Schooner Seawanhaka

Postings - AUSTRALIA

Date and Time:

November 2005 - August 2006

Location:

Australia

View Photos - Australia:

Postings: 

November 16 - Coffs Harbor, New South Wales, Australia

I've been in Australia for 10 days, having a wonderful time, and thought I would send along some random impressions of this new continent.

Language. I've been working hard at speaking "Australian", which is a form of English, though frequently unrecognizable. Particularly difficult is the process of ordering a beer, which can often change from pub to pub, and from beer to beer. I did learn that there is an Oregon connection to what they order here as a "schooner" of beer, what we might order as a "pint" or a "pounder", a 16 ounce beer. There was a schooner, ALUMNA, built in the Coos Bay, Oregon shipyard, launched in 1901. After transporting lumber around the world for 3 decades, she was sold to the Pilsner Brewing Company, set up as a brewery, and anchored off the large sawmills of Ketchikan, Alaska. After the whistle blew at the end of the day, the mill workers would "go for a schooner".

Bloke. A somewhat disrespectful but at the same time endearing reference to the Australian male. True to form, I had only been in my first Aussie pub for 10 minutes before a couple of blokes were in a fight. Of course, not over one of the beautiful Australian women who had just walked in off the beach, but fighting over the pool table! I really enjoy the fact that Australians love to get up and start the day early. Every day by 06:30 the wharf, jetty, and beaches are busy. It seems like everyone in town gets down to the beach for a swim at least once a day. There are so many beaches, endless miles of white sand. Last Saturday, I rode my bicycle down to "Diggers", one of the most popular local beaches. Protected by a couple of headlands, with good waves for surfing, even though it was a warm spring afternoon there were only a half dozen people on the entire beach.

Weather. Often said that Coffs Harbor, on the central New South Wales coast, has the best weather in the world. Situated at 30 degrees south, similar to Los Angeles, with a typical coastal breeze, perfect temperatures, little humidity, with the added benefit of the water being a pleasant 77 degrees Fahrenheit, warmed by the Great East Coast Australian current bringing warm water down from the tropics. As I write this however, we have just had 12 hours of 40-50 knots of southerly wind from a cold front moving up the coast from the southern ocean, bringing with it rather cool air, but still nothing that can't be handled in shorts and bare feet.

Convicts. Australia is known for its origins as a penal colony. What I didn't know about the "transport" system, sending sentenced criminals out of Great Britain: the reason England had to send them to Australia, was that after 1776, they could no longer dump them on the American colonies. Prior to 1776 40,000 prisoners had been sentenced to transport and shipped to the 13 colonies, primarily to the south. In the next 100 years 160,000 were sent to Australia. Putting a positive spin on it, the Aussies are fond of saying that Australia was destined for glory, their colonists having been selected by the finest judges in England!

Capt'n Bligh. Years after being the subject of the infamous mutiny on HMS BOUNTY, Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales. He suffered another "mutiny" in the form of a revolt which became known as the Rum Wars. His government was seized and he was sent back to England. And there's another Oregon connection, Mt. Hood was named (by Vancouver's expedition) after Lord Admiral Samuel Hood, who was the presiding Judge of the trial of the mutineers of the BOUNTY, all of whom were hung from the yardarms.

It's great to be here. I am enjoying it immensely. I plan to spend another couple of weeks here at Coffs Harbor then take a couple of weeks to sail south along the coast to Sydney. I've heard that this coastline is the most dramatic coastline in Australia. I still have a crew slot or 2!

December 16 - Sydney Harbor

I know, it's been a month since I did an update. Read that silence to say "Great sailing and a bloody lot of fun in Australia".

SAILING DREAM

SEAWANHAKA is in Sydney! She is anchored in Farm Cove, right next to the Sydney Opera House, with a spectacular view of the soaring roofline outlined in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. We had an incredible sail in here on a brilliant Sunday afternoon, under full sail all the way into the harbor and under the bridge! SEAWANHAKA was at her best. As we approached Sydney, after a stunning beat up the coast in sunshine and a brisk SE breeze, before sailing through "the Heads" of Port Jackson, the just-launched $10 million maxi-yacht WILD OATS, prepping for the Sydney-Hobart race, doused her spinnaker just off our bow and beat up the coast with us, tho she left us behind very quickly! We also crossed paths with the tall ship JAMES CRAIG under full sail, as well as the entire fleet of the smaller Hobart class racers on a spinnaker run into the bay. What a grand entrance.

