A right turn and up this river we went. After low tide mud swill prop turning as we went uphill
we arrived with, " Windigo " intact. A Roberts 45, still alive on our way to Auckland. The " Bay of Islands was a thing of the past as was, Dove and Nelson Island, where " The Duke" provided libation for a sailing event the his " Duchess" , in a race yelled, " give way" , I jibed unto a lee shore so that he might win. another race. I didn't make the point on the jibe but we survived. I had right of way and was totally committed to the ram. We are a heavy, well built boat with a solid crew! I gave way because I am a sailor and can!
I got my hair cut in Whangarei
. I think it was my last haircut. I have long hair that doesn't grow any more or any less. My beard I trim but not recently. Now is hiding bad teeth and a great smile. So long ago
was New Zealand but Captain Cook would say also, " Long Ago ".
How many people can pronounce Whangarei? ( fong-ger-ray? It's like living in Hawaii! ( ha-vy-ee).
It is a quiet little town connected to the ocean. Old gun turrents in place to protect New Zealand from the Japanese invasion that Australia new was coming. Darwin knows! The implaced gun bunker is like Point Loma in San Diego and is a landmark to introduce a sailing vessel to the entrance of the river that ls the way to Whangarei. I call it the gun tower approach. Better than leads!
We stayed five days and enjoyed a quite little inland town that really isn't and doesn't relate to sailors.
It's to far up the river to be comfortable and if one had a choice, Auckland and " The Bay of Islands ", have much more to offer. Still, one must see it all to form an opinion! I hold back on those because tomarrow is another day. Change isn't spare but it is of the essence! I don't burn bridges that I may have to cross again.
It's not a good idea to hold on to things to tightly, it stunts growth! Ha! AARGGugHHHH, matey!
About Me
- Robbin
- Sacramento, California, United States
- so salty pieces of coral from surfing Hawaii in the 60's and 70's getting reef pounded living in my body fall through my skin from time to time!
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australia. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ben Kelly
In Cairns Australia a boat was sold to a wannabe part of a sailing community without paying Davie his due! You know the style or lack of! His name isn't important but his character or lack of is. He figured he could buy a pedigreed sailboat, throw some money around buying drinks at the Cairns Yacht Club when it was located near the mouth that talked to Grafton Passage. Get a crew together to sail to Cooktown and invaribly learn everything there is to know about sailing and sailors. My wife of today ( girlfriend then ) He chose as paid skipper. Many sailors availed themselves as he ( new owner ) is truly a generous and kind man. I can speak of this because I was one of the other three he hand picked to deliver Ben Kelly and his self to Cooktown. Alan, the son of the husband and wife that sold Ben Kelly, was one of the chosen. Uly, a german, my friend,(as is Alan) and a Captain and owner of his own boat was also hand picked by the new owner. What a motley crew! The combined knowledge of the crew and the feel of the spitit of the sea made for a great fellowshipical adventure and maiden introduction for a new salt who bore the jokes with good interpertations of harmless but needful teasing and pranks that are designed for the benefit of the uninitiated! For instance. If I ask someone if they can tie a bolan and their response is, " Are you pulling that sailor shit on me "? My answer would be, " No, not by any means ", but then, " Would you show me a knot you feel comfortable with?" So they tie any manner of knot. And then after I makefast I ask them to un-tie it. They can't, of course, and I'm sure not going to hand them my marlinspike! So they learn something they didn't get when they were a boyscout!! Simply if you only learn one knot, let it be a bolan! It can save your life!! So we sailed. Inside " The Great Barrier Reef ". The largest living organism or life form on the face of this sailboat sailing through space called " Earth " I think Terra Tempory might have been better than Terra Firma!? Terra Temporaius sounds like an aquarium people might pay money to sea. One of my favorite sailors ( I lied, he is ) Captain Cook managed to stumble ( yea, right! ) inside " The Reef ", and then couldn't find his way out. Two ways in-no way out without a chart! Oh yea, he created them! Go figure! So0o with a following sea and a following wind ( rare ) we sailed Ben Kelly at times faster than her hull was designed for. I always loved the concept that