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!