september 1 2005 : gulf of carpentaria, australia
A couple of days back we left Thursday Island and set out across the Gulf of Carpentaria. The trip across the Gulf to the Wessel Islands is about 350 miles and never gets deeper than about 200 feet. It’s a little weird being that far out in the middle of nowhere and still having the depth finder give a constant reading as we go along. Normally at sea once the depth gets over 300 feet or so it just stops working until you get to shallow water again. As we left Thursday Island we had to weave our way through a few different islands before getting out into the open Gulf. The charts showed a current of up to 7 knots through the area but since we don’t have a cruising guide for this area we couldn’t confirm that for sure. Well we confirmed it as we were motoring out and our speed hit as high as 10.7 knots when we should have been doing about 4. When we got clear of the islands we still got a nice boost for a while and were sailing along at about 8.5 knots with a nice breeze behind us.

Eventually the current died out, but the sailing conditions were still great. The wind was from right behind us and we rode up and down the waves nicely, just like we would for the next three days. The first night the wind picked up to about 30 knots so we threw in a couple of reefs to calm things down a little bit. Neither of us slept all that great because of all the noise but by morning the wind had let up and we had great sailing the rest of the way. On day two neither one of us was feeling very good. Not seasick exactly, but just extremely lazy. We spent the whole day just laying on the couch and crawling outside every once in a while to have a quick look around.

During one of these trips outside we spotted a customs plane bearing down on us. About two weeks earlier we had been passed by a customs boat who had called us on the VHF and asked us for a whole bunch of information. He had asked us if we had been contacted by any of their planes yet and told us that he was sure we would be hearing from them. So for two weeks we had been expecting to see them. It’s pretty cool when they swoop down on you. They are pretty big planes, but they still fly super low right by you. Close enough to see their faces in the cockpit. All they want to know is who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going.

By day three we felt much better and I realized that we might be able to make it to our anchorage in the Wessel Islands before dark if we hurried, so for the rest of the afternoon we motorsailed in order to pick up an extra knot and a half of speed. Our calculations were perfect, and by seven, just after the sun went down, we dropped anchor in the calm water of Jensen Bay. The Wessel’s are supposed to be absolutely crawling with saltwater crocs so no diving on the anchor here. Just got buzzed by the customs plane again. They didn’t contact us this time though.

september 2 2005 : gulf of carpentaria
Yesterday morning Ali was out on deck when she noticed something in the water near the shore. We got out the binoculars and sure enough there was a big old croc patrolling the shallow water along the shoreline. We didn’t have the dinghy in the water yet so just contented ourselves with watching him from the boat. He just seemed to float along the surface slowly from one end of the beach to the other until finally disappearing near the rock cliffs 100 yards away. A little later after we put the dinghy in the water and after one last look around from the top of the boat we jumped in and raced to shore before he could swim over and take a bite out of us. The island was beautiful, secluded, and the beach went for miles. No doubt it would make a first class tourist resort area if it weren’t for those pesky man-eating saltwater crocodiles.

The water near shore was teeming with stingrays which had bright blue spots across their backs, and the beach had sand dollars washed up on it like we haven’t seen since the Bahamas. I should also mention, since we have complained about it so much lately, the weather has been pretty near perfect ever since we got to the Top End. The temps have been in the low 80’s with plenty of sun and predictable trade winds. We explored the beach; Ali checking out the shells, while I searched for croc tracks. I did find one area back behind the beach where water could get in at high tide. It was a muddy mangrove area and just had to be crawling with crocs, but we never saw another one.

This morning we took off again. This time we are crossing the Arafura Sea. Seems that every little body of water in this part of the world has a different “sea” name. Granted it is 250 miles across and will take us two nights to get from one side to the other, so maybe it should have its own name. The wind is supposed to be pretty consistent at about 15 knots so we decided to just hoist the light air screecher sail and hope for the best. We love to sail with just the screecher because of how easy it is and how well the boat sails with it, but I always find myself a nervous wreck when we are using it because when the wind gets over 20 knots it becomes nearly impossible to get the sail in. We did have a nice visit from some dolphins soon after we left. One of them had a huge chunk chomped out of his fin but it didn’t seem to bother him.

september 4 2005 : gulf of carpentaria
Just arrived at a deserted bay along the Cobourg Peninsula 100 miles north of Darwin this afternoon after yet another 300 mile trip. The sail across the Arafura Sea was great, we had perfect weather the whole time and only turned the engines on for the last few hours because we were tired and anxious to get anchored. I must say that the sailing across the Top End of Australia has been some of the best of the trip. The weather has been perfect and the wind has been so consistently behind us that we never have to make a sail or course adjustment. After anchoring we cleaned up the boat, topped off the diesel and Ali gave me another haircut after we decided that maybe the cone head look wasn’t such a good idea after all. Anyway, we decided just to spend one night here and get moving again in the morning. One more overnight sail and we’ll be in Darwin where we can actually relax for a while. Seems like there hasn’t been much time to relax in Australia.

We were just laying on the couch when we heard a weird noise outside. We went out and found a pod of dolphins swimming around the boat. Something that we see a lot of, just not usually when we are sitting at anchor in the middle of a bay. They were swimming around very slowly, surfacing and blowing air, and then suddenly a little baby dolphin jumped clear out of the water. It was like the family was just swimming around so junior could practice his jumping.

september 6 2005 : gulf of carpentaria
We are three hours from Darwin and the end of our last sail in Australia. We didn’t get much wind for this last sail and ended up motoring nearly the entire way except for about a three hour period in the middle of the night. There are some strong currents running along this track and we found ourselves motoring at only 2.5 knots at one point but as much as 8.5 at others and it didn’t seem to strictly coincide with the tides either so we were never sure what we were going to get. There is also this thick brown algae in the water that has been with us pretty much ever since Thursday Island. It’s pretty nasty looking stuff and can play tricks on our eyes sometimes and make us think we are sailing straight into a coral patch. We wouldn’t want to run the watermaker here but otherwise it seems pretty harmless.

We are extremely excited to get to Darwin at this point. We think we might have bitten off a bit more than we could handle by deciding to sail to Sydney and cover the entire east coast of Australia in just three months or so of sailing. In fact the total amount of miles we have covered in Australia is just about 2900. To give you an idea of just how much that is it is roughly equal to sailing from New York to Miami and then south through the Caribbean Islands not stopping until you hit South America. It wouldn’t be so bad if you were just sailing the distance in one shot, but when you are trying to fit in as much as we were trying to it kind of drains on you. We are exhausted.

While this isn’t quite the mid point of the trip I still thought some of you might find a couple of statistics interesting. So far we have sailed about 14,500 miles. Ali and I have sailed overnight 108 times so far on this trip. That’s 216 three hour shifts, or about 3,000 miles each at an average of 5 knots, that we have sailed by ourselves while the other person slept. We have been gone a little under two years, so right around 600 days, meaning roughly one night out of six has been spent on an overnight passage. Not to mention the countless day trips which must also be at least 100.

