There were 75 teams competing at the Worlds and 23 of those teams were from Canada. The festivities started out on the Friday with a parade down the main street of Caloundra to a waterfront park. Mary walked as a supporter with Bettye’s team from Kawana Lakes and that team walked near the end of the parade. By the time they got to the main street, it was surprising to everyone on Bettye’s team to see that nearly every spectator lining the street was waving a small Canadian flag. Obviously, it wasn’t just Mary who was proud to be a Canadian. Every Canadian team must have been handing out flags as they walked in the parade.

One of the highlights of the week for Mary was learning that the 9 members of her team from Windsor were going to Cairns for four days after the Worlds – exactly where Bella Via was! So, of course, that meant that the team would be coming aboard Bella Via on October 4 for an afternoon and evening of festivities.

Now, what was Paul doing while Mary was at the Dragons Abreast Worlds, you might ask?

Well, here is Paul’s personal account of happenings that week:

“Not to be outdone, I had some pretty good times of my own while Mary attended the Dragon Boat races.  I could tell you about single-handing Bella Via for the first time in a short trip to Fitzroy Island and back to Cairns, or I could tell you about the day trip I took with Peter and Ilona (Lodestar) to Sudbury Reef where we saw clams the size of an office desk, but, these events pale in excitement compared to the first 24 hours after Mary left the boat.

Shortly after Mary left I wandered about town searching for a new “bum bag” as the zipper on my old bag had recently given up the ghost.  I found just the right one for $9 at Singapore Charlie’s Bargain Shop.  Back at the boat with my new purchase, I transferred the contents of the old bag to the new one and tossed the old into a bag of rubbish on the boat.  Those who know me well might already be able to guess where I’m going with this story.

The rest of the day was spent working on Bella Via, performing cleaning activities that Mary had commissioned before she left - windows and floors.  During this work I had created a little more rubbish, enough to fill an old shopping bag.  At about 2:00 in the afternoon I took a break from the domestic chores and walked the rubbish-filled shopping bag up to the trash compactor at the end of the dock.

The boat chores continued until well into the late afternoon when Peter and Ilona (Lode-Star) dropped by on their way into town to make a few liquor purchases.  During the ensuing conversation, I convinced them to allow me to Bar-B-Q some chicken kabobs for a late dinner for the three of us aboard Bella Via after we walked up to the ‘bottle shop’ (liquor store).

It was then that I went for my new bum bag containing my wallet and cash --- CASH#@%^^$$$, OH shit!  It wasn’t until that moment that I realized the incredibly stupid thing that I had done earlier in the day.  Although I HAD transferred all of the obvious contents from the old bum bag to the new, I had completely and stupidly forgotten about the cash that had been put in the secret compartment only the day before when both Mary and I went to the bank to withdraw cash for her trip.

Although I knew that I had tossed an amount of significant value, I wasn’t sure how much.  I had withdrawn $500 Au and I knew that Mary had taken some of that amount, but I didn’t know how much.  I was hoping that she took plenty.

Peter and Ilona don’t know me as well as most of our readers, so they found it hard to believe that I could be so stupid.  They kept insisting that I would find the money somewhere else, safely put away on the boat - that I had simply forgotten about when and where I stashed this money.

As we walked up to the bottle shop we stopped and took a hopeless look into the trash compactor, finding exactly what we expected.   My bag was nowhere in site, for it had long since been driven somewhere into the bowels of the bin.  At this point, I resigned myself to the loss, but not Peter and Ilona.  They wouldn’t let it go.  They insisted I could follow the bin to the transfer station and there I would have an opportunity to sift through its putrid contents and retrieve my yet unknown amount of cash.  They contacted the marina office and were told that the bin would be picked up the following morning at 6:00 a.m.  The remainder of the evening was spent socializing with Peter and Ilona, repeatedly going over the events of the day in the hopes that I had really placed the money elsewhere, laughing at my stupidity, and making plans for how I would do all that I had to do the following day.  Somehow, I had to meet the truck driver at about 6:00 a.m., get him to take me along with him to the transfer station for I had no transportation of my own, sift through the rubbish, retrieve the lost bag and return to Bella Via by 9:30 so that I could keep my fuel appointment for 9:45 (you read this right, the fuel dock is so busy here that you need to make an appointment to fuel up.)  After fuelling up, I was to bring Bella Via to anchor in the inlet, as our time at the marina was finished.  It was going to be one hell of a day.

