First mate Trish's Blog
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Thu 18 Nov 2010 20:59
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Hi there everyone
Just thought I would write a wee blog to let you
know what my thoughts are of us making it to Austrailia. Bloody Austrailia! I
can't believe that I am here. I mean I have every confidence in my fantastic
husband and his first class ability to sail me anywhere in the world. But it is
still an amazing reality check to see that he actually got me to the other side
of the world and this far.
In among all the highs and lows I have felt on this
special journey I have most definitely been very privleged to have been to
all the places we have visited and even more privleged to have met all the
people that we have met and been invited into thier homes. It has all been
truely amazing. While the trip is a wonderful thing to do, it can be very tough
at times and it is also full of challenges. At times I have been very home
sick and missed the everyday contact with my kids so much it hurt. I would feel
so guilty for not being there for them and wondered what on earth I was doing so
far away from them. So many times I just wanted to go home. Epecially on the
long passages when we were so far away from anything. Thankfully I have been
able to fly home for my fix of seeing the kids, I don't know how I would
have managed to keep going without these trips home to focus on. I really need
to stop dwelling on this though and remember that there are still so many
adventures to have before we get home. There is Indonesia next,
Thailand, India and the Maldives, then the Red Sea and on to the Med. So
many more adventures to look forward to. I also think that we will start to have
more visits from family and friends the closer we get to home now, which will
make things pass by more quickly.
Some of the highlights that I have had, have been
seeing the village life in these remote places and especially the kids. They are
so happy and friendly. I had one particular little girl, who was about eight
years old, in one of the villages that I would easily have just taken home.
She was so lovely and very fond of me. She was at my side the whole time I was
in the village. Her name was Enid. She took us to her school and we did a
talk and slide show on our computer about our travels on this trip so far.
The kids loved looking at all the picture on the computer. I think they loved
seeing the computer as well because this was probably the first one they had
ever seen.
I have also loved all the wild life that I have
seen. Sometimes at very close quarters. ie Whales in Tonga, Sharks in Fakarava,
Giant Tortoises and Penguins in Galapogas, numerous different birds to name just
a few highlights. I can almost say that I am cool with sharks, but not 100
% yet. The diving trips that we have been on have really been outstanding. Any
body who knows me would know that I just love to be around almost any animals
and love to see anything that I haven't seen before. Today I was watching a
beautiful white Tropic Bird. It was flying around the boat up to a dozen times
and looked like it was determand to get something off the bow of the boat. I
think that it saw the shiny cleat on the bow and thought it was a fish on our
deck and this bird really wanted it because it tried to land as I said ten to a
dozen times on the bow of our boat to get what ever it was that it saw. Each
time it would have to take a large sweep around the boat for another attempt at
landing - it was very entertaining. I tried to get a good photo of it and
have attached my effort at wild life photography. It was amazing to watch.
The bird gave up eventually and flew off into the distance, hopfully to find a
real fish and a good feed.
We are on passage between Cairns and Darwin at the
moment. It is a very different kind of passage this time because the sea is
completly flat, there are no waves at all. And there is no wind which means we
are motoring all the time. It has very good points in my opinion and also some
very bad points. Firstly it is very pleasant not being heeled over for days on
end which makes life on board so easy ie cooking and going to the loo. Also we
are seeing alot more wild life because the sea is so flat. Stewart saw a turtle,
we have seen dolphins and large numbers of fish boiling on the surface and
jumping right out of the sea in what looks like feeding frenzies.
The down side is the noise of the engine is always
there and it also makes the boat hotter. It is already extremely hot
and there is no wind, so it can be quite uncomfortable in this heat. I hate to
admit to it but sailing is best. You get there faster and the no engine noise is
BLISS.
I have been doing my watches at night and have
finnally really got to terms with watching and working the chart plotter and
radar. I feel quite a home sitting up by myself at night and watching the
ships passing in the dark. I am so glad to let Stewart get some well earned
sleep. He does make sure that it is a straight forward watch for me still, but I
feel that I am helping a lot more now and I am more confident about taking
watches now.
I have to admit that I am enjoying this passage
(apart from the heat at times). We stoped at Lizard Island for one night to do
our last snorkel stop before we entered the Salty Croc territory on the north
coast. We saw some more amazing things on this snorkel. The biggest Clams
you can imagine. They must have been about 4 or 5 foot long and 3 foot wide.
Stewart put a fin into one open shell and it closed up pretty fast. They
were awesome. The little fish were just swimming in an out of them. I cant
imagine what they would taste like but you would only need one to feed the five
thousand. I was disapointed that I didn't see a large lizard on the island
but our time on the island was very short. What we did see was some very
friendly yachties who were regulars in the bay and always met up on the beach at
five for "bring your own" sundowners. We then made a short dingy ride to a very
small bar with a very large TV screen to meet some other motor yacht men to
watch a very good game of rugby between Oz and the Kiwis. The All Blacks won. It
was a fun night. Not what we expected but we are now getting used to the
unexpected.
Darwin is next and I am sure that there will be
more stories to tell. As we plan to take an inland tour to Ayers Rock and Alice
Springs. I hope to see some more wildlife there and once in a life time
Landscapes.
I have every faith in getting there safely because
I am with and being looked after by an amazing man who is taking me on this
fantastic journey where we seem to be becoming even closer to each other and
renewing our bonds that sometimes drift apart in normal everyday mundane home
life. This time is very special.
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