august 1 2005 : airlie beach, whitsunday islands, australia
It was a good day to work on the boat with strong winds, a solid gray sky, and plenty of rain. Started out this morning by changing the engine oil. Always a really fun project. It takes me about an hour to get everything ready, change both engines, and clean up. Then Ali sweeps in behind me and it takes her at least twice as long to clean everything up properly. So she’s not a big fan of oil change day either.

Also, the day before when we were running the port engine to charge the batteries the RPMs suddenly dropped and the engine died. It sounded just like air had gotten in the fuel line so I decided to leave it until this morning when I would be working on the engine anyway. So I was in there, bled the fuel line, and checked over everything. It all looked good but the engine still wouldn’t start. I checked the fuel tank and it was pretty low so I figured I’d put some more diesel in and see if that was it. So while I’m doing that Ali suddenly decides to check the fuel shut off lever (on these engines you pull a lever which shuts off the flow of fuel  in order to shut down the engine). Ta Da. I probably would have had the engine torn out before I remembered to check that lever. I guess from now on Ali will have to do the engine troubleshooting.

Then this afternoon our new alternator regulator was delivered. Thanks to our friend Subz who straightened out the problem with the order, paid for it and had it shipped to his house, then delivered it to us at the dinghy dock. Now that’s some service. I got right to work on that and when we started the engines up it seemed to be working. At least the regulator is half working, there is still a problem with the port engine alternator volts going through the roof and I can’t quite figure out why. The starboard engine works perfectly so at least we can get a proper charge on the batteries again, but I’ll have to continue messing around with that port side. My only other guess at this point is that it has something to do with the solenoid. That’s a cheap part, so I’ll replace that as soon as I can get my hands on a new one, but after that I am out of ideas.

august 4 2005 : airlie beach
We just can’t seem to catch a break with the weather lately. We spent about 48 hours trapped on the boat riding out 30-40 knot winds, not because we were worried about the anchor dragging, but because we would have gotten completely soaked if we had tried to take the dinghy on the half mile trip in to shore. Finally yesterday there was a short break, the sun peaked out for an hour or two and the wind died down enough to allow us a trip into town. We went to the internet café and began placing our various orders for boat parts, clothes, and everything else that we will force Katy to drag along with her from Minnesota next month. Then we wandered over to the lagoon to go for a swim and enjoy a few minutes worth of sunshine.

A couple of days earlier a boat had come in and anchored right in front of us with a hailing port of CHICAGO IL. It was no surprise when the owners came by and invited us over for drinks. We were sitting on their boat having a perfectly pleasant conversation for about an hour. We talked about all the usual cruiser type stuff. After a few glasses of wine the conversation began to get a little uncomfortable. The wife continuously called our boat “flash” (which I think may be a reference to the comic book hero Flash Gordon, that would have been about the right time frame I think). We just smiled and nodded, but then she asked us if we had a spinnaker sail. We told her we used a screecher for our light wind sailing. Suddenly she snorted and said sarcastically, “A screeeeeecher!” Then her husband explained about some other “flash” catamaran that they had out sailed because they had a spinnaker and the catamaran had a screecher “Owww!” I suddenly screamed out after Ali had kicked me especially hard under the table. After eight years of marriage I realized that was my cue to politely call it a night.

At the moment the sky is still gray, the rain is falling, and the wind has died. We are hoping to move on tomorrow, so we’ve got a bunch of running around to do today, top off the diesel, do laundry, grocery shop, and meet some friends for lunch and some others for drinks.

august 6 2005 : whitsunday islands, australia
On the move again. In our never ending search for the sun in Australia we left Airlie Beach yesterday and took a short trip over to Butterfly Bay in Hook Island. Raising the anchor after a few days in Airlie Beach is quite an ordeal. I’d never experienced mud like this before. The chain was coated and even pouring buckets of water over it did nothing to clean it off, and the anchor itself was just a giant ball of mud with a chain sticking out of it.

The forecast was for light winds so we were surprised as we cruised out of the shelter of our anchorage to find winds blowing 25-30 knots. We had a quick sail over and wound our way through the coral to the moorings placed in Butterfly Bay. I went for a snorkel to the coral heads near the boat which was pretty good, but I found the water is still pretty milky colored and visibility is only about 10-15 feet. I’ve heard that it gets a lot clearer further north, so we’ll see.

