Subj: High Drama anchor-down in Papua New Guinea
Date: 5/21/2003 9:45:48 PM US Mountain Standard Time

After a passage accross the Coral Sea of 593 miles High Drama dropped anchor yesterday on the lee side of Panasia (pan a see' ah) Island Calvados Chain in the Louisiade (loo ees see ayd') Archipelago in eastern Papua New Guinea. Winds were light, shifted constantly during the frequent squalls, and we motor sailed more than we wished.
Ocean passages are a fascinating challenge. The primary challenge for a crew of two our age is sleep deprivation. Ann and I alternate watches every three hours. The night watches ranged from wondrously clear skies with bright moonlight to 100% cloud cover, with mist or rain limiting visibility to just past the end of the boat. Near total darkness always seems ominous. On clear nights we look for old friends in the sky, such as the Southern Cross and Orion. Sometimes we listen to books on CD or tape, and to music, but much of the time there is just the feeling of being alone at sea. Thoughts drift. For me, thoughts float back to things like moving to Albert Lea, Minnesota and starting 5th grade in Mrs. Jones' class. That was a challenge! Thoughts of other times when events and challenges have seemed beyond my control pop up in my reverie. Haunting thoughts creep in, too, like losing the state wrestling tournament in my senior year in high school after winning it the year before.
When we spot something or need to make a sail change, we awaken the other person, notwithstanding her need for sleep. At night we wear harnesses that are affixed to the boat and we never leave the cockpit at night without the other person being up. If one person went over board while the other slept below, there would be no chance of recovery.
We passed 6 or 8 ships within 100 miles of Papua New Guinea, probably headed down from Asia to Australia. None passed closer than 2 miles, but that seems close at night. We usually pick up ships' lights visually at about 8-10 miles, and often use radar to try to determine their course. None was a threat, but since they frequently don't leave their radar on, and can't see you and can't maneuver in any event, we give them wide berth.
Panasia is reported to be one of the most beautiful anchorages in the area. High jagged rocky cliffs with a sliver of a white sand beach lie directly ashore. High Drama sits in deep blue water in about 50 feet, with shadows of rock or coral visible below. After dropping anchor, we enjoyed a mandatory anchor-down beer and then dropped off to a deep sleep for about 4 hours. We grilled a steak for dinner ( yes, that means we did not catch any fish) and then slept again, this time in the cockpit. The Southern Cross led a full night of stars over the ridge of the island. Life is good.
Tomorrow we will worry about the challenges of having made landfall in a remote place. Should the report of salt water crocodiles in this anchorage keep us from swimming? (They are supposedly small ones.) Our "spare" and final alternator broke, so we are now in our third (and final) layer of redundancy for charging our house battery bank. Our cooling pump on the main engine leaks, a sign of impending failure that warrants changing the pump now. I think we have a spare, and I think that I can manage the aptitude to change it without dropping too many bits in the bilge. And we will commence taking anti-malaria drugs.
No, Captain Cook didn't sail to Papua New Guinea.
That's the new from this voyager's perspective.
Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: Slipping through The Great Barrier Reef toward Papua New Guinea
Date: 5/16/2003 10:46:04 PM US Mountain Standard Time

