Will
March 12,2011, Crab Claw Island, NT

The NT field naturalists were invited to Crab Claw Island to prepare a species list of the flora and fauna. We had numerous biologists with expertise in plants, insects and birds etc. The owner of the resort is trying to expand the clientele from just fisherfolk. This small mollusc occurs in the in intertidal zone.

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Will
February 22,2011, Dynah Beach Yacht Club, Darwin, NT

Peter had spent a year or so refurbishing his new floating home while up on the hardstand at the Darwin Sailing Club before moving aboard out in Fannie Bay. By the start of the wet he moved around to Frances Bay off Stokes Hill Wharf and during cyclone Carlos was advised by Ports to move. He reluctantly did but the motion of the boat destroyed his steering and on top of that the jury rigged system of a tin of fuel in the cockpit to gravity feed the motor and complicated by non-functioning sails resulted in him being unable to stop the boat from dragging its anchor right across the harbour and coming up against the LNG wharf. That did not do a lot of good to the boat. Despite a lot of dings it does stand testament to the strength of steel. Here we are hauling out at Dynah Beach Yacht Club. Insurance wrote it off and Peter is contemplating repair - although no one seems to want to take it on.

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Will
February 16,2011, Darwin, NT

Cyclone Carlos went through town in February and made a bit of a mess. It was barely a Category 1 but was very slow moving and unpredictable - in fact the Bureau was severely embarrassed about their poor ability to guess where it was going. The problems were not the winds but the heavy and continuous rain which flooded everywhere such that the graceful African Mahogany trees suffered as they seemed to have no tap root so with the strong breeze and sodden soil many just fell over.
On one particular morning I thought the winds were pretty mild and went to work and discovered no one there so went home again. Our backyard was under water and we put sandbags at the doors - which did not help much because it just seeped in through the walls. We were kept busy squeezing out towels.

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Will
February 13,2011, Sanur Beach, Bali

The Prahu on the beach with Buddah packing up the lines. They really do look speco.

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Will
February 13,2011, Sanur Beach, Bali

We hired a local trimaran for a short sail - locally called a prahu. The skippers name sounded like Buddah and he was very competent at handling the small craft. The crab claw rig was usually gybed and he would let go the sheet and pick up the line with a stick with a hook. His English was OK and he understood we had a trimaran of our own in Australia. Good fun and a great way to see around the coast.

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