The bay is very nice and leaves you almost completely encircled by tall hills covered with trees right down to the water’s edge. One thing we’ve had to get used to with the Whitsunday Islands is the bullets of wind that come whipping down through the hills about ever 60 seconds. You will be sitting there all nice and calm and then you hear a howling noise and a few seconds later the wind nails you, blows the boat around, and then just as quickly is gone. The cruising guides actually make a special point of asking you to make sure you don’t try and hang anything out to dry around the boat since every year when they clean up around the bays they find hundreds of shirts, towels and swimsuits littering the ocean floor.

august 8 2005 : whitsunday islands
Yesterday morning we were up early and on our way north. We decided to give Townsville a skip seeing as we had just spent a week in Airlie, and sailed to the Palm Isles instead. It was about 170 miles so we were happy to actually get a nice breeze from behind and spend the whole trip sailing for a change. Well not the whole trip, we did fire up the engines this morning and motorsailed the last couple of hours, but close enough.

We spent the entire day yesterday watching these big storm clouds brewing just off to our right while on our left there was nothing but blue skies. We somehow managed to skirt the storm and only got a couple of brief little showers. At one point we had a pod of dolphins join us. No big surprise there, but what was surprising was that we got to see a baby dolphin. The little guy couldn’t have been much more than 24 inches long, yet he swam just as well as all the others. He swam alongside his mother, and I mean literally alongside. He must have been within two inches of her the whole time no matter what direction she would dart off in he would still be there like her mirror image. It was pretty cool. We were getting a little blasé about seeing dolphins all the time and were happy to see something new like that to spice it up a bit.

Then about an hour later I was sitting outside just staring off at nothing when a whale breached just about 50 yards off to the side of the boat. Then he lifted his tail and gave me that postcard perfect pose and sunk back down. I grabbed the camera, but if there is one bit of whale behavior that we have learned it is that once they show you that tail you won’t see them again.

The rest of the day and night passed uneventfully and by noon we were anchored. We were beat though and spent the rest of the day just laying around the boat. It doesn’t seem to matter if a trip is one night or ten nights, we are always worthless for about 24 hours afterwards.

august 10 2005 : north queensland coast, australia
I almost forgot, we had something horrible happen on the boat the other day. I was fishing, with the super lure of course, and after a couple of hours without catching a fish I figured I’d better reel in and have a look to see what the problem was. So I brought in the line and she was gone. My lure had been snatched. Six inches of the best rubber ever. Ladies, no jokes please. Of course, being the forward thinker that I am, I’ve got two brand new pink and blue squids tucked away for just this sort of emergency. We should be hauling in the big fish again in no time.

So we spent a couple of days over on Orpheus Island in the Palm Isles. The anchorage wasn’t the best, despite being in the NW corner of the island the SE swell still worked itself all the way around and was slamming into the side of the boat the whole time we were there. We went ashore yesterday to poke around a bit. The area of the island we were on is a park and the only thing there are the rock walls of a couple of houses. We thrashed around in the bush a bit looking for deadly snakes. Our niece Lea would just love to read a story about me being bitten by one of Australia’s ten deadly snakes, but no luck. So then I figured I’d climb around in the mangroves a bit looking for a saltwater crocodile, but again no luck. They’re supposed to be all over the place a little farther north. Although I read that only three people were killed by saltie’s between 1975 and 2000; hardly seems to be something worth worrying about. But we’ll be careful anyway. Those other three guys probably thought the same thing.

Yesterday afternoon we pulled up the anchor and headed off to Cairns. We were having a hard time getting the anchor in and when we finally got it we found a huge chunk of coral weighing about 30 pounds despite the fact that we had anchored about 50 yards back from the coral protection buoys. Anyway, we left at three o’clock in the afternoon for yet another quick overnight trip. We sailed a little bit but by dark we were motorsailing in light winds. Nothing exciting happened overnight and around noon we were pulling into Cairns, the tourist capital of Queensland. This is where the majority of the Great Barrier Reef trips leave from and the city is really booming. We got a slip at the marina which is right across the street from the center of town and went for a walk to check it out. Right next to the marina is a lagoon public park, very similar to the one in Airlie Beach. Again, the place was loaded. They should have one of these in every city.

