In the morning, we went to supermarket to get more fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs and protein so our boat was loaded with food now. At 11am we left Airlie beach and heading to Nara Inlet on Hook Island and officially started our Whitsunday Ngaro Sea Trail. Ngaro people lived on these islands 9,000 years ago. They used to boat around the islands with three-pieces bark canoes.
Wind was not strong today, and we were towing a dinghy behind, so the boat was not moving particularly fast. The direction of wind was not very stable, plus the Pioneer Rocks seemed to draw us their way while we were trying to get out of the Pioneer Bay. We tacked several times to reach the entrance of Nara inlet. There were already a few boats in the inlet, which seemed to be a good shelter. We sailed 15 nautical miles in five and a half hours.
Had Tikka Masala chicken wings for dinner tonight.
When we were having our meal, I heard some big fish chasing small fish outside the boat, and some even hit the side to the boat. I couldn’t sit still. Soon after we finished dinner, I took out the fishing rod and went fishing. Two big ones were on hook. But because they were too heavy, I failed to pull them up. The first one broke the fishing line; the second one spit out the bait when I was dragging it out of the water. In a glance, I saw the fish. It had eyes reflecting rose golden light. The length of it was about a very long winter melon. It was so far the biggest fish I’ve ever got on hook in my life (yet I didn’t catch it). If it’s caught, it should be enough to for us to eat for two days
16/08/2020
We met Bob while inspecting a trimaran called Mustang. He is 72 years old but he always jumps up and down as vigorous and agile as a goat. Maybe thanks to the goat milk he’s drinking everyday. He is also very talkative. There must be many interesting stories to share when people live in to their seventies, not to mention that he is a restless sailor.
Every time we visited him, we never came back on time, because most of the time we were listening to his thrilling adventure stories. He almost died a few times. The most dangerous one was once he was sailing at night and hit by a cargo ship charging at full speed. He saw the ship earlier and it looked quite distant so he went back into the cabin. A few minutes later he came out and only found a giant iron wall in front of him. He said he had a memory void after the moment the boat was hit. Later he found himself in a corner of the cabin. Years after this he kept thinking how did he manage to avoid all sorts of stuff that could have hit him and still go through the small cabin door, then find himself in that tiny corner which was normally difficult to enter? It was truly a miracle that he survived! After discovering that he was not dead, he quickly got out of the cabin where water kept coming in, he jumped into his rubber dinghy and tried to row it to the shore. He only had time to grab a bag of biscuits to take with him. He felt colder and colder and almost got hypothermia. If he stopped rowing the dinghy started drifting back into the deep sea so he couldn’t stop rowing for 7 hours. Fortunately, he rowed himself to shore at dawn, nearly drowned in the large surf, was helped ashore by some fishermen and was taken to hospital. The moment he’s ashore, he swore he would never sail again, but it didn’t take long for him to feel the itch again and get another boat to start sailing alone.
He used to have a big block of bush land in the forest, where he lived an alternative life, enjoying wilderness and nature, but one Christmas when he was away visiting his parents, a lunatic lit a fire and burned his bush, destroying many trees and facilities… Why there are so many psychos in this country that are so keen to set fire is really puzzling.
Bob also talked about his ability to receive some special information after he had the ship collision accident (gets less and less now), just like a radio was tuned into a special frequency band (it reminds me of a theory that there’s a radio wave layer outside earth that can store human brain waves). For example, he once felt his Thai girlfriend was crying, and it was confirmed by calling her; he once foresaw that someone would call him the next day after reading his newspaper advertisement, told his mother about his premonition, and it happened the next day just as he’d told her; he heard someone calling for help while being buried alive, and he learned of a murder story at the same property a few years later; he even felt that we had a discussion one night whether we would take Mustang… (It became true later, and it made me get goose bumps). Bob said he had a friend who nearly died in a construction accident, who also got messages. Once Bob was in this friend’s car. His friend pulled over for no reason. Not long after, a car running full speed but wrong way came from the one-way road they were going to take. If his friend didn’t stop, they would have been dead. Afterwards, his friend told him he had received the “information” in time… All these stories didn’t shake my scepticism about the supernatural, but I can’t be too certain on these things I could never feel while someone else could, so just keep them unexplained for now. Bob is not religious, but he agreed with Buddhism’s philosophy and attitude of life. He showed me a documentary about Buddha while he was preparing a super healthy fish and avocado lunch for us. (he is a serious healthy eater). It said that Buddhism advocates that we are totally responsible for what we do. I said this is somewhat similar to existentialism… Bob is a handyman who insists on doing everything to it’s perfection, and he believes that if everyone does things without harming others, the world will be peaceful. That’s what he learnt from Buddhism.
Interestingly, Bob reminds me of a friend, they have some similarities at appearance. They are both skinny, bald, pointed nose, and sometimes had their chin drawn inward when talking. They are both very chatty, both had serious accidents and almost died… sometimes I felt my friend was sitting in front of me instead of Bob. But there is a world of difference between them. One is as agile as a goat, the other suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and not walking well; One only eats seafood as meat while the other hates eating fish; One embraces new technology, and the other refuses to use mobile phones; One talks about spirituality, but the other is a firm guardian of atheism or antitheism… It’s like the same person has gone into two extremes in parallel universes. But both of them are sincere people. They are lovely old boys with some old school manners.
13/08/2020
Peggy-Anne showed up near us again, it’s high time we go and visit them. In the afternoon, we took J’s homemade atheist buns, some nuts, and non-alcoholic beer to their boat and only found Norm by himself on board. His girlfriend Wendy recently left the boat to attend her sister’s 70th birthday party. Unfortunately the Queensland border began to close a few days ago, so she was trapped in New South Wales and could not come back, but he planned to start going south to New South Wales tomorrow with northerly wind.
The boat was modified on the basis of a catamaran motor boat. He added a mast and sail to it. The boat interior is spacious like a small double level apartment. There are living room, bedrooms, kitchen, toilet, and even a heater. It is very suitable for elder people who would like live on boat.
Norm told us his story. He dropped school at the age of 13 and began to learn skills. At the age of 19, he built his first boat, then start making engines, later he became a TAFE teacher. Later years, he set up a small marine exhibition centre for children to visit and touch marine life. But everything was burned by a lunatic one night. After that, he started sailing along the coast, and he said it was the best years and never wanted to go back to live on shore. He also made a Facebook page to share his sailing videos, where he made lots of friends.
At sunset, beside our boat, a mother dolphin with a small baby dolphin practiced smoothly coming up to breathe. The cute little dolphin always jumped too high and fell on its belly clumsily making splashes. Unlike its mother, she made perfect curves with no splash.
Sea Journal 