And here are some fun numbers. We have used 645 gallons of diesel fuel at an average cost of $3.09 USD per gallon (cheapest: Galapagos Islands at $1.02/gallon; most expensive: Sydney, Australia at $5.50/gallon). Just under $2000, or roughly $100 per month. I can only estimate, but I would guess that one quarter of that was used at anchor to charge the batteries. Another quarter was used to motorsail which on average probably adds about 2 knots to our sailing speed and the remaining half for straight motoring which by motoring with one engine at a time at relatively low RPMs gives us a speed of roughly 4.5 knots. Fuel consumption is also close to .5 gallons per hour. So what does all that mean? If correct it would mean that we have motored/motorsailed about 3,5oo miles out of those 14,500. Which also means it’s cost us about 56 cents per mile that we have motored. Of course, other than the amount of fuel and the cost, the rest of those numbers are just guesses, but I think they sound about right.

september 7 2005 : darwin, northern territory, australia
Finally land based again. We arrived at Cullen Bay Marina in Darwin at 10 a.m. yesterday and were told to pull up to a dock in a small bay. That is when we realized that the marina is actually in a separate little lake that is accessed through a lock just like the Panama Canal. Well not just like Panama, this one is on just a tad smaller scale. At the dock we were greeted by the lockmaster who told us that we would have to have a Fisheries inspection.

Turns out that a few years ago the marina had a breakout of the black-striped mussel that multiplied and took over everything in the water. So to prevent that happening again a Fisheries inspector comes out to all overseas boats and cleans the pipes. They have this cleaning solution that they insert into all of your saltwater intake hoses, your toilets, watermaker, and engines. In our case I had to take a hose off of each toilet, squirt the solution in, hook it back up and pump it through the system. The watermaker they let us just turn off the seacock and after taking a look at our engines he decided we wouldn’t have to do anything since the intake hose didn’t go through a strainer and goes directly through the engine and back out the exhaust. So they showed up around noon and it only took a few minutes to do.

Along with the Fisheries guy a group of 16 Quarantine workers came along. They asked us if we would mind letting them test out their brand spanking new underwater video camera on our boat. It was sort of a big deal for them and this would be the first time they had used it. Apparently in the future they are hoping to use it on all incoming boats to Australia and determine if they are clean enough or something. The boss was in town from Canberra to show them how it all worked and after hooking everything up they lowered it in the water and switched it on. Nothing happened. They flicked the switch a couple of times and finally realized that the battery was dead. All that build up, 16 people leaving the office for a trip to the docks and they had a dead battery. Good stuff.

The boss was a good guy and invited us out for drinks with all of them. Since the boat couldn’t go into the marina for 14 hours while the solution killed mussels, we hopped in their car and headed out for drinks. After a few hours at the first bar we relocated for a few games of pool, Ozzie Rules Pool, and a few more beers. Around nine o’clock we decided that food might be a good idea and headed off to a Thai restaurant. The rest of the night is a blur but Ali and I did somehow manage to stumble down the street and find our way back to the boat at some point.

This morning we were woken up by the lockmaster telling us we would be going through the lock at 8:30. The lock went smoothly enough as we negotiated the 18 foot tides on into the lake and the marina. The lake is surrounded by nice houses along the water and the marina has about a dozen restaurants surrounding it. So we’re settled in finally and heading into town now to find a Macca’s for lunch.

september 9 2005 : darwin
Man have we had a busy couple of days. We’ve got about a million small boat projects that need to be done before we leave Darwin, and with Katy visiting in a couple of days we have been pushing to get as many off the list as we can. A few of the projects were things like repainting the anchor chain (we paint it different colors at 25 foot intervals so that we know how much chain we have let out), cleaning lockers, fixing gelcoat cracks in the cockpit (which is my new least favorite job in the world), taking the jib and the bimini for repairs, applying a fresh coat of milder remover/inhibitor on all the headliners, reorganizing all the clothes and books containers, and on and on.

After all of that we threw the computer in a bag and hiked up to the nearest internet café which is about a mile away. This is the first marina we have been to in Australia that doesn’t have wireless internet. It’s also the first place in the entire world where we have had trouble getting our email to work on the boat. Then back at the boat last night we met a couple of friends from here in Darwin for dinner. A really nice couple and their two kids who we have been corresponding with for a long time now. They brought along a big box that my mom had sent from the States full of all sorts of good stuff, a mini Christmas in September. They also happen to be the third couple we have met in Australia who are building their own catamaran. Crazy bastards! No doubt that if I spent a couple of years building a boat I’d be so sick and tired of the thing by the time it was done that all I’d want to do is sell it and move on to something else. But hey, they all seem to be enjoying the process and I am positive their boats will be built a heck of a lot better than the one we are sailing around the world in. Notice we haven’t ever met a person who is building a monohull. Seems like people have finally realized that there is no benefit to a monohull over a catamaran.

Today we had to do some running around town. The problem with Cullen Bay Marina, besides the fact that they don’t have internet, is that there are no marine facilities at all available here. No wait, that’s not true. There is a tiny little marine store here. The place is so tiny that they don’t even carry the number one tool needed for 99% of all boat repairs. That’s right, I’m talking about 3M’s 5200 (for those of you who don’t own a boat, 5200 is a strong caulk used to make anything and everything stick together). So anyway, we grabbed a cab and loaded up the jib and the bimini and headed for the sail repair shop. We dropped those off and hailed another taxi to take us to the Fannie Bay Yacht Club where there is a more substantial chandlery. There we found most of what we needed and after dropping a quick 100 bucks we were back out on the street. From here we thought that we were close enough to home to just walk but weren’t sure exactly which way to go. We stopped a lady who was out walking her dog and asked her for directions. She pointed this way and that, and then said, “Oh, why don’t you just come with me to my house around the corner and I’ll just drive you back there.” How nice is that? And then continuing on the theme of nice Aussies, when we got back to the boat we found a gift of a couple of baseball caps from the Quarantine guys sitting in the cockpit.

