july 4 2005 : brisbane, queensland, australia
So you don’t think we have been exaggerating how bad the weather has been lately, here are a few headlines I found online. Remember this is from an area that has been in a sever drought for five years. Emergency Services Issues Flood Warning, Rising Flood Waters Force Evacuation, Flood Waters Wreak Havoc Across Queensland, Northern NSW Declared Disaster Area. Sounds nice doesn’t it?

After a few days away from the boat we are back. On Friday we took the bus into Brisbane to check out the city and spend the night. We wandered around most of the day window shopping, checking out bookstores, and taking a walk through the Botanical Gardens. We wanted to see if the pile moorings there were really as full as the lady at the marina in Manly had told us. Of course they weren’t, there were probably ten empty spots. Fortunately it wasn’t because of her that we had decided to skip it or we would have been mad at ourselves.

We also checked out the City Hall, which has a clock tower that you can go up to the top of and enjoy the view. Turns out the view was probably a lot better in 1930 before every other building in the city became taller than it. Now you can’t see much further than the hotel across the street. There was a nice park area out front that we hung around at for a while to people watch. We got a pretty good laugh out of a couple of Asian tourists. They asked a guy who was obviously just sitting out there during his lunch break to take a picture of them. He of course obliged, but then the mother asked him to pose for a picture with her daughter. The look on this guys face was priceless, he obviously hadn’t expected to be posing for a picture during lunch, but again he obliged. But they didn’t want just one picture, the mother then had them walk over in front of the fountain for another lovely picture. This poor guy didn’t know what was going on, but after that picture they released him back to his sandwich.

The next day we were picked up by a Bumfuzzle follower friend of ours, Les. He took us out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This is by far the best “zoo” we have ever been to. The place started out as just a sanctuary for koalas but has since evolved into much more. There are still over 100 koalas there, but in addition there were kangaroos, dingoes, emus, wombats, tons of birds, snakes, lizards, pretty much any animal that is native to Australia. In the kangaroo area we were able to walk right in amongst them, and they were so used to people that we could pet them just like they were a dog. Ali also got to hold a koala and was surprised at how heavy he was. The koalas all had nice enclosures and seemed quite happy sitting in their tree branch eating eucalyptus leaves. There were even a few babies around which were pretty cool.

After the Koala Sanctuary we headed off to dinner and to pick up Les’s daughter before the four of us boarded the train and went to the Rugby game. The Australian Wallabies were taking on France. The game was really good, it is incredible the shape these guys are in and the fact that they run full on into each other without a single pad on is pretty impressive as well. I have to admit that if I were ever to move to Australia, as a fan I would have no problem giving up our U.S. football for rugby.

One thing I found interesting is how incredibly clean the stadium was. It was the same way in Melbourne too. I think if you dropped a french fry on the floor you could probably employ the five second rule safely. Another thing there are no vendors at the games; nobody wandering up and down the aisles selling beer and pies. And lastly I was surprised by how well behaved the crowd was. The Wallabies are the national team which means they play their games all over the country and this would be the only game in Brisbane this season, so I expected the crowd to be really fired up. So when a French guy a few rows down from us was waving a giant French flag that would hit everybody in front of him as it went by I thought for sure some bloke would turn around and knock him on his butt. But not one person said a word to him the entire game, they just sat quietly and cheered when appropriate. It was a fun game to watch, though I think I’ll start a small war here by declaring that I think the Australian Rules game is a little more exciting than the Rugby. They are extremely territorial about their sporting allegiance here in Australia.

After the game Les took us out to his house in Toowoomba about a hundred miles inland from Brisbane. We spent the night there and the next day he and his wife Donna took us on the Toowoomba tour. We checked out a bunch of nice scenic overlooks and they showed us where Les works as a teacher at a boarding school. Sending your kids off to boarding school, now there is an idea that I can agree with. What could be better than that? Actually it turns out there are tons of boarding schools in Australia because of the remoteness of so much of the country. Kids could live hundreds of miles from the nearest school.

This morning Les loaded us up and drove us back to the boat. We took the long way around through a little more of the Australian countryside. Anyway, it was a really nice weekend away from the boat and the boat work. Thanks Les and Donna.

