Yet another 2 months has passed and my visa was up again
which means I can either extend it for another month or get the heck out
dodge. The original plan was to
extend it and then fly to Sydney in October for a few weeks, but then an idea
popped into my head and I ran with it.
Friends of mine had their boat in Cairns, Australia to do a refit. I asked them if it would be alright I
flew down there and helped work on the boat for a couple weeks then road back
to PNG on the boat. They agreed and about 36 hours later I was on a plane, a very small plane (we’re talking like
30 seats and only 15 passengers half of which were crew members) Oz bound.
For such a short trip it makes for an extremely long
day. I took the 6am flight from Kavieng
to Port Moresby, which is about 1 ½ hours, and there I waited until 4:30pm when
my 2 hour flight to Cairns left.
To kill time I took a shuttle to a nearby hotel and surfed the internet
while sipping on a latte. Mmmm life
is good.
When I arrived in Cairns we went straight to the boat which
was quite the sight considering the boat was out of water in a ship yard. This is the first time I’d seen a boat
out of water. I wondered how it
all worked but figured rather than asking questions I’d just wait and see. The boat sits on a slip which is
basically a couple pieces of wood under the haul and chains ran from side to
side holding it up. I would have
thought it’d have taken a great deal more to hold a boat up out of water, but
not so. Looking at the boat I was
sure it would have threatened to tip over at any moment, but while on the boat
not once did it feel anything but fixed in place.
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| The PNG Explorer up on the slip prepped and ready for a new paint job. |
The first morning it was time to suit up and get to
work. Andrew (boat owner) handed
me a pair of coveralls and a paint brush and away I went painting the bottom of
the boat with antifouling (paint that keeps critters from growing on the
boat). Rolling a 23 meter boat by
hand takes a bit of time. After
the first coat was done I was pretty happy. My hands and shoulders ached and I had a few blisters but
felt satisfied seeing the once white boat a lovely shade of red. Then the boys said, “We’ll do a second
coat tomorrow.” Should have known
there’d be two coats. So day two
was spent painting more. Then day
three we did a third and fourth coat.
Painting is a rough gig if you’re not painting fit. I’ve spent the last 6 months doing next
to no manual labor with the exception of carrying luggage. Three days of painting did me in, but
it was good. Doing manual labor is
great because you’re body aches but you see instant results which makes it feel
worth it. Though, I will say,
painting red on white is far more gratifying than painting red on red… on red…
on red.
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| Working on the first coat of paint |
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| The halfway mark for the first coat of paint |
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| Gotta leave your mark... Aix (like Yikes without the Y which is Irene), Becs, and me having some fun finger painting |
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| All done with the antifouling (red). 4 coats and 3 days of work. |
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| Early morning and raining getting the boat back to the water. |
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| Why did the boat cross the road? To get back to the water, of course! |
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| The slot where the boat goes back into the water just before the sun rose. |
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| Her first swim after a big refit. |
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| Goodbye lovely paint job. |
With the boat back in the water it was back to the
grind. The boys (Andrew, Darty,
and Mark) went back to cutting and drilling and welding and I went back to
painting and organizing and cooking with Irene (one of the boat’s crew who came
down from PNG to help with the refit).
We did take one evening off though to take Irene to the “disco” as she
requested. When I arrived she was
so excited about the prospect of “going to the disco” that there was no way we
could not go. One evening we went
out to a nice Japanese restaurant for dinner then into the first club we
found. After a couple hours of
dancing we went for a wander and then headed home. All in all it was a good time and Irene got to experience an
Australian “disco”… priceless!
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| She floats! Whew! |
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| This is why I love Cairns... so pretty! |
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| Irene taking a little breather before more work. |
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| Darty working hard on the toilet block. |
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| Mark and Darty positioning the walls of the toilet block for Andrew to weld them into place. The blue glow is Andrew welding. |
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| Fresh name stickers on a fresh paint job. |
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| When the tide was low you could see under the dock we were at which I though was pretty cool. |
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| Putting the truck on the back of the boat. |
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| Now time to put the jet ski on. |
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| Not gonna lie, even though the boys said they'd both fit I still had my doubts, but here they both are fitting. It was a tight squeeze. |
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| I've heard stories of this gorilla suit, but this is the first I'd seen it. Apparently every once in a while Andrew puts on the full suit andrides his motorcycle around town and people in Kavieng go nuts. Another time he ran through a village chasing a dog and then a pack of dogs turned on him and sent him running. He, dressed as a gorilla, had to climb a tree to escape them. The villages went crazy from what I heard. |
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| Mark with the gorilla head and Irene (Aix) with the hand. I have no idea where this came from but it was pretty funny looking up at the boat from the dock to see this. |
All the days are a blur so I’m not entirely sure what
happened between the boat going in the water and us heading out, but A LOT
happened. New dunny blocks
(toilets and showers) were built.
New bunks were built. New
flooring was put in. Freezers were
installed to store $10,000 worth of meat (we’re talking about 8 freezers… it’s
absurd. The first charter is a 30
day charter and the group they’re taking insisted on buying a ridiculous amount
of meat to send back to PNG for the charter.) More painting. And then unloading
two storage units worth of stuff onto the boat. When Friday September 13th arrived Andrew cracked a bottle of champagne on the bow of the boat, we drank another bottle, and 4:30pm we were off to sail across the Coral Sea.
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| Champagne bottle on the bow of the boat (that was the bottle we drank not the one that was smashed on the bow). |
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| Pulling away from the dock. |
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| A happy captain Andrew ready to get back to Kavieng to see his family. |
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| Goodbye Cairns. Until we meet again... |
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| This was the first lamb roast I'd ever made. Lamb roast is an Australian classic dish form what I learned. |
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| Irene pulled these out of the cupboard and said, "Umm what are these?"to which I replied "Those are taco shells and we're making tacos tonight. Prepare to have your tastebuds forever changed." For those of you who don't know I'm a big fan of Mexican food. Chips and salsa are my favorite meal... yes, meal. And I also love burritos and tacos. Sadly, the taco shells were off so these tacos weren't too amazing, but Irene now knows what a taco is. |
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| The first day I mentioned craving cheesecake and Becs was kind enough to make a homemade cheesecake. It was DELICIOUS or as the Australians say RIPPA! |
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| Strawberry cheesecake with fresh strawberries. Doesn't get better than that! |
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| Irene's reaction to having cheesecake for the first time... "OOOWWWWW" This picture was followed by a fit of interpretive modeling. Yes, Irene began dancing/posing because she was so excited about the cheesecake. One of the greatest moments of the two weeks in Cairns. |
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| A prawning boat was parked near our boat and they were kind enough to share some of their catch. Those are the largest prawns I'd ever seen. I put my finger there so you can get a better idea. |
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| Irene made an awesome meal from the prawns. So good! |
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