Day 6
Friday 29 September
This is one of those times when we Wangarrs need to be flexible. We had arranged to do our first trip back to Cape Flattery on Sunday but over the last few days it became clear that many of the group needed to be back before the weekend. There’s a wedding down south for some and there’s also the pressing urge to watch the NRL footy final (rugby league) looming up on Sunday evening.
The Bowens, as explained earlier have footy blood running in their veins, with two sons in the Cowboys team, including Brenton who needs to leave today. The footy final is a big deal. The resort graciously allow yachties to watch it at the Marlin Bar, which is for staff and visitors not staying at the resort, so those of us staying until Monday may be in luck. Clearly we need to do our first transfer to the Cape today.
After breakkie, bright and early, Dr Lyle Cross from the Lizard Island Research station arrives by tinny. He walks into the camp carrying a bucket with a live Crown of Thorns starfish and the necessary pair of tongs to handle this nasty bit of reef work. When I set this up earlier on the phone, Lyle had apologised that we couldn’t visit the station like we did last year due to a vigorous reconstruction project. He generously agreed to come to us, so we still get this introduction to reef biology from one of the world’s experts.
Dr Lyle gives a dynamite reef talk to the whole group
He kept the kids entertained for about 30 minutes explaining many aspects of reef biology, and conservation ending with his trump- card of producing one of the most dangerous and destructive starfishes in the world. The kids loved it. Most kids move back when you produce this writhing mass of evil looking black prickles but the Bama kids all moved a bit closer. Thank you Lyle for taking the time to give us this great insight into the reef.
The first return group of 25 people are ferried over to Pelican with swags, tents, holdalls, plastic bags and fishing spears. Kirsty, from Queensland Health, is on this trip home and we thank her for doing such a great job provisioning, cooking and always being ready to laugh with her vivacious nature.
Pelican sets sail in front of the beach at about 10.30am as the crew prepare for their four hours of motor sailing against the trade winds, over the 20 nautical miles to Cape Flattery. Ini, Colin, Nick, Anna, Raf & Estelle have been working flat out with no time out. They will make 12 crossings of this stretch of water for this extended camp at Lizard alone. Estelle has asked us to do another day sail to Lizard from Cape Flattery during the second week, so there maybe more to come.
With less people in the camp, the Bama chill out while we all settle into another day at paradise island. Kids wander the beaches practicing spearing fish, some people climb part of the hill to get a signal on their CDMA phones to talk to family and friends whilst others snorkel in groups. The strength of community here is plain to see. Several grandparents clearly revel in being with their grandkids. Des has young Abbey shadowing him around and every night she goes to sleep in his lap.
There are many dysfunctional elements to Aboriginal Communities but there are also many highly functional ones and this camp brings out the best in just about everyone. Part of our way to assist is to be good role models to the kids so our whole team agreed to be alcohol dry from Cairns until we are back in Cairns – which feels right for all of us.
A yachtie kindly loaned an old windsurfer board for the kids to play around with. This turned into a bit of a saga even though I warned him three times to only to leave the board if he was happy to lose it. It breaks - four boys are made to apologise to him and he’s given a couple of spears but it still takes quite a bit of discussion for him to feel some sort of closure around it all. Sigh!! Once again the Bama and Wangarr ways are different. Anything brought into the camp is naturally shared. Elders are very respectful of other people’s gear, but kids are used to playing wildly with anything in their path. Lesson learnt next time to take it straight back to the generous owner no matter what, I feel. He tells me his web story will be quite different!
I write the log and then head over to the airport to meet Sandy Scheltema, our wonderful photographer, and also Ini’s 7 year old son JJ. Sandy has done project work with us going back 10 years and has worked on this project for three. Just about every decent shot we have of Pelican is hers. She has this natural knack of arriving to do a shoot and within a few hours has captured stuff we’ve been trying to get for days. We’ve hired an underwater camera to get shots of the boys hunting, kids playing all, under the water, such is Sandy’s commitment, so she starts by testing this new camera before the next fishing trip.
Pelican running downwind with a bone between her teeth
Pelican arrives back in looking as though she is almost flying downwind under sail in the 25-knot trade winds. She looks incredible under shortened sail coming round the corner into Watson’s Bay. The crew stop for a cup of tea and then come ashore grinning from ear to ear. They’ve been empty on the way back except for Marty’s Uncle John and have flown back breaking all records. They averaged around 12 knots covering the distance in under two hours.
Ini is very happy to be reunited with his family -partner Sandy and son JJ, whilst ashore we settle in to another Community social gathering around the fish and salad, cooked up for the evening meal, whilst the guitars are brought out again.