It looks like the worst of the weather is over finally. The forecast is warming up and the sun is supposed to be out for a week. We’re looking forward to it. Our part comes in today. We had to change our plans with the part. After waiting a few days we checked up on the part in the States and found out that it wasn’t actually going to ship until Wednesday because of the 4th of July holiday back home. That meant we wouldn’t get it until next week at the earliest, meaning another week we’d have to pay for the marina, and a week of our time which has become very valuable at this point. So we ended up ordering the part locally for $700, the same part that cost $190 in the States. I don’t know how anyone can afford to own a boat here.

july 6 2005 : coast of queensland, australia
Well our part didn’t show up on the 4th, but did make it first thing the next morning. I picked it up, opened the box, and found that it was the wrong part! The mechanic and his wife gathered around and we all tried to figure out how we could have the wrong part. Fortunately the mechanic is a Volvo dealer and so we popped up the Volvo mainframe computer system and started trying to find what the problem was. We had received the correct part if you went by what the schematic for the engine said, but it was clear that the part with the teeth that slides onto the saildrive was way too small. We searched and searched but couldn’t find a different part made for this engine. He called Volvo direct, as well as a parts manufacturer in Germany, and another company down in Sydney. Before long we had about a dozen people researching this problem for us. Eventually Volvo called back and told us that they had found this particular part number handwritten on an old file, and that it was not in the computer system. Then they gave us the good news, there was actually one available in Australia and they would have it for us the next morning. The bad news was that this part was another $150 more expensive than the other one, bringing the grand total with shipping to around $800 USD.

The last couple of nights we’ve been getting together with some more website followers which has been a lot of fun. They are all in the planning stages of their own circumnavigations and are really excited about it all. It’s amazed us how many Australians we have met through the website. For a country of only 20 million people it sure seems like a disproportionate number of them are sitting around at work reading sailing websites.

So this morning the part arrived, as promised, and it was the correct one. Installing it is a simple procedure, but the next step which was to slide the engine back onto the saildrive was a little trickier. We called in the mechanic, who came right out and helped me lift it on, then he left me to it. Ali joined in and used her tiny little hands to tighten a couple of the more inaccessible bolts, and within an hour or so we had everything back together. The engine fired up on the first try, we had good waterflow, and no leaks. Then came the part where we held our breath. We shut down the engine and there was no knocking. Excellent, problem solved.

With that taken care of we started making preparations to leave tomorrow. Another round of laundry, a quick bus ride into town to stock up on groceries, and one last pizza order for dinner.

Here’s an interesting little tidbit. Remember in May Ali and I visited the Twelve Apostles while on our road trip down south? Well we just found out that one of the Apostles has collapsed back into the sea. I pulled a picture of it off the Sydney Herald‘s website. See, you have to hurry up and see these things before they’re all gone. Who knows what’s next.

july 7 2005 : coast of queensland
Motoring along today with absolutely no wind when Ali says, “Next time you go below check out the engine compartment, it smells kind of gassy.” So I head down there, grab a flashlight, open the compartment, and peek in. There is a steady stream of diesel fuel shooting out of the engine. Yes, the engine we just fixed yesterday. So we shut it down and empty the room so I can get at it. Turned out that the return fuel line had split. I cut it off and then reran the hose so that it wouldn’t make any sharp turns that might crimp it and then got down to the dirty work, cleaning up the diesel. In the end we filled up nearly two five-gallon buckets, one sponge full at a time. Good times.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The weather was beautiful and we had a big bottlenose dolphin come play with us. We laid on the trampolines while he swam underneath us and he seemed to take particular joy in spraying Ali every time he surfaced. We were supposed to have winds from behind us, but of course when the wind finally did show up around dark it was nearly on the nose. Oh well, we’re not die hard sailors, we’ll just motor on.

july 11 2005 : coast of queensland
Man, the last few days have flown by. So going back a few days we motored through the night and by morning had come to the Wide Bay bar crossing. It seems to have a pretty notorious reputation around these parts and just a few weeks ago flipped a 42-foot catamaran over, so we were paying extra attention on this one. As the sun came up we suddenly found that we were just one of about ten boats that were heading for the bar. Apparently there is an anchorage nearby where all the boats had been waiting through the night for the morning flood tide. So everybody basically filed in one after the other, a couple of boats even leaving a sail up while they went through. The bar has one section called the Mad Mile and even though we were going through at the perfect time and with very little swell you could still get a sense of how ugly an area it could be. But we motored right through no problem, and after a couple more hours of motoring up the Great Sandy Straits, which is an area between the mainland and Fraser Island, we dropped the anchor. We hadn’t been settled for more than fifteen minutes when a customs boat pulled up alongside of us. They asked for our cruising permit, and then of course asked us who named the boat. Our paperwork appeared to be in order so they took off and we took a nap.