Twenty-four years ago I was in Sydney. I had never been sailing. Over the preceding 10 years I had been a serious whitewater river runner. I had just completed a river expedition in Nepal that some buddies and I put together, the American Himalayan Whitewater Expedition. It was the first descent of the Karnali River, the largest river in Nepal, one of the 4 "Holy" rivers that flow out of the Tibetan plateau. In kayaks and rafts we floated 300 miles through the Himalayas from Tibet to India. I was looking for a new adventure, Walker was B-Day minus 2 months, couldn't quite figure out how to fit him in my kayak. I was walking around the Sydney Opera House, along the seawall of Farm Cove, and saw a little sloop from Long Beach, California. I asked the guy rowing ashore how he had gotten the boat to Sydney and he said he had spent the past 2 years sailing across the Pacific. I said " I am going to do that" and 24 years later I am going to watch the fireworks of '06 from Farm Cove!

COASTAL CRUISING

We've had a great trip down the coast. Australia is the land of beaches. Miles and miles of endless white sand beaches, interrupted only occasionally by a stunning rocky headland. Great stops along the way down the coast. From Coffs Harbor to Sydney, 330 miles, we only had to spend one night at sea. The wind shifts regularly between N and S, letting boats work whichever way along the coast they are going without much of a beat to windward. Only the last day, a short 15 miles from Broken Bay to Sydney did we do any sailing to windward.

While in Coffs I had the chance to "preview" the trip down the coast by helping a new owner with a delivery from Coffs to Port Stephens. The boat was a Cole 43, pretty famous Australian IOR race boat, built for the Sydney to Hobart, akin to the Cal 40's built in the US for the TransPac race from California to Hawaii. TAURUS had 9 Sydney to Hobart plaques on her cabin bulkhead. Caught the train back to Coffs.

On SEAWANHAKA we had great stops down the coast, with a week in Port Stephens, 2 days in the coal port of Newcastle, and 2 days anchored in the bustling yachting destination of Pittwater/Broken Bay.

50,000 NAUTICAL MILES

Along the way I passed my 50,000 nautical mile mark. 38,000 on SEAWANHAKA and 12,000 on the Rawson 30 VANELLUS.

I know, 50,000 miles isn't much in a Toyota, but a whole bunch of time at sea. Took me 24 years to do it, so just in case I don't make 100,000, decided to have a party in Port Stephens. Had an entertaining evening anchored in Shoal Bay with the crew of IMAGINE/GOODWINDE. GOODWINDE is a 1928 riveted wrought iron cutter that sailed into Coffs the same night we did. Music included "Didge" with the haunting sounds of his Aboriginal didgeridoo.

To put 50,000 miles at sea in perspective, I describe offshore sailing by making a comparison to a road trip. Imagine leaving Los Angeles (or Sydney) to drive to New York (or Perth), 3,000 miles, in a van with 2-4 drivers. Provision and fuel so that the trip is made non-stop, 24 hours, swapping drivers every 2-3 hours, and never traveling over 8 miles an hour! Of course, there is VERY limited opportunity to call a tow truck if there's trouble along the way, and no option to call it off and stop along the way. It might not sound all that inviting, but I'm already looking forward to the next passage!

SYDNEY

Sydney is a great place to sail into, especially as it is just the beginning of the summer sailing season, and the holidays besides! In fact many of the holiday parties are on boats or on the beach.

The waterfront is busy with preparations for the Sydney to Hobart race, which is a pretty big deal down here. It starts on Boxing Day, Dec 26, with the start line in the middle of the harbor and the first leg through the harbor and out "the Heads" before the right turn south. One of the local sailing mags calls it "the world's premier ocean race", but I'm sure there would be many who would argue with that one, particularly the TransPac, Pacific Cup and VicMaui racers to Hawaii. The Sydney- Hobart is really a coastal race, only 600 miles, and the record run is less than 2 days. It has gained much notoriety in the past few years because of the dastardly weather that the fleet can run into crossing the Bass Strait to Tasmania. In 1998 they lost several boats and crew, and last year the 2 maxi yachts both had to pull out, with one losing the bulb off the keel and turning turtle. I did hear one guy say that the race could be duplicated by standing out on his front lawn in his foul weather gear with someone spraying him with a fire hose for 4 days while he tore up $100 bills.