Peter Malcolm
ANZ Hope Vale Project Leader
This is one of those times when we Wangarrs need to be flexible. We had arranged to do our first trip back to Cape Flattery on Sunday but over the last few days it became clear that many of the group needed to be back before the weekend. There’s a wedding down south for some and there’s also the pressing urge to watch the NRL footy final (rugby league) looming up on Sunday evening.
The Bowens, as explained earlier have footy blood running in their veins, with two sons in the Cowboys team, including Brenton who needs to leave today. The footy final is a big deal. The resort graciously allow yachties to watch it at the Marlin Bar, which is for staff and visitors not staying at the resort, so those of us staying until Monday may be in luck. Clearly we need to do our first transfer to the Cape today.
After breakkie, bright and early, Dr Lyle Cross from the Lizard Island Research station arrives by tinny. He walks into the camp carrying a bucket with a live Crown of Thorns starfish and the necessary pair of tongs to handle this nasty bit of reef work. When I set this up earlier on the phone, Lyle had apologised that we couldn’t visit the station like we did last year due to a vigorous reconstruction project. He generously agreed to come to us, so we still get this introduction to reef biology from one of the world’s experts.
Dr Lyle gives a dynamite reef talk to the whole groupHe kept the kids entertained for about 30 minutes explaining many aspects of reef biology, and conservation ending with his trump- card of producing one of the most dangerous and destructive starfishes in the world. The kids loved it. Most kids move back when you produce this writhing mass of evil looking black prickles but the Bama kids all moved a bit closer. Thank you Lyle for taking the time to give us this great insight into the reef.
The first return group of 25 people are ferried over to Pelican with swags, tents, holdalls, plastic bags and fishing spears. Kirsty, from Queensland Health, is on this trip home and we thank her for doing such a great job provisioning, cooking and always being ready to laugh with her vivacious nature.
Pelican sets sail in front of the beach at about 10.30am as the crew prepare for their four hours of motor sailing against the trade winds, over the 20 nautical miles to Cape Flattery. Ini, Colin, Nick, Anna, Raf & Estelle have been working flat out with no time out. They will make 12 crossings of this stretch of water for this extended camp at Lizard alone. Estelle has asked us to do another day sail to Lizard from Cape Flattery during the second week, so there maybe more to come.
With less people in the camp, the Bama chill out while we all settle into another day at paradise island. Kids wander the beaches practicing spearing fish, some people climb part of the hill to get a signal on their CDMA phones to talk to family and friends whilst others snorkel in groups. The strength of community here is plain to see. Several grandparents clearly revel in being with their grandkids. Des has young Abbey shadowing him around and every night she goes to sleep in his lap.
There are many dysfunctional elements to Aboriginal Communities but there are also many highly functional ones and this camp brings out the best in just about everyone. Part of our way to assist is to be good role models to the kids so our whole team agreed to be alcohol dry from Cairns until we are back in Cairns – which feels right for all of us.
A yachtie kindly loaned an old windsurfer board for the kids to play around with. This turned into a bit of a saga even though I warned him three times to only to leave the board if he was happy to lose it. It breaks - four boys are made to apologise to him and he’s given a couple of spears but it still takes quite a bit of discussion for him to feel some sort of closure around it all. Sigh!! Once again the Bama and Wangarr ways are different. Anything brought into the camp is naturally shared. Elders are very respectful of other people’s gear, but kids are used to playing wildly with anything in their path. Lesson learnt next time to take it straight back to the generous owner no matter what, I feel. He tells me his web story will be quite different!
I write the log and then head over to the airport to meet Sandy Scheltema, our wonderful photographer, and also Ini’s 7 year old son JJ. Sandy has done project work with us going back 10 years and has worked on this project for three. Just about every decent shot we have of Pelican is hers. She has this natural knack of arriving to do a shoot and within a few hours has captured stuff we’ve been trying to get for days. We’ve hired an underwater camera to get shots of the boys hunting, kids playing all, under the water, such is Sandy’s commitment, so she starts by testing this new camera before the next fishing trip.
Pelican running downwind with a bone between her teethPelican arrives back in looking as though she is almost flying downwind under sail in the 25-knot trade winds. She looks incredible under shortened sail coming round the corner into Watson’s Bay. The crew stop for a cup of tea and then come ashore grinning from ear to ear. They’ve been empty on the way back except for Marty’s Uncle John and have flown back breaking all records. They averaged around 12 knots covering the distance in under two hours.
Ini is very happy to be reunited with his family -partner Sandy and son JJ, whilst ashore we settle in to another Community social gathering around the fish and salad, cooked up for the evening meal, whilst the guitars are brought out again.
Peter Malcolm
ANZ Hope Vale Project Leader
1 Comments:
Sounds like things are going well. The reef talk must have been something.
If you're chatting with Des again, please let him know that I am keeping track of the expedition from a place called Bowen Island off the west coast of Canada. His surname caught me attention, so hello to him from a native indian Canadian :)
Scout
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