bridge, and then the trail was closed. Back in the car to cross the Daintree River via a very rustic ferry. Once across we made several stops along the way to look for the elusive Cassowary Bird. This bird is very similar to the Emu and is about the same size as an Ostrich. The neck and head of this bird is brightly colored blue and pink and has a weird crown on its head. This is one of the only habitats for this bird in the whole world. It eats the fruits offered by the trees in the rain forest. According to the ranger the only reason some of these trees exist are because the Cassowary eats the fruits and the digestive juices of the bird help to stimulate the germination of the seeds that are left behind in their droppings.  We didn’t ever see the giant bird, but we did find the Cassowary plums, one of the fruits that the bird eats. These fruits were a dark deep bluish purple and were about 5 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. The ground was littered with these fruits through out our entire hike.  On our way to a beach we passed by a homemade ice-cream place. We all tried the ice cream that was made from fruits of the rain forest. There was mango, soursap, passion fruit and some strange fruit that produced a chocolate tasting ice cream.  After this treat we soon arrived at the beach. The boys were immediately in the water with their skiff board. Christine and I walked the beach collecting beautiful shells and rocks. We all had a wonderful time until it was time to head back. It was a long drive back and we topped the night off with some pizza. Monday July 2nd – Tuesday July 3rd, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 15 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia We finally got everyone packed up and back in the car for our 4- hour drive back to Townsville.  We spent the next few days exploring Townsville and getting snorkeling gear and fins organized for our trip out to Magnetic Island. We managed to fit in an afternoon at the Great Barrier Reef Aquarium and reef exhibit. This aquarium boast having the largest only living coral reef exhibit. While we were there they had a feeding in the predator tank. This included various varieties of sharks, sea turtles and other fish that live in the coral reef. Not the thing to watch when you are planning on going snorkeling the next day. Everyone is excited to get out on the sailboat and head to the island so we called it an early night. Wednesday July 4th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 08 minutes 05 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 53 minutes 02 seconds East Horse shoe Bay, Magnetic Island, Australia Happy 4th of July! Believe it or not today is also a holiday in Townsville, called Show Day. Still not exactly sure what that is, but it appears to be like a giant carnival. Everyone has the day off work, the stores are closed and they are planning fireworks tonight. David and I were up early and prepared the boat for departure. Finally by 9:30 am we have left the dock and we are off to Magnetic Island with 5 extra passengers. Magnetic Island lies off the city of Townsville and forms the western side of Cleveland Bay. Magnetic Island got its name like many islands from Captain Cook. He was sailing by here when his compass seemed to go haywire. He thought it must be due to some weird magnetic anomaly on the island, thus it was named so. Just our luck there is absolutely no wind today, so we end up motoring for two and half hours all the way to Florence Bay for a short snorkel. The good news is that the engine worked fine all the way there and still looks good. We barely had the anchor down when the kids had all their gear on and were in the water on their way over to the coral. David and I made sure the anchor was good and then we got ready to get in ourselves. This was the first time we had been snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and the first time in almost a year! It sure felt good to be back in the water enjoying the sites that the ocean has to offer. By the time David and I made it in the boys were getting cold and heading back to the boat for lunch, so David and I cut short our snorkeling and went back to organize a tuna feast. After lunch we raised anchor and continued around the island to Horse Shoe Bay. David had arranged for the Peck family to stay at a bed and breakfast on the island. There isn’t much room on our boat for 5 extra people.  Once anchored we began shuffling them ashore in the dinghy. I think the kids found the dinghy ride more exciting then the snorkeling. Later that night we met them back on shore for dinner at a local café. It sounds like the bed and breakfast is a good find. All five people get to stay there and have a big Australian breakfast grilled for them on the barbee for 100 Australian dollars (that’s around 50 American dollars) not a bad deal. The people who are running it are very nice. The day ended with a gorgeous sunset as David and I headed back to the boat for a quite evening with Dewey. Thursday July 5th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia David and I dinghied into shore to meet the family at their bed and breakfast. As we walked down the road to the bead and breakfast a guy stopped to give us a ride in his Moke. This is a very strange car that resembles a large go-cart with roll bars. They are very popular on this island. Seems like this is what most people are driving. We arrived while they were still sitting outside eating their large Australian feast. The man and women who run the place immediately took David and I in and offered us tea and toast. Then they began showing us all the birds that live on their property. They have hundreds of rainbow lorikeets that come in for their early morning feast of toast. I actually had one sitting on my hand eating toast. Only in Australia.  After everyone finished eating breakfast they offered to drive us all down to the ledge where the rock wallabies live. These are very rare little wallabies and this is apparently a large population of them. So they took us down in two groups armed with bread and birdseed. The man poured the seeds out on the rocks and soon little wallabies were crawling out of all the cracks. What a site to see, some of them even had little babies in their pouches, which this bloke called joey’s. They were so so cute! After we said our good byes to our new found family we were shuffling the bunch back out to the boat and were soon back to Florence Bay for some more exploring. We have found out that this is the best snorkeling on the island so we decided to give it another go. This time we told the boys if they got cold to go to the beach and warm up. David decided to stay behind and take advantage of the clear water to clean the barnacles off the bottom, speedo, propeller and depth sounder. With more time to explore this little bay I found some fine specimens of coral and fish. I found one bunch of coral that was the best variety of living coral I’ve seen yet.  