a vessel that arrives at a speed beyond her design will drive herself underwater! Ballast and balance and let her go!! We were wing and wing with all skippers aboard who liked each other! Nay! God forbid! In broad daylight, unchallenged, the wind, tide and swells drove Ben Kelley, not we, but one. The owner learned on that cruise more or less than he was entitled. Dues have been and are being paid by every man ( woman ) who goes to sea. Captain Cook's offloaded canons, brass monkey balls, anything of weight has only been found recently. ( the last fifty years ) Cooktown is named for him where he came in the river and put his hull back together with native timber. Good thing he ran aground then because there is no timber anywhere near Cooktown today that you could appropriate. It just isn't! I owe this next bit to my wife of many years and the bearer of my our children. Once we arrived and dropped our pick upriver, I didn't trust the tide flux and river current to hold. I errored and set another anchor in what can be called " A bermuda triangle ". It's a double pick drop and it failed with no damage because she, as THE skipper caught the error. What can I say, " Sorry " . And that is what the owner Jim learned on his first sail on his new boat Ben Kelly! It is O.K to ask questions. It is O.K. to knot know the answer. Always recomember " A WISE MAN ASKS WHAT A FOOL PRETENDS TO KNOW " and all sailors will be alright! God Bless
Friday, October 30, 2009
navigator/cartoligist/father/husband-James Cook
The Demise Of Captain Cook
by Betty Fullard-Leo
Captain Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay.
The bay at Kealakekua is so translucent, so placid, that scores of novice snorkelers slip into the water daily, arriving by boats from Kailua-Kona, which anchor, bobbing peacefully, just beyond the obelisk that marks a far more violent episode in Hawaiian history. It was here that the great navigator Captain James Cook was killed on February 14, 1779.
Cook and his crew had sailed through the Hawaiian Islands little more than a year earlier when they anchored off Kaua'i to re-provision his flagship Resolution and a smaller vessel, Discovery. This was Cook's third Pacific voyage, but his first to explore the North Pacific. It was the voyage that earned him credit as the first westerner to discover the Hawaiian Islands.
When the British ships sailed past O'ahu to Kaua'i in January 1778, they were met by a fleet of canoes filled with Islanders prepared to do battle. Luckily, Cook and his men had learned a bit of Tahitian months earlier. Tahitian was close enough to the Hawaiian dialect so the two groups could communicate, and when Cook gave gifts, the Hawaiians realized he had come in peace. The boats had been anchored for three days at Waimea Bay, Kaua'i, where the crews had discovered that Hawaiian women gave freely of their sexual favors. While there, the High Chief Kaneoneo returned from across the island to board the Discovery and meet Captain Charles Clerke before the two English ships left Waimea, headed for Alaska and Canada. Cook had anchored off Kaua'i during the time of makahiki, a period of months set aside for the collection of taxes in the form of produce, crafts and other goods, while war was suspended and ceremonies and games were the order of the day. There are, however, no notations in Cook's logs that indicate he knew anything about the makahiki season or its peaceful traditions. Ten months later, he returned from the north, badly in need of provisions and a safe harbor to repair his ships. It was November; once again it was the makahiki season. Cook dropped anchor first off Maui, where a meeting with King Kahekili went well. The Hawaiians were pleased to obtain valuable iron nails to fashion into fishing hooks, as well as iron tools, in trade for food and water.
An interpretation of Hikiau Heiau, the temple at Kealakekua Bay, based on 1779 descriptions Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.
Near Hana, Cook's ships were met by King Kalaniopu'u, who had been warring against Kahekili, but because of the makahiki, the fighting had been suspended. Eight of Kalaniopu'u's chiefs (among them the young Kamehameha) remained on board to direct Cook to the Big Island. From his reception, Cook surmised that swift canoes had raced across the channel to forewarn the Big Islanders of his arrival. Off the northern shore of the Big Island, near Waipi'o Valley, canoes laden with men waving white banners paddled out to greet them. During makahiki, white kapa banners were always hung for ceremonies and displayed at heiau around the islands. Next came young women dressed in their finest kapa, and canoes loaded with "pigs, fruit and roots."