I rose at 5:00 a.m., had a healthy breakfast that I hoped would stay down J and started pacing in front of the trash bin at 5:45 a.m.  I paced there for over two hours, watching the Marina come to life, with no sign of the waste transfer truck.  I walked away at 7:00 a.m. after a brief conversation with the marina maintenance man who informed me that the bin seldom gets picked up at the correct time and he didn’t think it was scheduled until sometime the next day.  Once again, I resigned myself to accepting the loss and returned to Bella Via where I rang Peter and Ilona, despite the early hour.  They had insisted, the night before, that I call them before 7:30 a.m. to keep them informed of my progress, or lack of it.

They still wouldn’t let it rest. They went to their copy of the Yellow Pages, (they are from Cairns and keep a phone book on board) and got me the number for the dispatcher of the waste management company.   The dispatcher was remarkably helpful, radioed the driver, and determined that the bin would not be picked up until sometime after 10:30 a.m.  I told the dispatcher of my previous commitments and she said that she would hold the truck until later in the morning and would give me a call 30 minutes before it arrived at the marina.  Things were looking up, IF I could get to the transfer station and IF there was some way of examining the contents of the bin while there.

It was a busy morning what with leaving the marina dock, fuelling, and then anchoring in the inlet, all of which was made much easier with the wonderful help of Peter and Ilona who joined me aboard Bella Via to assist in all of the boat handling.  Sure enough, at approximately noon the call came from the dispatcher that the truck would be there in 40 minutes but I would have to find some way of following it to the transfer station because their insurance would not allow me to ride in the truck.  It was Peter’s good idea to bring a six-pack with me to encourage the truck driver to bend the rules.  Sure enough the six-pack worked like a charm.  It not only got me a ride to the transfer station but also a ride back to the dock.

Entry to the transfer station would be another issue.  The guard at the weigh scales wouldn’t give me approval to enter the yard and insisted I would not be allowed to look for my bag because everything would have to be brought to a halt in the transfer station while I was rummaging through the garbage heap.  He pointed me in the direction of the main office to see the manager.  Once again I was met with an immediate willingness to be helpful.  He handed me a hard hat, a florescent vest, safety glasses, and even a breathing apparatus (I had had enough sense to wear my big heavy hiking boots) and led me to the transfer station floor where we waited for MY truck’s contents to be dumped into a huge pile onto the floor.  While waiting, the manager found me a long handled pitchfork that I could use to help dig through the pile.  The moment of truth came.  The huge load of wet, stinky, “No, putrid smelling rubbish”, was pushed out of the compactor and onto the floor in a pile 6 feet high, 20 feet long and 8 feet wide.  With the pitch fork in hand, I attacked that pile with a vengeance, tossing mostly black garbage bags to the left and right as I worked the area that I believed most likely to hold my treasure.  During this I was knee deep in rubbish with my boots squishing in the mucky remains of restaurant leftovers.   I think everyone watching, there were quite a few by this time, was quite impressed with the vehemence at which I attacked that pile.  Soon, the manager came to assist by directing a front-end-loader to dig away at the centre of the pile, making it easier for me to gain access to that which could not be seen. It was only after about 15 minutes and the third swipe of the front-end-loader that I spotted the bag I was looking for.  Dropping the pitchfork I immediately ripped open the RED plastic shopping bag and brandished my old black bum bag overhead to cheers from the men standing around watching this crazy Canadian tourist play in the refuse of Cairns.

There’s not much left to tell.  The truck driver gave me a ride back to the marina, graciously accepting the 6-pack and I rode the dinghy back to Bella Via where Peter was standing watch because our anchor job had been done in such a hurry.  I had yet to open the bum bag’s secret compartment to see how much I had recovered.  It wasn’t until Peter insisted I do so that I found a cool $340 Australian dollars no worse for wear; a nice take for a morning’s adventure.” 