The next day we were up early and on our way north through the straits. As seems to be the norm this year the wind was out of the north, not that we would have been sailing anyway, it’s much to narrow through most of the area to be sailing. And despite following the cruising guide and the markers we managed to slide ourselves up onto the dirt again. We eventually found our way back on course and headed for the marina. Our original plan was to anchor outside the Kingfisher Resort on Fraser Island where we could also rent a 4×4 to tour the island. Unfortunately there were strong wind warnings for the next couple of days and the anchorage would be totally exposed. Which is why we were once again headed for a marina. Hervey Bay has some really shallow areas, so at one point I took a one mile detour in order to avoid an area that looked a little tricky, instead opting to keep us in the relatively safe depth of around 15 feet. So we were cruising along, now with the current, at 7 knots, when I looked over at Ali sitting at the back of the boat and behind her I could see the bottom clearly. I spun around to the depth finder which read four feet, meaning we had only about six inches below us. I turned us out towards where I knew there was supposed to be deeper water and that was as shallow as we got that time. We eventually make it safely into the marina.

That night we met some website follower friends who are in the process of building their own catamaran. They took us out to their house and showed us around the boat. They have been working on it for about 18 months and are just a few weeks from launching it now, so it is very close to finished. It was fun to see what a boat would look like if you got to choose how everything was laid out and finished. Made me realize why some people would prefer to build their boat themselves. You would never have to worry about stupid things like hoses being fiberglassed into the boat, or finding shoddy wiring connections. If there were problems like that you wouldn’t have anybody to blame but yourself I guess. So after dinner we headed back to Bum and called it a night after a very long day.

Next morning Ali was shaking me awake at 5:30. We had decided that if the weather didn’t look too bad in the morning that we would try to get ourselves a 4×4 rental and get out on the island for a couple of days. Amazingly the rental place picked up the phone after one ring, at 5:45 in the morning. They did have a truck for us and would come pick us up at the marina, at 6:30!

So we jumped in the shower, raced back to the boat, threw pillows and a blanket, a change of clothes into a duffel bag and ran out the door to meet them. We were taken to the office where we had to sit through a 45 minute video on the rules of 4x4ing on Fraser Island. The rules were basically this, don’t drive in the ocean, and don’t feed the dingoes. Simple enough. Then we loaded up our trucks and headed off to catch the ferry across to the island. Ali and I were under the impression that Fraser Island was like a national park and therefore we would have to fend for ourselves as far as food was concerned. So while we were racing across town to catch the ferry, we stopped at the only place that appeared to be open, a bakery, to load up our supplies for the next two days. We dropped $35 on donuts, garlic bread, and water.

Now our 4×4 was chosen because, one, it was about the cheapest available, and two, it wasn’t some wimpy little Suzuki jeep. It was an ex-army Landrover. When we were filling out the paperwork the guy looked down at the papers and said “Oh, you’re in an ex-military, (pause), you’re adventurers huh?” I didn’t really know what that meant when I signed us up for it, but what we got was this, a camouflage transport vehicle with a canvas canopy over the top and two bench seats in the back. No stereo, no a/c, no heat, no power windows, no crank windows for that matter, and best of all, no shocks. At least not as far as we could tell. It was the loudest, ugliest, most hardcore 4×4 vehicle I had ever been in. It seemed to have levers for everything, most of which I eventually figured out how to use. But it was fun. Each section of the top could be rolled up and we basically turned the thing into one big ugly convertible.

We landed on the island and drove off towards our first destination, Lake McKenzie. I suppose I should explain where we were. Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island. There are no paved roads, just a bunch of 4×4 trails criss-crossing the island, and the beach which you can drive along as long as it isn’t high tide. So we shaked and rattled our way to Lake McKenzie. We had seen the lake on postcards all over town and it was just as amazing as it looked on those cards. The lake is surrounded by super fine white sand, and the water itself is an incredible shade of blue. Actually two shades of blue, there is a ring about twenty feet out where the water looks almost white, and then it drops off and becomes this perfect dark blue. I went for a swim, Ali opted out. It was pretty cold out with the high winds but the water was pretty nice.

