American Spirit II - Day 209; Quarantine Zone, Wild Kingdom & Dinner with Nexus; Saturday, August 2, 2014

Up at 7:15 AM. Coffee. Joel and Jeanine still sleeping as I went to Nexus and borrowed their 'Vessels in the Torres Strait' quarantine information sheet. I had lost my copy somewhere on the boat. We then proceeded to the marina office where I had them make me a color copy. Basically, there is a quarantine area in northern Australia that extends from the coast of Australia north to Papua New Guinea, and east and west for about 180 miles. If we anchor in this quarantine zone, which is where Thursday Island is, then upon reaching Darwin all meats, fruits, vegetables, pop corn and most grocery items bought outside of this zone will have to be taken off the boat and destroyed. The purpose of this quarantine zone is '...to help prevent the spread of pests, weeds and diseases from countries to our north, to the Torres Strait Islands and from these islands back to mainland Australia.'

Even if we don't anchor in the quarantine zone, once we get to Darwin the boat has to be quarantined for 14 hours as divers inject a chemical into our salt water sea cocks to make sure no mussels and some other organisms don't enter into the northern waters via our boat.

At 9:00 AM I went to the marina office and they said they wanted me to show them my boat insurance documents. In order to stay in a marina in eastern Australia you need $5,000,000 in General Liability insurance. I had $1,000,000 but increased it recently to $5,000,000 so that I'd be within the law. Otherwise a marina could refuse to rent me a boat slip. This extra insurance cost me about $800 this year for half of the policy year; and $1,600 over a full 12 months. Even though I only need this coverage for 6 weeks, I had to buy it for the whole year.

Back at the boat at 9:15 AM i saw a large fish somersault on top of the water, being chased by something bigger. I then cooked breakfast: scrambled eggs,
chilled apple pieces and raisin bread.

I got a bank card fraud alert on my cell phone, so I had to call the bank and straighten that out. It took me about 30 minutes to do so, even though the credit card company had my itinerary for sailing around the world.

We left the boat around 11:00 AM to go to the Wild Kingdom, a small zoo 10 minutes walk from the marina. It cost $20.00 to enter the park, but the price was well worth it. The animals we saw included: a Wombat, Grey Kangaroos, a Wallaby, an Eclectus Parrot, a white Cockatoo, gigantic Crocodile, a Blue Tongue Lizard, 3 Koala Bears, a Southern Cassowary, an Eastern Water Dragon and a Black Headed Python. The Southern Cassowary is the most dangerous bird in the world, stands 1.5 to 3 meters tall, is larger than a fat turkey, and has a sharp talon on its feet that it uses to slash other animals with. Its lineage is from the Veloraptor of Jurassic Park fame. It also has a bright blue crest above its skull.

On the way back to the boat we signed up for a Crocodile Safari for Monday.

At 6:00 PM we met the crew from Nexus: Russ, Laurie, Brian and Lauren at a seafood restaurant for dinner. The food was OK to good, but the price was super high. $45 to $50 for an entree. After dinner we went to Nexus where we were served coffee, tea and dessert. A great way to end a fine evening. Thank you Laurie and Russ.

We were back on our boat at 9:30 PM. Joel's new computer (the used one he bought on EBay)wasn't charging. Not good.

Went to bed around 11:00 PM.

Brian Fox