Greetings from High Drama,
At high tide this morning, May 17,2003, High Drama set sail from Townsville, Queensland, Australia for the Louisiade Archipelago in eastern Papua New Guinea. Townsville and the security of coastal sailing proved difficult obstacles to overcome, but we are once again sailing offshore.
Townsville is a clean and efficient industrial town that also lures tourists to the Great Barrier Reef. It boasts a clean zinc smelter with railheads with railheads where trains empty and docks where ships load minerals from the Queensland outback. A memorial to Australian war dead graces a beautifully landscaped park along the waterfront. The city is home to a large Aussie army base as well as an air force base. During WWll it housed up to 100,000 healthy American infantrymen headed to places like Guadalcanal and sailors bound for the Battle of the Coral Sea. Two airstrips were built for American bomber and fighter groups. Many US servicemen wounded in the South Pacific were transported to and treated in hospitals in Townsville.
Unlike New Zealand, Australia welcomes US naval ships. One is due in Townsville Monday with the promise of shore leave for up to 10 days for 1100 sailors and Marines. The pubs increased inventory in gleeful anticipation.
One taxi driver explained that Captain Bligh was sent back to Tahiti to captured 12 Bounty mutineers. Bligh sailed through the Reef and wrecked his ship Pandora. We should visited the nautical museum with artifacts of the wreck. Then the taxi driver explained that she was distantly related to Bligh. When we showed interest in that remark, she said also that her great great grandfather on the other side of the family arrived in Australia in 1868 on the last British convict ship. A fascinating woman, even if she was a shill for the chamber of commerce.
Papua New Guinea lies 575 miles northeast of Townsville accross the Coral Sea. A handful of Australian cruisers sail to the remote Louisiades each year, and a few international yachts also visit there, but Papua New Guinea is not on the usual tropical Coconut Milk Run for circumnavigating cruisers. Most of our friends sailed north from Townsville to Cairns and ultimately Darwin. We opted for a frolic and detour to visit Kathy Lepani, an old friend from Albert Lea, MN days, and her husband Charles, who are now living in PNG.
After blowing for 6 rainy weeks the wind died and the sun beats down. The sea, protected from the swell by the reef, is smooth and displays not a dimple. We are motoring with no sail up, and will probably continue motoring for a day or so until we are well off shore. And, it is hot. Quite a contrast from the last month.
We are slipping through the Great Barrier Reef through the Magnetic Passage. We should pass no closer than 3 miles to any part of the it, but the Great Barrier Reef has snagged many ships over the years, and we will remain vigilant so we don't join the ranks. We should be clear of the reef a few hour after dark tonight, but there are still some isolated shoals farther out for those who relax too early!
We will provide periodic updates, especially if the sea remains flat. If you wish avoid receiving this electronic fish wrapper, let us know and please accept our apologies.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama
18 41.7 S
147 10.5 E
Great Barrier Reef

Subj: Mother's Day
Date: 5/11/2003 12:44:15 AM US Mountain Standard Time

Happy Mother's Day to all of you. We just dropped anchor in Upstart Bay, so named by Captain Cook because of the high jagged rock cliffs and scrub. But, in more recent times, a mariner named a very suggestive rock off Cape Upstart as Buns Rock! It requires no imagination to determine the intent of this more modern name.
Today is my day to cook and for the first time since we set off from Mooloolaba I trailed a fishing line. I was not optimistic and didn't even have handy the new book that Ann gave to me to identify fish. (The gift was prompted when I threw back a fish in Fiji that supposedly tasted superb because the fish that looked like that in Mexico weren't even fed to the dogs.) Well, I caught a very nice sized Spanish mackerel that will give us a few good meals. I will cook a fresh fish dinner for a Mother's Day meal and serve a crisp Australia Chardonnay.
We are about 70 miles from Townsville, a fairly good sized city. We should get there tomorrow afternoon, but we will have to get up pretty early. Townsville one of the last large cities as we travel counterclockwise around Australia. We are about 600 miles from Cape York, the pointy part up by Papua New Guinea, and another 700 miles from Darwin. The weather has slowed our northward progress significantly and we passed the Whitsunday Islands, a very popular island group for tourist activities with very few stops. It has been too cold to have much fun in the water.
Our best to all of you.
Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama
Cape Upstart
19 44.03 S
147 44.95 E
Queensland, Australia