Back in the truck we drove off towards the beach. I’d never driven on the beach before so it was sort of exciting. The waves were crashing just yards away from us as we bounced along the smooth sand. The only thing you really needed to watch out for were the freshwater creeks that ran across the beach and into the ocean. Most of them were only an inch or two deep, but one, turned out to be much bigger. I hit that one in third gear full out and we got a nice big splash up and over the truck, through our convertible top and all over us.

We checked out a few more of the sights along the beach, like some famous ship wreck, and some colorful sand formations, before heading back to the little resort settlement we had passed through earlier. Turned out we didn’t need to worry about food. There was a general store, where we were able to pick up some beer, at the bargain price of just $20 for a 6-pack, Doritos and mince pies. All the necessities for life on an island.

Then a little before dark we drove back down the beach looking for our camping spot for the night. That’s right, camping. Now you’ll recall that we didn’t pack a tent earlier in the day. No, we figured we’d just crash in the truck. Of course that sounded fine before we realized our truck was from 1912, had a canvas top, and rusted through floorboards. But it was only for one night, what the heck. We found this great spot just behind the first set of dunes, under a canopy of trees, and overlooking the ocean. We settled in, read the paper, ate Doritos and drank beer. By six o’clock it was so dark we couldn’t see a thing, our truck didn’t have a dome light, and we hadn’t packed a flashlight, so there was nothing left to do but go to sleep. We squeezed into our cozy jagged metal bungalow in the back of the truck and drifted off to sleep listening to the waves crash on the beach.

Needless to say we were up at first light and ready to go. We drove down through the island to Lake Boomanjin which had red colored water due to the tannin from the nearby tea tree swamps. It was pretty, but not for swimming.

Back onto the trails, which are actually some pretty serious 4×4 trails. At the entrance to one section I completely bogged out in the soft sand. By putting the truck into low gear I was able to back it out and try again, but there are plenty of areas to have some fun. Most of the trails themselves are really rough. At least in our truck they were, it would probably be a lot smoother in a modern vehicle with shocks.

The next lake was Birrabeen which was just like McKenzie but not nearly as crowded. Back on the trails Ali was just saying how she was disappointed that she didn’t get to see any dingoes. They are supposed to be all over the island, and in fact the night before a ranger had come by and told us to watch out for them because she had just seen some a little ways up the beach from us. Just a few minutes after Ali said that we came around the corner and found a dingo running down the middle of the trail in front of us. He didn’t seem to mind that we were behind him and just kept trotting along, never even looking back over his shoulder at us. A couple of corners later we found out why, he was following another dingoe around and this one was spraying scent on trees about 50 yards apart. We were able to follow along behind these two for about a mile before they finally got bored and turned off into the woods. It was cool to see them in the wild, but truthfully they don’t look any different than a couple of pet dogs.

The last lake of the day was Lake Wabby, which turned out to be the best. You had to walk about a mile in from the car park, but when you got there the view was amazing. There is a huge sand dune that is blowing inland about five feet per year, at the bottom of it is the lake and around the rest of the lake is thick woods. It is really a bizarre setting and not something you’d expect to find out in the middle of the island. It was the most scenic spot on the island. After that we drove around a little bit more before making our way back to the ferry. We made it back to Bum around six and began planning for tomorrow’s passage.

july 13 2005 : coast of queensland
Arrived at Lady Musgrave Island this morning after an overnight trip at sea. The weather was a little strange on the sail over, with winds light from behind then strong on the nose, light from the side and then strong from the other side, leaving us with short choppy seas and waves that seemed to come from every direction. I managed to get seasick for the first time in a long time, and neither of us got a very good nights sleep. In the morning we passed a couple more whales and a few dolphins on our approach into Lady Musgrave. The island is in a coral lagoon five miles around with just one tiny little opening to get into it. Once inside we were in calm water with a ring of breaking waves completely surrounding us. It’s a pretty cool looking place and is the first clear blue water we have been in for months. The water temperature also spiked up to 80 degrees which made swimming here the most enjoyable since Tonga. We spent the rest of the day laying around, swimming, reading, and catching up on our sleep.

july 16 2005 : coast of queensland
We spent the last couple of days hanging out at Lady Musgrave Island. The wind was strong (25+ knots) out of the north for two solid days and actually only calmed down for about three hours one evening when we were able to make a run to the island on the dinghy. The island was all coral, which are always a little strange. It sounds and feels like we are walking across a beach full of our mother’s best china because of the large chunks of coral clanking against each other. Other than that it was just too rough to bother doing anything, so we pretty much stayed cooped up in the boat other than a couple of quick dips in the water to check the anchor.