Another thing about this marina is their obsession with insurance. When you sign in at a marina there is always a line asking for your insurance information. Now being uninsured ourselves we usually just scribble something completely illegible on that line and nobody ever says a word about it. But every time we walked by the marina manager here he would say, “Hey matie, ave yoo got dat insurance paperwurk aye?” So finally after the third time we had to come clean and tell him there wasn’t going to be any paperwork. So we had to pony up an extra $4 a day for the marina coverage. I’ve heard that this is pretty common in the Mediterranean as well.

september 12 2005 : darwin
The last couple of days were spent mainly around the boat working on more projects, nothing too exciting. Saturday night we went to the Deckchair Cinema, which is an outdoor movie theatre with, you guessed it, deckchairs. It’s pretty amazing to us that you can have an outdoor movie theatre where you don’t have to worry at all about the weather. In fact at the marina we have noticed there are a lot of boats who have their hatches wide open all week long even though they aren’t on their boats. It just does not rain during the dry season. The cinema plays more of the artsy/independent type movies from around the world. The first one was a locally made Aussie film and was really good. The second movie was English and would have no doubt earned itself an X rating back home, but only got an R here. Now to each his own, if porn is your thing, great, but we find porn viewing surrounded by strangers in an outdoor cinema a little awkward and found ourselves sneaking out after ten minutes. That’s art?

Yesterday Katy and her friend, Nate, showed up right on time after four flights and 31 hours of traveling time. We went out for a few drinks and had fun imparting our wisdom on the proper way to order a beer in Australia, and then went out for burgers where they learned what “the lot” means; all the regular fixings plus a fried egg and beetroot.

september 13 2005 : australia outback road trip
On Katy and Nate’s first day in Darwin we hung out in town getting ready for our road trip down to Uluru. We walked around town a bit, picked up the rental car, went to the grocery store, and back to the hotel to hang out at the pool before ordering up a couple pizza’s for dinner. That night we all went out to the Fannie Bay Sailing Club and met up with another Bum follower, a great Aussie bloke, Trevor, and his Vietnamese wife, Huong. It was a nice night and we had a great time hearing more about life in Australia, especially through the eyes of a recently immigrated foreigner. It’s quite a culture shock for a young lady from Vietnam but she really seems to enjoy it here. Katy especially enjoyed the huge fruit bats that were flying around and hanging in the trees right above us. She liked them so much that she ran inside to watch them from underneath a roof instead of under the tree.

When we got home that night we found a business card from somebody in customs. Handwritten on the card was, Call me ASAP. That can’t be good. So in the morning we rang them up and as soon as I said there was a note left on my boat for me to call them she said, “Ohhhhh, you must be Bumfuzzle.” Again, that can’t be good. Her tone was friendly though and she went on to explain that they had been looking for us. Turns out our cruising permit had expired on August 1st, the same time our original visas had been set to expire. Of course, we had our visas extended but completely forgot about the cruising permit. She went on to explain that customs hadn’t heard from us since we checked into Sydney. That wasn’t really true, we had talked to them in Brisbane and even had to produce our cruising permit for them that time, and we had been contacted by the customs boat outside Cairns and again by the plane across the Top End. But despite all of those contacts there seemed to be nothing showing up on their computer system and with our cruising permit expired, but nothing showing up for us checking out of the country, the Sydney customs group were all wondering where we were. She did tell us that they knew that we had extended our visas and so had correctly assumed that we were cruising up the coast and would be in contact eventually.

Then the day before she had been wandering through the marina and had just happened to notice our boat sitting there. Fortunately she was very friendly and didn’t seem all that concerned about any of this. Then she asked us if we could come down to their office with our permit and get the extension. I decided to press our luck and explained to her that we were on our way out the door on a road trip down to Uluru. She just laughed and said that she would make a note in the system about when we were planning on clearing out of the country and told us to have a great trip to Uluru. Nice. You’ve got to love government officials that don’t take themselves too seriously.

With that done we headed out the door bright and early and pointed the car south towards Uluru about 900 miles away. We made a few stops along the road seeing a WWII cemetery and a couple of tiny towns without any reason for existing other than to supply fuel to cars and trucks passing through. In Mataranka we visited the thermal hot springs for a swim, and on our way out spotted a bunch of kangaroos.

Our final stop of the day was Daly Waters. The only thing we knew about Daly was that it is home of the oldest pub in the Territory with a liquor license from 1893. We pulled in and found that the caravan park next door was filled to overflowing. We checked in at the bar and asked about a room for the night. The guy asked if we had a reservation, which of course we didn’t, but we were just in time and scored the last cabin available. The cabin was a lot better than we ever expected to find way out here in the middle of nowhere, and after dropping off our bags we walked back over to the bar for a few jugs and some dinner.

Dinner was excellent, huge burgers, and the best fish and chips we’ve had in Oz. The people watching was fun too. There were younger backpackers, retired caravaners, and even a few local cowboy looking guys wearing huge round cowboy hats. The bar is also covered in all sorts of stuff, from undies and t-shirts, to name tags and drivers licenses. After shooting a little pool and tipping a few glasses we all called it a day.

september 15 2005 : outback road trip
Three days in to the road trip and we are finally down to Alice Springs, the biggest town in Central Australia. Uluru is about another four hours from here. Driving through the middle of Australia has been quite a bit different than we expected. The landscape isn’t nearly as flat as we expected, and actually there are quite a few hill/mountain ranges. And we thought that it was going to be a lot more like a desert than it is. We are in the dry season yet there is a lot of greenery, grasses and trees. The road through the center of Oz is just a one lane highway but there is so little traffic along it that it rarely matters. There isn’t even a speed limit if you can believe that. Most cars, us included, seem to hang around 80 mph but a few have passed us doing 120 or so. I suppose if I wasn’t driving along in a little runt of a Hyundai we could be making a little better time as well. The only thing you really need to watch out for are the huge road trains, which are trucks with three trailers on them and are over 50 yards long. It also isn’t safe to drive at night because of all of the kangaroos and cows on the road. There are no fences in this part of the country, so cattle roam free.

Yesterday we drove to Tennant Creek where our Lonely Planet guide said that the Mary Ann Dam was supposed to be a really nice place to go for a swim and enjoy a picnic. So after checking in to a motel we drove down the road to the dam and found that there was about a foot of water left in the reservoir and underneath that water was the kind of mud that would swallow you whole. We got out of the car and wandered around the dam and park area for about 30 seconds before we realized that there was absolutely no way anybody could ever enjoy a picnic here. The flies were out of control. The flies in the outback are the most annoying creatures on earth. They swarm your eyes, ears, nose and mouth constantly and they aren’t the least bit deterred by your swatting at them. Once a fly finds your mouth he will come back again and again and again until you get in the car and drive as fast as you can with the windows open and your head hanging out in the wind.

Tennant Creek didn’t really have anything going for it. The main street had a couple of gas stations, a couple take-away restaurants, a grungy looking pub, and a couple of liquor stores. We went to dinner at one of the take-away’s where Ali got herself a nice cold spring roll and I had a chicken burger which I bit into and found purple chicken meat. The fries seemed to be the correct color so I ate those and we went back to the hotel to eat candy bars instead.