The rest of the city is geared to the tourist, with dozens of travel agents, souvenir shops, restaurants for whatever you are in the mood for (yes, of course there is a Macca’s), and even a couple of very good secondhand bookshops that we were able to restock our supplies at. Overall it’s a really nice, clean, lively city and I’m sure we’ll have a good time here the next couple of days. And best of all, it looks like we may have finally crossed the magic line where we can take some of the blankets off the bed. In fact, tonight we are wearing shorts and have all the windows open. Been a long time since we did that at night.

Also just realized that we haven’t had a picture on the website in a couple of weeks. Not because there hasn’t been anything to photograph, but because the weather has been so gray and dreary. Doesn’t make for the best pictures. Got some good sun today though and hoping for more from here on out.

august 12 2005 : cairns, north queensland, australia
Yesterday morning we headed out in search of that solenoid for the battery charging, which we can get from any auto parts store. I had looked up Repco (the big Australian auto parts store) and found the address for it was just a short walk away. We wandered over there and found nothing. So we asked a guy walking down the street and he pointed us in the direction of another store. It wasn’t far he said. 45 minutes later, and now miles out of town we finally found it. We asked about the part and the guy said sure thing, walked over to the shelf and realized they were all sold out. Fortunately he told us about a shop right around the corner and it turned out they had one.

We walked over to the bus stop across the street and sat down figuring that any bus that came by would have to be going back to the city, which it did. On the way back we were thinking that $2.60 each seemed a bit expensive for a short bus ride, but then realized that we had spent $8.70 on refreshments on our long walk to the store, so maybe $5.20 wasn’t so bad after all. Since this is the last city of any size that we will see before Darwin we also made our daily stop in at the grocery store. And by noon we were basking in the sun at the town lagoon. There was one guy laying in the sun there who was wearing this string bikini thing, easily the most revealing thing we had ever seen worn in public, and we figured he must be a stripper or something and really needed his all over tan. So we were more than a little surprised when a while later we saw him stand up, put on black socks, a white t-shirt, a full business suit, and then grab his briefcase and head back to work.

Later on we were walking down the street and saw a crowd gathered around a crocodile attacking this old man. I immediately sprung into action, having watched Steve Irwin many times, and wrestled it to the ground. Once I had him pinned down, Ali ran up with a roll of scotch tape and sealed up his mouth. That drew quite a crowd I tell you.

Also went over to the Cairns Yacht Club which the Lonely Planet said had the cheapest and coldest beer in town. It was good and cold but it still cost $3.00 more per jug than at the Airlie Beach Yacht Club. I think you’d need a full year here in order to adequately track down the cheapest beer in town because there are a lot of drinking establishments here.

This mornings project was to install the new solenoid, which really only consisted of unscrewing a couple of bolts replacing the wires and screwing the new one back in. We fired up the engines and everything was working perfectly. We charged the engines for well over an hour and still everything was looking good. I shut down the starboard alternator occasionally and the port engine still worked just fine. Then when I finally figured that we must have solved it, I shut down the starboard engine and just left the port engine going. Five minutes later the volts were screaming towards 16, and I had to shut down the alternator again. Problem still not solved. So as things are right now we can charge the batteries perfectly with both engines running or with the starboard engine running by itself, but we can’t charge using solely the port engine. Not a major problem, but frustrating nonetheless.

august 14 2005 : cairns
Originally we were planning to continue on today, but the winds picked up and we figured we’d rather wait them out for a day and have a nice sail tomorrow instead. This morning we headed out on a long walk to the DHL office to mail our application paperwork for our Indonesian Cruising Permit (CAIT) and visa. The Bali Marina handles all of this complicated paperwork for cruisers and charges $150, which is a bargain considering how involved the process is. So we had looked up DHL online and found their office was open 7-10 a.m. on Sunday and after walking about three miles through town we found the office, which of course was closed. Our success rate for internet related searches of Cairns businesses is not very good. Another trip to the internet café produced a similar courier company which wasn’t open today but confirmed by telephone that they would be there tomorrow morning and were much closer to the marina than DHL.

