11/17/2009
Nov 13-14
We didn't have much time here in Mackay, so we got in, did our business, and got out (the above picture is us 'getting out' through a field of nearly 50 bulk coal carriers) For only 24 hours here, we seemed to do quite a bit of damage. We mass brochured the marina, ran into Urs, got a little bit older, and posed for a picture. Kerry (now a new member of OceansWatch) of catamaran 'Aussie 01' framed us beneath the logo on our boom. She will be writing a small piece on OceansWatch the work we do in The Coastal Passage, a bi-monthly free newspaper that prides itself in being the 'Voice of the Boating Community.' Free advertising..sweet! Steaks, wine, cake and balloons were in order...Happy Birthday Irene!!!
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11/17/2009
Nov 10-12
Yes, we did spend a few days in the Whitsunday Islands, but no, we did not get off at the famed Whitehaven Beach. We sailed right past it since the weather was pretty miserable...at least we can say we were there in some form or another, who cares if we were soaking wet and getting blown over. Finally some good weather came through and we found ourselves on Thomas Island, letting the Australian Navy (boys!) on board to use our VHF and having a ridiculous photo shoot. This shot just may have to be on the cover of the imminent OceansWatch promotional packet.
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11/16/2009
Nov 7-10
Cheers to Airlie Beach, which totally surpassed our expectations. Thought of as mostly a backpacker's paradise, Lady Luck was on our side with Abel Point Marina giving us free berthage and leading us to Urs Waldmeier of the catamaran Better Than Shares. We dubbed him new member of the week, as he was super excited to help with marketing, took this slightly awkward picture of the crew, took me out on his dinghy to visit anchored boats and grabbed a load of brochures to hand out in the places we're not visiting (and to his friends in Switzerland). Thanks to Magnums hostel bar for leading us to some...unsuspecting interested parties.
A highlight: Protein! Tofu for me, steaks for everyone else. Yum!
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11/06/2009
November 5-7
The second leg of our trip served up some much nicer weather, we even got an "I love sailing!" out of Anna, who was pretty seasick a few days ago as well. We sailed through some coral spawning, which as you can see above, was vast and sort of out of this world.
Chris was busy busy busy though...while the sail went smoothly, the toilet got clogged and he (unwillingly) had to unblock it. Let's just say Anna owes him a 6-pack. A few hours later, the engine just completely shut off. Chris worked his magic, put some more diesel in the tanks and fiddled around down below to get it working again so we could cruise into Airlie with no problem.
The most exciting thing that happened to me was getting hit directly in the face with a huge wave in the middle of the night...of course some of it made its way down to Chris's bed too. Sorry!
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11/06/2009
November 2-5
Many thanks to Andrew Wallace and the Townsville Motorboat and Yacht Club for the free berthage, where Chris made a presentation and local greenie Luis Sanches found us. We talked about different ways OceansWatch can think about climate change over sausages Luis cooked up, after offering to offset our carbon footprint for the trip with his company, My Clean Sky
Chris and Irene were busy meeting with Reef Check Education and Outreach Officer Jo Roberts, Sea Turtle Foundation project manager David Roe, and other important academics and students from James Cook University, trying to form synergies and bounce ideas off each other. Anna and I cruised the marinas chatting to yachties and handing out brochures like it was going out of style. People were either generally more receptive to hearing about OceansWatch, or we are getting more and more charming as the days go by. On to Airlie Beach!
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11/06/2009
September 30-November 1
With 20-25 knot breeze and 3-5 foot swells, I hardly call the trip to Townsville cruising. On a night watch, Anna and I had to wake Chris up..we were on a collision course with the above boat. We tacked safely out of the way, gawking at the cruise ship as it rolled on by...it must be a really cheap cruise...then caught a whiff and realized it was no cruise ship but a sheep freighter. Not a pleasant smell...especially to my nose which was sensitive due to a few days of seasickness.
The trip was not miserable though! When I wasn't leaning over the side of the boat, we did see a turtle and fed some baby sharks Irene's leftover kebab...yum. Chris, being the ethically responsible skipper he is, had to whip out the kayak and VHF when he noticed a small motorboat that was dragging it's anchor while stopped at Fitzroy Island for the night. He found the owner on shore, scratching his head, wondering where his boat had gone.
We did miss Halloween though (an American favorite)...unless dressing up in our foul weather gear counted.
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11/06/2009
September 28-30
This is me, Katherine, a new American volunteer. I joined up with Chris, Irene and her cousin, Anna, on Magic Roundabout in Cairns to start the first ever OceansWatch promotional tour down the Queensland coast of Australia!
The most important part of my job on this trip is to distribute our brochure--hot off the press from New Zealand (many thanks to our writer/volunteer Sam)--to yachties in every port we get ourselves to, trying to gain a base of supporters in Australia and worldwide. While I feel super enthusiastic and and supportive of OceansWatch and the work we do, being a new volunteer and relatively new at talking up a new cause within the yachting community, I started off getting frustrated easily when people didn't want to learn about our approach to "cruising with a cause." Our last night in Cairns was spent chatting with a fellow American, Bill Hanlon, who happened to be refitting a schooner native to Long Island where I grew up (www.seawanhaka.com) and Charlie and Graeme from Loggerhead. It was then I realized the support is out there, it's just going to take some digging to find it. Here's to more luck in Townsville!
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