Glad we came back to this little bay. Around two in the afternoon we decided to head back to Townsville, there was still not a breath of wind so we would have to motor the whole way back for around 3 hours.  We finally made it back and had a bit of a crash landing on the dock, but all is ok and everyone landed safely. What a beautiful day we had. Friday July 6th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia This morning the Pecks arrived with all of the gear of their eldest son. Aaron is going to be staying with us for the next month and half to get in a little exploring and sailing in the Great Barrier Reef. After he got all his belongings moved in we took family pictures and then the rest of the bunch was off to Cairns to catch their early Saturday morning flight back to America. Wow, that time sure went fast while they were here. Glad it’s not me that has to sit on an airplane for the next 30 hours! We are pretty much ready to leave Townsville except now we are awaiting the arrival of our mail. Since it didn’t come on Friday we will have to wait until Monday.  Today at around 8:30 am we heard a large boom. Turns out that it was a canon being shot off as the Endeavour entered the Townsville harbor. The Endeavour is the only exact replica of Captain Cooks Ship that he sailed around the world during his scientific investigations. This vessel will be in Townsville for the next five days to give people a chance to tour her. Sounds like something fun to do tomorrow. Saturday July 7th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia Today we decided to go tour the Endeavour. We heard there would be a big queue so we tried to make it over early. There were a lot of people trying to see her, but they did a very good job of getting everyone through in small groups. This ship was made as close as possible to the original Endeavour except for the a few modern additions for safety.  It was built in Fermantle, Western Australia in 1994 and visited most Australian ports before becoming an exhibit at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney.  In 1995 the Endeavour crossed the Tasman Sea for a 4-month tour of New Zealand. In 1996 she sailed to South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 1998 the Endeavour sailed across the Atlantic and visited ports in eastern United States before she continued throughout the Panama Canal, Galapagos Islands and then Mexico. In 1999 she landed in San Diego and toured the western coast of the United States all the way to Canada. From there she sailed to the Hawaiian Islands where they had a big commemorative service in Kealakahua Bay, which was the site of Cooks death.  In May of this year the Endeavor returned home to Sydney completing her circumnavigation. The Endeavour now sails the coast of Australia giving tours trying to raise money for the upkeep of such a large vessel. They even offer opportunities to be part of the crew on different passages for 150 Australian dollars a day! Sounds like it would be interesting for one day.  We had a very up close and personal look at how these sailors lived and sailed in the 1770s. The toilets were just round holes cut in the cap rail of the bow. If you had to go, you  dropped your drawers in front of everyone and went for a sit on the bow! The anchors were enormous, weighing in at a ton. They had a huge winch that was driven by many men to haul that monster back in.  After our deck tour we were lead into the galley to see where the cook prepared meals for 90 people and to hear about the rations the sailors had to eat. Don’t think I’d be signing up for that. We then saw where they slept in hammocks and how they stored them, for this area was also their eating area. We then crawled on our hands and knees to where the British marines lived on the boat. It was only 4 feet tall, so those guys had some cramped space! One gentleman showed us the tools they used to figure out how fast they were going. He explained to us how they used an hourglass, a rope with knots on it with a piece of wood tied on the end. When they wanted to know how fast they were going they would throw this wood in the water and time it for 28 seconds. They would then count how many knots of the rope had gone out and by this they would know how fast they were going by the knots, thus how many knots they were going. A term that has stuck with us to this day. He also showed us the weight they would throw over to determine how deep the water was and what the bottom was made of. Next we were shown the cat of nine tails and the red bag it was stored in.  This was the whip that was used on the crew to keep them in line. It always hung in the eating and sleeping room to remind the men to behave.  He said that the term “let the cat out of the bag” came from this device. Seems like we could have used one of those a year ago. Next we were guided to the gentlemen’s quarters. This is where the scientist lived and ate. They had better food and somewhat better living conditions. The each had their own room with a desk for their studies. One room belonged to the astronomer, who Cook depended on greatly for navigation. Another room belonged to the artist, who drew over 12,000 drawings while on this voyage. We next were lead to a large room with a larger table where Captain Cook himself entertained various guest who paid for a ride on the journey. We saw the a little room that was Captain Cooks with his hanging bunk and clothes laid out. The table was filled with objects from Cook’s adventures. There were charts that he drew of the various places he went along the way with some of the sketches that the artist drew. We saw the room of Mr. Banks who was the head scientist on the voyage. His room was filled with collections of shells and drawings of various fish and items found along the way.  