The rest of the day was very similar to every other day in Cairns, with a little wandering around town, a few hours of sun and people watching at the lagoon, and a stop into the grocery store to continue our provisioning for the next six months or so of the trip. Our provisioning basically consists of mega quantities of cans of Campbell’s soups, chili, ravioli, tuna, and vegetables. And of course M&M’s, Skittles, cookies, and beer. Healthy living at its’ best.

august 16 2005 : cairns
Yesterday we spent yet another lazy day in Cairns. In the morning we dropped off our CAIT paperwork at the courier. After that we went into the marina office to check out. Check out time was ten a.m. but I figured they wouldn’t mind if we stayed until two or three. Wrong. She made it clear that if we weren’t gone by ten they would charge us for another night. So back on the boat we topped off the water tanks, gave Bum one last rinse, and headed just outside the marina to anchor. Then dropped the dinghy in the water and drove right back into the marina’s dinghy dock. The rest of the afternoon we spent lounging around the pool and having one last Macca’s dinner before heading out.

We upped anchor at five o’clock intending to have a nice quick night sail up to Hope Island. The wind was supposed to be 10-15 knots and I figured sailing with just the jib out should have put us at the island around ten a.m. The wind, as usual, was a bit stronger than that and was actually up around 25 knots most of the night. So at seven a.m. we found ourselves at the island. Problem with that is that we wouldn’t have been able to see the coral heads with the sun that low so we decided that since we were moving along so nicely we would just continue on to Cooktown another 20 miles farther on.

Then a couple of hours later we realized that we really didn’t have any reason to stop at Cooktown, especially since we had just spent a few days in Cairns. The only thing I was planning on doing there was getting diesel, but we should have plenty to get us up to Thursday Island, 400 miles farther on at the “Top End” as the locals call it. So we took a look at the cruising guide again and set our sights on Cape Bedford where we arrived at two. Our quick 80 mile trip having turned out to be 120 miles. The anchorage itself is probably the best in Australia, at least as far as it being easy to get into, being well protected, and not having current to deal with. It’s a huge bay so we didn’t need to anchor right next to the other two boats there, and best of all we got to anchor in only six feet of water instead of the standard 30-40 everywhere else. After getting settled in Ali whipped up the house specialty, taco’s, and by six o’clock I am sure we will be sound asleep.

august 18 2005 : north queensland coast, australia
Well we actually managed to stay up until seven o’clock the other night, and despite the fierce winds whipping through the bay we slept like babies until 12 hours later when we got up, pulled in the anchor, and headed off again. This time we were headed just 35 miles up to Lizard Island. Yet another famous Captain Cook stopping off place. This whole area is Cook related. Cooktown obviously was the big one, since nearby is where he had hit a reef in his ship the Endeavour. They managed to keep the boat from sinking and limped into the mouth of the Endeavour River. What a coincidence huh? Anyway, him and his men spent a couple of months there repairing the ship and then set sail again, stopping here at Lizard Island to climb to the top of the hill and try to spot a clear route out through the reef, which they did, and eventually sailed safely on home to the motherland. The Australian’s, or maybe it is the British, love to tell you how Australia would now be a continent of French speakers had Cook not made it home safely and claimed Australia for the Queen. But I think we can all agree that those wimpy French would probably have gotten their butts kicked by the Aborigine. Probably a better chance of the Dutch taking over if you ask me. Anyway, enough colonial history.

How did I get started on that? Oh, Lizard Island. So off we went again, this time with the wind blowing 25-30 knots, which made for perfect conditions for our very lazy type of sailing. In winds that strong we have two options, one is to raise the main with a couple of reefs in it, always a chore, along with the jib and probably sail along at about 7.5 knots rather comfortably. The other is to haul out only the jib, which takes about three seconds and virtually no effort, and sail at 6 knots equally as comfortably. On a sail of only 35 miles we are talking the difference between getting there at one or two o’clock. Being the lazy sailors we are we chose to pull out the jib and sit back with our books until two o’clock.

We came around the corner of the island in the afternoon and found about a dozen boats tucked in with a cruise ship anchored farther out. The anchorage is sort of small with a big reef right in the middle of it which is supposed to have some great snorkeling. We wouldn’t know for sure because the wind has yet to drop below 30 knots, for even a few seconds, since we got here, and the whitecaps rolling across the anchorage don’t make going for a swim sound very appealing. Oh, and did I mention that it is raining?