The ships were re-provisioned, but unable to make landing. Cook chose to circumnavigate the Big Island around the windward side, extending his journey far beyond the few days it would have taken for him to reach Kealakekua Bay sailing to the lee. The Islanders, and presumably King Kalaniopu'u, were happy with the decision, as at each seaside village canoes paddled out to trade for valuable western goods. By the time the Discovery and the Resolution, with torn sails and rotting lines, were able to enter Kealakekua Bay for repairs, they were surrounded by possibly 1,000 canoes and thousands of people swimming or on surfboards.
Captain William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, who would later go down in history as captain of the mutinous crew of the Bounty, was sent ahead to check the depth of the bay and to find fresh water, thus becoming the first European to actually set foot on Hawaiian soil.
Cook invited one of the Hawaiian elders to dine with him and received a pig and a red tapa cloak in return. Lieutenant James King kept detailed journals of the proceedings. When Cook went ashore, with King in the retinue, King wrote, "...[We] were received by 3 or 4 men .....who kept repeating a sentence wherein the word E Rono was always mention'd, this is the name by which the Captn has for some time been distinguish'd by the Natives."
Early historians determined that Cook had been mistaken for the god Lono, most closely associated with the makahiki, but later scholars and Hawaiians cast doubt on the idea. One theory sometimes advanced is that Hawaiians were saying, "E rono," translated as "listen" or "attention," which they called out to attract the crowd's attention to Cook's presence and his important stature.
Cook was led to a heiau, the same rock temple called Hikiau that can be found at Kealakekua Bay today, to take part in an elaborate ceremony, at the conclusion of which he was made to bow to the ground and kiss an image of the war god Ku.
Cook was not the only one to be treated with honor; Captain Clerke was also led to the temple, and a small pig was sacrificed to him, accompanied by an elaborate ceremony and chanting.
Nine days passed before the Big Island king appeared, accompanied by a long line of sailing and paddling canoes. The British were surprised that the king was none other than their old friend Kalaniopu'u, who had settled in the village where about 125 dwellings were occupied by chiefs. This is the same area that holds the monument to Captain Cook today.
The following morning, the king boarded the Resolution from his own 70-foot canoe. He was surrounded by chiefs attired in bright red-and-yellow feather cloaks and helmets and accompanied by canoes carrying chanters, feather idols, and provisions.
While their ships were repaired, the British camped in a nearby sweet potato field, and some attempted to learn about the Hawaiian culture; others, like Surgeon's Mate David Samwell, learned lascivious songs from the young Hawaiian women and enjoyed feasts and boxing exhibitions, typical makahiki past times.
When Cook ordered the king to purchase the wooden railings atop the heiau they were freely given, possibly because the makahiki season was drawing to a close and the ceremonial structures would soon have been dismantled anyway. The British ships sailed away on February 4, but within days a gust of wind had broken the Resolution's main mast and Cook had to return. By then the time of peace was past.
The mast was hauled ashore; all the while, Islanders continually pilfered from Cook's ships. When an Islander was spotted making off with a pair of blacksmith's tongs from the Discovery, British sailors rowed ashore in pursuit of his canoe. They tried to confiscate his canoe to hold until their tongs were returned, but the canoe's owner came out and was struck with an oar. Hawaiians retaliated by throwing stones.
Cook, with Lieutenant King and a marine, came down the beach to intervene, and the three Britishers set off in pursuit of the man with the tongs, but they were misled and laughed at by the Hawaiians. Cook ordered the sentries to reload their fine-shot to the more deadly ball ammunition.