It was very interesting to see how these men lived and what they did. I’m really glad we did the tour and if any of you would like to find out more about the Endeavour you can do so by looking on the Internet at www.barkendeavour.com.au and have a look yourself. It’s very interesting to us because most of the places we have been sailing, Captain Cook visited 200 years ago with no modern electronics. He only had the stars to lead his way. Sunday July 8th   - Tuesday July 10th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia The next few days we enjoyed land based activities while we awaited the arrival of our mail. I enjoyed roller blading on the wonderful beachfront trail and swimming in the 50-meter pool. David and Aaron ran and kicked the soccer ball around. We also provisioned the boat so we could be gone for 10 days so that was quite a big load. The mail finally arrived on Tuesday afternoon so it looks like we can leave tomorrow. Not much exciting, just relaxing before we take off on the ocean blue. Wednesday July 11th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 44 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 34 minutes 04 seconds East Casement Bay, Great Palm Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia We prepared the boat for departure and David went to turn in our keys and pay up the bill. We had actually been in Townsville for 21 days! Yikes, how time flies when you have projects to do.  We went to the fuel dock and topped of the tank while we waited for low tide to pass us by.  Buy 10:55 am we were leaving the channel to the Townsville harbor and heading towards Magnetic Island once again. This time we thought we would go around the south side of the island. The wind was very light, but there was enough to put up the sails and turn off the engine. We were cruising along nicely at around 3-4 knots, not terribly fast, but that turns out to be a good thing. Just to remind us not to be too complacent about where we are, we suddenly heard a slight grinding sound like we were going aground on sand. The depth finder was reading 2 feet 6 inches. Not Good! Turns out we had a little run in with some coral off of Magnetic Island.  We rolled in the head sail, turned on the engine and put it in reverse while we all hung over the port side with the boom trying to free the keel from the coral. We finally broke loose and were soon in 11 feet of water again making our way around the coral. This time keeping an extra sharp look out from the bow. Of course I was the only one with my safety gear on during this slight emergency so good thing it wasn’t more serious. We seemed to be very lucky and escaped with out any major damage. Sorry Francis, sorry coral.  Well the rest of the day went much better and we had a lovely sail to the Great Palm Island. We finally anchored at 4:00 in the afternoon in beautiful blue water in a nice protected bay. Palm island is part of a group of islands that belong to an aboriginal preserve and you have to have a special permit to go ashore, so we will only get to experience from the boat. Thursday July 12th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 38 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 04 seconds East Hazard Bay, Orpheus Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia During the night David discovered the refrigeration was not working, for he didn’t hear the pump working. So looks like another repair job for the morning. When morning arrived he tore apart the pump to see what was the matter. Apparently we sucked in some coral from our little run in yesterday and it was clogging up the pump. After an hour of working on this we connected the pump back up again and the refrigeration appears to be working. Now we can get on with the sailing.  We lifted the anchor at 10 am. This time Aaron wanted to try and bring the anchor up and he immediately got his fingers pinched in the windless. Bet that’s the last time that happens, for it really hurts! I know from personal experience.  Now we were sailing towards our next destination, Orpheus Island.  This should be a short sail, and within a couple of hours we were anchoring in Hazard Bay. Orpheus Island has one resort on it and the rest of it is National Park. There is also a university research center on this island, for this island has the most variety of coral of anywhere else in the Great Barrier Reef.  They say there are at least 340 different species of hard and soft coral, and with that come a wide variety of other ocean creatures. Aaron immediately got his gear on headed in the water, while David and I put things away and got the dinghy ready to launch. We too were soon in the water. David went down to inspect the keel for any damage from yesterday’s collisions and all looks good. Then we were off snorkeling in some of the most beautiful corals I’ve ever seen. We saw giant clams that were at least 3 feet wide. The opening of the clam was covered with an olive green velvety looking flesh with bright blue neon dots. David dove down to touch it and watch it close up. There were many varieties of corals I’ve never seen before, I don’t think I saw 340 but there were many new ones. What an amazing under water world we live in. Because this is a marine protected area the fish in this area seem to have grown to large sizes as well.  I saw some of the largest boxfish, parrot fish and wrasses I’ve ever seen. We snorkeled to shore and had sticky beak and then the boys were done exploring for the day. I stayed in the water a while longer enjoying my underwater television.  After dinner we gathered up all our paper garbage and went to shore and made a giant bonfire on the beach. There was already a circle of rocks for a fire so all we had to do is gather the wood.  The boys had great fun burning everything they could get their hands on. With the Milky Way shining brightly above us we made our way back to the Francis and called it a night. Friday July 13th  - Saturday July 14th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 38 minutes 04 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 04 seconds East Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia Friday I awoke fairly sick; so we decided to do some land exploring instead.  We loaded up the dinghy and headed towards a new beach in the bay.  