Here is something that those of you who aren’t cruisers wouldn’t know about other cruisers. They are the nosiest people on earth. I’ve mentioned it happening before, but I’ll bring it up again. I took a quick swim to have a look at the anchor and make sure that it was set good so we’d be able to sleep soundly and not worry about dragging onto the reef. After I got out I rinsed and then toweled off. As I was doing this I looked over and could clearly see the guy in the boat nearest to us staring at me through binoculars, and even me staring back at him didn’t persuade him to stop. I’m not sure if people on boats think that binoculars have a super power that makes them invisible as long as they are held to their eyes. But it sure seems like it. For the record, you are not invisible, we can always see you. I mean you never find your neighbor on your nice quiet suburban street sitting in his living room window and staring across the street at you with binoculars do you? What makes it okay to do that on a boat?

So today we have been sitting on the boat, reading, eating nacho’s (well, a can of chili with corn chips), and chasing that down with M&M’s. Pathetic huh? Here we are at the Great Barrier Reef and we can’t even get off the boat to enjoy it. Australian weather sucks!

On a lighter note, we have been informed that my crocodile death numbers were a bit off. Turns out it isn’t three people that have been eaten, but hundreds. In fact, here is an excerpt of a story from two days ago that was forwarded to us. Just to give you an idea, we are about 100 km north of Cooktown.

Far north Queensland police and rangers say they have located the crocodile believed to have pulled a Townsville man from his fishing boat late yesterday (8/16/05). The man was fishing with his wife…150 km north-west of Cooktown when the crocodile grabbed Mr. XXX’s arm and pulled him into the water. Local crocodile hunter Mick Pitman says, “When you’re fishing out of a canoe they’re pretty game, I’d never go nowhere near an estuarine river where there’s crocs because the first thing he’ll do is come up and give you a walloping.”

august 20 2005 : north queensland coast
Yesterday we woke up to a steady 30 knots whipping through the anchorage for the third day in a row. And better still were the gale force gusts that would whip through every few minutes, along with rain clouds which would be broken every half hour or so by five minutes of blue sky. Lovely. We spent the morning hiding out in the boat reading until at one point I stepped outside and thought “Hmm, wonder where that boat next to us went?” Then quickly realized that they hadn’t gone anywhere, we had actually dragged back about 25 yards without noticing a thing. The anchor had obviously reset itself because we weren’t dragging any further, so we got things ready and hauled in the anchor.

This time we moved in a little further towards shore and dropped anchor again. I was surprised that we dragged because when we had originally anchored I had dove down to check and make sure the anchor was set good. It had seemed pretty well buried and I figured that after 48 hours of 30 knot winds it would have really buried itself deep. Later in the afternoon we were talking to a couple of other cruisers who told us the area we were in was called Drag Alley. We are in the narrow pass between the reef and the island that you need to pass through in order to get to the inside reef anchorage area. Apparently the ground through here has a few inches of good sand over the top of a hard layer. So the anchor looks like it is buried in good but is actually only a few inches deep and can’t penetrate any further. Funny thing was that even with a dozen boats around us not one of them noticed anything had happened.

Every night the cruisers in this anchorage get together ashore for drinks at five o’clock. In fact two dinghies had come up to us within five minutes after we arrived to inform us of this fact. I was slightly disturbed by one guys use of the phrase “cocktails and nibblies,” quite sure that I’d never heard a man use the word nibblies before. But whatever, last night we went ashore to meet everybody. Ali and I are always a little wary of these get-together’s. They tend to go like this: polite introductions all around, a few words about what design your boat is, and then somebody invariably asks how old we are. This is followed by a few hearty chuckles and without fail at least half the people telling us they have kids older than us. At which point the conversation fades into an awkward silence and we begin to feel like party crashers at a geriatrics convention. Fortunately last night, at the point that they tell us they have kids our age, two of those kids stepped forward and introduced themselves. A couple our age were sailing with their parents for a few days, and we were able to sit and have a nice conversation with them without feeling like complete oddballs.

One other issue that came up and we can never quite understand is this whole buddy boating thing. Cruisers just love to buddy boat. Buddy boating, in case the name doesn’t tip it off, is sailing from place to place in the company of other boats. I understand wanting to travel with friends and enjoy new places together, but I don’t understand why everybody has to leave at the same time and sail as close to each other as possible. Why can’t they just meet up once they get there?