When a boat was discovered missing from the Discovery on February 14, ill feelings escalated. The British fired cannons at canoes in the bay and Cook went ashore with some sailors to try to bring Kalaniopu'u back to the Resolution as a hostage. A crowd had gathered by the water's edge when, at the far end of the bay, a shot rang out from one of the British boats, and the chief Kalimu, standing in his canoe, was killed. The Hawaiians began to don their war clothing and, when a challenging motion was made toward Cook, he turned and fired his musket. Then his marines fired. When the king's guards charged, the marines, who had no time to reload, headed for the water. Many of the men, like Cook, could not swim.
The death of Cook, February 14, 1779. Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.
The recorded details are not exact, but it is thought that Cook was struck with a club from behind, then stabbed repeatedly with an iron dagger that had been obtained from the British in trade by a chief named Nua.
Following Cook's death, five British sailors were killed, and four Hawaiian chiefs and thirteen kanaka maoli (commoners) died, before cannon fire from the British ships forced everyone to leave the beach. Captain Clerke, suffering from tuberculosis, took command and had repairs completed to the foremast on deck. He asked repeatedly for Cook's body, only to learn through friendly Hawaiian priests that it had been cut into pieces and the bones stripped of flesh; as was the Hawaiian custom in the treatment of the remains of a high chief. Islanders believed that the keeper of such bones inherited the mana, the spiritual power, of the deceased.
Animosity continued, with Hawaiians on shore taunting the British sailors, until three days later. On the 17th of February, Clerke fired cannons toward the shoreline. Two chiefs came to the ships to discuss peace, but that same evening, British sailors who came onshore to replenishing their fresh water, were pelted with rocks. The sailors burned an unprotected village and cut off the heads of two Hawaiians, displaying them on poles, until Captain Clerke had them deposited into the ocean to show that the British were not cannibals.
The following evening, a truce was declared. Some of the remains of Captain Cook were returned to the British, which Clerke deposited in a weighted box and sank in Kealakekua Bay. Kalaniopu'u is said to have kept Cook's long bones and jaw, and the young warrior Kamehameha was given the hair.
The Hawaiians questioned what the British would do and they wanted to know when Erono would return. In early history books, these questions were often said to indicate that the Hawaiians considered Cook the god Lono, while others say it only indicated they feared retribution from Cook's ghost, as ghosts were very real to them.
Clerke and his men sailed north after further provisioning off Kaua'i, but Clerke died off Siberia before returning to his native land. In England, the story of Cook became a legend, and he was immortalized in books and in a French stage play: "La Mort du Captain Cook". The story that Hawaiians believed Cook was their god Lono was commonly accepted. With the blurring of history, it is a question that probably never will be settled completely.
I believe that James Cook is the embodiment of Lono. Hunter S who is as whacked as a human can be/ wrote one of his " Fear and Loathings" called " The Curse of Lono"! It's not just that! I lived on Kauai for twenty years. I became a sailor from a surfer/diver/fisherman. I married my wife in Australia and continued to N.Z. I sailed through the " South Seas"! I married a " Kiwi"! What did I learn in my travels? Captain Cook has a statue or a pass everywhere I've been. I visit my sister in Anchorage, Alaska and there is James.( a statue ) I sail to New Zealand and here is- the "Cook Straits", seperating the North Island from the South! My wife delivers a boat to Cooktown, Aus, where after sailing through one of the two passes (Grafton)he finally ran aground, off loaded cannon, ballast- goes up the river and fixes (as in survives ) his boat so that the town with a museum is named " Cooktown"! I sailed from Samauri to Cairns and even with a chart that was a bad ass entry! But Cook found that entry by exploration! He designed the charts that I read! Yea, Jim is "ono"with the " L "!! Everywhere I sailed in the Pacific Ocean or have been, I run across his name. He died when he was 51 but oh! how he lived! This man covered a lot of territory and did it with style. He was a smart sailor that left a heritage to be admired and to be lived up with! So be it!
by Betty Fullard-Leo
Captain Cook Monument in Kealakekua Bay.
The bay at Kealakekua is so translucent, so placid, that scores of novice snorkelers slip into the water daily, arriving by boats from Kailua-Kona, which anchor, bobbing peacefully, just beyond the obelisk that marks a far more violent episode in Hawaiian history. It was here that the great navigator Captain James Cook was killed on February 14, 1779.
