From the Captain Garry McKechnie 19/03/06

We arrive in Townsville at 0730 on Sunday morning. It seems strangely quiet considering Cyclone Larry is heading for the coast and could well flatten the town. I expect to see frantic preparation for the coming storm but the streets are almost deserted. Video stores have almost empty shelves and long life milk is hard to procure. These observations provide the only concrete evidence that the town is ready. We pull in to Breakwater Marina who kindly make their last berth available for us but after topping up with fuel we decide to move into Ross Creek to a berth provided by GBRMPA directly in front of their complex. The shelter in the river will provide Pelican with better protection in the event that Larry does head our way. He is not due for another 24 hours or more but everyone from Pelican is fielding concerned phone calls from friends and family and reassuring them that we have arrived safely.

By Sunday night Larry has been up graded to a category 5 and Townsville is within the possible path it may take. Monday is declared a cyclone day and most businesses will remain closed. The atmosphere is muggy, still and hot with no obvious sign of the storm gathering strength over the horizon. Our preparations for various media events are put on hold while everyone concentrates on their own readiness. Our crew spends most of the day cleaning Pelican and prepping her for what may follow. Ini oversees the vessel and Nick works with the trainees to get everything ready. All loose gear is stowed below. Sails are lashed and all windage reduced. Mooring lines are doubled and tripled. I decide to take everyone off the boat and arrange accommodation in a nearby hotel. Natalie Davey is up from Melbourne and Lara Crew down from Cairns. They have arrived to participate in the media events so we arrange extra rooms in their hotel to help accommodate everyone away from the vessel. Ewan, Lwayne, Pedar and Matt are delighted with the real showers, the TV and take away food and happily settle in to their room for the night. The rest of us anxiously await the coming storm. I can only hope that Pelican will be all right by herself in the Creek. Ini volunteers to stay with her but by 5 am with the wind building I insist that he comes back to the hotel.

In the end Larry misses us completely. We experience little more than 30 knot winds. The people of Innisfail were not so fortunate. We have been lucky this time but news soon reaches us of another tropical low building in the Coral Sea. March 20 Monday is spent re provisioning and returning Pelican to her former sea readiness. We are also given a guided tour of the aquarium at Reef HQ. Two large saltwater tanks have been used to recreate the environment of the reef and a fine collection of fish and other creatures seem completely at home there. Patrick, the general manager, enthusiastically guides our group through the complex providing us with numerous insights into life on the reef. The tanks also provide resident scientists opportunities for study and research that would be impossible in the wild.