One lady’s face lit up after hearing that we were heading to Darwin. She said, “Oh, you have to talk to so-and-so, they’re going to Darwin as well. They’re leaving tomorrow and the two of you can just buddy boat. How nice.” We smiled and nodded and thought to ourselves, “Why in the world would we want to sail with this other couple that we have never met and suddenly be forced into making all of our decisions as a group with them?” We make last minute decisions on where we are going to go all the time, how would that work being part of a group? We can sort of understand it when you are sailing in scary pirate infested areas and you feel that security blanket will somehow make you safer. But even then we don’t really get the concept. Wouldn’t a pirates eyes just light up if he saw a group of four unarmed boats instead of just one? Unless one of the boats we are sailing with is carrying a machine gun on board, what could they possibly do to help us in a pirate situation? I don’t know, I guess we’ll leave that subject alone until we actually get to one of these types of areas and have to decide if we want to sail as part of a group or not.

This afternoon we got our hiking gear together and set out to conquer Cook’s Lookout, the 1100 foot high hill Captain Cook climbed to have a look at the reef. As soon as we left the boat it began to rain. By the time we started the climb the rain had stopped. Ten minutes later it was raining again. Then it stopped. Then it rained, then it stopped, then it rained, then it stopped. You get the idea. The walk was actually a little more challenging than I had thought it would be. It was still no match for my flip-flops, but a bit of a workout nonetheless. Whenever the sun poked through, we got amazing views of the anchorage and the whole of Lizard Island.

The lagoon did look incredible from up above, with pretty much every shade of blue imaginable. At the top we were quickly shrouded in mist from the low flying clouds, and even after waiting about half an hour never got a clear sky to see the outer barrier reef which is about 12 miles away. After giving up on a weather improvement we started back down. About halfway down the sky suddenly cleared and the sun came out. Three hours after starting out we were back at the bottom and anxiously hopping in the water for a swim.

august 22 2005 : north queensland coast
Yesterday morning we were up early and headed north to Jewell Reef just 15 miles away. The wind was forecast for 15 knots so we decided to just hope that it would be somewhere under that. Instead as we got to the reef the wind was blowing 25 knots and the sea was rough. We still approached the reef slowly but as we were in 50 feet of dark water a coral head suddenly appeared directly in front of us and came up to within 10 feet of the surface. That made up our minds for us, if we couldn’t see the coral heads obviously we couldn’t pick our way into the reef in this weather. So we turned the boat and headed on up the coast.

In the afternoon I finally rigged up a replacement lure for the good old pink and blue squid. It is an exact replica of the old one, except that it still has all of its skirt and doesn’t yet have the rusty hook and leader. After rigging it up I gave it a squirt of WD40, I swear it works, and dropped it in the water. Within a few minutes we had our first bite, a small tuna. We released him. Ten more minutes and another small tuna. Threw him back. And five more minutes later we had another fish on. This time when I grabbed the line to pull it in it felt like we had caught a rock, the 250# test line wasn’t budging. This fish was fighting harder than any other fish we have caught on the trip. After a good ten minute struggle we had him right behind the boat but still didn’t have a clue what it was because he hadn’t surfaced at all.

Finally I lugged him up onto the back step and saw that we had yet another tuna. Only this one was big. I don’t know how to guess really but he was definitely over 20 pounds. The beauty of tuna is that once you have them on the boat they completely stop moving. Like they are afraid if they move you will see them. Kind of like the binocular guy. So he just sat there frozen stiff with fear while I unhooked him, held him up for a picture and threw him back in. I can hear the gasps from the sushi lovers around the world, but with Ali talking to the fish the whole time, telling him it was going to be okay, what else could I do?

So we sailed along all day not really sure where we were going to go to next. Eventually we decided on the Flinders Group of islands for the nights stop. We didn’t expect that we would get there until after one a.m. but there was nearly a full moon which made seeing after dark much easier. The wind picked up all day and we found ourselves double reefed and flying along at around eight knots in 30 knots of wind. You can pretty much throw out the forecasts lately. Nice thing about sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef is that you don’t get the ocean swell. Where normally at sea with 30 knot winds you could expect some pretty big waves, but inside the reef with 30 knots you end up with little three foot wind created waves. At eleven o’clock we came around the island, pulled in near a couple of fishing trawlers and called it a night.

This morning we were up early and found that for the first time in a week the wind had dropped below 20 knots. We decided to keep on moving north and are now headed on an overnighter about another 170 miles. The wind is really supposed to pick up by the day after tomorrow and I get the feeling that we are going to find ourselves pinned down by weather once again. The next 100 mile leg after this one takes us up around the top of Australia, the Cape York Peninsula. Currents around there can get pretty strong and a little unpredictable so it’s not an area we want to find ourselves in bad weather for.