This morning we left to head a couple hundred miles farther north, a two night sail. The forecast for the next four days was for south winds around 10-15 knots and that is exactly what we had this morning when we left. But somehow once again, a few hours later we find ourselves motoring into a north wind. It’s only about 5 knots and I’m sure it won’t last, but man it seems like this happens to us on every trip lately. Right after we came out of the pass this morning I was scanning across the horizon and my eyes were suddenly drawn to a huge block of white a couple of miles away. In that split second I assumed it was just a sailboat, but then suddenly it crashed down into the water with a huge splash! It was a humpback whale that had jumped nearly all the way out of the water. He was the only one we would see all day.

Also, we just received our visa extensions, which is a very good thing. I’m not sure if I mentioned it before but when we were on passage on our way to Australia we found out that you must have a visa before entering the country. We had gotten used to just showing up in a country, and had assumed that Australia would be no different. So we contacted Ali’s mom by email and she jumped on the internet and applied for our visas online. These were called ETA visas and are different from the visa we would have received if we had just gone to the Australian embassy back in New Zealand. The ETA visa is only good for three months, and we were told when we checked in that we couldn’t renew them, that we would have to fly out of the country and then back in. This is what the customs officials in Sydney told us. Well obviously we didn’t want to fly back to New Zealand just so we could renew our visas. So we got back on the internet and found out that the ETA visa could indeed be renewed, but only for a total of up to a six month stay. And of course there was a fee for renewal, $150 USD each. Ouch, I think a one year visa from the embassy in Auckland probably would have cost us about $20 bucks. So there was yet another expensive lesson for us. Anyway, now we are all set for the rest of our stay in Oz.

july 20 2005 : coast of queensland
So when I left off we were motoring into the wind again on our way to Percy Island. A couple of hours later the wind did shift back to the SE and we had a pretty nice sail. Actually too nice, because we made such good time we arrived at Percy Island at two a.m. Our charts of the island were not very detailed and since there wasn’t much wind we decided to just drop the sails and float a couple of miles out from the anchorage until the sun came up. Ali went back to bed and I kept an eye on things to make sure we didn’t somehow manage to float into the rocks. We probably could have just gone in using the radar to make sure we didn’t run aground, but it just didn’t seem worth it. This is the one thing that Ali thinks I may be overcautious about on this trip. I really hate to make a night approach anywhere, no matter how obvious and straightforward it looks.

With the morning light came the wind and as we got anchored off the beach the wind picked up to 20 knots. We were anchored on the NW side of the island which looked to have great protection from the wind, and it did, except the SE swell somehow managed to roll around the top of the island and come back to us as a NE swell, making for a very uncomfortable motion since the wind had us facing perpendicular to the swell.

One thing I am having a hard time getting a handle on along the Australian coast is the tides and currents. The tides are huge compared to anything else we have seen so far on this trip. Right now they are about 15 feet from high to low, and these create strong currents of at least a couple of knots, even well out at sea. I mention that because the anchorage, in addition to strong winds and a crappy swell, also had a nice strong current running through it. It took all my effort just to swim against the current 150 feet to check on the anchor.

We went ashore in the afternoon and found a beautiful beach. The sand was so fine that when you walked across it your feet made a squeaking sound. Like when you were a kid and dragged your tennis shoe clad feet along the hallway floor at school. We’d never experienced that before and when it first happened we both stopped and said “did you hear that?” Then we realized it was our own feet making the sound.

That night I got an updated forecast and it was looking ugly, 25 plus knots for at least the next few days. So we upped anchor first thing in the morning and decided to make a run for it. Airlie Beach was about 130 miles away, meaning we should be there by early the next morning, before the worst of the weather. As soon as we got out of the lee of the island the wind kicked in and we were racing directly downwind flying just the jib, which I tied off to a cleat on the side of the boat which helps to keep it filled when running with the wind straight behind us. The seas built throughout the day and by noon were towering over us. They were well spaced and coming from directly behind so we rode them pretty comfortably, but after our bar crossing experience our nerves aren’t what they used to.