Once we got the dinghy up the beach we headed up over the hill to see what is on the other side. We came out in area called Yorkies Jetty. There was a really nice jetty that went out to a floating pontoon that had about 12 picnic tables on it. The waves were hitting it pretty hard making it a very bumpy spot for a picnic. There were many people from the resort picnicking on the beach, guess they thought the floating picnic tables were a little too ruff as well. I was getting seasick just standing out there. We explored the beach for awhile before we did the bush walk back to the other side. David and Aaron went on to explore the mangroves while I stayed behind and enjoyed some quite time on the beach. Saturday we decided to move to another bay on the same island. We have now anchored in Pioneer Bay, which is also known as the coral gardens. On the way to this little bay we passed the research center where they breed and raise the giant clams that we have seen. Apparently at one time these clams were over harvested leaving most of the islands void of these giant clams; so with the help of the research center, these giant beast are making a comeback.  We took a quick snorkel around to see our new surroundings. There were spectacular columns of coral with hundreds of colorful fish. There were many kinds and colors of soft corals and sponges as well schools of large parrot fish that were teal green with purple fins and tails. What a site! Being that I still wasn’t feeling well I called it a day for the snorkeling and went back to the boat to rest. Later in the afternoon we decided to go to shore in the dinghy and look for the old stone building the settlers of long ago tried to build. We didn’t immediately find the stone building, but did find the trail that led to the top of the hill that overlooked the whole island. What a beautiful site from this vantagepoint. We could see out over the Great Barrier Reef and view all the surrounding islands. The water on the other side of the island was so clear you could see a good 80 feet to the bottom. We enjoyed the view for awhile and then made our way back down the hillside when we finally stumbled across the stone building.  It was an interesting archeological site. Well, enough activity for one-day, time to go fix dinner and clean up. Sunday July 15th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 44 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 34 minutes 04 seconds East Casement Bay, Great Palm Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia Sunday we thought we would pack a lunch and get our cameras dinghy ready and head back to the beach to conquer the bigger hill and hopefully get some spectacular pictures. As we neared the beach we noticed that it was low tide for there was lots of exposed coral and fledgling mangrove trees. We decided to get out of the dinghy and try to carry it ashore. As we neared shore we noticed the dinghy had deflated! Oh-boy, now what? Well, we decided that David should try to get the dinghy back to the boat (about ½ mile away) with all the camera gear as soon as he could before it totally deflated. Aaron and I had to swim back.  As soon as I could, I flopped over on my back and tried to kick myself out to deep water so I wouldn’t have to walk on the sharp coral. Aaron decided to walk as far as he could and got his feet cut up. I didn’t want to risk it after my run in with fire coral last year.  With the swell producing half-meter waves and the coral very near the surface this made for a very interesting swim back to the boat. By the time I made it back David had all the camera gear safely on board and the outboard put away. The sad looking dinghy was ready to be lifted out of the water. Once we started lifting it we could see the huge gash in the bottom where the coral grabbed it. Well, this would require a bigger patch then we had on board, so it looks like we are boat bound unless we want to swim to shore. Well as long as I was all wet, I grabbed my snorkeling gear and headed out for a look at things on the other side of the bay.  When I returned to the boat David suggested that we go back to Townsville to get the dinghy fixed, we were only 40 miles away from Townsville and 160 from Cairns (our next destination). We could go for Cairns, but wouldn’t be able to explore any of the islands on the way there. So it was a plan, we decided to head back to Palm Island to anchor for the night and head to Townsville Monday morning.  We are having a hard time getting out of this part of the country.  Soon we were on our way back to Casement Bay and found ourselves anchored close to the same spot we were in before.  Once settled in David prepared a wonderful feast for us on the barbee and we sat outside and watched the beginning of the sunset. While we were enjoying the beauty a couple of kayaks came by from the island. They weren’t aboriginal so I inquired as to what they were doing. Turns out this man and women teach at the aboriginal school on the island. If they do a two-year contract on this island then they can pick anywhere else in Australia they would like to go after this. Must be a rough place! They told us many horror stories about the goings on that happen on this island, many sounded very similar to our American Indians. The one story that saddened me the most was the one where some aboriginal men came out in their tinny (fishing boat) with their guns to shoot sea turtles just for the fun of it. Later 3 turtles were found dead with bullet holes in them. Seems pretty senseless to kill them, even more so if you aren’t going to use them. What a sad sad waste! I stayed in the cockpit watching the sunset when I heard a splashing sound near the boat. I looked out to see a pod of dolphins swim by and off into the sunset. That’s a much more pleasant way to end the day. Monday July 16th, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia I awoke to David pulling in the anchor chain, so I decided I better get up and see what’s going on. Guess what?  We are leaving, so I quickly got my safety gear on and helped with the anchor and we were on our way back to Townsville. The wind was very light and from the south, the direction we were trying to go, so it looked like a day of motoring. At this rate it will take us 7-8 hours to get there, putting us there around 2:00 in the afternoon. I looked up the low tide by Townsville and it is at 12:18 p.m., so at least we wouldn’t be arriving at low tide.  