- Date: April 26, 1987
- Location: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Subject: Leaving Tomorrow!!
Dear WaterFairy,
This is a very exciting entry, because our last day in Cairns, and tomorrow morning we leave on our first sea leg of our adventure. Capt says we will be 2 or 3 days sail depending on the weather.
Yesterday, we got Sacha-B back into the water. The procedure was just like hauling her out, only backwards. Capt seems less stressed, and downright giddy once we were finally floating on our own. Instead of going back on the pilings, we got a slip at the marina for a few nights. This way we can just step on and off the boat, and be on land. This made it much easier to do our last minute shopping and errands.
We had a ton of last minute stuff to do. Capt made sure our fuel tanks were full of diesel, even though he said it will have to be pretty ugly circumstances for him to turn on our super big engine, “Mr. Gardner, Sir” We also topped the water tanks up, using the hose from the dock, filled the propane tanks and got extra kerosene for the lanterns. Also the butcher came to us with the meat we ordered last week, the rock hard frozen meats went directly into the freezer. We also got 10 liters of milk, 6 pounds of cheese and 6 loaves of bread to put into the freezer. So the freezer is stuffed to the gills with frozen food.
Mom made sure our passports were ready. We got them back last week from the Papua New Guinea Consulate. Each of our passports got a stamp, which is a visa that allows us to visit Papua New Guinea for 2 months. After two months, we can ask for an extension to stay longer. Capt went to the harbormaster’s office to talk to the guy who keeps track of all the boat traffic in the harbor. Capt made arrangements for the customs officer to come to Sacha-B at 10 tomorrow morning, and will have Capt sign some papers about our trip. This is called “clearing Customs.” As soon as we clear customs, we have to leave Australian waters and go to PNG.
One other thing we had to do before tomorrow was go to the duty free shop downtown and buy some liquor. A “duty” is a tax on stuff, and when you leave a country, you can buy stuff without the tax and that can save you a ton of money, especially on things like liquor and beer, cigarettes, perfume and jewelry. Mom and Capt don’t drink liquor much, but they do like to have a little beer or rum at night during happy hour. So Mom and I stopped at the duty free store, bought some stuff and made arrangements to have the order delivered no later than 9am, tomorrow. We need the duty free stuff on board so we can show the customs person. The duty free stuff we buy will be packaged and sealed in a special way, and can not be opened. If it is opened, we will have to pay the duty which defeats the reason to buy it in the first place.
After we went to the duty free shop, we stopped at the post office and redirected all our mail to the main post office in Rabaul, PNG. We probably won’t be in Rabaul for 5 or 6 weeks, so maybe there will be some mail waiting for us. While we were at the post office we mailed the latest bunch of letters we wrote.
On the way home, we went to Rustie’s Market which is a huge market in the center of town. Tons of farmers from the Atherland Tablelands come and set up tables with all of their beautiful fruits and veggies. There are also other vendors who sell jams, jellies, baked goods, fish, cheese and just about any food stuff you can think of. We got 5 days worth of veggies and fruit, 6 cabbages and 10 pounds of carrots. We will wrap them up in newspaper and put them in the aft storage. They will keep well there for many weeks. When we got back on board, Mom made up a bunch of sandwiches and wrapped them in plastic bags. She also wrapped up some individual servings of cookies, crackers and peanut butter, pickles and other goodies we might want to eat during the crossing. She packed all the food up into a big plastic box with an airtight lid. It was a huge lunch box for all of us. Mom said if the weather gets “snotty” or the seas get rough, all we have to do is grab the big lunch box and bring it on deck and have our meal. This is much easier than trying to make some food in a bouncy, rolly galley. Mom also made a big pot of chili, which she said will make a hearty dinner during the crossing. I got to bake some corn bread for a the chili.
Last thing we did was go to the yacht club for a little going away party. These were the people who were there: Toni and Craig from Mollemok, Brian, Tracy and Hannah from Sunshine and Whiskey, Tony from Calypso, Grandpa Pete and BG from Gangemi, Brian and Ivy from Tikani and Faye and Eddie from Chinook. We didn’t stay out late because we have a very busy morning ahead of us.. I am so excited I can’t sleep. So Mom and I had a cup of chamomile tea, which should help us sleep. Hopefully, when I am done writing this I can sleep.