We had received an email from a friend in Airlie Beach who told us to hurry up because they were now predicting gale force winds with strong wind warnings all over the place. At about the same time a squall came through increasing the wind to 35 knots and shifting the direction to farther east. So between our shot nerves and the weather forecasts all signs were now pointing to the closest exit, which was Mackay Marina about 20 miles away, and with the wind shift it was now a straight downwind ride. The only problem I had with this plan was that we wouldn’t make it before dark. We would have to enter at night. On the plus side is that this harbor is also the worlds largest sugar loading terminal, so it was sure to be well lit up.

We continued racing downwind with the wind around 35-40 knots and the seas huge but steady. At 7:30 we made the approach to the harbor, and as expected it was well lit. We rolled through the entrance without a problem and headed towards the marina. The waves were smashing against the outside breakwall and the spray was washing over it in sheets. As we got into the marina area I dropped the engines into neutral as we tried to call the marina office and get directions on where to go. As soon as I put the engines in neutral we began washing towards the dock. I put the engines in reverse but quickly realized that reverse wasn’t going to be strong enough to stop us and instead jammed them into full forward and spun away from the docks just in time. The wind was so strong, even behind this huge breakwall that we were being blown at four knots while in neutral.

Our VHF calls were eventually answered by a couple of boats sitting in the marina. I guess the office was closed, but they told us to come around the pier we were in front of and they would come out and give us a hand with the lines. Right at that moment the rain began to come down and we had absolutely nasty conditions. I circled around while Ali got fenders out and lines ready; and by the time we got to an open dock we found half a dozen people standing out in the wind and rain ready to help us. It was really nice of them, because I don’t think there is any way we could have gotten in safely without them. But as it was we were tied up safely within five minutes and everybody went home cold and wet. The boat was yanking so hard on the docklines that I ended up putting three different lines off the front of the boat alone. This morning as I type this, the wind has not yet let up and the rain is coming down sideways. Needless to say we are happy to be here.

Ali made the comment at one point yesterday “I didn’t think sailing up the coast of Australia was going to be so much work.” Either did I. From everything I had read I was expecting a leisurely sail up the coast with friendly SE trade winds blowing us gently along in short little day hops from secure anchorage to secure anchorage. Instead what we have had so far are north winds and SE gales. It’s been a much more challenging coast than I would have ever expected. Thank goodness we’ve been having such a good time whenever we aren’t sailing.

july 21 2005 : mackay, queensland, australia
Yesterday we braved the rain and wind and hopped a bus into Mackay. We went into town, saw a movie, and wandered around. It’s a pleasant enough town with a central business district full of small stores and restaurants. Our movie got over at five o’clock and we figured we’d just grab something to eat from a take-away shop. We searched the streets but couldn’t find one thing that was open. I guess after lunch there isn’t much business in the central business district. There were a couple of fancy restaurants, but we just wanted something cheap. Since we had missed the last bus of the day we hopped in a taxi and headed back to the marina. From there we fell back on the old familiar standby, Pizza Hut.

We looked up the phone number and I walked down the street, in the rain, to the payphone. After being on hold for ten minutes a girl came on and began to take my order. She asked for the street address and I told her I was at the Mackay Marina Office. Well it seems Pizza Hut in Australia just has a central phone number for the stores, so telling this girl that lives in Sydney that I am at the Mackay Marina didn’t mean much to her. She was refusing to take my order so I told her that it was 123 Main Street. She typed it in and then said, “There is no Main Street in Mackay.” So then I said, “Okay, hang on, oh, it’s 444 Queen Street.” Mackay must have a Queen Street, every other town in Australia does. “Nope, no Queen Street either.” So I asked her to just give me the local Pizza Huts phone number and I would talk to them directly because there is no doubt they would know where the Marina was. “Sorry, that restaurant doesn’t have an incoming line,” she said. I said, “You’re telling me that if my girlfriend Sally worked there and I wanted to call her and ask her to pick up a liter of milk on her way home I would have to call you and ask you to pass on the message.” To which she replied “Only if you had the street address” and hung up on me.

Rejected, and starting to feel the familiar pangs of pizza withdrawal I stumbled through the hurricane towards the only light on in the marina complex. Fortunately it turned out to be a bar with a take-away menu and a list of fancy pizzas. I chose one at random and begged them to hurry. Finally with pizza in hand I struggled through the blinding rain along the docks and back to the boat. I opened the door, sopping wet, and maybe even crying a little, and Ali looked at me and asked, “Where have you been?” Pizza crisis averted.

july 23 2005 : mackay
Still sitting in Mackay, and the wind is still crazy. We took a walk to the breakwall this afternoon, and found a roadblock at the entrance. The road was full of cars the other night when we pulled in but we haven’t seen any up there since. With rocks thrown everywhere, it gave a pretty good perspective on how bad conditions have been out there the last few days.

