Saturday 29th  June, Mackay, Qld Australia!)   21:06.733S  149:13.6E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone BST +9.00; UTC +10.00)

Well, we are here! Mackay, that is. Australia.   We arrived at about 02.30 local time and – having already heaved-to for dinner the night before to consume a rather good (particularly considering it was prepared at sea)  Toad-in-the-Hole, we then embarked upon what is becoming a familiar event, the “Everything must go breakfast” at circa 4.00AM. In New Zealand, you might recall it was a steak dinner; last night at 04.00 having already had some cheese and biscuits we decided to do it properly and had it was a fried breakfast of eggs bacon and sausages washed down by the last of our wine stocks.   Errrr ….. It is true to say that we “pigged out” yesterday.

You will recall we do it because these places value their biodiversity and won’t let us bring in foodstuffs that come from hot and sticky places.  And so it was that,  this morning,  we waited for visits from Customs and then the Quarantine man. Now you might also recall that the process of officialdom takes time. In the more bureaucratic countries  it can take a lot of time.  So it can in  Australia if you are checking in at the weekend (something you cannot achieve in many countries at the week end, e.g. Vanuatu).  In Australia they handle it by having a smaller staff cover, so you wait longer, and by charging overtime.  In summary, it was about 12.30 before we were cleared – customs cost us nothing, but the Quarantine, Biosecurity process cost us circa £200 basic for the service and a further £200 overtime for having the temerity to arrive at  the weekend – payable in respect of the attendance of one man for 75 minutes.

That is not all it cost, though.  You will recall the “Artefact”  that Ted acquired in Vanuatu that he was planning to take home to Jane? Well the Biosecurity police were rather sniffy about was to him a bit of old driftwood picked up off a beach in what he sees as a “high risk country”.  Ted was trying to explain that it was  “a work of art formed from the bow of a wrecked native canoe” (Blog Passim)

But the Inspector found too many holes from boring insects (‘boring’? i.e. insects that make holes in the wood as opposed to those that send you to sleep e.g. termites) to allow it to stay in the country unless Ted was prepared to pay for it  to be refrigerated for 10 days and then shipped to Melbourne at his own expense.  At least that was a short conversation!

So we are here!  The weather is warm in the day but a decided nip at night so have had  to dig out some clothes from the depths – but we are here!  Next steps are to clean the boat and pack it up then chill out before I meet Simone arriving next Friday. Thereafter Blogs will be suspended until mid July when Peter and his family join for the cruise up to Cairns.  

Regards to all.