Australia Exploration Begins

August, 2016

Our sailing energy tanks were close to zero when we reached the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. We were looking forward to an extended stay and a chance to get better acquainted with Australia. Big questions such as “Does everything in Australia want to kill you?” loomed large in our minds. and we agreed that being tied to a dock for an extended period of time was in order. We had heard about the sharks, crocodiles, and boxing kangaroos, but until this trip we were unaware of swooping magpies, killer jellyfish and flying foxes. Although it was still Australian winter, the sun was so strong that the local schools included wide brimmed hats as part of the standard uniform.

 

It took Jason a bit less time than me to reacquire the sailing bug. One week into the

our stay, he asked “Do short cruises within Moreton Bay count as sailing trips?” “Define short,” I replied. “One to two days, maybe a bit more,” was his response. I decided it was a rhetorical question and proceeded to buy a bicycle for trips to Woolies (supermarket) and began arranging our itinerary for the grand tour. As a first diversion, we took a weekend jaunt to Brisbane, complete with a half marathon for Jason and a 10K for me.

Recovering from our first long runs in a few months, we had just enough time to plan a trip to Canberra, the capital city, to build our Australian knowledge base. As evidenced by my poor showing in Traveler IQ, my knowledge of Australian geography was not very good. It turns out that our knowledge of Australian history was not much better.

 

Canberra’s National War Memorial gave us our first view into the intense involvement of Australia in the World Wars. We joined in on a 45 minute docent-guided tour. Three hours later, we managed to pry ourselves away from the guide, but he was still going strong. My previous education consisted of the movie Gallipoli, but, no surprise, even that was a bit off. I also had no idea that Northern Australia was bombed during World War II, with entire towns leveled. The Prime Minister’s desk has a view towards the War Memorial, so the PM will contemplate the costs of utilizing troops in the future.

The National Library has a wonderful room with journals of both Captain (then Lieutenant) Cook and Captain Bligh (the Bounty guy). The National Museum contains many artifacts from Indigenous people of both Australia and the Torres Strait.

 

Too often I find that Indigenous Peoples’ art exhibits can be condescending to both subject and viewer. The National Museum exhibition of Aboriginal Art and culture was not. One painting was accompanied by a video chronicling the background of the Artist.  As a child, he lived in remote part of Australia and had no contact with white Australians.  One day a helicopter landed near some of the villagers.  They asked the pilot if he had any water, “KA-FEE”.   The pilot heard their request and gave them coffee.  The brown liquid shocked the Aboriginals.  The Artist enters this story as a young boy who is having terrible pains in his stomach.  He is brought to the coffee-sharing pilot and flown away for medical care.  After getting all fixed up, the Artist returns with his new name for life, Helicopter.   His painting depicts that journey.

When we returned to Two Fish at the RQYS, I tracked down various tradesman, fended off friendly neighbors tempting Jason with “Really, it is just a short sail and you will be in the Whitsundays”, and planned our next trips. It was quite easy to find great services in the bay, so my job was relatively easy.

Our plan was to visit Darwin (north west Australia), Lizard Island (middle of the east coast), Western Australia (no need to tell you where that is), Sydney and Tasmania. We passed on the famous Uluru (red rock), Melbourne (food city) and much more. But four months passes quickly when you are slow travelers. During this vacation from our vacation we also decided on our plans for 2017. We would ship Two Fish back to the US and sail a final short season in the Bahamas to celebrate our grand adventure. Twenty-Five Thousand miles seemed impossible when we left the dock in Argentina. After our Bahamian adventure we will sell Two Fish and chart our next course. When we shared this decision with friends they often asked why we would stop? Did something go wrong? No, just the opposite. It has gotten better every year as our skills have improved. But it is time to try something new.