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American Spirit II - Day 203; 7:00 AM Church, the Fishing Store, Provisioning and Prize Giving Dinner; Sunday, July 27, 2014



Up at 6:00 AM to go to a 7:00 AM church service at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in MacKay. Jeanine and I departed the boat at 6:20 AM and arrived at the church at 6:50 AM. We're actually getting pretty good at understanding 'Australian English.' If you think that's strange, try watching an Australian movie and see how many words you can't understand. Same goes for UK English and New Zealand English.

After the service, the priest read a letter from the Bishop that indicated that some of the parishioners had been killed in the recent plane shot down in the Ukraine by Russia; and that some previous parishioners had been lost in the plane that disappeared a few months ago when a pilot suicided the plane. Both airplanes were from Malaysia.

The services ended at 8:15 AM and Jeanine and I then headed back to the boat. On the way we stopped by a fishing store and I bought 6 exotic lures, which cost about $25.00 apiece. Once back at the boat we met Joel for breakfast.

At 10:00 AM we attended a Skipper's briefing concerning the free cruising period in Australia. Two locals from the MacKay Yacht Club briefed us on sailing from MacKay up to Thursday Island in northern Australia, and then west thru the Torres Straight to Darwin. A very thorough briefing. What each of the boats have to decide is when to leave MacKay; which islands to go to in the Whitsunday Islands; and most importantly, whether to stop at the top of Australia in an area where Thursday Island is before turning left and sailing on to Darwin. The sailing from the northern tip to Darwin will be challenging, with gigantic tides and currents, lots of ship traffic and plenty of islands to steer around. Plus, if we stop in an area called the 'Torres Strait Protected Zone,' we are subject to having all fruit, vegetables and meats removed from the boat like we had done when we cleared into MacKay last Friday. This Torres Strait Protected Zone is a 'Special Quarantine Zone,' and has been for over 100 years (since 1908). Once we arrive in Darwin all boats have to proceed to a special clearing in pontoon, where a chemical is sprayed into our salt water sea cocks. Also, because of the large tides in the Darwin area all the marinas are inside of 'lock zones.'

At 1:30 PM Joel and I, along with Laurie, Brian and Lauren from Nexus departed in my rental car and drove to a marine store, camping store and then a large mall to purchase items for our trip. I ended up buying some freeze dried food from the camping store; however, the cost of the freeze dried was 2 1/2 times that of what I paid in the US; and the quantity of the freeze dried was less than what I needed to provision the boat for the next 8 months. That means that I'll have to have my brother David bring some with him when he joins the boat in Darwin September 2nd.

We attended a Rally prize giving dinner at 5:45 PM. American Spirit II was awarded 2nd place in Division B for the Vanuatu to MacKay, Australia leg. Our 'prize' was an 'Australian Returning Boomerang.' Joel and I also received certificates stating the we had crossed the Pacific Ocean with the World ARC 2014-15. A nice touch by the World Cruising Club. Each boat also received a free bottle of wine. No complaints there!

Unfortunately, four more boats were leaving the Rally at MacKay: II Audeacious, Dinghy, Kathea and Seaduced. Tommy and Marianne from II Audeacious and John and Jane from Seaduced will be sorely missed.

Back at the boat at 9:00 PM to put groceries away and type up 3 logs. In bed by 11:20 AM. An early day tomorrow as we have a tour of a rain forest starting at 8:00 AM. Joel will be missing the tour as he will be meeting a mechanic to install our new AIS and fix some minor problems we're having with our water maker.



Brian Fox


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