Getting under Sail -1- Young Endeavour Voyage

1830 30/1/17

• No watches kept yet.  

• Climbed to the topgallant (pronounced t'gallant)
• Learnt calls ("White watch standby to set the main s'il") and tacking positions (heads'ils). 
• Got the ship under sail- Yay!

The t'gallant is the top horizontal beam (horizontal beams are called yards). The heads'ils are those at the front of the ship.  You can see one of them (the jib in fact) flapping in the foreground here.  Photo credit: Jimmy Potter

How am I feeling?
At this point I'm glad to be under sail.
Can't help my awe at the size of the sails.
Very glad not to be seasick.
We're on a pretty steady 15 degree keel, bobbing over the swell and its pretty comfortable until you're under the ship and trying to eat dinner or put on a harness.
We can see Victoria on the left (port side) and are on a starboard tack through/across bass strait from Port Phillip Bay.

The ripples and smooth whirlpools of THE RIP out of Port Phillip Bay were quite spectacular.

We got the entire Youth Crew on to haul on the jib sheet (i.e. a rope connected to the jib sail).  At the same time as 17 people were trying to pull on one rope the ship tilted towards them.  I rescued two drink bottles that made the leap for the sea.

On the way to the Queen's Land

After feeling so sick the previous day I woke at 4am for some reason to travel to Queensland to wander aimlessly around Universities.  I still don't understand how I managed but at about 8am (NSW time) I wrote this:

To be honest I'm just glad to be travelling.  The bus is surprisingly quiet (mostly everyone's asleep) and it is sorta relaxing.  I have almost slept, that being I pretended to be asleep but couldn't be sure if it actually caught up with me, until Woodburn(two hours north). I'm awaiting the famed (well in my head it is) corner down to the Byron valley (so pretty!)

And this, wondering about the 1 hour time difference between the two states for 6 months of the year:

Who says we haven't invented time machines yet? They're all over the world and their called time zones.  It feels like there should be a shimmering barrier between New  South Wales and Queensland. Perhaps we'll see it when we reach Tweed Heads. 

Perhaps I only survived because of my favourite hill:

The Border Ranges, faint like they're painted upon the sky.  Mount Warning a crooked, watchful figure.  The hills below the darker green of a scrub far, far away .  Like some idyllic pastoral scene the hills roll in green to a single field that pools below the curving highway.  The polka dots upon the mountain's skirts reveal themselves as hamlets, trees and homesteads. 

The colour, the mist, the view!

The land is expansive and enormous and yet it clusters close in this glimpse. The hills gather in a feeling of rising; the meaning of contour is clear.  From the top of the hill, cut into pieces by tree trunks the valleys are sleeping, stretched out beneath you and then in the curve of a parabola the ground floats higher to the edge of the world. 

To the east the sea is a foam mat of blurry turquoise and as the bus glides around the corner the rolling hills reveal another perspective.  Like a carpet it rolls out in front of me, thickening as it draws away. 

It is that corner and the glimpse of field and valley, hill and spur, mountain and ocean that enchants each time I pass it.  Such a snapshot of beauty that every time a new aspect comes to light.  Is it the ancient growl of the mountains in their volcano crater, the sparkling of the bay sides or perhaps just the height and depth of the curve as it pulls you in?

Around Australia 2007: Days 4 & 5

Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March 24-25/3/07

BUNYA MT

This campsite in the Bunya Mountains is pretty good (except for the fact that there are no showers.)  We went on this really quite interesting walk.  It came out into a beautiful lookout.  We walked past plenty of grassland that quickly turned into a lush rainforest. 

Evan Harry + I rode our scooters down the slope over and over again.  It was fun.  We also caught up on some school work. 

On the next day we drove to Paradise Parking and walked all the way to Dandaba.  Evan, Mum + I were going to go to a lookout when we saw some feathers from a dead bird and two metres further along the track there was a bog fat snake, so we didn't go to the lookout.  At Dandabar we had lunch at a cafe and resturant and we also fed the King Parrots.  Then we walked back with bribes from Mum to get us there. 

An note at the bottom says:

We fed the King Parrots and they made claw marks where they had sat to eat the bird seed. 