Sydney can be a bit expensive, but I hear that there are some great local farmer's markets for produce over the weekend, and I've already found a great little sushi bar in Chinatown where I can get miso soup and a sushi tray for $3 US for lunch. And all the bars have great happy hours. They do drink a bit of beer in Australia. I read where per capita the Aussies are the # 1 consumers in the world, even more than the US, but if you took beer out of the equation they would drop to 12th!

More later, I'm out to explore the City.

January 3, 2006 - Spring Cove, Manly

After a wonderful week in the middle of the City at Farm Cove I sailed SEAWANHAKA back up Sydney Harbor to the beach town of Manly. A great anchorage in Spring Cove, with the option of 4 bay beaches for the morning swim, and the ocean beach side of Manly just a 10 minute walk along the "Corso". To add to the charm of the place is that the shoreline is a Little Penguin nesting beach. The locals call them "fairy" penguins. Now, I expected I'd need to be considerably closer to Antarctica before seeing anything like a penguin, but I actually saw my first one swimming in the clear, warm water of Port Stephens. Cutest little things. They swim around the boat at dusk, and stroll up onto the beach to nest.

For the move to Manly I had the pleasure of welcoming Swiss Laurent Meister back on SEAWANHAKA. I first met Laurent on a dive boat in the Galapagos Islands in 1996 when SEAWANHAKA was crossing the Pacific and looking for crew. It didn't take long to convince him to abandon land and air travel and join the crew for the sail to French Polynesia. He sailed with SEAWANHAKA 5 months through the Marquesas, Tuamotu, and Society Islands. I hadn't seen him for nearly 10 years. He had moved to Sydney a few months ago, and happened to be running around the Botanical Garden at Farm Cove the morning after SEAWANHAKA dropped anchor, and said "hey, I know that schooner!" He had a "Welcome to Sydney" waiting for me when I checked my email later in the day. He and his Italian girlfriend Raffaella have become frequent visitors and sailors on SEAWANHAKA in Sydney Harbor.

Boxing Day, December 26, saw an estimated 400,000 spectators on, around and over Sydney Harbor for the start of the Sydney to Hobart Race. It was a beautiful day; warm, sunny, fair breeze as the 85 race boats, including the 2 matched carbon fiber super-maxi yachts WILD OATS and ALFA ROMEO charged across the start line and out Sydney Heads. The harbor was jammed with boats, so I decided it was a good idea to view the festivities from the Manly anchorage with my hook down. WILD OATS wound up winning, as well as setting a new course record, despite the fact that it had only been launched and on the water practicing 18 days before the start. Reports are that it cost WILD OATS owner Bob Oatley $10 million. He really wanted to win that race.

The next huge event in Sydney was the New Years Eve fireworks. Claimed to be the most spectacular in the world, the harbor is staged with 4 fireworks barges as well as the blasts off of the Harbor Bridge. Just about every thing that floats is out on the harbor jostling for just the best view. SEAWANHAKA, with a festive crew had a nice sail and found a great anchorage in Rose Bay for the show. We put on a pretty good party on board, with lots of good cheer and champagne, and spent the night anchored in Rose Bay so we wouldn't have to have a "designated helm" and fight all the boats trying to find their way home in the dark after celebrating.

The sail back to Manly on New Years Day turned out to be quite an experience. A huge heat wave descended on Sydney, taking the temperature up to 45 C, that's 113 F! The second hottest day in recorded Sydney history. In a 25 knot breeze it felt like sailing in a blast furnace. Fortunately a swim was never far away.

January 26, 2006 - AUSTRALIA DAY - Manly

It was really a bustling month in Sydney. The thing about the southern hemisphere is that they have to stuff all their festivities into one season. Unlike the northern hemisphere where we have Thanksgiving and Christmas in winter weather, and summer vacations and holidays in the opposite season, because it is summer in December and January, here it seems like one long party from mid-December to the end of January. The season flows from Christmas and New Years, right into the Sydney festival mid-month, and on to Australia Day on January 26, including all of the summer vacations!

The first weekend in January SEAWANHAKA hosted Eric and Kathy Olsen and their entourage from San Diego for a sail on Sydney Harbor. Kathy's grandfather and my granddad started doing business together over 60 years ago along the San Diego River east of San Diego, and 3 generations later we are still at it. There were 9 in their party. Australian Nat Foster, who had lived with the Olsen's as an exchange student in San Diego a few years back, was the only one of the group who had ever been on a sailboat before. Laurent gave me a hand with the sailing chores, Raffaella provided the Italian pastries, everyone had a chance at the wheel and it turned out to be a very successful day on the harbor. Coincidently, as SEAWANHAKA sailed under the Harbor Bridge on Friday afternoon, the Olsen's were on top of the bridge doing the Harbor Bridge climb!

