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Aboriginal hunting / spirit sticks
AUSTRALIA
September 23 – October 13, 2010
I had arrived in Cairns, Australia from the States the day before Skipper John and Gillian arrived from Britain/France. We did some provisioning,
Some native Ozzies helped us celebrate my birthday at a Greek restaurant, and we left to travel the length of the Great Barrier Reef on September 27th. We were behind in the Rally and so we made only two stops and did not go to shore. So the shoure came to us! Boobies! Some had very pale blue feet and bills and would spend the night perched on the lifelines.
This brown boobie has a birth defect but it didn’t stop him from spending the night with us. I had plenty of time to write all my musings and events for the web. The trip was pleasant with 20 knt winds off the stern. We had to keep a diligent watch out for sunken reefs, rocks and debris in the water from all the rain. Tides were a constant watch as you could go from 1.4knts of current and suddenly jump to 22knts! The chart tracks wind and currents with arrows that would swell to huge dimensions’ on the screen as the tides or winds rose.
DARWIN
Located on the shore of the Arafura Sea, Australia’s most northern city is unique as it is a tropical paradise bordering on some of the driest and most hostile land in the world. It is bloody hot and humid. To get around in the outback
You need specialized equipment for the many washouts during the rainy season. More than 75 ethnic groups live in harmony and the aboriginal traditions are interwoven into society and are increasingly respected and admired. WW II bombing and the Cyclone Tracy devastated the area and so most of the buildings are not very old at all.
Most of the Rally was already in Darwin with most of the boat at the Tipperary Waters Marina. Because the tides swing so far you enter/leave by a lock system. When we arrived we cruised the estuary outside the marina looking for a mooring buoy as we are too wide to fit into the locks. As the tide was receding in the estuary it was easy to spot crocodiles. Luckily, we couldn’t see any because if we did we would not be able to put our inflatable in the water. The waters continued to recede and we realized the water’s depth had become so shallow that we could not stay.
The decision was made to travel backward an hour to Fannie Bay. By land it is just the other side of the peninsula from Tipperary but by boat it was quite a hike across the city. So we anchored up in Fannie Bay across from the Darwin Yacht Club. It was a hop/skip/jump to the shore but if you timed the tides wrong you could anchor the dinghy at the water’s edge and in 3 hours it would be a quarter mile to drag the dinghy back to water. Cullin Bay was quite the rough ride by dinghy from the boat but we could tie up to the lock’s dock and our inflatable would travel up and down with the water level.
It is the rainy season and we get a downpour at least once a day. On one occasion it was pouring down rain and we were in a deluge trying to get back to the boat from Cullin Bay. We all looked like drowned rats and the following day I discovered that my computer had drowned. I had lost my whole Fiji experience (Luckily it made it to the web), my flying fox videos, Cairns, Darwin, And the Great Barrier Reef sunsets.
It is so heart breaking that I cannot rewrite from memory the stuff in Oz nor was I able to save any of the great photos of my adventures. So forgive me and I will just have to pick up where I can. Gilly kindly gave me this slide because
How could you get upset at this little guy when he snapped your neckchain in one bite.
To catch up with the Rally we were only staying several days in Darwin and I needed exercise. A long walk through the downtown over to Tipperary was about 5 miles and the Rally was meeting in the late afternoon for the briefing to Indonesia. Sounded like a great opportunity to stretch my legs so I meandered along the shoreline through some very pretty parks and bike trails. I spied the Darwin Art & Natural Museum of the Top End and thought lunch and entertainment would be in the forecast for a halfway break. I was very impressed with the lunch and the exhibits. The Top End culture and art is inspired by the regional isolation and the uniqueness of the area. I learned more about the aborigines art and lifestyle.
This is an award winner from a showing this year.
They also had an amazing collection of crocodiles of past and present. I couldn’t get a picture of ‘Sweetheart’ a 20ft long behemoth that killed lots of people before being hunted down by two men.
The following day we left in midafternoon for the voyage across the Timor Sea to Indonesia.
PASSAGE TO INDONESIA
We were 4 hours out of Darwin and when you turned to the sunset you could see a ominous cloud cover over the continent. We had one night of a starry Milky Way sky with a late-rising waxing moon. The next night when Gilly came up for her watch at 6am I told her to go back to bed because I was already wet to the skin so no sense her getting wet too. The following day when I came on duty at 3am John told me to go back to bed – no sense me getting wet too. During the day if it was sunny the winds were non-existent; if a squall was approaching winds could jump to 20knts.
We planned our meals according to the prevailing skies.
STRANGE PHENOMONA
It happened in the Carpentaria Sea on our way to Darwin and also when we left for Indonesia. I had received an E attachment one time about an underwater volcano that had left a mud slick on top of the water and that is exactly what we saw.
The Ozzies say it is from the strong winds blowing sand across the Top End and the water currents gathering it up into slicks. The crystal clear water showed that the slick was at least 3ft. thick.
Here was my reward for the effort of trying to land this bugger.
It took us 3 days to cross the Timor Sea, round the southern tip of West Timor, and enter the harbor at Kupang. My first time in Indonesia ( see www.gaiaworldtour.net ) was a wonderful experience of people, places, and religions all living together in harmony.
The expression “You can never go back” will turn out to be an omen with a story line all its’ own.
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