Thanksgiving at Sea

Between trying to sort out travel plans for the next few months (next venture: renting a campa van with Tessa for 2 weeks and driving from Brisbane to Melbourne, stopping in Sydney and wherever else we feel along the way), updating the OceansWatch blog, answering emails, sending emails on my very own OceansWatch email account (katherine@oceanswatch.org), sailing from point A to B, chatting up yachties, getting hit on by old men, and skyping with the family on Thanksgiving, I hardly find time to update my own blog.

Once we left Bundaberg, we decided to sail in between Frasier Island (biggest island formed solely of sand in the world) and the coast instead of around it, which saved us about 100 nautical miles of sailing. The trouble is, the area in between is SUPER shallow and consists of shifting sand banks (which are exactly what they sound like, piles of sand underneath the surface that shift constantly so no chart or plotter is necessarially accurate). Needless to say, we had to pay very careful attention to where we were going so we didn’t run aground. After staying in a marina, seeing the new Twilight movie, and then anchoring at a cute little place called Tin Can Bay, Thanksgiving morning we set sail to cross the Wide Bay Bar. This is a sand bar that goes out pretty far under the water, creating waves that break miles into the ocean and can be pretty dangerous, as sailing into breaking waves is never a good thing. We made it over fine, but were fully prepared for the worst. Spent Thanksgiving sailing through the night and eating noodles with tomatoes on them….neot gonna like I was a little bit homesick!

p.s. click on any of the pictures to see them a little bit bigger.

Irene and I posing for the camera

Magic Roundabout sails up!

Not too thrilling, but unless there is something super shallow in the sea, waves don't break so this is actually pretty cool if you know what's going on

photo of the sandy straights, from a canal, which we ran aground on for an hour

sunset at Tin Can Bay!

Bundaberg

This marina is a little smaller than we expected, but has a definite personality. I knew it was going to be a good one when I walked up to the main building and the local bar was called “Baltimore.” Coincidence? Every single person I have met in the past few days has been kind, welcoming and very interested in talking about where I’m from, how I’m liking Australia, what my plans for the future are and swapping travel stories. The most wonderful couple, Liz and John, even took me into town in their rental car today because it is 18 km away and I certainly couldn’t walk there in this Australian heat! The guy across the dock invited us over to watch a movie on the boat he looks after (HUGE and has a TV!) and our neighbor just asked us over for beers in a half hour (he brews his own on the boat…). We got past a sticky financial situation and I’ve caught up with a few of you guys so I’m in a really great mood…it is always amazing to hear from you I miss everyone like crazy!

obviously me taking a nap on deck

a beach with tiny tiny shells instead of sand!

my marketing skills being put to good use

Percy Island A-Frame

In between Mackay and Yeppoon is an island called Middle Percy, which is host to this awesome A-frame, a yachtie tradition for over 40 years on the Queensland coast. While it doesn't seem like much, it is one of the coolest places I've ever been. Sailors and boaters from all over the world come here to post the name of their yacht, crew, year they were there, and anything else that inspired them. The list of items goes on and on, from true “messages in a bottle” to flags, T-shirts, life-rafts, bras and underwear, folding chairs, skateboards and even a book swap…you name it, it was there. The beach was perfect…white silicon sand that squeaked when you walked on it, coconut trees, crystal clear water…pure perfection.

our boat in the right

our legacy on middle percy!

obviously sailors must leave their message in a Mount Gay Rum bottle.

probably the world's most wonderful book swap...proceeds going to the Australian Coast Guard

The A-Frame itself

Mackay, Yeppoon, Gladstone

Once we got to Mackay, the weather started getting a lot better—sunny days and a big wind shift (blowing from the North/Northeast). We even had to turn the engine on at night for lack of wind, something familiar, finally! The most memorable thing that happened in Mackay (other than a minor communication mishap within the crew…it’s hard living at such close quarters—24 hours a day-- with people you work with and from 4 very different cultures) was a woman from an Australian yachting newspaper interviewing us and will be writing an article featuring our crew and the work we do for the next issue! Instant fame is all that I can predict. Gladstone was really one of the worst marinas we’ve seen on the trip…we were happy to get out of there…although we did have a big pod of dolphins escorting us out! So cute!!

making light of a sticky situation...trying to maneuver the boat through practically a mine field of over 50 coal carriers anchored in the middle of the ocean waiting for the dollar to rise before selling
..

the girls of Magic Roundabout

kayak shuttling

my sunset is better than your sunset

Whitsundays

After leaving Airlie Beach in some questionable weather, we busted through the Whitsunday Islands, sailing right past one of the most famous beaches in the world (Whitehaven) in hopes of better weather elsewhere. We found it once we got to Thomas Island and took some pictures reminiscent of my favorite slags (miss you guys!). Too bad it’s stinger season…I really would have liked to go for a swim there because it sure beats the Long Island Sound. The weirdest thing about sailing somewhere other than New York is that I can actually see what is under the water…

the whole crew!

Irene and I

lunch.....

smiles despite the tough weather

a charter boat with a very interesting name

Sorry!!