Sydney Harbor continued to be great sailing. Always a fine breeze and lots of traffic. In a month and a half SEAWANHAKA sailed the harbor 18 days, every one with great wind!

I've lined up a pretty interesting crew for the trip to Tasmania. German, Czech, and Zimbabwe. I picked up Phillip on "Find a Crew" website, but Michael swam out to SEAWANHAKA to say "hey, nice boat", and Andrea paddled by on a kayak. We are all very keen for the trip south. Planning to depart Feb 1.

February 14, 2006 - Eden, New South Wales, Australia

SEAWANHAKA is now at the far SE corner of continental Australia. Intending to leave Sydney on Feb 1, southerly winds thwarted that plan for a week. We finally made it out of Sydney Harbor on the 8th. We had a very nice afternoon sail, but not without running into a 40 knot gale overnight. Blew us right by our intended destination of Jervis Bay, but we enjoyed a very nice 2 day stop in the fishing port of Ulladulla waiting out another southerly. Then a very nice 2 day sail to Eden. With a name like that I had expectations that it would be a wonderful place. But then someone pointed out that it might have been the name given to the place by some convict who had just escaped from Port Arthur, and anything would have looked like heaven. In fact Eden, on Twofold Bay, is a wonderful last stop on the coast before striking out across the notorious Bass Strait for Tasmania. We celebrated Andrea's birthday, sent her back to Sydney to school, and picked up Aussie Rachel for the trip to Tasmania. There are 14 boats waiting for the right weather, forecast to go northeasterly for the next few days, which should be a good opportunity to make the 200 mile crossing of the Strait.

February 22, 2006 - Wineglass Bay, Tasmania!

SEAWANHAKA had a wonderful crossing of Bass Strait: some light wind, some nice fresh NE, and even a little fog, but no big nasty stuff that the Straits are notorious for. Tasmania is beautiful: awesome scenery, wonderful cruising, loads of anchorages for whatever which way the wind is blowing, not too many boats, great weather so far, good hiking, unusual wildlife, good fishing, including calamari and abalone. We're working our way down the east coast, island hopping some very nice, secluded anchorages, headed for Port Arthur and Hobart. Our present location, Wineglass Bay, is on Outside Magazine's "Top Ten Beaches of the World" list. Sure looks good to me.

Alaska to Tasmania, I'm now calling the last 3 years the "Far Corners of the Pacific Cruise".

March 7 - Hobart, Tasmania

SEAWANHAKA has had a great couple of weeks sailing down the SE coast of Tasmania, around the Tasman Peninsula into Storm Bay and up the River Derwent to Hobart, the quaint, historic, capitol city of Tasmania. We sailed out of Wineglass Bay to Schouten Island, a great spinnaker run down Mercury Passage to Maria Island (the former penal colony), then Forestier and Tasman Peninsulas before rounding Tasman Island and beating up Storm Bay to Hobart. We did a lot of hiking. I managed to make it up 3 mountains in 4 days. Cycled Maria Island. Saw Bennetts Wallabies, Forester Kangaroos, Wombats, Echidnas, and on Maria Island several large black venomous tiger snakes. Michael and Rachel were very successful fishing, providing dinner most every night, with calamari, flathead, mackerel, shark, and Michael even hooked into a couple of pretty good sized rays, which we were all inclined to release. Stunning scenery every where we sailed.

SEAWANHAKA is on the wharf at Elizabeth Street Pier right in the center of downtown Hobart. I had a chance to get out to the Huon Valley for a day of wine tasting, sight seeing, and a horse back ride through the Tasmanian gum-tree forest. One of the most notable things about Tasmania is that the people are incredibly friendly. There is a great local boating community, a good mix of cruising boats who have made it all the way across the Pacific, and just down-right friendly people all over town, from the bus drivers to the bartenders! I have my fuel injection pump at the shop. It has been giving me trouble as far back as New Zealand. I think I've found just the right mechanic and shop to get it set right this time.

I'm doing a crew swap. Laurent and Raffaella are on a holiday in Tasmania. She is going back to work next week, and Laurent will be joining SEAWANHAKA for the trip north, as well as 1 or 2 sailors from Western Australia. We'll be headed north back up the east coast in a week or so.