A little while after going to bed we got a knock on the door from Katy. She said there was a problem in her room and we followed her over. We found Nate standing on top of the bed hyperventilating. Katy pointed out the problem which was a spider about the size of my hand sitting on the nightstand. Now, when Ali and I found out Katy was bringing along a friend on this trip we thought “great, somebody to watch out for her.” Oh how wrong we were. Seems that I was still in charge of killing large spiders in Katy’s motel room. A local told us the next day that it was a Huntington spider and it wasn’t poisonous. But seeing a spider that big, poisonous or not, didn’t help us get to sleep that night.

Today we were back on the road and heading for Alice Springs. Our first stop of the day was the Devil’s Marbles. The Marbles are a bunch of big round rocks just out in the middle of nowhere with nothing similar around them. They are pretty amazing and are a blast to go and climb around on. Later in the afternoon we were driving along and could see a storm up ahead. Within a few minutes the sky became dark and was full of lightning and thunder. Then the rain came. It was quickly raining so hard that we couldn’t see the road and I pulled off onto the shoulder. The problem is that the shoulder is red dirt that slopes down into the ditch. Within a couple of minutes the ditch was flowing like a river and we actually felt the car move a little bit as the rock washed out from underneath us. I pulled up a little closer to the road and another car pulled in behind us. After about 15 minutes the rain eased off enough to see the road again and we drove off.

A mile down the road was a roadhouse so we stopped in and settled down at the bar to wait it out. An hour later we were on our way again and by late afternoon we were settled into our crappy overpriced motel rooms in Alice Springs with a fresh Pizza Hut pizza and an ice cold Mountain Dew. One day away from Uluru.

september 17 2005 : outback road trip
Back on the road yesterday we drove out of Alice Springs and down to Uluru. On the drive down we passed what turned out to be 1400 Harley Davidson’s going in the other direction. The gas stations along the way all seemed pretty pleased with the business that many bikes brought them. Riding out here has got to be tough. I heard one guy say that they had been riding for two weeks. I’d imagine for most of them it’s a two week trip from just about anywhere in the country to Uluru. At one point we almost ran over a huge lizard. He was half a lane wide as he ran across the road just in front of us.

The first big rock we saw was actually Mt. Connor. We were sure that it must be Uluru until we realized that we were still 50 miles away and that it would have to be one damn big rock to see from that far away. Eventually we did make it to Uluru and in fact it was a damn big rock. It really is beautiful and as you get closer you realize just how huge it really is. Uluru is a single rock that is jutting out of the earth and despite sticking up as tall as the Sears Tower only one-third of the total rock is above ground. We drove around it stopping at all the lookouts until we got to the rock walk entrance.

Now when we were driving around we had no intention of climbing the rock but once I saw the people scaling their way up the side of an extremely steep looking slope of smooth rock I knew I had to do it. Ali and Nate felt the same way, but Katy wisely let her fear of heights keep her on the ground. The reason we weren’t going to climb is because the rock is sacred to the Aborigines. That obviously didn’t stop the Australian government from installing a chain from top to bottom for tourists to use as a hand hold though, and I admit it, the temptation to climb a big red rock was just too much. Hell, I’d climb around on the roof of the Vatican too if they’d let me. Anyway, the climb was pretty strenuous and was extremely steep. We’d been warned that people have died on this climb and now I can see why. If you were to fall down there would be absolutely no way to stop yourself until the ground at the bottom did it for you. The views from the top were amazing and you got a really great view of the Olgas, which are another rock formation about 25 miles away.

After the climb it was time to head back to our resort and check in. We had made a reservation before we left Darwin since we knew that if you couldn’t get a room at Uluru you would have to drive four hours back to Alice Springs. The resort area at Uluru is the ultimate rip off. They know they’ve got you and they take full advantage. Our room was the cheapest in the entire resort compound at $184 per night. It turned out to be a small prison cell with 4 bunk beds in it. I am not exaggerating at all when I say that my college freshman dorm was like a presidential suite compared to this room. Two of us would have to step outside if the other two wanted to get out of their beds. Our only other choice when we called on rooms was a $450 room which was only a double.

After hanging around and having a beer, at a surprisingly reasonable price, we drove over to Kata Tjuta National Park, also known as the Olgas, for sunset. From there we could see Uluru as well. Again the scenery was great and we enjoyed having the place all to ourselves after another group left shortly after we arrived.

After dark it was back to the resort for dinner. They had a take-away shop with amazingly good prices as well, so apparently after screwing you on the rooms they feel guilty enough to let you eat and drink without cashing in your portfolio. I opted for the kangaroo burger seeing as I had yet to eat any of those cuddly little creatures during our entire visit to Oz. As with every other kind of meat I’ve never had I assumed it would taste like chicken, so I was pleasantly surprised when I got it and it looked just like a steak. A rather thin steak, and definitely not a filet, but a steak nonetheless. So kangaroo gets high marks from me.

While Nate and I were up getting the food, a solo backpacker guy had moved in on the girls. He seemed disappointed when we came back and nudged him aside and then seemed a bit appalled when I tucked into my ‘roo since it turned out he was a vegetarian. Nate and I were also approached by a couple of very drunk Aborigine guys who I at first assumed wanted money, and being an old pro at blowing off panhandlers I didn’t even give them a chance to get to the real point, but Nate stuck around for their whole speech, and it turned out they had plenty of money but wanted us to buy their beer for them. There is a rule (imposed by the Aborigine’s themselves) that the Aborigine’s can’t buy alcohol here, so they approach tourists to buy for them. Seemed kind of sad that a couple of guys in their 50’s were asking us to buy them beer. Reminded me of when my friends and I were about 17 years old and would hang out in front of liquor stores and try to get people to buy for us, only in reverse.

After a terrible nights sleep due to the fact that it is impossible to regulate the temperature in a six-by-six foot room made of cinder block we hit the road early for our drive to Kings Canyon. The road out to the canyon was one of the best ever. The scenery was nice but the best thing was all the wild animals. The first thing we saw was a group of wild camels. That’s right, good old African camels run wild out here. This group had two large adult camels and about 6 smaller ones. As soon as we pulled over they all stopped what they were doing and just stared at us. Eventually they went back to feeding, but the big daddy just stood still and watched us the entire time. We took some pictures and as we piled back in the car to drive off they got spooked and we watched as the whole family ran off into the hills.

A little farther down the road we saw a huge wedge-tailed eagle feeding on the carcass of a fresh kangaroo killed overnight. We see these eagles all over the place out here, but this one actually let us get pretty close before taking off. Another mile down the road we came across a bunch of cows scattered across the road wandering from one side to the other having lunch. We of course never pass up the chance to stop and talk to them. One of them who had a big set of horns looked like he was about to charge us but as soon as Ali said hi to him he bolted off in the other direction.