End of Paul’s personal account.

October 5, 2007

With Mary back aboard Bella Via, and the celebration with her Windsor teammates completed, it was now time to start heading south to the Brisbane area.  But first, we wanted to take a skyrail ride to Kuranda rainforest and village.  We had been told by numerous people that this trip is not to be missed and we did indeed enjoy our day at Kuranda..

October 8, 2007

In the morning, we said good-bye to Cairns and travelled a few hours to Fitzroy Island, where we joined Peter and Ilona from Lode-Star at anchor. The next morning, after a comfortable night amongst a few other boats, Lode-Star and Bella Via hauled up anchor and sailed to Sudbury Reef, where we stayed one night. As before, we found it eerie to be anchored where we couldn’t see any land and know that magnificent coral surrounded us. It wasn’t a very comfortable anchorage, as we bobbed quite a bit all night from ocean swell, but worth it as Paul and Peter and Ilona had some wonderful snorkelling and caught quite a few fish.

Here is what Paul had to say about his recent snorkelling experiences:

“I had the pleasure of snorkelling and diving at Sudbury Reef three times over the last couple of weeks. Each place I dive offers something unique. In this case it was the enormous size of the clams. Imagine a clam the size of a small chest freezer. There were many of them scattered throughout this reef area. In the islands of New Cal, Vanuatu and Louisiades, you would never see a clam so large because they are regularly harvested by the native people for food. Here in Oz they are a protected species and hence their gigantic size. I'm curious to know how old these beauties might be. From the book I have on board, I think they are called 'fluted giant clams'. It was really neat to swim around them and study them so closely. Unlike smaller versions, they did not close when I was near and this allowed me an opportunity to look deep inside the shell. I could look well inside the two openings in the meat. One of the openings is shaped like a stovepipe and the other more oval shaped. These openings were large enough to put a fist into them. The colours and structure are amazing. What a beautiful creature!

In another case, several months ago, I thought the diving was pretty ordinary until I noticed the tiniest of creatures shaped like miniature Christmas trees about 5mm tall. These miniature trees appeared in many different and vibrantly bright colours. They appeared to be growing by the hundreds from the surface of smooth coral bommies. As I neared them, they would suddenly disappear, sucking themselves back into the coral for protection. If I sat still and waited, I could watch them slowly reappear from within their shell buried inside the bommie. It was like watching time-lapse photography of a growing tree.”

End of Paul’s personal account.

Our good friend Rod Peturson, author of many school science texts, provided us with the following information about Paul’s giant clams and Christmas trees:

“According to my (Rod’s) research there are a number of species of Giant Clam. At this point in time, they are an endangered species, due to reef/ habitat loss and over harvesting. Given their size, they have the most interesting biology, in that they live symbiotic lives alongside single cell algae. The adult clams can receive over 90% of their food from the photosynthetic products of the algae - but when particulate organic material (POM) - bits of other critters - is in the water, they strain it out. They also strain out dissolved organic material from the water - so with all of this straining, they are natural biofilters. Some scientists believe that clams in aquaculture tanks at a Moon colony would help supply food and oxygen. Giant clams have been on the planet for about 65 million years.

Back to the ones that you saw.  They were likely Tridacna gigas or the true giant clam.  It reaches sizes of more than 1.3 metres in length and lives to around 50 years old (sounds like your new friends may have been a similar age to you!).  This is the largest bivalve mollusc 

to have ever lived on the planet and it is only found in SE Asia, Australia and Micronesia. Poaching has driven it to extinction in some parts of its natural distribution, and it can only be found in natural high density populations on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Australian scientists have begun a program to build giant clam hatcheries - in Australia and the Cook Islands.  They have engaged in a large scale translocation project called Operation Clamsaver, seeding areas of the Great Barrier Reef with juvenile giant clams which have been raised in protected aquaculture zones.  The main reef seeding areas (it happened in 1992/93) are in the areas of Townsville, Cairns and Innisfail. 