This morning I went to start the starboard engine in order to charge the batteries and noticed that the rpm needle was still pointing straight up at 2500. I turned the key and nothing happened; no lights, nothing on the display. Ali was thrilled to get to tear the bedroom apart so that I could get into the engine compartment once again. Seems to be a pretty common occurrence lately. My first thought was that the battery had died because of the problems we have been having with the alternator regulator. So I threw an amp meter on the battery and found the voltage was at 12.75, definitely not dead. Next I turned my attention to the alternator and immediately saw the problem. There was a black wire completely melted and dangling off the back of it. The wire was melted onto the bolt for the main positive wire on the alternator. I couldn’t tell exactly what had happened but from the looks of it I would guess that when I had hooked up the wiring, when putting the engine back together a couple weeks ago, the small black negative wire had gotten pinched in underneath the nut that holds the positive wire onto the bolt. That bolt is in the deepest darkest area of the engine compartment and I would have been working blind on it.

Anyway, there was just enough good wire still sticking out that I was able to splice on a new section of wire and connectors and get it all hooked up again. Thinking I was done I turned the key; nothing. I went back down and stared at the engine for a minute trying to think what else could be wrong when I suddenly remembered that I had turned the battery switch off while I was working. Switched it back on and she fired right up. Good as new. Now I really hope that is the last engine issue for a long while. I did realize how fortunate we were that the engine worked until it did. If it hadn’t started the other night as we approached the entrance to the harbor we could have found ourselves in a bit of a predicament. I don’t think we would have had a chance of getting docked safely with only one engine that night.

july 24 2005 : mackay
Looks like we may finally get to move on tomorrow. The wind is supposed to drop down overnight, so hopefully we’ll be sitting in front of a nice beach with the sun shining by tomorrow afternoon. Last night we headed over to the yacht club for a Parrothead party. The band played nothing but Jimmy Buffett tunes all night and of course there was at least one person walking around with a live parrot on their shoulder.

We met up with a guy, Subz, who had come down from Airlie Beach for the party and to loan us his copy of 100 Magic Miles, the cruising guide for the Whitsunday Islands. Nice guy, and he even ran me around town this morning in a fruitless search for diesel containers. The rest of the day today was taken up with laundry and grocery shopping.

july 26 2005 : whitsunday islands, australia
We woke up yesterday and found that the weather had finally decided to cooperate with us. After a quick stop to pay our bill at the marina we untied the docklines and headed out. We left with a nice stiff breeze and the sun shining but within an hour the sun had been replaced by gray skies and rain. We made it to Goldsmith Island, anchored, and tucked ourselves in for the night.

Today we woke up to more of the same. Since we weren’t going to explore ashore in this weather we figured we might as well head on north to the next anchorage at Shaw Island. It was a quick three hour sail over and is a pretty nice anchorage, none of the usual swell that seems to be so prevalent around here. Everybody seems to be hanging out on their boats though; there are five boats in the area and not one of them has a dinghy in the water. Really hope the weather improves soon.

We did manage to get another boat project worked on. In the never ending search for the source of miscellaneous water leaks we removed one of the ceiling panels today and found the spot, the fiberglass base that was made for the compass. Wish they hadn’t even installed a compass, we’ve never used the thing and now we find a leak because of it. Anyway a little epoxy and a fresh caulk job and we have got another leak checked off the list.

july 28 2005 : whitsunday islands
Beautiful weather at last! Yesterday we woke to blue skies and suddenly the Whitsunday’s were looking a whole lot better. After a quick breakfast of chili flavored kettle chips, Ali’s latest obsession, we dropped the dinghy in the water and headed for shore. The anchorage we were in had a handful of boats in it but there were a half a dozen different beaches scattered around in front of us. We picked out a suitably deserted one and made camp for the day; i.e. we laid out beach towels and a bucket of beers. The beach was beautiful, and the sand was actually fine pieces of coral. Every beach is different it seems; some are fine coral, some large chunks, some coarse sand, and some like flour. We spent the afternoon there exploring the land, laying in the sun, and generally just enjoying the weather.

