The price of fish...
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 18 Oct 2010 00:25
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Monday 18th October 0923 Local 2323 UTC (17th
October)
16:55.13S 145:46.91E
Well here we are in Cairns. Having left the
Whitsundays in a strong wind warning it was not surprising that we did not see a
single yacht all the way up the coast until we came to Cairns. However for us
(sorry me..) the winds were great. We ate up the three hundred miles and worked
the boat to the Cairns channel with winds from 12 - 30 knots and a constantly
changing direction from a beat through reaches to dead running - all good and
very satisfying. The sailing was awesome and I thought of the line from the
famous "Fyfe yachts family" - "all this, and sailing too". It summed up how I
felt, the challenge, the adventure was all wonderful but sometimes just the
sheer pleasure of sailing a beautiful yacht gets a little lost in all of that.
It wasn't lost on me the last couple of days, I had another of many great
sails.
We never saw a yacht but we saw a lot of fishing
boats and quite a lot of heavy shipping. Only at night though - not through the
day - what's going on?
It was a strange feeling sailing 300 hundred miles
along the coast of Australia with no other yachts around - come to think of it
was exactly the same when we sailed into Australia through the reef and the
Capricorn channel. Then again there was a "strong wind warning" in place then
also, with 30+ knot winds.
Clearly most yachts, for very good reason, don't
choose to go out in 30 knots, which is why the Nara inlet in the
Whitsundays must have had 50 boats anchored up there the other
night.
What we did come across when approaching the Great
Barrier Reef last week and through the night on the way to Cairns was
fishing boats working. While we, as yachtspeople may run to anchor in 30 knots,
the hardy breed that are the worlds fisherman may very well be heading out. To
work. To catch the fish we like to eat. In 30 knots they will continue to work
perhaps on up to 40 knots ....... They will inevitably be caught out in far
worse conditions. It is the world's most dangerous job.
We chose to make our recent passages in strong
winds over the last couple of weeks. We have the boat for it and the wind
direction was forecast to be reasonable. But don't ever forget when we are
hunkered down in a sheltered anchorage or sitting at home in front of a
fire the worlds' fisherman are out there - working. Working.
West of Shetland, West of the Hebrides, West of
Ireland, the South West Approaches, the North Sea - now these are
challenging places to be at sea in a blow. So no more complaints about the price
of fish anybody. For the risk these guys take and the conditions they endure, it
is too cheap. A hardy breed. I just wish some of the ones fishing inside the
Great Barrier Reef would show the bloody lights they should be showing so that I
could give them a wide berth. Or at least answer the
radio.
Anyway I can report that through the night on
Saturday Trish took a watch after recovering her sea legs and I got three
hours of (broken) sleep - IN BED! It must be my birthday! Trish is honing her
skills as a watch keeper and is becoming a dab hand at monitoring and
tuning the radar and plotter along with keeping a physical watch. Good
grief next thing we know she will be working out where the wind is coming from
and start thinking about trimming the sails! Maybe....
Bye for now! Tha mi a'dol air ais gu Alba
'son ceala deaug an drasda. Thig me air ais ochdamh an
t-Samhain.
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