Cook and his crew had sailed through the Hawaiian Islands little more than a year earlier when they anchored off Kaua'i to re-provision his flagship Resolution and a smaller vessel, Discovery. This was Cook's third Pacific voyage, but his first to explore the North Pacific. It was the voyage that earned him credit as the first westerner to discover the Hawaiian Islands.
When the British ships sailed past O'ahu to Kaua'i in January 1778, they were met by a fleet of canoes filled with Islanders prepared to do battle. Luckily, Cook and his men had learned a bit of Tahitian months earlier. Tahitian was close enough to the Hawaiian dialect so the two groups could communicate, and when Cook gave gifts, the Hawaiians realized he had come in peace. The boats had been anchored for three days at Waimea Bay, Kaua'i, where the crews had discovered that Hawaiian women gave freely of their sexual favors. While there, the High Chief Kaneoneo returned from across the island to board the Discovery and meet Captain Charles Clerke before the two English ships left Waimea, headed for Alaska and Canada. Cook had anchored off Kaua'i during the time of makahiki, a period of months set aside for the collection of taxes in the form of produce, crafts and other goods, while war was suspended and ceremonies and games were the order of the day. There are, however, no notations in Cook's logs that indicate he knew anything about the makahiki season or its peaceful traditions. Ten months later, he returned from the north, badly in need of provisions and a safe harbor to repair his ships. It was November; once again it was the makahiki season. Cook dropped anchor first off Maui, where a meeting with King Kahekili went well. The Hawaiians were pleased to obtain valuable iron nails to fashion into fishing hooks, as well as iron tools, in trade for food and water.
An interpretation of Hikiau Heiau, the temple at Kealakekua Bay, based on 1779 descriptions Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.
Near Hana, Cook's ships were met by King Kalaniopu'u, who had been warring against Kahekili, but because of the makahiki, the fighting had been suspended. Eight of Kalaniopu'u's chiefs (among them the young Kamehameha) remained on board to direct Cook to the Big Island. From his reception, Cook surmised that swift canoes had raced across the channel to forewarn the Big Islanders of his arrival. Off the northern shore of the Big Island, near Waipi'o Valley, canoes laden with men waving white banners paddled out to greet them. During makahiki, white kapa banners were always hung for ceremonies and displayed at heiau around the islands. Next came young women dressed in their finest kapa, and canoes loaded with "pigs, fruit and roots."
The ships were re-provisioned, but unable to make landing. Cook chose to circumnavigate the Big Island around the windward side, extending his journey far beyond the few days it would have taken for him to reach Kealakekua Bay sailing to the lee. The Islanders, and presumably King Kalaniopu'u, were happy with the decision, as at each seaside village canoes paddled out to trade for valuable western goods. By the time the Discovery and the Resolution, with torn sails and rotting lines, were able to enter Kealakekua Bay for repairs, they were surrounded by possibly 1,000 canoes and thousands of people swimming or on surfboards.
Captain William Bligh, Cook's sailing master, who would later go down in history as captain of the mutinous crew of the Bounty, was sent ahead to check the depth of the bay and to find fresh water, thus becoming the first European to actually set foot on Hawaiian soil.
Cook invited one of the Hawaiian elders to dine with him and received a pig and a red tapa cloak in return. Lieutenant James King kept detailed journals of the proceedings. When Cook went ashore, with King in the retinue, King wrote, "...[We] were received by 3 or 4 men .....who kept repeating a sentence wherein the word E Rono was always mention'd, this is the name by which the Captn has for some time been distinguish'd by the Natives."
Early historians determined that Cook had been mistaken for the god Lono, most closely associated with the makahiki, but later scholars and Hawaiians cast doubt on the idea. One theory sometimes advanced is that Hawaiians were saying, "E rono," translated as "listen" or "attention," which they called out to attract the crowd's attention to Cook's presence and his important stature.
Cook was led to a heiau, the same rock temple called Hikiau that can be found at Kealakekua Bay today, to take part in an elaborate ceremony, at the conclusion of which he was made to bow to the ground and kiss an image of the war god Ku.