Next up was a single camel who was feeding right next to the road. We pulled the car over right next to him and he couldn’t have cared less. He just went on munching away and even let us get out and approach pretty close to him. Back on the road, this time we came across a herd of wild horses. They were running right towards the road as we drove past. We stopped as quick as we could and flipped a U-turn so we could watch them. As soon as we stopped they all stopped and stared at us. There were about seven of them and after deciding that we weren’t going to bother them they started for the road again. There was a camper van coming up fast from the other side and we flashed our lights at them just in time for them to stop before the horses ran full speed across the road just in front of them. There was a baby and his mom who were the first across followed by a few medium sized horses and then bringing up the rear was the big stallion looking horse. After they got across the road they slowed to a trot and continued on into the brush, but the big one at the back stopped and stared at us again. Then he snorted, reared his head back and shook it before running after the rest of the group. It was really amazing to get to see.

On the road again we saw a couple more camels feeding near the road and a while later came across another small group of horses. This time we got out of the car and watched for a while. Katy walked towards them which seemed to interest them a little bit but not enough to come over and investigate her. By now, we had taken hours longer than I had thought we would take and we needed to get a move on if we were going to get to Kings Canyon and back to Alice Springs by dark.

At Kings Canyon we had a short walk into the canyon to see the 100 meter sheer vertical cliffs and the dry creek bed in the bottom. It was a pleasant enough spot but we would give it a miss unless you plan to do the five hour strenuous hike to the top of the canyon rim instead. The flies were once again the most disgusting, annoying things you could possibly imagine. A lot of the more seasoned outback hikers were wearing full head nets and long sleeves, but we had to content ourselves with wild flailing and swearing. The swearing doesn’t seem to deter them at all but it makes us feel a little better. Back in the car we went through the routine of driving really fast with the windows down and trying to sweep all of the flies out before quickly putting the windows back up and turning on the air. We stopped in at the last gas station before Alice Springs and inquired about the dirt road ahead (Larapinta Drive). The girl told us it was 200 km of unsealed road but a car could make it through, just a bit slowly and uncomfortably.

So out on the dirt road we immediately ran into road construction. There were two narrow paths through the soft red dirt they were laying. We chose the wrong one and ended up stranded behind an unmoving truck. While backing out along the narrow path I managed to roll over a small aluminum stake that impaled itself through our plastic bumper. Great. I’m sure the rental car company will charge us a very fair price for that being the friendly sorts that they usually are.

So on that note we left for 200 km of the worst road we have ever been on. Writing this I can still feel the tingling in my hands and feet from the vibrating of the road. The track was so bad at times that I was sure the car was going to just fall apart like they do in cartoons. You know when every body panel just suddenly flops out to the side and all you see is the driver holding a steering wheel while sitting in the dirt. In fact two times we had to pull over because the trunk had popped open. The scenery was beautiful and the road followed a range of mountains nearly the entire way, but none of us could enjoy it at all. We couldn’t talk and our eyeballs hurt. Definitely do not ever drive a Hyundai on unsealed roads in the Outback. There were a lot of 4x4s driving the track who seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. I didn’t allow myself to think about it beforehand, but when we finally reached the sealed roads again I couldn’t believe that we had made it through without at least one flat tire. Two hours later we were back in Alice scarfing down Whoppers before crawling off to bed to forget about the second half of the day.

september 19 2005 : outback road trip
The next morning in Alice Springs we spent hanging out around the downtown area walking through the Sunday morning market. Katy and Nate were busy buying souvenirs and Ali and I found a great sausage barbeque stand. Then we were back on the road for the return trip up the same road we took down.

We tried to stop at different roadhouses to at least mix things up a little bit. One of the stranger of the roadhouses was at Wycliffe Well which claims itself as the UFO Capital of Australia. The roadhouse is covered inside with newspaper articles of sightings and all sorts of other strange things. The outside had a rather strange assortment of things as well. There was a Hulk statue with blonde hair, alien statues climbing out a spaceship, an Elvis statue, and a whole bunch of bird cages with about every kind of Australian bird there is.

After a long day on the road we took off on a short side road to see the Devil’s Marbles from the other direction. Katy and Nate didn’t even look up from their books so I guess they had had enough of the outback scenery by that point. Back in Tennant Creek we got rooms at the nicest motel in town and went out in search of dinner, something besides the famous purple chicken take-away shack. We eventually ended up at a pub for the Sunday night roast beef dinner.

After dinner we were having a couple of beers when a guy walked by and stopped to inform us that the West Coast Eagles footy team is the best! It’s playoff time for the footy, so fans are a little worked up right now. I told him that we were down in Melbourne a couple of months ago and saw the first place Eagles get their butts kicked by the last place Magpies. That stopped him in his tracks because he was so shocked to hear foreigners talk back to him about his beloved footy. He just stood there grinning and yelled out “Another round for this table!”

Then he and his wife sat down and we got entertained by one of the funniest Aussie’s we’ve met yet. He informed us that the greatest thing ever to come out of the U.S. was the movie The Sting. Then he told us a story about the mysterious death of an Australian racehorse in Mexico by the Mafia. Not sure how that all tied in together but he seemed to really enjoy hearing that I worked alongside a whole bunch of Italians in Chicago. That seemed to solve the mystery of the murdered horse. The guys wife was the funniest though. She was stone sober and explained to us that he worked out in the bush for three weeks at a time before getting a week off when he would come home and raise a little hell. Then it was back into the bush and she would get back to her nice quiet normal life for three weeks. She was a great sport about it though and obviously loved having him home.

Today we decided to make a big mileage day and were on the road early headed for Katherine. The day was extremely uneventful until we came around a corner and found the road blocked. We couldn’t tell at first what it was, but as we got closer we realized that it was a car crash. The road was completely covered with litter and all we could really see was a boat laying in the ditch and a big trailer laying on its side. We jumped out of the car and started running up to the accident when a guy with a bloody head came stumbling around from the other side of the crash with a lady holding his arm. It turned out that the accident had happened about a minute earlier and the guy was the only one in the truck. The lady had been in a car shortly behind him. The guy that crashed was in a pickup truck with a small boat on top and towing a caravan. Your most common outback vehicle. He had been driving along when he had a tire blow out and he lost control and everything flipped. The caravan basically exploded as it smashed down on its side, and the boat broke the straps holding it down and went airborne.

Amazingly the driver was uninjured except for a small cut on the top of his head. The nearest town was only about 10 miles back and another passerby headed back to town to get the police. In the meantime another truck had pulled up and attached a winch to the truck. They got it pulled back upright and close to the side of the road. By now there were about twenty people on the scene and everybody chipped in to begin clearing the road of the caravan and all of the contents. Within about 30 minutes pretty much everything was off to the side. By the time the police got there you couldn’t really tell what had happened other than that a big mess had been made. By now everybody was about ready to die from the heat since the forecast for the day was for 98 degrees and on the road in the middle of nowhere it felt like double that.

