The Cosmos Adventure - News

Report From George Hotz -- Received May 25, 2002

Cosmos

Cairns:

 Yeah, Cairns was fun.  Good shopping, good restaurants, lots of Internet access, great place to reprovision.  The anchorage across from the Cairns Yacht Club was quiet, scenic and comfortable.  We obtained everything we needed from the grocery stores, marine chandlers, dive shops, clothing stores, liquor stores, etc.  It took two full taxi cab trunks to replenish the food we had consumed since we left Mackay.  This represents six people eating for seven days.  Everybody took the whole crew out to eat at some point during our stay in Cairns and the special evening was the one when we were the guest of Anders and Margareta at the Cairns International Hotel dining room.  This was a fine buffet and Anders kept the wine coming.  The evening was topped off with a starlit dinghy ride back to Cosmos.  We arrived at Cairns late on the morning of May 14th and left after lunch on the 17th.  Sadly, we left without Margareta -- perhaps we will see her in Darwin.  As we looked back at Cairns from a couple of miles out of the harbor, we realized how isolated it is, with no significant amount of suburban sprawl.  The city stands alone -- a jewel, shining in the sun, as it will in our memories.

 We sailed overnight and picked up a mooring at Ribbon Reef No. 3, Steve's Brommie.  Here we enjoyed the finest snorkeling and diving yet -- even snorkeled at night.  Steve took Hilary for her first dive, ever, and they used the Supersnorkel for air.  This gave Hilary a chance to use the diving gear she bought in Cairns.  She followed Steve's instructions, dove successfully, and enjoyed it so much that we thought we'd never get her back in the boat.  Then, this morning, after pancakes and another snorkeling expedition, we left Steve's Brommie and motored to Pixie's Pinnacle.  This was a five-hour trip under power using the port engine.  We were still not satisfied that we had solved the heat problem with this engine so, after cleaning the heat exchanger and checking out some other hoses, we took this opportunity to test it at 2500 RPM.  This engine seems happy for now; we'll see.

 5/21/02:

 Pixie's Pinnacle was a fabulous dive/snorkel/anchorage site -- I don't think we should have ever left.  We sailed overnight to Joan's Reef and got there at midday today, but conditions were not good enough to stay.  Enroute, Anders caught a 24" Spanish Mackerel, just in time for dinner.  Actually, if we were depending on our fishing expertise to feed this crew, we would have starved a long time ago.  This fact may have provided Anders and Steve with the incentive to design and construct their own fishing lure.  Several names have been suggested for this lure, but christening will have to wait till we see how well it performs.  It was fabricated from numerous surplus materials found throughout the boat.

 After passing up Joan's Reef, we checked out another reef near by and found conditions to be somewhat hostile there also -- boy, are we spoiled.  This simply means that we have been forced to endure an abundant amount of luxurious, sunny, breezy, downwind sailing to yet another destination.

5/22/02:

 This new destination turned out to be another overnight sail to Lloyd Bay on the coast of the mainland.  After anchoring late in the morning, we had lunch, then launched the dinghy for a cruise on the Lockhart River that empties into the bay.  This river is thickly lined with Mangrove trees anchored in a chocolate colored mud, smelling like rotten eggs, and labeled on the chart as a swamp.  We embarked on this dinghy ride prepared to encounter crocodiles, snakes, wild rare colorful birds.  All five of us piled into the ten foot inflatable boat (that could be easily punctured by a single crocodile tooth) armed with a small baseball bat, extra oars that could also be used for clubs, several bottles of drinking water, plenty of sun block, hats, and cameras.  The little 8-hp outboard motor barely moved the dinghy and we would have been an easy catch for a hungry crocodile.  We spent two hours, and all of our fuel, putting through this swamp river, scouring the banks for any form of life.  We often saw disturbances in the water caused by some form of aquatic creatures struggling to survive each other.  It was low tide and the tree roots were exposed.  We looked among the roots for crocodiles and any other monsters that our imaginations could conjure up.  The tree roots resembled spiders dashing about carrying tree trunks.

 We are spending the night here, anchored far enough from the swamp so as not to attract flies, we hope.  We have, tentatively, planned another expedition for tomorrow morning to the shore of the bay rather than the river.  It is easy to feel like real explorers in this uninhabited, pristine, unspoiled, area -- as if we are the first to arrive and discover it

5/26/02:

 The crew enjoyed the beach and met some of the locals.  We all went on a trek through what they call a rain forest.  A sign at a creek crossing said "No Swimming. Crocodiles."  After the hike, we walked through the settlement, or town, and then walked the three miles back to the beach and dinghied to the boat.  This was a lot of walking for having been on a boat a week or so.  The local inhabitants appear to be mostly aborigines, along with several contractors and government workers.  I heard of a lot of the problems the aborigines were having, the frustrations the government people were having, and saw numerous contractors scurrying about.  I saw the nicely paved streets, littered.  I saw a lot of homes and other buildings in need of paint and general tidying up.  I saw lots of native women and children around, but no native men.  I wonder if the government and the contractors are doing everything for the aborigines, getting the funds, getting the work, in their effort to exploit this area for their own benefit.  I think the local native aborigines "esteem too lightly, what they receive too readily"; have no pride, no work.  Why do we think that these aborigines need our help when they have been around a lot longer than we have, and what we're doing here is not working?  I think that the white man needs to go away and leave these folks alone.

 Cosmos motor-sailed to Thursday Island and got here early.  We'll explore this tomorrow.

 George