As far as your miniature Christmas tree creatures, you likely were watching Spirobranchus giganteus, commonly known (no surprise here) as Christmas tree worms.  They are small, tube building polychaete worms.  The multicoloured spirals you saw are the worms highly derived respiratory structure.  Its most distinctive feature is the two crowns that are shaped like Christmas trees.  These crowns are actually highly modified prostomial palps - specialized mouth appendages.  Each spiral is actually composed of feather like tentacles called radioles - prey gets trapped in these tentacles and are transported straight from there to the worm's mouth.  While primarily a feeding structure, the worm also uses the radioles for respiration.  They are found throughout the world's tropical oceans - on coral reefs.  They have few known predators, so they are a pretty well established species.

Great stuff this living on a boat in the South Pacific!”

Many thanks to Rod for the above information.

October 10, 2007

We sailed back to Fitzroy Island and enjoyed a bit more time with Peter and Ilona before they headed back to Cairns and we continued south.  On the Thursday morning, Paul opted to stay behind and clean the bottom of the boat while Peter and Ilona and Mary hiked up to the summit of Fitzroy island for a magnificent view of the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef.

October 12 - 16, 2007

We had a wonderful spinnaker run for most of the trip to Dunk Island.  We had northerly winds, which we wanted, but knew that a southerly change was expected to move in later that day or the next.  We wanted to get a little farther south before the wind change.

Sure enough, in mid-afternoon we noticed black clouds building to the southwest.  We were still two hours from Dunk Island.   At first it wasn't clear which way they were moving so we continued sailing with the spinnaker up and the wind blowing from the north.  With the storm some 4 to 5 miles away we determined that it was indeed heading our way.  An engine was started, the spinnaker was dropped and all hatches were battened down in plenty of time.  Although the sky had been quite black, the winds only peaked at 37 knots on the nose.  The rain did fall quite heavily for about an hour.  The seas were less than a metre because the wind was coming from offshore.  The seas were very confused because they had been coming from the north for the last few days.  When our speed got down to 2.5 knots and we were bucking against the wind and waves, we started the second engine to resume our normal 5 knots motoring through the water.  We didn't have to do this, we simply wanted to be at anchor before sunset.  Visibility was pretty dismal for about 30 minutes but we were well out from shore with no traffic to speak of at the time.  Although we saw a few streaks of lightening reaching down to the waters several miles away, by the time the storm centre went over us, there was no thunder and lightening at all.  Compared to our regular thunder busters and squalls at home in Ontario, this was a non-event.  What is significant is that this was our first storm while underway in almost three years aboard Bella Via.  This is the kind of weather that we are usually able to avoid.

We stayed at Dunk Island for four days while strong southeasterlies blew. During this time we walked on the island and caught up on boat projects and daily routines.

October 17 – 22, 2007

On a light wind day, still with the wind out of the southeast, we decided to move on to Hinchinbrook Channel, a 26-mile long channel formed by the large island Hinchinbrook and the east coast of Australia.  We had been told by American yachty friends that the channel reminded them of sailing amongst the Gulf Islands in British Columbia.

Indeed the scenery was magnificent and we very much enjoyed our few days in the channel while we awaited the next northerly.  We spent the time in a creek, out of the strong current, and had a relaxing time.  Unfortunately, we were surrounded by mangroves and couldn’t go ashore.  The midgies, or noseeums, were particularly bad and we shielded ourselves as much as possible.  We were also in northern Queensland, which is definitely crocodile territory.  We didn’t see any crocs but we knew that they were probably out there.

October 23, 2007

We spent our last night in the channel on the north end of Haycock Island and sailed the next morning for Orpheus Island. Just out of the entrance to Hinchinbrook Channel, Paul suggested that we travel north about 7 miles to a small bay on the east side of Hinchinbrook Island. Our cruising guide gave this bay, called Zoe Bay, high ratings so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, even though the winds were light out of the north, the sea swell from the southeast had not calmed down and we had a rolly night at anchor.