Cook was not the only one to be treated with honor; Captain Clerke was also led to the temple, and a small pig was sacrificed to him, accompanied by an elaborate ceremony and chanting.
Nine days passed before the Big Island king appeared, accompanied by a long line of sailing and paddling canoes. The British were surprised that the king was none other than their old friend Kalaniopu'u, who had settled in the village where about 125 dwellings were occupied by chiefs. This is the same area that holds the monument to Captain Cook today.
The following morning, the king boarded the Resolution from his own 70-foot canoe. He was surrounded by chiefs attired in bright red-and-yellow feather cloaks and helmets and accompanied by canoes carrying chanters, feather idols, and provisions.
While their ships were repaired, the British camped in a nearby sweet potato field, and some attempted to learn about the Hawaiian culture; others, like Surgeon's Mate David Samwell, learned lascivious songs from the young Hawaiian women and enjoyed feasts and boxing exhibitions, typical makahiki past times.
When Cook ordered the king to purchase the wooden railings atop the heiau they were freely given, possibly because the makahiki season was drawing to a close and the ceremonial structures would soon have been dismantled anyway. The British ships sailed away on February 4, but within days a gust of wind had broken the Resolution's main mast and Cook had to return. By then the time of peace was past.
The mast was hauled ashore; all the while, Islanders continually pilfered from Cook's ships. When an Islander was spotted making off with a pair of blacksmith's tongs from the Discovery, British sailors rowed ashore in pursuit of his canoe. They tried to confiscate his canoe to hold until their tongs were returned, but the canoe's owner came out and was struck with an oar. Hawaiians retaliated by throwing stones.
Cook, with Lieutenant King and a marine, came down the beach to intervene, and the three Britishers set off in pursuit of the man with the tongs, but they were misled and laughed at by the Hawaiians. Cook ordered the sentries to reload their fine-shot to the more deadly ball ammunition.
When a boat was discovered missing from the Discovery on February 14, ill feelings escalated. The British fired cannons at canoes in the bay and Cook went ashore with some sailors to try to bring Kalaniopu'u back to the Resolution as a hostage. A crowd had gathered by the water's edge when, at the far end of the bay, a shot rang out from one of the British boats, and the chief Kalimu, standing in his canoe, was killed. The Hawaiians began to don their war clothing and, when a challenging motion was made toward Cook, he turned and fired his musket. Then his marines fired. When the king's guards charged, the marines, who had no time to reload, headed for the water. Many of the men, like Cook, could not swim.
The death of Cook, February 14, 1779. Painting by Herb Kawainui Kane.
The recorded details are not exact, but it is thought that Cook was struck with a club from behind, then stabbed repeatedly with an iron dagger that had been obtained from the British in trade by a chief named Nua.
Following Cook's death, five British sailors were killed, and four Hawaiian chiefs and thirteen kanaka maoli (commoners) died, before cannon fire from the British ships forced everyone to leave the beach. Captain Clerke, suffering from tuberculosis, took command and had repairs completed to the foremast on deck. He asked repeatedly for Cook's body, only to learn through friendly Hawaiian priests that it had been cut into pieces and the bones stripped of flesh; as was the Hawaiian custom in the treatment of the remains of a high chief. Islanders believed that the keeper of such bones inherited the mana, the spiritual power, of the deceased.
Animosity continued, with Hawaiians on shore taunting the British sailors, until three days later. On the 17th of February, Clerke fired cannons toward the shoreline. Two chiefs came to the ships to discuss peace, but that same evening, British sailors who came onshore to replenishing their fresh water, were pelted with rocks. The sailors burned an unprotected village and cut off the heads of two Hawaiians, displaying them on poles, until Captain Clerke had them deposited into the ocean to show that the British were not cannibals.
The following evening, a truce was declared. Some of the remains of Captain Cook were returned to the British, which Clerke deposited in a weighted box and sank in Kealakekua Bay. Kalaniopu'u is said to have kept Cook's long bones and jaw, and the young warrior Kamehameha was given the hair.