May 1, 2006 - Spring Cove, Sydney Harbor

SEAWANHAKA is back in Sydney after an awesome 2 months and 1600 nautical mile trip to Tasmania and back.

The trip back displayed the typical fluid nature of the crew list on SEAWANHAKA. Out of Hobart we had Western Australians Debbie and Russell, and the German traveler Sarah. Laurent and Raffaella joined us for a wonderful evening on SEAWANHAKA in Northwest Bay off of D'Entrecasteaux Channel. In the morning Raffaella and Sarah headed back to Sydney, and Laurent, Russell, Debbie and I had a nice sail across Storm Bay to Port Arthur, then through the Tasman Island Channel and up the coast to Haunted Bay on Maria Island. We sailed over to Wineglass Bay, picked up Phillip in Sleepy Bay and spent another wonderful day at Wineglass. Why wouldn't we want to keep going back to one of the "Top Ten" list beaches in the world? The 5 of us had another smooth crossing of Bass Strait to Eden, where Russell and Debbie left and we were joined by Aussie Dimity. Moving up the coast (I'm unfortunately not able to report that we "sailed" up the coast, due to a lack of wind we encountered a rare piece of motoring on SEAWANHAKA) we stopped at spectacular Montague Island and then Ulladullah. Laurent and Dimity departed by land. Phillip and I rode out a huge surge in the inner harbor at Ulladullah, then made our way to Jervis Bay and a long leg back into Sydney Harbor, setting the anchor in Spring Cove, Manly at 0245 on March 30. Nationalities represented on the Tasmania trip included German (2), Czech, Zimbabwe, Swiss, Italian, Australian, and the American skipper!

In April SEAWANHAKA explored the wonderful cruising grounds of Pittwater, Broken Bay, and Cowan Creek, a huge complex of waterways just 15 miles up the coast. We've also managed to enjoy a few more of the famous Australian holidays: 4-day Easter weekend and ANZAC Day.

I'll be leaving SEAWANHAKA on a swing mooring at Cammeray Marina, Middle Harbor, Sydney for the month of May while I travel to the USA to visit my mother. I'll be back 28 May for more great sailing on the Australian coast.

June 25, 2006 - Brisbane, Australia

After spending the month of May in the US, I returned to Sydney to find SEAWANHAKA had fared well on the mooring at Cammeray Marina in Middle Harbor. I had a great trip to the US, and particularly the trip back with a layover day in Hong Kong. I saw as much as I could in 12 hours, the Peak Tram, Maritime Museum and Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club for lunch being at the top of my list.

After completing a few chores in Sydney SEAWANHAKA spent a week sailing up the coast to Coffs Harbor, with nice stops in Pittwater and Port Stephens once again. Most notable was that it is WINTER in the southern hemisphere. I hadn't had the stovepipe on the heater since leaving San Diego, but the cold winds from the Antarctic had us lighting it up every day.

In Coffs Harbor I picked up Alex, a very personable young Brit who will be crew for the tropical cruising season. He has recently finished up his PADI divemaster course and will be our on-board dive consultant. From Coffs Harbor north was all new territory for SEAWANHAKA. We had a brisk 3 day sail to Moreton Bay, just down the Brisbane River from city center, then an easy 15 mile motor up the river to the international mooring adjacent to the beautiful Botanical Gardens in downtown Brisbane.

The great news from Brisbane is that Walker and Michaela have joined SEAWANHAKA for the month! They are just back from Europe where they did a 6 week Spanish class in Sevilla, then cycled 1500 kilometers from Sevilla to Barcelona. They have some great stories and photos of their trip and will be updating the website at www.walkerhanlon.com just as soon as they take a break from sailing. On the way to Australia they stopped by Palo Alto just long enough for Michaela to pick up her diploma from Stanford University. Congratulations Michaela!

A few days exploring around Brisbane and we are off down the river and to points north. Our plans are to sail up the east coast of Australia, enjoying as many islands of the Great Barrier Reef as we can!

July 10, 2006 - High Peak Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Our first island anchorage north of Brisbane was at Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. After three days of sailing, during which we celebrated Dad's birthday with fresh tuna, Greek salad, and a chocolate brownie cake, we pulled into a fine anchorage north of the island just before dusk on June 28. We spent the next day exploring the island. We climbed up to the Sandy Cape lighthouse and then ate lunch and played on the enormous sand dunes at the north end.

