Moving and Again and live life while you are alive

To All

Well once more we're moving along. We have spent 4 days here in Thursday Island. first it was the paper work shuffle which was surprisingly easy, then cleaning up and recovering from the 12 day passage and finally getting ready for our next passage on to Darwin which should be about 6 days.

Our arrival and check in on Thursday Is. was interesting. Australia is very strict regarding quarantine and the bringing in of foods and of course our cats. The regulations spelled out on their web site talk about all the food items you cannot bring in, fruit, vegetables, meat[ canned,cooked,fresh,or frozen] cheese, eggs, milk, nuts, seeds, etc. etc.. We were prepared to give up lots of our stored provisions. The quarantine officer who did our inspection took 2 pieces of fruit we had left and then said are you going to eat the other forbidden items. I answered yes and we lost virtually nothing. Our friends on "Scarlett O'Hara" didn't fare as well but still only lost meat and eggs. Most surprisingly the cats have been an almost non issue. They are considered ships pets and basically are confined to the boat. We must anchor out or use a mooring and when the boat is unattended they must be locked below but no mandatory inspections. As normal with moving from port to port we must let both quarantine and customs know our plans.

After a rough 12 day passage catching up on sleep is a priority. The first 2 nights it's an easy 12 hours. Next it's hoping to find a laundramat, a meal in a restaurant and the all important catching up via the internet. We found the laundry facilities but in involved a $10 ferry ride and no dryers, so once again it was washing in the bucket, hand ringing and line drying. I will admit we only did the necessities and hope for better laundry in Darwin. The grocery shopping was OK for the small island town we were in. The restaurants were the biggest disappointments! Lunch, a burger with chips[fries] for $19 Au or about $18.50 US. Dinner was $22 Au and neither was of very good quality. Drinks in one of the local pub's was fine $4.50 for a bottle of beer and we just bought the whole bottle of wine for $22 rather than $7/glass.

We now have everything ready for the next 750 miles to Darwin. The weather has been sunny and dry but the winds continue to be in the 20 to 30 knot range. From talking to the locals here that is what is normal for this time of year so tomorrow off we go.

We won't be checking in on any official radio nets but I hope to still send in position reports so you can follow our progress. We are looking forward to Darwin as our friends Mitch and Robyn are coming up from Cairns for a visit and then it will be busy busy getting ready to head off to Indonesia.

That's it from here, we wish you all the best. Remember "Live life while your alive". J&K