A little note about driving in the Outback. Never trust a mileage sign. The other day when we were driving along the dirt road I was watching the mileage intently because I couldn’t wait to get back onto a sealed road. At one point we drove for 120 km but when we saw the next sign it showed we were only 50 km closer to Alice Springs. I was shocked and a little worried about actually making it in before dark. But the next sign about 5 km later suddenly showed that we had actually covered 80 km in just ten minutes. At that point I started watching all the signs and found that even back on the main Stuart Highway, signs were routinely off by as much as 14 km. I guess with that much distance to cover a few km here or there doesn’t make much difference.

september 23 2005 : darwin, northern territory, australia
Our last stop of the road trip was to Litchfield National Park. It was conveniently located just off the main highway. We had a beautiful day for it and stopped first at the Florence Falls which was an incredible rock pool with two waterfalls cascading into it. And there were only a handful of people there which was nice. We swam around enjoying the crystal clear water and the amazing surroundings. Best of all was the fact that while you were in the water you were safe from the flies. I could have stayed all day.

Back up the road a bit we stopped at the Buley Rockhole which is more like a series of small rockholes that continue downstream in a series of steps. When we got there though we found it was more like a family bathing spot for gypsies. Families would have entire rockholes taken over by hanging laundry all over every tree and bush, blocking paths with their giant inflatable mattresses and generally staring down anybody who made a move towards their rockhole. We eventually found one and were sitting around enjoying the cool water when the family in the pool above us started cleaning their dirty dishes in the rapids that flowed down into our pool. Okay time to go, we took off for the Wangi Falls down the road.

This waterfall drops into a much bigger swimming hole and is therefore much more busy and full of tour buses. It was another really beautiful spot though and despite the warnings that there are freshwater crocodiles here, and very rarely a saltie, we jumped in for another swim. Katy stayed clear of the water though, the warning signs about the crocs were enough to keep her in the grass to do battle with hordes of flies instead. Back on the road for the final drive into Darwin we could either backtrack 50 km out of the park or take on one more dirt road. I figured the dirt road between here and Darwin had to be pretty well used so we took off down it. Fortunately it was smooth as a dirt road can be.

We were back in Darwin in no time and after dropping Katy and Nate off at their hotel Ali and I took off to use our last hours with the car to full advantage. We went and picked up our sail and bimini. Then after clearing out the car back at the boat we headed for the grocery store to do our final big provisioning stop before heading overseas again. We’re pretty sure that we are now way overstocked. It feels a lot like when we were getting ready to leave on this trip in the first place.

That night we stopped at Domino’s to pick up a couple of pizza’s to bring back to Katy’s hotel room for dinner. While we were inside waiting for our pizza’s a guy came inside and asked us if that was our car parked behind his. It was. He then told us he had backed into us! He didn’t see any damage but wanted us to have a look to be sure. We couldn’t believe what was going on with this rental car. First we bash up the rear bumper and then somebody tries to bash in the front bumper. We went outside and had a look but couldn’t see anything so told him “no worries” and went back inside. A minute later he came back in because he wanted to give us his name and phone number in case we noticed anything later. Have you ever heard of anybody doing anything like that? Nice honest bloke.

The next morning it was back in the car early for more running around. We made a trip to the marina store, hardware store, auto parts store, car wash, a final stop at the grocery store, the gas station to get our propane tanks filled, the book exchange to get rid of everything that we’ve read and try to stock up again, a quick stop to check email, and finally to drop the car off. When we brought the car in and showed the guy the bumper he asked us if we had bought the extended insurance coverage. At $24 a day we of course had passed on that. Who would possibly spend $216 extra to rent a car for 9 days and limit their liability to $350. The math just doesn’t add up. Granted in our case it would have probably been a good thing, but we won’t know until they get us the estimate in the next couple of days.

The last couple of days around Darwin we have been pretty laid back. Laying out by the pool, walking around town, and watching tv in the hotel room. We did go out and test a little theory I had about Cooper’s Pale Ale though. Now that all the final results are in I can submit the findings. Drinking Cooper’s until well into the normal hangover stage will not result in any unfriendly morning side effects. Seriously, not one person has ever felt hungover after drinking Cooper’s. Our friend Trevor had said to us in his first email “drink Cooper’s not VB” that was the whole email.

Last night we visited the Mindil Beach Night Market. One of the best markets we’ve been to. There were dozens of food stalls, mainly selling Asian food but also a wide variety of everything else. I tried a crocodile kabob from the Roadkill Café and it was really good. Tasted a lot like a pork chop to me. We also ran into Huong which was a nice surprise since she is leaving on holiday in a couple of days and heading home to Vietnam to visit family and friends and we didn’t think we’d see her again. The markets also have over 200 market stalls selling pretty much everything. Families all make a big evening out of the markets and bring chairs and eskies full of beer and sit on the beach all night, walking up for some good grub every now and then. The place was packed and it was clear that the entire city comes out for the market here.

september 25 2005 : darwin
With Katy and Nate on their way home Ali and I have been forced to once again dive into the boat projects list. Yesterday our work day was cut short by something else much more important though, and that was the Footy Final between the West Coast Eagles and the Sydney Swans. I’ve become a big fan of the Footy and Ali is always up for watching the games as long as she doesn’t have to pay attention to it, and can just sit and watch people instead. So at around noon we found ourselves back in the familiar surroundings of the Lizard Bar and Grill downtown.

The game was a classic with the Swans squeaking out a win 58-54. It was played at the MCG which is the stadium we went to in Melbourne and I heard on the radio later that at least twenty of the players would have run the equivalent of a half marathon during the game. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the game because the Swan’s star player Barry Hall had received a one game suspension in their previous game which would have meant that he couldn’t play in the Final. But in the end he somehow got the suspension overturned and it turned out that there was no way the Swan’s would have won the game without him. Anyway, it had been 72 years since the Swan’s had last won the championship, so it was pretty exciting stuff.

During the game we met a group of guys who work as independent cameramen and sound crew for the news, documentaries, or whatnot. Most of them were in town to shoot footage of the World Solar Car Challenge which started today. It goes on every year and is held here obviously because of the incredible amount of sun. One of the guys is shooting a show for National Geographic and asked us if we wanted to be in it. They’ve asked me not to tell what it is about but I can say that we will have to do a little night swimming (a quote from the croc guide the other day “to swim at night in the Top End is suicide”). So in a couple of days we are going to be expanding on our burgeoning careers as television stars.

The night sort of went on and on and eventually we ended up playing a game called Tin Man. The rules of Tin Man are that you have to keep your feet behind a line, then using only one hand you stretch out along the ground, but without touching the ground with anything but that hand. In your other hand you have a beer bottle which you reach out as far as you can and stand it up. Then the trick of the game is that you have to push yourself back up into a standing position using only the one hand you have on the ground, and also without dragging that hand at all.