To the side, Mum, who has her own version of events posted on her blog, has written a note aswell:

great diary writing, Sarah.  It is very descriptive and interesting to read.  Remember the fun you had riding your scooters at Bunya Mtn + the yummy Bunya nuts that we ate. 

Around Australia 2007: Day 3

Day 3 Friday 23rd March 23/3/07

Yesterday we just packed up, pretty much rode out scooters around the paved picnic area and left.  It was hot in the car.  Very Hot actually.

We passed so many fields of, well I'm not sure what, I think it was lavender anf stuff for smelly shampoos and all that.  I couldn't possibly tell you how many we passed.  After we had crossed the border- which was five minutes for where we stayed- it was very desolate.  We stopped at a small town called Aratula for a lunch of pies.  Then we moved on.  Going throug boring countryside. 

Luckily mum put on an interesting story called Toad Heaven. We stopped at Toowoomba and went to Coles to buy food and supplies.  Then we took off again.  When we were near the end on Toad Heaven, we stopped at a service station somewhere really north west of Toowoomba- i think.  I got out of the car to look for water and missed the best bit of Toad Heaven.  Then because the story had finished; mum put on another one called Toad Rage wich actually went before Toad Heaven!

The campsite was pretty normal and there is nothing to say except: NO SHOWERS!

Ford NP

*sigh* the trials and tribulation of an ten year old... You think I might have thought to mention something interesting and unique to our trip like... visiting the loop in the railway (it even had tourist information signs).  But at least the sympathetic stories towards Cane Toads softened me up for when we finally found them [my sympathy was non existent by Lawn Hill and Edith Falls where they were everywhere!]

Around Australia 2007: Day 2

Day 2 Thursday 22nd March 22/3/07

Dear Diary,
How peaceful it is here! It is lovely except for the fact that almost everything is now dirty.  After two days without washing I hope the next place we stop at has showers!  I am particularly worried about my feet. 

Today we went on a beautiful walk through an old cedar forest.  There was a big cedar with a diameter of 133cm and a height of 48m.  We also did a walk of 200m which came out to a lookout on pinnacle point.  From there I could see Mt Warning, the plug of what used to be a giant volcano.  There was a big bowl made by mountains and you culd really imagine the mountain range once being a volcano.

Later on when we were back at the campsite and had lunch Evan and dad went on another walk to a waterfall called Evan's Falls.  I stayed back and did schoolwork.  Before it got dark I read a little of the French book that mum showed me, deciphering it with the mini dictionary.  I have learnt quite a bit of French now!!

The Borders NP

Of course!  The ancient volcano crater that encircles Mount Warning is still etched in my mind.  Though I must say any French I'd learned must have been negated by my German lessons in year 8...  J'taime?

Around Australia 2007: Day 1

Rambling On: 2007 Travel diary: Day 1:  

"Pre-trip I have found some of our diary entries from our 2007 Australian trip.  I have already posted two letters here and here that ..."

The mother, Emma Hazell, decided she would blog some of my thoughts on our 2007 trip around Australia.  She got this first one out but I quickly snatched my travel diary back from her desk.  With her new found blogging phase I was a little suspicous that she was using MY writing and posting it on the internet.  So now its my job to post it. 

"Day 1 Wednesday 21st March 21/3/07

Dear Diary

Day 1 and we're off. FINALLY. It took us ages and ages to pack and get everything ready. Mum had to vacuum all the rooms then mop the hard floors as well.  It was 1:15 by the time we were on the road and then we went and got lunch at KFC. It was well into the afternoon before we got to Casino.

I finished 2 pages in my maths book on the way here and I watched most of EMMA on our portable DVD player.

I helped to put up the tent and set up camp.

Next to us is a couple from Texas. You can tell they are from America because of their accents. They are very nice and talk to us. They said goodbye when they left this morning.

Last night I had a good sleep except that I didn't get to read so it was hard to get to sleep. There was a dark stinky pit toilet.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, but I didn't eat much because I don't eat much at breakfast.

I hope this will be fun

The Borders N.P. NSW"

I laughed reading this, hopefully I've grown better at writing since 2007. :P