ocean passages

so we just got into cairns today - august 31st. first impressions of this place: it's wicked cool, but not really cause it's damn hot. seriously though, it's a very modern, artsy and hip town. and we are so close to the reef!

the passage from fiji to vanuatu was a mixed bag : no wind, good winds, way too much wind. it only took five days to cover the almost 600 miles though, so no real complaints. we did, however, have to deal with the tail ends of some big systems that turned some of asia into one big swimming pool. one night time squall we had winds of 42 knots, with a decent size swell coming in. during my off-shift i was trying to sleep but having no luck when crack! something big hit the boat and all this water came pouring in on top of me in bed. the big thing that hit us was a rogue wave. and it was really small as far as those things go. anyway the seas soon subsided and it was smooth sailing as they say.

the passage from vanuatu to australia was twelve days (1290 miles) and it was easy peasy. well, weather and wind wise anyway. i began to feel a little claustrophobic being cramped up in the boat for so long, but i was usually able to fight it off by escaping into the pages of a good book. i read six books in twelve days. what else happened? we caught a 30 lb. spanish mackerel, which we ate, and two barracuda-snake monster-things which we threw back in a hurry. i also hooked the biggest fish, by far, that i've ever had on a line. it took all my line out. i struggled to get half the line back over the course of two hours, and after all of that, the line snaps. i blame myself though, i became impatient and didn't let the fish run with the line so it snapped. so in the end, that monster of monster fishes - which i never even saw - returned to the depths from whence it came.

okay enough fish stories. what else? five birds commited suicide by flying into our wind generator. three of them were family, one right after the other. yes, i know, very sad stuff. sorry birds. anyways, we also saw quite a few super tankers and errol saw a submarine that was under us for a while. oh yeah, i saw a whale too! just a small one though. kind of like a really big dolphin.

and now we're in cairns and i want to get back onto a reef where i belong. good thing the reef is here.

fun on the high seas

i like to play a little game i call 'adventures in pissing' whilst sailing. the game starts when you begin pissing off the back or side of the boat. the object of the game being not to piss on yourself or the boat, and more importantly, not to fall into the ocean as you rock and roll with the swell. it's very important not to lose in this game. there are no sore losers, only wet ones!! and yes i'm aware that's not funny.