- Date: April 24, 1987
- Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Subject: Green Frog and Bruce, Coating Eggs
Dear WaterFairy:
Today, I will start with positivea. Two fun things happened since we’re living in the boat yard. One, is we have a neighbor Kim, who lives on his boat which he is still building. I still have a hard time getting that his name is Kim, cuz I always thought that was a girl’s name, but it can be both a girl’s name and a boy’s name. Of course, everyone calls him Kimbo. Kimbo has a sweet dog named “Bruce”. Bruce is a small German Shepherd and follows Kimbo around everywhere. He can even climb up the ladder into the boat. Kimbo told me I could take Bruce for a walk anytime I wanted to, but Bruce is not much interested. If Kimbo isn’t going-Bruce isn’t going! Oh well, I did try, but Bruce was having no part of it.
The second cool thing that happened since being on the hard is our new houseguest, the green frog! Somehow this little bright green frog (about 1.5 inches long) got on board Sacha-B. He has a white belly and yellow eyes. He seems to live in the drain hole at the bottom of the gas well, at the stern of the boat. Mom says he is probably a nocturnal tree frog-which means he sleeps all day and hops and eats all night, and he probably likes living in the drain hole because it is cool and protective.
Every night, since the first night we got here, when it gets dark, green frog hops out of the gas well, up to the cockpit, into the championway, down the saloon stairs, across the engine box and onto the galley stairs. It is a pretty far trip for a little green frog. He takes his time making this trek, sometimes it takes a couple of hours. Capt says Green Tree Frogs are welcome friends because they eat any bugs on board, and you know there are always some kind of bug on board. I asked Capt how he knew that the frog ate bugs, and Capt showed me the frog’s poop. I got out my magnifying glass to get all “sciency” on the poop, and sure enough, sticking out of the little frog poop were little legs of cockroaches! You go Green Frog.
Mom told me I could not, under any circumstance, touch Green Frog, because there is something in human hands that will burn the frog’s skin. I am not sure how true that is, but just in case, I will not touch him. Mom also filled a plastic lid of a coffee can with fresh water and left it at the bottom step into the galley. Green Frog will stick his little pointy bum into the water and it looks like his skin changes color. Mom says I will have to research the Green Frog when we get back to town and can get to the library. I will leave a space here for the answers that I will find. Mom said we can’t take Green Frog with us sailing-but will have to carefully put him into a container and release hime into the swamp behind the boat yard. We are going back into the water early tomorrow-So my time with my two faux pets-Bruce and Green Frog is going to end soon.
| Green Tree Frogs -the dainty green tree frog is a slender, medium-sized frog, reaching a length of 45 millimetres (1.8 in). -Back side is rich green -Sides are yellow -coarse, granular skin -bright orange eyes with some specimens have a light blue ring following the circumference of the eye -the back thigh is purple-brown or maroon -in most specimens, a thin yellow or white line runs from its nostril to its eye -the fingers are three-quarters webbed, while the toes are fully webbed -commonly found in vegetation near water such as streams and swamps, often in temporary water -eats insects -can often be found in banana stocks -breeds in during rain season -the eggs are laid in a clear jelly lump in water and are attached to vegetation -tadpole development takes about 14 weeks -green frogs can live about 6 years |
This morning, Mom and I went to the store to buy more food for our trip. We bought 12 dozen eggs, also known as a gross or 144. I thought that was a funny name for a dozen -dozen, because when I say something is gross, I mean it is disgusting and really icky. It’s just gross like fish guts or stepping in dog poo!!
Anyway, we borrowed Kimbo’s car to go to Woolies. We have a good set-up with Kimbo. He lets us use his car and we make him dinner. He says it is wonderful to work hard all day and have dinner ready, because he usually has to cook his own meals and that usually means a can of beans and a hunk of bread. When we got back to the boatyard, Mom and I set up an egg processing station in our makeshift kitchen. We had to ever-so-carefully coated each egg with a very thin layer of petroleum jelly. The petroleum jelly acts as a barrier to keep the air out of the eggs-so the eggs will not go rotten. We did this one dozen at a time, and as we finished a dozen of jelly coated eggs and had them nestled back in their carton, Mom would take the carton up the ladder, onto Sacha-B and wrap the egg carton a sweater or old towels and stored them in all the small lockers under the bunk in the aft cabin. Mom said wrapping them up in sweaters and towels will help keep them from getting knocked about. Mom also added the egg cartons where-abouts to her “master food list” so she wouldn’t forget about them. We don’t want to be living with the smell of stinking, rotting eggs.
So, Mom and I spent the rest of the day packed up our boatyard kitchen and putting everything back onto the boat. It was lots of work getting things back up on deck and stowed away. We did use the bucks hoisting system, which worked well and made the job easier. I brought my new dictionary.
For Happy hour and dinner we went to t the Cruising Yacht Squadron, because their kitchen is open and the bar is open.There weren’t any kids my age there tonight so I went around to some of the grown-ups. Today’s favorite word:
definition: of an uncle. Word: avuncular.
Ivy from Tikani knew the word!! When I asked her how she knew the word, she said that she reads a lot, and she also writes for a sailing magazine, so she is always in search of new words for old ideas, just to spice things up. Capt said that would be a great name for a boat, if your uncle gave you the money to finance the boat.
Big day tomorrow we are going back into the water and do our final preparations for the crossing. So off I go to get ready.