Between visiting boats, trying to catch up with everyone since I have internet on the boat (for the time being), attempting to plan my next 2 ½ months of travel, sleeping, and writing the blog for the OceansWatch website, I haven’t had time to update this one, so here goes a somewhat accelerated version of my past couple of weeks.

Cop Out

I haven't had much access to the internet lately, which explains for lack of blog posting, but I swear I've still been up to good on the Queensland Coast. Since part of my job for this trip is to write the blog for OceansWatch, I am going to go ahead and post the link to the official OceansWatch blog here...and will update this one with more pictures and info when I get more time on the internet!

OceansWatch Blog

And I also sprang for a $2.00 Australian sim card for my phone....+61 04 49 791 099 if you want to talk...but then again the only person who ever calls is my mom and dad (not that it's not nice to hear from you guys). ahem....friends....haven't heard from most of you. Where are you?

Port 3: Airlie Beach

Backpacker heaven once again, in a different way than Cairns though. Airlie Beach is the waypoint for all those wishing to cruise the Whitsunday Islands, a chain of 74 islands Captain Cook stumbled upon on Whit Sunday (some sort of British religious holiday). Our plans of staying only one or two days turned into 4 due to some unruly weather, an awesome new member of OceansWatch from Switzerland named Urs, and a "world famous backpacker bar" which I had never heard of called Magnums.

The crew of Magic Roundabout...clearly really put together

Leg 2: Townsville to Airlie Beach

The Gods of good weather were really shining for this leg. While we were still headed the whole way, the water wasn't nearly as rough as the last trip and it didn't rain at all...I was much happier not having to throw up...glory day and a half. Being on a sailboat, surrounded by water (most of you know about my problems with my hand-held electronic devices and their tendency to find themselves broken due to water damage), most of time when I want to snap a pic of something I have to go into the cabin and get my camera. By the time I whip it out, all that's left is landscape, not that it's not always breathtaking though.

cruising past some islands in the morning

cute little lighthouse off the headland leaving Townsville

Sex on the Great Barrier Reef!! Not garbage or dirty water, coral spawning! A few times each year, coral reef releases eggs and sperm simultaneously in massive amounts...to increase the likelihood of breeding and multiplying. Sorry to interrupt the love-making guys...we had somewhere to be. It wasn't exactly like a scene from Californication or True Blood anyway.

taking charge when our trusty captain had to go down below due to some engine trouble...don't worry it was on autopilot.

some totals:
times listened to the Rent soundtrack and P.Y.T. to stay awake during night watches: 5, 8 respectively
turtle sightings: 2, none captured on camera
hours slept down below: 0
waves to the face: 1 significant hit

Port 2: Ghost Town...I mean Townsville

What backpacker in their right mind would EVER go to Townsville? Half the shops and bars on the main drag were closed and boarded up...I felt like I was back in Baltimore. It's a good thing we chose to take up the Townsville Motor Boat and Cruising Yacht Club on their offer of free berthage, because it seemed to be the most happening place in town...which wasn't saying much. It was a great few days catching up on the sleep and showering I missed from staying up for 3 days seasick, sailing and sunburning, so I wasn't complaining. The people in Townsville were generally much more keen to hear about OceansWatch and we made quite a few new contacts, including the local greenie who's opening line to me was "What do you do when you see someone fishing in a Green Zone? Me, I go over to them in my dinghy and cut their fishing lines, or just run them over with my outboard."

Luis cooking up some sausages with pure alcohol, a lighter, and a ceramic pig he brought over to the boat... good thing I'm a vegetarian.

The most exciting thing about Townsville...some sort of huge rock that supposedly held a military base. What war was Australia even involved in...I should probably know.

I couldn't figure out for the life of me why no one was swimming in the ocean off a gorgeous beach on a 90 degree day..until I saw these postings and bottles of vinegar all over the place.

Leg 1: Cairns to Townsville, via Fitzroy Island

Heavy winds and big swells were what the Queensland coast has decided to serve up this Halloween. We were dealing with sailing upwind in 20 knots of breeze and plowing through some pretty significantly sized waves (which did a number on my stomach, let me tell you). We stopped over for a night at Fitzroy Island for some shelter from the waves, and in the morning I went for a snorkel. It's amazing what the Great Barrier Reef has in store under the water, even though it wasn't a "hot spot" for tourists to check out the reef, it was still gorgeous.

rain and a rainbow leaving Cairns

I guess the above picture isn't really that great, but when I was swimming back to the boat, I saw two baby sharks circling under the boat, obviously looking for food. We threw some of our leftovers overboard (no surprise, they didn't really like lettuce that much, but were keen on Irene's leftover kebab) and had a little bit of fun feeding it. A loggerhead turtle popped it's head up a little while after that and swam around for a while until we left.

For those of you who drank all night on Halloween, I was up all night too....being sea sick and doing night watch to make sure we didn't get run over by a cruise ship or worse, a sheep freighter.

taking a break at an anchorage off an island housing a James Cook University research station....LOST anyone?