The game got pretty intense and somehow the oldest and shortest of all the players, who happens to be named Johnnie Walker, ended up winning, even beating out one guy who was 6′ 5″ tall. The best part of the game though was when one of the guys was reaching way out and suddenly couldn’t hold himself up anymore. He fell down right on his face and actually had a big bloody scuff on his cheek. Drunken bloody bar games, you gotta love ’em.

september 26 2005 : darwin
Happy days are here again. We had an electrician out to the boat this morning to have a look at our ongoing problem with the port engine alternator. After about an hour and a half of troubleshooting every possible wire on the boat he was just as stumped as I was. Eventually he decided that the only possibility was that the engines internal regulator had not been properly bypassed. So he left and I got to work removing the alternator. He picked it up a while later and took it off to his shop where he removed the internal regulator and redid a little wiring. I installed the alternator, hooked up the wiring, and fired her up. Perfect.

I had been trying to fix this for months but without knowing anything about internal regulators, or what they even looked like or where it was found, it was hopeless. The original mechanic that had installed the engine, and who I had rewired the alternator in the first place had seemed confident that we had bypassed the internal regulator when we hooked it up, but it looks like he didn’t know what he was talking about either. So anyway we are thrilled to be able to charge the batteries properly again.

And to end the story about the rental car, we did get our bill for the bumper. Final tally $650 AU (about $520 USD). Not terrible, but not great either. About $50 of that was for parts, the rest was labor. Plastic pieces of crap. I knew I should have slapped a little epoxy on the thing and followed that up with a handful of dirt. The girl that gave us the news was thrilled that she saved us $50 by having the bumper fixed instead of replaced. I was happy to learn that if we had paid the $24 a day for the extra insurance we would have only saved ourselves about $80 because of the $360 deductible we would have still had. I guess cars are no cheaper than boats after all.

september 28 2005 : national geographic on location
The other night we had gone downtown to have something to eat. When we got back to the boat a guy from National Geographic came over and said he and his colleagues were sitting over at the restaurant across from us and asked us over for a drink. We had been playing phone tag with the Production Assistant all day so were happy she was there and could fill us in on the details for the next day. As it turns out they were actually staking us out, and after a little chat told Ali that they were considering her for the main character in the show. Sweet. Then they told me that one of the guys would have a bigger part than the others and that I looked liked him so that would be my part. Alright! Then we broke the news to them that we didn’t own any hiking gear; no shoes, no shirts with big pockets all over it, none of it. No problem, they would take us shopping.

So yesterday morning we arrived at the hotel early and whisked away to the outdoor outfitters in Darwin. They quickly had Ali trying on shoes, shirts, and hats. Eventually we realized that we wore the same size shoes as the two that were helping us out so we ended up borrowing their shoes for the shoot. Ali had been wearing a pair of the dirty free socks that they have at shoe stores for people who aren’t wearing socks when they come in. The production people decided they liked the look of those dirty socks and they ended up buying those as well as hats and shirts.

Back at the hotel we met the other actors, backpackers from all over the globe, not an Aussie in the bunch. Then we were loaded up into a big truck, all nine of us, for a hot cramped ride down to Litchfield National Park. We took the exact same road that we had driven just a week earlier so it wasn’t all that great to see Litchfield again. Stopping for lunch along the way, the catering department had put out a great spread for us highly paid actors which included such offerings as tuna or chicken sandwiches and a fruit cup. Actually, that was all the offerings.

When we arrived at the location for the first shoot we were ushered into wardrobe. The wardrobe department consisted of big beach towels wrapped around your body while you shimmied in and out of your clothes underneath. I’m just kidding of course about the different departments, as the Aussie’s would say I’m giving them the piss. Actually there were only about four main people who were in charge of everything on the show and they all did a great job and are super nice people. We’re not actually jaded actors just yet.

All changed into our hiking gear they started wiping dirt all over Ali, spraying her with water and generally trying to make her look like she had been out hiking for a couple of days. It quickly became clear to everybody who the star of the show was. Before long Ali was yelling “Cut! Cut! I can’t work in these conditions! Where is my Evian water?!” The rest of us lowly extras were getting resentful and I was trying desperately to disassociate myself from her. The film crew seemed to love her though. They had her doing all sorts of cute little flips of the head and fake giggles, which she pulled off perfectly. And every scene was set up around, “Where should Ali be for this shot.” It was great fun and I was super proud of her, but I couldn’t show that in front of the girl extras or they’d turn on me and call me a traitor. Us extras have to stick together. We did a whole bunch of hiking scenes, usually five times each. It was really hot out and before long they didn’t even have to come around and spritz us for a fake sweat.

Next up was a swimming scene which went pretty well and was a nice cool down from the heat. And after that we loaded up and moved locations to the camp scene where we all sat around the fire after a long day of hiking, played the didgeridoo, and generally acted as if we were having the time of our lives. They spent a little time with everyone doing close-up shots, but once again Ali was queen and they spent hours shooting close-ups of her face and getting as many thoughtful/excited/sorrowful/ happy/confused looks as they could get out of her. About this time some of the other girls started asking the director if their characters even had names. He quickly made some up and the girls scattered off happily reciting them.

A little before midnight we wrapped for the day. We found out that the next days shooting wouldn’t start until six p.m. so Ali and I decided to catch a ride back into Darwin instead of staying with the other actors in the local motel. They all took off and we watched the cameramen setting up the lighting for tomorrow nights climactic swimming scene. The spot was beautiful and the water crystal clear. The park ranger was on hand and assured us that there were no crocs in this area, not even freshies. So that helped put our minds at ease and now we are really looking forward to the shoot.

On the way back into Darwin the crew told us how happy they were with how everything had gone that day and how they had thought about using professional actors for the show but had changed their minds and were now glad they did. They might have just been being polite, but it was still nice to hear. They also told us how they had turned a bunch of girls down for Ali’s part, but when they found her they knew she was the one. Apparently she looks a lot like the real girl.

They also made sure to ask us not to give too many details about the show on the website out of respect for the families involved. So I can’t tell you the names or the story until the show airs sometime in January or February. The show by the way is called, Hunter and Hunted and is already a regular feature on the National Geographic channel. Also, I should mention that we don’t have any speaking parts in the show. There will be a narrator and probably some creepy music playing over us the whole time. So if it sounds like we are great actor’s it is only because we didn’t have to say anything. CUT!!

september 29 2005 : darwin, northern territory, australia
“National Geographic presents, the beautiful, talented, and famous, Alison Foxx in her inspirational debut on the American television screen. Also starring Sir Patrick Schulte, International Man of Mystery.” Ali’s agent decided that she needed to change her name to sound more sexy and less German. I don’t have an agent and just thought Sir Patrick sounded cool. I was wrong, and should definitely get an agent.