The Hawaiians questioned what the British would do and they wanted to know when Erono would return. In early history books, these questions were often said to indicate that the Hawaiians considered Cook the god Lono, while others say it only indicated they feared retribution from Cook's ghost, as ghosts were very real to them.
Clerke and his men sailed north after further provisioning off Kaua'i, but Clerke died off Siberia before returning to his native land. In England, the story of Cook became a legend, and he was immortalized in books and in a French stage play: "La Mort du Captain Cook". The story that Hawaiians believed Cook was their god Lono was commonly accepted. With the blurring of history, it is a question that probably never will be settled completely.
I believe that James Cook is the embodiment of Lono. Hunter S who is as whacked as a human can be/ wrote one of his " Fear and Loathings" called " The Curse of Lono"! It's not just that! I lived on Kauai for twenty years. I became a sailor from a surfer/diver/fisherman. I married my wife in Australia and continued to N.Z. I sailed through the " South Seas"! I married a " Kiwi"! What did I learn in my travels? Captain Cook has a statue or a pass everywhere I've been. I visit my sister in Anchorage, Alaska and there is James.( a statue ) I sail to New Zealand and here is- the "Cook Straits", seperating the North Island from the South! My wife delivers a boat to Cooktown, Aus, where after sailing through one of the two passes (Grafton)he finally ran aground, off loaded cannon, ballast- goes up the river and fixes (as in survives ) his boat so that the town with a museum is named " Cooktown"! I sailed from Samauri to Cairns and even with a chart that was a bad ass entry! But Cook found that entry by exploration! He designed the charts that I read! Yea, Jim is "ono"with the " L "!! Everywhere I sailed in the Pacific Ocean or have been, I run across his name. He died when he was 51 but oh! how he lived! This man covered a lot of territory and did it with style. He was a smart sailor that left a heritage to be admired and to be lived up with! So be it!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Samurai, PNG---Cairns Aus......
Forget the Phillipines! We ran out of money! We headed to Australia to make money to haul "Guinevere" out of the water and go through her, heal Her from the many battles she had fought and won not only functioning as our house or exo-skeleton but as an extension of who and what we were about: who drove Her into strange harbors and filled our imaginations with truths that were the truth and not subject to whims created on "Wall Street" by think tank anal-ists! Ha! I saw You because You wern't there! The sail from Samurai was uneventful until we found the outside lead into Grafton Passage! That will be a story you need to remind me of for a future telling. For now this story is about after the green flag. When customs in Cairns took away a canned, sealed,unoperned tin of ham, manufactured in Aus, but bought in Papua, I knew we were in for some fun. It started raining so hard, if you put your hand to cover your eyes like a baseball cap you still couldn't see! We finally cleared customs without making any enemies but I had no visa so they gave me one for $ 35 for 24 hours. Dave, my skipper, paid and Royal Gage and I ran through rain that I had only experienced on Kauai, Hawaii before! Places where you measure rain in feet! We made it to the Cairns Yacht Club, laughing because this is the first, first world country we had been in for awhile and a rum and coke was not far away and the view inside "The Club" was a site to behold! We were so happy to see all these wonderful people having a great time we never realized we were being laughed at until later. At least we hadn't stepped upon the Cairns Yacht Club logo, on the floor! If we had done that we would have been forced to shout a round for the entire house! However, we did seat ourselves at the bar (never wondering why with a full house there would be three open chairs next to the service area) and were completely neglected. We finally with a few ( tongue in check) references found that we were siting in the gereiatrics section! Susan( the bartender) became my friend and many friendships spun off of Royal's and my unawareness of Yachtie behaviors. My future wife witnessed this event having no idea that we would fall in love and someday be married and have two children that are now adults! ( According to them) Guinevere got fixed! Royal and I got our rum and cokes! Customs got their's. We worked hard in Cairns and we all made it to New Zealand but that can be another story. It will be about " The Tasman" and " The Bay Of Islands"!
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