It was a slow motor back, by noon Magnetic Island was back in our sites. Once again we are going to try passing on the West Side of it, so I put on my safety gear and became the new figurehead on the bow scouring the surface for shallow water and coral. We managed to avoid any hazards this time although we did run into some very shallow water with this low tide. We called the marina and they gave us the same slip as before. As we came around the jetty our friends on Gandalf were in plain site on the first dock. Jay was outside and saw us coming in so he came over to help us with our lines. By 2:30 we were tied to the dock safe and sound. Everyone was surprised to see us until they took a look at our poor deflated dinghy hanging off the back.  Aaron immediately made a beeline for the phone to call his girlfriend while David and I spent 2 and half hours cleaning up the boat.  After I scrubbed the decks, the cockpit, cleaned the windows, dumped the garbage, did the laundry, filled the water tanks, scrubbed the cockpit mats, cleaned the grill, and vacuumed and swept the floors I was really ready for a cold beer and shower!  The folks on Gandalf invited us to a barbee in the park so David prepared the last of our chicken and we scrounged around to find some other goodies to take and off to the beach we were for some fun and food. Another couple joined us who were from Brisbane. They are taking some time off work to sail up the coast.  Here’s the amazing thing, they left May 15th and don’t have to be back until December 15th and the whole entire time they are gone they are paid. How can this be you ask. Well, in Australia if you work for a company for 10 years you get a long service leave of 10 –13 weeks. They didn’t take theirs at 10 years so they accumulated an extra 1.3 weeks a year until they took it. They still have all their benefits and jobs waiting for them when they return! This is on top of the 4 weeks of vacation a year they get, plus holidays and unlimited sick leave! Wow, now that’s a concept! Next time I go back to work I know where I’m going. Tuesday July 17th  - Saturday July 21st, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia The marine store didn’t have a repair kit for the dinghy in stock, so one had to be ordered and won’t be in until tomorrow.  David decided to tackle our never-ending problem with the alternator.  I went roller blading while Aaron kicked around the soccer ball and read. The rest of the day was spent relaxing by all and I even managed to get some more painting in. Wednesday David and I moved the dinghy to the fore deck with the help of the spinnaker halyard. Once we finally got it in place we made sure it was cleaned of salt water and then tried to dry out the deflated tube. It was then left to dry before we tried to patch it. Sometime this afternoon our fresh water pump gave up and quit working. This is getting ridiculous! How can so many things keep breaking? I guess this saltwater and the beating around the waves is hard on things and makes them wear out faster. Thursday David and I went back to the marine store to see what we could do about our water pump. Turns out the part that had broke would cost 210 dollars to replace, while we could get a new modern pump for 280, so it was a no-brainer to install the new one. David worked on this project all morning. Then it was the final patching of the dinghy and then the alternator.  Poor David, I hope he gets to see daylight today.  I went grocery shopping while all this was going on. Best to leave him alone during these times. Friday there was finally nothing to fix! Yea! Thought we should stick around a day or two though just to make sure all the fixes take. David decided to celebrate by running up the biggest hill in town called Castle Rock (4 k straight up hill).  He said it was a great view from up there and wants to go again tomorrow. I spent the day working on my paintings and then went grocery shopping to find something for another barbee tonight. Our Australian neighbors invited us to the park for a barbee tonight with Gandalf’s. Saturday morning David rounded us all up for a hike back up Castle Rock. Carol from Gandalf decided to go with us as well. It was just as David said 4 K straight up hill! What a hill climb! But the view from top was spectacular. You could see to the end of the world. To the west our view ended with the mountain range, but the town and suburbs were all laid out before us. To the east we could see Magnetic Island, Palm Island and all the ships lined up to come in to port. We celebrated the end of this walk with a stop at the ice cream shop.  This pretty much wiped everyone out for the day. We’ll probably have some sore legs and knees tomorrow. Sunday July 22nd, 2001 Latitude 19 degrees 09 minutes 02 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 04 seconds East Breakwater Marina, Townsville, Australia I finally finished up my paintings, scanned them, printed them out on photo paper and filled out the application form for the big competition I’m entering.  Now that’s out of the way, maybe I can relax? Ha ha! In a month I’ll find out if I was selected or not. So now its up to the judges, my work here is done.  David and I spent the morning at the grocery store stocking up for the next 10 days at sea.  It takes several hours by the time you walk to the grocery store, haul everything over to the taxi area and then from the parking lot down to the boat and stored away. That pretty much eats up a half of a day, but it sure beats the crowds at COSTCO, so I’m not complaining. The rest of the day was spent getting everything ready to go for Monday morning. The dinghy is repaired and stored away and the last of everything is put away. Looks like tomorrow could be a launch day once again. Monday July 23rd, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 35 minutes 09 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 02 seconds East Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia David and I were up early today to make it out of here by high tide. David went off to run some last minute errands while I topped off the water tanks and got all the sails ready to go. By 9:30 am we were checked out and on our way once again. This time we made it by Magnetic Island with out any dramas, so with that behind us it would be smooth sailing northward bound. We were hoping to make it back to Orpheus Island, but it depends on the wind. If not, there is always Palm Island. We had a lovely day for sailing, the winds were fairly light, and we were only going around 4-5 knots, but at 1:00 p.m. the wind picked up and we sailed the rest of the afternoon going 6-7 knots. At this rate we thought we would make Orpheus before dark.  David celebrated this by making Aaron and I lunch.  He made giant hamburger for him and Aaron and a veggie burger for me.  