After a blustery night we set off and enjoyed a great day of sailing before reaching Lady Elliot Island, our first Great Barrier Reef landfall. Here we found amazing sea life and crystal clear water visibility. Snorkeling off the boat we saw colorful reef fish, a couple of giant groupers, and green turtles. The next day we took advantage of Alex's diving expertise for a refresher for Michaela and myself. Diving in relatively shallow water, we were surprised when halfway through the dive we saw the outline of a six-foot long shark with clearly visible stripes identifying it as a tiger shark, even from 30 feet away.

While lounging around the boat in the afternoon Michaela spotted two humpback whales, first breaching a few hundred meters off the bow, then showing us their broad backs from around a hundred feet away. During this season the humpbacks head north along the Queensland coast and have their young in the protected waters inside the Great Barrier Reef. On other days we would also see them breaching and sounding, but they never came as close as these two did while we were anchored at Lady Elliot.

Next we headed for Lady Musgrave Island. Just to the north of Lady Elliot, Lady Musgrave Island has a small cay and a nice anchorage surrounded by a protecting ring of coral reefs. It would be hard to imagine a more idyllic GBR anchorage. On the way we added to our store one enormous black kingfish, carrying enough meat for three meals! Upon arrival at Lady Musgrave, we squeezed through a small opening in the coral ring to anchor in the calm, turquoise inner lagoon. We spent the next day there exploring the lushly vegetated island and snorkeling with reef sharks and turtles.

Departing Lady Musgrave, we crossed into the tropics and spent the night at Northwest Island, en route to Great Keppel Island. Fishing was successful, and we caught a large golden trevally that provided us with two wonderful dinners. We arrived at Great Keppel, with its splendid beaches and numerous hiking trails, just in time for Michaela's birthday! To celebrate I took her out for a pizza dinner at the resort, which added some variety to the great fish meals Dad has been cooking up.

We spent three fun-filled days here, hiking, swimming, diving, and snorkeling, and even treated ourselves to another night out at the island's resort where we met an international crowd of friends. On the last day, we rode the dinghy over to Middle Island where we enjoyed our own pristine, isolated beach for the day. Alex, Michaela, and I did a shallow dive right off the beach with a surprising variety of fish life.

Leaving Great Keppel was bittersweet, but the promise of tropical anchorages to come overrode our longings to stay. With great southeasterly winds, we took off at a good clip for the following two days, anchoring first in Port Clinton and then at High Peak Island, where we spent the afternoon scrambling up its rocky hills. We also had a chance to watch white and black tip reef sharks pursuing their dinner in shallow water along the reef edge, while Alex hiked around the hilly southwestern point of the island. Next we're off to the Percy Islands and MacKay, en route to the Whitsunday's.

Stay tuned for more on the travels of SEAWANHAKA and crew. Walker and Michaela.

August 9, 2006 - Trinity Inlet Anchorage, Cairns, Australia

SEAWANHAKA is anchored up off of the city-front in Cairns. Cairns is the gateway to the vast diving, snorkeling and exploring opportunities of the Great Barrier Reef. Surprisingly, it is also the gateway to a variety of inland travel to rainforests, highlands, coffee-growing regions, and crocodile infested rivers! It is also a great place for boat parts and projects. I'm getting some maintenance done, planning a dive excursion out to the Great Barrier Reef for a couple of days, a day to the rainforest and highlands, then the middle of next week we will be sailing off to the remote islands of the Louisiade Archipelago of Papua New Guinea.

SEAWANHAKA had a great month of sailing with Walker and Michaela on board. After re-provisioning at the Port of Mackay, we spent a week sailing through the Whitsunday Islands, anchoring at Brampton, Shaw, Whitsunday, and Hook Islands. We had some nice snorkeling, diving and exploring, and a bit of inclement weather made for good Scrabble, Chess and card games. Walker and Michaela caught the bus at the fun little resort town of Airlie Beach, traveling to Cairns, Sydney, and then off to San Francisco and New York City!

German crew Serena joined us in Airlie Beach. We stopped at the lovely cove at Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island, where Swiss crew Olivera joined us for what turned out to be a very light-wind sail into Cairns. From our southerly-most point in Hobart, Tasmania, SEAWANHAKA has now sailed 2445 nautical miles of the east coast of Australia.

Keep an eye on the current postings page for updates on the adventures of sailing Papua New Guinea.

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