Subj: Less Drama
Date: 5/5/2003 4:44:42 AM US Mountain Standard Time

We spent a week in Keppel Bay Marina waiting out high winds, nursing a sore back, and watching a pair of sea eagles fish. The sea eagles are quite large, have a white head and breast, and the leading edge of their wings is black. When they swoop down for a fish, they lack maneuverability. Groups of tiny sparrow sized swallows buzzed the eagles in an effort to force a fish drop or retreat. The sea eagles reside in a nest on a lamp post in the marina parking lot. These large predators added significantly to the general activity around the marina.
After the winds subsided to the low 20s, we sailed on to Pearl Bay and then later to Curlew Island. These anchorages convinced us how spoiled we have been in the last few years. While they boast lovely beaches and interesting terrain, the sea swell produced quite a rolling action while we slept. They did not rank among the most comfortable places we have parked.
We have been sailing in an area with a large tidal swing, about 12 feet. Also, there is now a spring tide at the new moon so the differences between high and low tide are the greatest. Like sailors have done for centuries, we try to time our passages over sand bars and through bays so that we are going the same direction as a flooding or ebbing tide.
After the two anchorages mentioned above, we landed in Mackay, Queensland in a new marina. We passed Cape Townshend, Cape Palmerston, Cape Hillsborough, and Cape Conway, all named by Cook for patrons in England. As soon as the immediate high winds diminish we will head continue our trek for the Whitsundays, a group of islands which host great beauty, beaches, and reefs with in the Great Barrier Reef.
Hope that all is well with you. Don't forget to write.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: ANZAC Day in Australia
Date: 4/25/2003 3:46:11 AM US Mountain Standard Time

Greetings from Down Under. Today, April 25 Aussies celebrate ANZAC Day, the Australian and Kiwi equivalent to the US Memorial Day. In WWl a young Winston Churchill, successfully lobbied for an invasion of the Dardanelle Straights controlled by Turkey. Soldiers from a joint task force (ANZAC means Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Turks held the high ground and were dug in extremely well fortified concrete positions. The ANZAC troops repeatedly clambered up out of their trenches charged. They were slaughtered by Turkish machine gun and artillery fire. Over 10,000 Australians lost their lives. Although the battle was military disaster, Australians regard Gallipoli as a defining moment.
Australia had achieved nationhood several years earlier, in 1901. At Gallipoli the crushed hat "Diggers" acquitted themselves so well that they emerged with a lasting sense of national pride and honor that has become a part of the national fiber. Now they talk about "mateship" and the courage that has persisted.
We are holed up in Keppel Bay Marina waiting for the 25-33 knot winds to die down. Tonight we will stop by the local yacht club for a "pot" of the local beer and celebrate the day.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: Cook's footsteps
Date: 4/16/2003 8:16:37 PM US Mountain Standard Time

We sailed from near Morton Bay to Double Island Point where we anchored. We then sailed inside of the Sandy Point Cape and last night stopped at Bustard Head. In a day or two we will round Cape Capricorn.
All of these places were named by Captain James Cook in May, 1770, as he charted the Eastern Australia coast. Bustard Bay was the first place he went ashore after Sydney. Cook's men dined on bustards, turkey-like birds similar to bustards found in England. Cook found the meal sufficiently tasty to name the place after the bird.
Cook's ship, the Endeavour, could scarcely make 6 knots and it could not sail to windward. In shallow waters, the anchor was the ultimate tool of control. Cook determined his location (longitude) by using a crude sextant taking sights of the moon. The calculations for this method of position finding were quite cumbersome and complex and even in Cook's day only a few navigators and astronomers had mastered the technique. He expressed The Endeavour's position in his Journal in degrees west of London. The concept of the International Dateline wasn't adopted for more than a hundred years after Cook.
Our boat can go to windward, relies on a diesel engine for auxiliary power when there is no or adverse wind, and we can easily make 6 knots. We have accurate charts and determine our position within 10 meters using atomic clocks on orbiting satellites. We use Greenwich rather than London which is 6-12 miles away from Greenwich as the reference point for longitude and we express it as degrees east of Greenwich since we are now west of the date line.
How accurate was Cook? Correcting for the differences in methods, for Double Island Point and Sandy Cape, our readings on a GPS are about four miles off Cook's, which is astoundingly accurate considering the tools he had. Cook's Journal makes charting the coast sound like just another day at work.
We aren't as tough as Cook and his crew, either. We are anchored around the northeast of Bustard Head while the southeast wind blows 25- 35 knots generating 10 foot seas. We don't choose to sail when the wind is that boisterous. We can wait.
Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama
Bustard Head
24 00.6 S
151 44.2 E
Queensland Australia