Aaron said it was the best hamburger he has had in his whole life! Wonder what David’s secret ingredient is? As we neared Palm Island the wind died down on us and we were making a whopping 2 knots. Once we got out of the shadow of the hills the wind picked up and once again and we were back up to 7 knots and on our way to Orpheus. The sun was setting fast and we could see Pioneer Bay off in the distance.  There were 3 other sailboats already here so we just anchored behind them, for it was too dark to see the coral at this point. The anchor went down at 6:00 p.m. and that was the end of a nice day of sailing.  By 7:00 p.m. it started to rain and then rained hard most of the night. This is the first rain we have seen in over a month! Tuesday July 24th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 35 minutes 09 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 02 seconds East Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia It rained hard all night and when we awoke in the morning it was still raining hard. The boys decided to watch a movie while I went back to drawing.  This weather looked like it would put a damper on our activities for the day but by 11:00 am it had let up a little. High tide would be at 11:30 so we decided to make a break for it with dinghy at high tide and try to get to shore again. (This is spot where we slashed the dinghy a week ago)  as we set off it started to rain hard again, but we decided we were already wet so lets just go for it. We made it to shore with out any dramas and pulled the dinghy ashore very carefully. We had 3 hours to explore the island before we had to be back at the dinghy, so we started up the small mountain once again. This time we made it all the way to the highest spot on the island and by the time we got there the sun had come out making for a spectacular view from the top. We could see many other islands off in the distance and the water inside the reef sparkled many colors of blue in the sunshine. Well after a little rest it was time to start heading back down. We arrived back at the beach with time to spare. It looks like the dinghy patch is holding up well, so off we went back to the boat. By mid afternoon it had clouded up with squalls hitting us everyone in awhile. Not good for snorkeling conditions. I spent the rest of the day getting charts ready for the next part of our adventure, reading up on possible stops along the way and putting waypoints into the GPS. We hope to head to Dunk Island tomorrow, which is 45 miles away, making for another long day of sailing. Hope the wind is good. Wednesday July 25th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 02 minutes 07 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook, Great Barrier Reef, Australia David and I were up early to listen to the weather report. It didn’t sound good for going to Dunk Island for the next few days; the wind was to start coming from the north, which would make the anchorage on Dunk Island a little dangerous. As a result we decided to go on the outside of Hinchinbrook Island up to the town of Cardwell and stay at the Hinchinbrook Marina. David and I were getting the boat ready for departure when I heard David call me to come over to his side of the boat. There was a green sea turtle about 1 meter in diameter that had come by to visit us. Maybe he came over to see his friends that are painted on the side of our boat. He swam with curiosity around the boat until he finally dove down and disappeared into the coral. Soon the anchor was up and we were on our way to Cardwell. As we left the shelter of Orpheus Island it became very apparent that the wind had already started coming from the north, making for a very ruff and bumpy ride. At least one of use was not feeling to well. We certainly did not want to beat to weather all day so we had a quick change of plans and decided to go to the inside of Hinchinbrook Island up the Hinchinbrook Channel. The tide was going in so the bar would be as good as it gets, so off we headed towards the channel. Hinchinbrook Island is the largest island off the Queensland coast stretching 34 km from north to south. Its highest peak is 1121 meters and it is covered with lush, dense rainforest. It is only separated from the mainland by a narrow and deep channel. As we made our way through the shallow entrance by the sugar factory the beatuiful channel opened before us. Both sides were covered with dense lush green tropical rain forest on steep hills and cliffs. The shores are indented with many streams lined with mangroves. We spent the better part of the day making our way up the channel. Several times we were rained on, but the water inside the channel was glassy making for a much more comfortable ride then on the other side of the island. I kept a watchful eye for crocodiles and dugongs for this is the kind of environment they thrive in, but all we saw all day were a few pods of dolphins.  By 2:00 in the afternoon we were making our way into the Hinchinbrook Marina. The rest of the day was gray, stormy and windy so we were glad we were tied up to the dock. On a sad environmental note, this was a sad day for whales in the world. First the International Whaling Commission voted not to create the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary.  It is believed that Japan has bought the votes of Solomon Islands and some islands in the Caribbean by promising some kind of economic aid. Japan of course is not for the whale sanctuary for they want to see commercial whaling make come back.  The Japanese head of fisheries even came on TV saying that the Minke whale is the cockroach of the sea and so it no great loss. The Japaneese are already killing 600 whales per year under the disguise of scientific research. In reality they really only save about 1 square inch of the whale meat for research and the rest is processed, boxed, and frozen for distribution to restaurants in Japan for human consumption. If commercial whaling were opened back up this so-called research would most likely end and even more whales would be killed. I think we worked to hard in the 70’s and 80’s to bring the whales back from extinction to let this happen again.   If you are interested in this issue and want to see what you can do to help there is lots of information about the South Pacific Whale Sanctuary on the Green Peace web site.  