What a day yesterday. The crew picked us up and we drove back down to Berry Springs, the location of the night shoot. Along the way we stopped to pick up a take-out menu from the restaurant that we would be ordering from later. In the parking lot of this roadhouse bar/restaurant we noticed a sign out front advertising “TOPLESS Barmaid 5:30-7:30” since it was only 5:15 we just stayed in the car while one of the crew ran in. I wasn’t sure a strip joint along the highway was a good sign of things to come, but in the end they served a pretty good beef and black bean on white rice. Yes, we broke every rule ever written about eating at strip joints, even rule #2, don’t eat Asian food. Rule #1 of course being never eat anything at a strip joint.

On location, the first shot of the evening included all of us riding around in the back of a truck. Easy enough scene, and we were all able to catch up on what we had done all day. The conversation quickly turned to guessing who would be sitting out during the final climactic scene. We all knew two of the five guys weren’t included in that scene, but apparently only Ali and I knew that it was going to be the two Germans sitting out. The rest of the group seemed to conclude that because me and the English guy had gotten so much airtime already that we would probably be the two who would sit out. As if it was an elementary school gym class in which every player needed to get equal time to be fair. Hey, bummer for the German’s, but I’m an actor and therefore very protective of my screen time. They pouted around the rest of the evening so in the end the director shot some scene that just showed the two of them sitting around a fire which is sure to be cut completely from the final show.

Setting up for the big scene was really cool. The swimming hole we were using looked spooky at night. As they were getting the lighting in place, hundreds of fruit bats circled and dipped into the surface of the water. It was creepy. Fortunately the bats left as quickly as they came, after one of them first left a squirt on Ali’s head. She turned and went on a screaming tirade at her assistant for not holding the umbrella over her head properly. Or she would have, had she been that type of bitchy actress. Or had she had an assistant, or an agent, or really anybody to yell at. The below picture is the swimming hole in daylight.

The night shoot went really well. We still had to do take after take of the different shots, but the director seemed pleased with the results. It was funny though, we were all swimming about the same amount of time, but the girls were able to tread water much longer than the guys. I was exhausted and could hardly move my arms by the end, same for the other guys. We were all panting and would fight over the small rock that we could stand on for a few seconds of rest. While the girls happily floated on their backs or casually paddled around in circles. Us guys would sink like bricks the second we stopped our furious kicking and paddling.

Ali was the big star of the show and the night shoot definitely made that clear. It was really awesome how great she did. Her big scene, getting yanked underwater by the croc, gave us all the chills. Seriously, it was wicked stuff. The director immediately said that it would be the clip that would play right before every commercial to keep the audience coming back. I had a pretty major part in the end as well, and may even end up with a dramatic yelling scene, assuming it doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor next to the two German guys.

At three a.m. we finally shot the last scene, and after an attempt at shooting a group photo in the pitch black darkness of the woods, we were on our way home again. The whole experience was great and we had a ton of fun with it. Our thanks to all the crew, and especially to Cam for finding us at the bar that night. You guys were terrific. And a special shout out to Joe Bob’s XXX Roadside Bootie Bistro for a fantastic seafood platter.

Like I said, we cannot give you many details about the show before it airs, but you can find Hunter and Hunted on the National Geographic website and read about the show. It is a one hour weekly feature on National Geographic television and our episode should air in January or February. Either we will let you know when it will air or Ali’s people (or “peeps” as she likes to call them) will contact you all individually. Believe me, either way you’ll know about it.

Nice little side benefit to our television adventure is that it paid pretty decent as well. At least it covered our rental car damage. We can never get ahead lately, but scratching our way back to even for a couple of days is nice.

Today we were up early and out the door despite only having gotten about four hours of sleep. Our first stop was back to the sail repair shop, SeaFleet Marine. We had them make us two winch holders to replace our plastic ones which have completely fallen apart. We brought in one of our plastic ones and asked them to make us two new ones out of some webbing material using the same screw holes as the old plastic one. Well the other day when I went to install them I realized they had managed to make them too small and I couldn’t use the old screw holes. Making them essentially worthless to us despite having cost $60. So we took a $10 cab ride over there this morning in order to get ourselves a refund. The manager had a look at the new holders, compared them to the old one, and grudgingly agreed to give us a refund. Then while he was walking towards the cash register he turned and threw all of the winch holders angrily across the room. Ali said, “Uh, yeah, we’re going to need that plastic one back.” So he stomped over and retrieved it. I usually don’t care enough to offer opinions on businesses (other than our old favorite Charter Cats), but these guys do crap work (hey, again just like our old favorite Charter Cats). If you are ever in Darwin and need work done, look elsewhere.

Yesterday we received our CAIT and social letter for Indonesia. The CAIT is the cruising permit that you need to have in order to sail in Indonesian waters, and the social letter is needed in order to stay more than 30 days. With the paperwork in hand we went to the Indonesian embassy today in order to get our visas. The embassy was right downtown and the paperwork was straightforward and easy to fill out. The only problem is that it takes four business days to complete. So it now looks like we will be here until next Thursday instead of Tuesday.

After that stop it was on over to Australian customs to fill out more paperwork and set up an appointment to be checked out of the country. Our customs officer was training in a new guy which always makes things go more smoothly. He didn’t even yell at us about that expired cruising permit of ours. We did get some bad news though. Here in Oz they have GST tax, which is something like 10% on just about everything you buy. This is on top of their roughly 50% tax rate on what we would consider middle income earners. But that’s a different story. This GST is supposed to be refundable to tourists. Here’s how it works. If you spend over $300 at one retailer on something that is leaving the country with you, then you are entitled to have the GST refunded. Fair enough. So we figured we’d be getting GST refunded on all sorts of things. My surfboard, that $1000 engine part, a couple of different marine store bills, etc. etc.. Then today we found out what the catch is. This refund is only good on goods purchased in the last 30 days. Essentially it is for tourists who fly in for a two week holiday, buy an Aboriginal painting, and then fly home again. It is not at all intended for those of us that are spending six months in the country fixing our boats and living our day to day lives here. So now instead of getting the few hundred dollars we had been hoping to get back we are going to get about $32. Sweet.

Lately we have been watching the weather to Bali and it doesn’t look like we will be sailing much. Seems everybody that is leaving at this time of year is putting onboard a whole lot of diesel. I don’t know if I mentioned it a while back or not, but we bought three more jerry cans that fit in our chain locker, which brings our total up to about 90 gallons onboard. That should give us enough to motor pretty much the entire way. We met this one cruiser on the dock the other day who mentioned that they had just bought a 100 liter collapsible jug to store on the deck of their boat for this trip, and that brought their total to 1100 liters, or about 300 gallons! I don’t know what kind of boat she is on, but damn that seems like a lot of fuel.

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