Subj: Greetings from Down Under
Date: 11/17/2002 9:11:53 PM US Mountain Standard Time

We are moored at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club, about 60 miles north of the
city of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast. The area is quite lovely and the
beach inviting. After dropping off our crew member Chuck Dayton at the
airport on Saturday morning, we spent the remainder of last weekend getting
acquainted with Brissie as the locals call Brisbane. Extremely nice city
with walkways all along the river and art galleries and botanical gardens
and cold beer. We saw the only theater playing, The Wizard of Oz, which was
enjoyable after a long dry spell from civilized activities.
Our plans for travel to the USA, or in Australia are somewhat up in the
air.
Finally, we have a high speed wireless internet connection on the boat and
although there is no dockside newspaper delivery, Brisbane publishes a new
paper every day!

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: Mooloolaba
Date: 11/13/2002 9:00:43 AM US Mountain Standard Time

High Drama landed in Mooloolaba Yacht Club, a very nice place. Located on "The Sunshine Coast", Mooloolaba is a waterfront tourist Mecca for Brisbane people, who live only 25 miles away. There is excellent surfing and the area is built up with high rises condos and shopping centers.
Tomorrow we will do some boat projects and check out a telephone and Internet access. And newspapers! Hope to see the Koala Sanctuary in the next few days and learn the words to Waltzing Matilda. The Aussies are wonderful hosts and we have already run into some whom we met in Vanuatu. Small world.
We will probably leave High Drama here while we do some land travel and wait out the cyclone season. Hope all is well.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama
Mooloolaba Yacht Club
Queensland Australia

Subj: Fraser Island
Date: 11/10/2002 4:02:29 AM US Mountain Standard Time

Yesterday we left Bundaberg Marina and started down the coast. We only went 50 miles and pulled into a small town called Hervey Bay, so named because of the large bay that is formed by Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. So, that's where we are today.
We went ashore and had a truck tour of this fascinating island. The resort is quite yachtie friendly and we enjoyed swimming in their pool, as well as in a freshwater lake on the island. We were warned about pesky dingoes which I think are wild dogs, but so far no sightings. The island is quite piney and full of weird varieties of trees.
We will probably spend two more nights traveling down the coast to Mooloolaba where we will moor while we do some inland and perhaps US travel. Plans are quite uncertain at this point.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: High Drama anchor down in Bundaberg, Australia
Date: 11/4/2002 12:31:33 AM US Mountain Standard Time

After a pleasant 5 day passage High Drama is now safely nestled in a marina in Bundaberg, Australia. We plan to look for kangaroos and koalas right away, after a nap. We plan to spend a few days here recuperating and repositioning before heading south to the Brisbane area.
More later about this fascinating place.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
S/V High Drama

Subj: Au revoir, New Caledonia
Date: 10/29/2002 11:46:16 PM US Mountain Standard Time

We are underway this afternoon (Wednesday, Oct 30) sailing in a beautiful 20+ knot wind on our port beam in lumpy confused seas. We leave New Caledonia and it's wonderful French wine, pastries, and a very efficient and friendly French administration. We had the fastest friendliest check in and check out of any country so far. We leave fine powdered sand beaches and friendly natives. We leave the economically advanced island we have seen in the South Pacific.
We are bound for OZ. We have a good five day weather window and we have been warned that the weather off the Aussie Coast may get rough by next Tuesday afternoon. Our strategy will be to keep the boat moving at 6 knots so we can duck into Bundaberg, the port of entry, by late Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Having Chuck Dayton will be a great asset for us to push the boat for this passage.
An armada of at least 12 yachts are seizing this weather window, so we will have plenty of people to talk to on the radio.
We will keep you posted.

Jeff & Ann Brooke
Chuck Dayton
S/V High Drama
22 35 S
165 03 E

More supplemental logs: New Caledonia-Vanuatu, Tonga-New Zealand-Fiji, Raratonga-Nuie-New Zealand, Tahiti, Marquesas