The second sad note was that today as the Humpback whales were migrating up the coast of Australia to give birth to their calves in warmer waters, a mother and her baby calf were entangled in a shark net. By the time the marine biologist arrived to rescue them the baby had drowned. The mother was freed but was naturally very distressed that her child was not with her. This has raised many debates in Australia about the use of shark nets during the whale migration season. The shark nets are mainly used on the gold and sunshine coast to protect the beaches from sharks. Being that it is winter here, there aren’t many people out on the beach swimming anyway. It has been suggested that the shark nets be taken down during the 8-10 weeks of whale migration and the general public warned about it. Seems like these beautiful creatures of the sea have many obstacles to overcome. Let see what we can do to help! Thursday July 26th, 2001 Latitude 18 degrees 16 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 02 minutes 07 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook, Great Barrier Reef, Australia We awoke to a very cloudy and rainy day. Good day to be in the marina. Despite the rain David and I decided to walk into the near by town of Cardwell to see the sites. Aaron stayed behind to watch movies. After a nice 40 minute walk in the drizzle we were in Cardwell visiting the town bakery and butcher for a few fresh supplies. We also found the nature center in town, which had a free admission, so we thought why not, it’s a rainy day anyway. It was well worth it, for it was on of the best displays I ever seen. The interior was done like a tropical rainforest with replica trees and animals of the tropical rainforest stretching up to the ceiling. There was lots of information on the animals and fish of the mangroves (including the crocodiles!) Along with the information about the rainforest they also included the Aboriginal stories and legends of the animals and the people who first lived in the area.  It was very well done and I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit this center. By the afternoon the weather was clearing up so it looks like we can move on tomorrow. We will have to be sure to leave on the high tide for the entrance to this marina is very shallow. High tide happens to be at 5:00 am so we will see how early we get up. Friday July 27th, 2001 Latitude 17 degrees 55 minutes 09 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 08 minutes 01 seconds East Dunk Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia 20. 4 Nautical miles traveled David and I awoke around 6:00 am and scurried to get the boat going so we could get out of the marina with some water under the keel. By 6:30 we were on our way out with just inches to spare! It looked like it was going to be a nice day. As we exited the mouth of the Hinchinbrook Channel, we were all sitting in the cockpit enjoying the morning when we saw a huge fin sticking out of the water near us.  As we took a closer look it turned out to be the biggest shark any of us had ever seen out side of an aquarium! The dorsal fin stood straight out of the water a good foot and half and the distance between the fin and the tail was a good 4-5 feet.  It was enough to give us all a good fright about ever going in the water again. As we continued on to our destination of Dunk Island we had a nice sail by a group of islands called the Family Islands of which Dunk is a member. The Family islands are a group of 8 islands some of which are privately owned and others with exclusive resorts. In any case they are very beatuiful islands surrounded by sparkling turquoise water, ringed with white sandy beaches with hilltops cloaked in lush tropical rainforest.  We arrived at and anchored at Dunk Island by 11:30 am, which left the rest of the day for exploring. Dunk is the largest of the family islands and is host to a nice resort as well as National Park campground for those coming over by ferry or airplane. Being that Dunk Island is in part of Australia that receives the most rainfall per year, it is covered with a lush tropical rainforest and is home to many rare birds and butterflies. We had a look around the resort and the beautiful beaches that surround it. We also decided to take a hike through the rainforest out to the artist colony. When we finally found it we were disappointed to find it closed. (Only on open on Tuesday and Thursday) We decided to dinghy out to a near by island just off of Dunk called Purtaboi.  This little island is not far off the coast of Dunk, for resort guest paddle kayaks out on a regular basis. This little island is off limits during October to May for the soul purpose of giving the rare birds their privacy during breeding season. It was a lovely little bump in the ocean with many beatuiful shells and rocks on the beach.  Saturday July 28th, 2001 Latitude 16 degrees 52 minutes South Longitude: 145 degrees 54 minutes East Mission Bay, Great Barrier Reef, Australia 79.7 Nautical miles traveled We were on the move early today, for we had every intention of trying to get out to the outer reefs of the Great Barrier. The ones we had in mind were Feather Reef, Peart Reef and Howie Reef. These reefs are a few of the individual reefs that make up the Great Barrier Reef.  As we set off to the north we sailed by South and North Barnard Islands before we took the big turn to the east towards the reefs. By 12:30 in the afternoon the wind had really picked up giving us a pretty lumpy but fast ride out to the reef. As we neared the reefs the wind waves were so large that it made it hard to see the reefs. Aaron and I took our positions on the bow looking intently for the coral heads that lay below. Not having ventured to the outer limits of the reef before we weren’t quite sure what to expect, but we certainly thought we would see nice sandy cays surrounded by horseshoe shaped quite lagoons to anchor in. This was far from the scene the day we arrived. It was very rough with waves crashing over the reef.  We couldn’t possibly imagine anchoring anywhere near here. The large coral bombies that surrounded the boat made me very nervous and so we decided that today was not the day to try this. We headed back in towards the mainland. By 6:00 this evening we had made it to the Frankland Islands, but due to the direction of the wind there were no safe anchorage’s to be found. We watched a beautiful sunset over the islands as we continued on into the night.  