Touchdown among the Termites

A few noteworthy events that have led to this 3rd and possibly final swing at Barrow, of which I’m too tired to elaborate on now, but I may come back to in subsequent days…

Sold my surfboard for 50 bucks to a random dude at the YHA backpackers in Coolie; upon discovering that I would not have an easy method for getting it back to Mindi’s house in time, that the random dude expressed great interest, and ultimately coming to the conclusion that if I left it there for someone or myself to pick up later (what I was planning on doing), the random dude would likely have just taken it anyway and I would have been out a board and 50 bucks. I wasn’t too attached to the longboard, plus Mindi has a much better single fin pintail lying around her house that I shall mooch whenever I’m back on the Gold Coast (plus it’s green and is very similar in shape to my primary board back in CA).

Finished Bill Bryson’s book about his travels through Australia. It was nice to read his opinions and anecdotes on some of the places I’ve visited. There is so much to see in this vast continent. Picked up a book on the historical account of the first fleet of convicts that settled what was then called New Holland (Australia) in 1788. British convicts were once sent to the Americas, but following the American colonies’ revolutionary revolt and succession in 1776, Britain was forced to find a new land to alleviate their growing criminal population. After much debate and political influencing over the best location for the convicts (Africa, Eastern Canada, Indonesia, etc), they finally settled on the southern continent; although they knew almost nothing about the climate, flora and fauna, character of the soil, or temperament of the natives; and what little they did know was based on the brief and biased accounts of Joseph Banks (a naturalist and man of wealth) and Captain Cook on the Endeavor during their visit to Botany Bay (south of what is now Sydney Harbor) almost a decade earlier. Imagine being forced to settle a land scarcely viewed by the new world, after an 8 month sail in cramped leaking wooden vessels through some of the worst conditions, with no prospect of ever seeing home or loved ones again. Amazing history; and what a great country has become of it.

Scored a window seat with no one on the isle side of my row for my flight from Brisbane to Perth and was pretty stoked about it (it is a 5 hour flight). During the flight an attractive older women in her late 40’s early 50’s, also known as a ‘cougar’ or an acronym that I won’t post here since my Mom is the number one fan of this blog, was hovering in the isle next to mine in an effort to catch a glimpse of the interior bush land we were flying over. I had done this flight several times so I asked her if she’d like to take my seat and soak up the view. She was very grateful and we ended up chatting the entire flight about her life, her children, her religious views, her work on a dairy farm, the benefits and joys of using a squat toilet, my life, my aspirations, my parents, my work in marine science, Reef, my friends back home, country music, Nashville, the Grand Canyon, Uluru (also known as Aires Rock)…and countless other topics of various tangents. I think it may have been the single longest conversation I’ve ever had (my interactions with others can be few and far between)…and yet I can’t remember her name. What a shame. I want to say it was Sally. Never the less I have no desire to have another conversation for some time; I was considerably worn out after the ordeal. Worn out in a good way.

Now I’m back on the Finnmarken which is still moored in the placid blue Indian Ocean waters that surround Barrow Island. I worked a half day on the Taurus (cutter dredge), and have many full days ahead.

My computer gave me the blue screen of death while checking my email. The CPU (or some other gismo that heats up) fan is currently humming away faster than normal, never a good sign. Currently I’m running no antivirus software. I’m sure the gamble will soon be my demise. I know of a few likely sources for the virus that may be sweeping through my files, but again since the mom is the number one reader, I’ll skip the details.

A Manta Ray leaped a meter out of the water during my post; it was my only sighting of the day and an impressive one at that.

So much for brevity, perhaps I won’t elaborate on these subjects later.

Day 1 of MFO work, 27 more to go.

Photo: View of what Australia once looked like, from the Barrow Is runnway. It looks green due to the wet season, it will turn grey and red when the rain stops. You can see one of many termite mounds that thrive on the vegitation.