Back to civilisation ships everywhere. We could tell we were approaching Australia as more and more yellow spots appeared on the radar. Huge bulk carriers slipped past us. Massive ship's leaving China's quarry, Australia, for Shanghai and the other mineral hungry ports of China. The ships here are monsters. It may be the brain playing tricks but they look much larger than the one's that you seee plying though Panama. They tend to be Chinese container ships taking manufactured goods to the US and Europe. We had to dodge a trawler and a bulk carrier on collision courses so it was a long night. Fortunately the weather was pleasant and the seas moderate.

As we rounded the point we entered the Capricorn channel with the mainland of Australia to our left and the start of the Great Barrier Reef to our right. I thought I would pick up a local VHF station, and to my surprise could not pick up any. Reason - we are actually still 160 miles offshore. So no sight of land just yet. Instead we listened to the news about the earthquake in NZ and the flooding in OZ on the short wave. Our earthquake warning system has been amazing. Within only a few minutes 16.35 UTC we knew about the NZ earthquake. The contrast between the smooth recovery in NZ and the devastation earthquakes that powerful cause elsewhere. is immense. Basically natural disasters are what happens to poor people or black people in New Orleans. Suffiicent resources and planning can mitigate most but not all natural disasters.

It's difficult to immediately come to terms with the size of Australia, as with the VHF reception. We have another day before we should arrive in Mackay, hopefully tomorrow afternoon. The channel doesn't look far on the chart but the scale is different.

All on board are fine but getting a bit tired. Gourmet meals continue in a vain effort to get rid of our meat mountain. Anything left will be confiscated on arrival by Australian customs. The meat bought in NZ at the start of the season has been absolutely excellent, and despite us having frozen it, has tasted really tender and more importantly flavoursome.