The next possible stop would be Fitzroy Island, just off the coast of Cairns. As we approached at 9:30 at night it became obvious that the swell that was coming in would make this a very uncomfortable place to anchor for the night as well, so on we went looking for a sheltered place to drop the anchor. We have some new computer charts that work with the GPS so David plugged the GPS into the computer and with the guide of the radar and charts we navigated our way towards Cairns. We decided that the large bay outside of Cairns looked like it would be a well-protected spot and by 11:00 PM we dropped the anchor in Mission Bay and were ready for bed. Sunday July 29th, 2001 Latitude 16 degrees 55 minutes South Longitude: 145 degrees 46 minutes East Trinity Inlet, Cairns, Australia As it turned out in the middle of the night the wind switched direction on us again making this a very lumpy place to try to get any rest. Several times during the night I was awoken when from the swell as it jerked and pulled on the chain making the boat jump around. After breakfast we decided that we would move into the Cairns Marina, but for some reason they would not answer us on the radio and our phone was not connecting with them either. We decided that anchoring in the Trinity Inlet outside the marina would be better then getting bumped around by this swell all day so off we went making our way down the channel towards the anchorage. We found a suitable spot to drop the anchor amongst the other boats and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Around 4:00 in the afternoon I sat in the cockpit watching charter boat after charter boat come in the inlet and make their way to the marina. I began to wonder how there could be room for them all. There must have been hundreds of people that were coming back from various dive and reef trips. Today was National Tree Day in Australia, the goal being to plant one million trees through out Australia on this day. I was hoping to be somewhere that we could participate in the greening of Australia, but in this Inlet I will sit looking at the all the trees surrounding me and hope that Australia reaches her goal. High peaks of lush tropical rain forest on one side and the city of Cairns surround the inlet. It made for a beautiful sunset and a much more peaceful night. Monday July 30th, 2001 Latitude 16 degrees 55 minutes South Longitude: 145 degrees 46 minutes East Marlin Marina, Cairns, Australia David and I woke up early and got the dinghy in the water. We motored over to the marina to see what the situation there was and why they were not answering their radio. As we pulled up to the dock we spied our new Australian friends on Goldman. They had a slip in the marina, but told us the guy does not like conducting business over the radio, so we should go to the office to visit him in person. After waiting around for a few hours he finally let us have a slip on the commercial dock. We were happy to have it until something else opened up. David went back out Francis to wake up Aaron and bring the boat into the marina. I stayed by the slip to help with the lines as they pulled in.  Aaron went off exploring while David and I cleaned up the boat and filled the tanks. We gathered up the laundry only to find out that the laundry mat was a good 6 blocks away. So off we went to get this chore over with. By the time we got back I was ready for a nice hot shower. This marina is mainly a commercial marina for charter trips out to the reef and isn’t really set up for cruising boats. The showers and bathrooms are a good distance from the dock as well and have computer coded locks to get in.  We were warned that there is rarely hot water, for the large backpacker community of Cairns also has gotten a hold of the codes and frequently uses the facilities as well as sleeps there over night! Lucky for us there was still a bit of hot water left and now the boat our clothes and us are all cleaned up. We celebrated the end of a busy day at the Cairns Yacht Club with a few beers with our new friends. Tuesday July 31st, 2001 Latitude 16 degrees 55 minutes South Longitude: 145 degrees 46 minutes East Marlin Marina, Cairns, Australia One thing about being on the commercial dock, there is a lot of noise at 5:30 am while the boats prepare for the day. Then at 7:00 am the crowds of people begin flooding the docks filling up the boats for a day out on the reef. By 8:00 am most of them are gone and the 2 and half-hours of ruckus is suddenly replaced by silence. They marina manger came by to tell us that a boat on another dock is leaving today and we should go over and ask him when he is leaving so we can move into his slip. When we found him it turned out to be a young guy from Seattle on a boat called Flash. He is continuing to Indonesia.  He did leave very shortly and we moved into his slip, which hopefully would be a quieter place to be. After we got settled in I put the bike together for David to run a few errands, one of which is to send our broken computer back to Brisbane to be fixed. When he returned I took the bike for an exploration of the trail along the waterfront. As I was riding along I came across a group of older people who had telescopes set up and pointed out to the mud flats and associated wetlands. Much to my amazement I almost missed a wonderful site, for there were many beautiful birds gathered here. As I gazed over the landscape I saw something like I have never seen before. There was a giant Black-necked Stork known in Australia as a Jabiru. This stately bird stood a good four feet tall on its long dark pinkish-orange legs. The body was black and white while the neck and head were covered with beautiful iridescent shimmering purple and blue feathers. It has a massive black bill that is scooped up fish and other creatures of the wetland. It was a magnificent site. I decided to ride back to the boat and get my camera and bird book so I could figure out what some of the other birds were as well. Keeping the Jabiru company in this wetland were the Royal Spoonbill, the Yellow-billed Spoonbill, the Great White Egret, the Intermediate Egret, the Little Egret, the Eastern Reef Egret, and a huge flock of large Australian Pelican.  Great crowds of people gathered in this little interesting spot of wetland to take in all the interesting birds that gather here. There are plans to revamp this whole waterfront in the next year, I hope they take some measures to protect this rare little environment. I sat and watched the birds until sunset and then called it a day. Little did I know I would never see the giant Jabiru here again.