Also, yesterday our propane tank finally emptied. The same propane tank that we last filled up in Nuku Hiva in July of 2004! Actually we filled up both of our 20 pound tanks there and this is the second one, but still, 13 months on two tanks seems pretty good to me.

august 24 2005 : cape york peninsula (top end), australia
So yesterday afternoon we were approaching our intended stop for the night which was just a little bay where we could get some sleep. But about that time we got a weather forecast showing that in a couple of days the weather is supposed to get really bad. Since at the time we were having such a nice sail we decided that we may as well keep going as far north as we could ahead of the strong winds. After that decision was made we settled back for some of the best sailing we’ve had. For a few hours anyway.

As usual the night brought a change in the weather and once again we were frantically throwing in reefs while the wind quickly climbed over 30 knots and squalls started rolling over us every 30 minutes. Fortunately the winds were from the right direction and we were making good time towards the Cape York Peninsula marking the northeast corner of Australia. For the second time in three days we found ourselves on target for a night entry into our anchorage. The currents are a little crazy up there and I was a little nervous, but Ali stayed below with her eyes on the chart screen and called out a steady stream of course corrections to keep us right on our line, which weave between reefs and rocks right into Mount Adolphus Island. We dropped anchor at three a.m. straightened up the boat a little bit and went to bed. This morning we woke up and could see that we had anchored quite a long way out from the reef so we tucked in a little closer and are now ready to wait out the strong winds for the next three days.

A couple of days ago we had actually had no wind for a few hours and were motoring all day. As usually happens at times like that we got a little bored. So we decided once again to give me a haircut. No razor involved this time, just our big pair of all purpose West Marine scissors. We started out shooting for a mohawk, but ended up with some sort of conehead cut instead. The things we do to entertain ourselves.

august 27 2005 : cape york
After a couple of days sitting out strong winds at Mount Adolphus Island we took off this morning, despite the winds still being 30 knots, for Thursday Island just a few hours away. We’re actually at Horn Island which is just across the channel from Thursday, but has a much more protected anchorage. There isn’t much over here other than fuel and a small tin shack that serves as the supermarket, take-away food, video rental, department, hardware, and toy store all rolled into one.

They do however have a pub, which is where we found ourselves for lunch, along with the rest of the town who were all busily playing the ponies or the slot machines. As soon as we started walking around today we realized how much it felt like we were in a completely different country. All the locals, except for the pub owner, are Pacific Islanders or Aborigines and the place just has that South Pacific Island sort of feel to it.

august 29 2005 : cape york
Yesterday we took the ferry across to Thursday Island. It’s only about a 1.5 mile trip but still cost the two of us a total of $32 to get there and back. We took the ferry because there is no protection to anchor and a dinghy ride would have been extremely wet. As it turns out we should have saved our money, Thursday Island doesn’t have much going for it. The guidebook lists as the only attraction a Japanese Pearl Divers cemetery and I can’t say that we find cemeteries to be much of a tourist destination. In Thursday Island’s defense it was a Sunday and so the two or three shops on the main street were closed which left us only one thing to do. Drink.

The first pub proclaimed itself to be Australia’s Top Pub! After careful inspection we decided they might have overstated just a little bit. We walked in the front door and found a spare looking bar with about five stools pulled up next to it. To the left of the door were crammed about two dozen pokies (slot machines). The penny pokies were doing a brisk business and I noticed the progressive jackpot was up to a whopping $114.36 (about 80 bucks USD). To the right there was a wall of televisions with a group of people eagerly gathered around them. We thought maybe Footy was on or something but it turned out to be the horses and everybody was busy placing their two dollar to show bets. We gulped down our beers and quickly wandered out of Australia’s Most Depressing Pub.

Next we wandered on over to the pub at the local motel. This place at least had the decency to hide the pokies in a separate room called the “Casino Lounge.” We had a pretty good lunch, you just can’t go wrong with the sausages and mash here. After we finished eating a very friendly and very drunk local with the unlikely name of Bookie Miller Red Cross sat down and completely confused us when he told us he was German despite the rasta hair and the obviously islander complexion. When he found out we were American his face lit up and he told us all about Erica from America, apparently a dear old friend of his. Eventually, four beers heavier and $100 lighter, we caught the ferry back to the boat.

SaveSave