This morning we woke up and took off early for Whitsunday Island. There was a narrow pass between two islands that had sort of a nasty reputation in the guidebook, so we needed to time our trip through it to make sure nothing crazy happened. It didn’t, and by ten we were anchored in amongst about twenty boats, most of which were charter boats. We anchored out towards the back, out of the masses, but of course as soon as you do that then the next group of boats to show up think that you know something that nobody else does and so they drop anchor as close to you as they can. Fortunately by evening they had all left for home.

The beach we anchored in front of is called Whitehaven Beach and it is renowned as “the most beautiful beach in the Whitsunday’s.” Ali and I decided that, while it certainly is a beautiful beach, it’s ranking as the most beautiful is probably put on it by the tour operators. We spent the day pretty much as we did the day before.

Ali is busy at the moment doing the dishes. A job that she hates one day and doesn’t mind the next, but a job that still needs to be done nearly every day. She experimented with letting the dishes pile up for a couple of days between washings but then found that she always hated to do them because it took so long, so now she is back into the daily routine. My job that I can’t stand doing all the time is lowering and raising the dinghy. It’s just such a hassle. My ideal boat would have some sort of davit system that would allow me to leave the outboard motor on all the time. Anyway, that got me thinking about how much our roles on the boat are like a couple from the 1950’s. Ali does all the cooking and cleaning while I do all the manual labor. It’s strange for us as our lives in Chicago were so gender neutral. We ate out every day, so no cooking and dishes; and we lived in a condo, so no manual labor like mowing the lawn. We hardly ever had to drive, so I didn’t even have to do that. Now that I think about it I really didn’t have to do anything strenuous back home other than the occasional moving of furniture around the living room.

Also just found out today that Ali’s sister Katy is coming to visit us again. Her and a friend are flying into Darwin on Sept. 11th, so now we’ve really got a deadline to keep us moving. We are planning a trip down to Uluru/Ayer’s Rock while they are here. They are staying two weeks and then we will be on our way to Indonesia to do battle with hundreds of swashbuckling pirates.

july 30 2005 : airlie beach, whitsunday islands, australia
We are now in Airlie Beach, the backpacker capital of Australia, and it’s perfect. The town is set up for backpackers and sailors alike. Of course the cruising guide calls it a “town for young people,” but doesn’t go on to say whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

The bay here is huge and has excellent holding in shallow depths for miles, so there is absolutely no problem anchoring anywhere we like. After a quick cruise over to the yacht club, which actually has an enclosed harbor with a big breakwater and a dock specifically set aside for dinghies, there is the main road through town which is loaded with bars, restaurants, fast food, internet, and about a million travel agencies touting every kind of tour imaginable. About halfway down the street is the Airlie Beach Lagoon. The tides here are huge which makes the ocean beach not very appealing at low tide, so the city has made a huge park with a gigantic freshwater swimming pool “lagoon” right in the middle. There are hundreds of people, from backpackers to families with kids to little old ladies, all hanging out here. After enjoying all that we walked back to the yacht club, tipped back a couple schooners and pots of V.B. (V.B. by the way, because we have decided that XXXX and Carlton rank right up there with Old Milwaukee), stumbled into the dinghy and zipped on back out to the boat.

Monday we are bringing our jib in to the sail repair shop to have it cleaned up. The sail itself is fine but the fabric around the edge has gotten pretty frayed. We are also expecting the delivery of a part we needed in order to get our battery charging working again. The alternator regulator up and died on us. It appears that it got shorted out when the new engine was installed and the mechanic and I were experimenting with trying to get it all working. Anyway, the company tells us it can be fixed, just send it to them. Well, instead of spending a month, a couple of hundred dollars on shipping, and who knows how much on the repair bill itself, we decided to buy a new one here. Then when Katy visits we’ll send the old one home with her, get it fixed, and have a backup. Because you know the new one will break eventually.

We also watched a movie the other night that a lot of Australian friends had recommended to us. It’s called Rabbit Proof Fence and is a true story of three Aborigine girls who were taken away from their families in 1930’s Australia. I’m sure most of the world doesn’t know much about the Aborigine (the native people of Australia), but for a long time, in fact up until 1970, Australia had a policy of taking Aboriginal children away from their families “for their own good,” in order to teach them the ways of the white people and eventually breed out their dark color and native ways. Anyway, I don’t pretend to know the whole story, but the movie is pretty dramatic and is well worth seeing.

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