Day 3: Cairns, Australia
September 24th, 2005

The crew finally arrived last night. Todd, Amy, Tonia, and Hannah were on the boat when I got back from a dinner run for Captain Jim and I. (We had Chinese Take Out.) We were getting a little worried, because we had expected them earlier in the afternoon and had been waiting all day for them to arrive. They were in good health and good spirits, despite their long journey. It took them an hour or so to unpack their gear and stow it away. It's funny, there seems to be lots of hidden spaces inside the Makulu, and it was magical how all of their stuff disappeared in that short time.

I had a night full of strange dreams, and woke up disoriented and thinking I was back in New York. Happily, this was not so. The morning sky was beautiful, a bluish-grey with lots of rain clouds that were passing through. All the boats around us were quiet, the water was calm, and the sky was filling with the sounds of birds coming to life. As I watched the occassional seagull and the handful of terns flying around, I noticed several "birds" heading back from sea - towards the mountains behind Cairns. Their wing-span was easily 2 feet across, but their flight seemed different, as if they were working too hard. Well, these weren't birds at all, but in fact were very large bats making their way back home after a night of hunting. I saw at least a dozen flying by. I had thought I had seen them last night walking back from the Chinese restaurant, but I had assumed they were brown seagulls because their flight was so similar. The bats I know from home fly zig-zagy while trying to catch bugs, but these flew very straight. (I'll try to find out more about them today.)

This morning, Captain Jim held a meeting where we all got to discuss our plans and how we are going to work together as a team on this trip. We worked on our trip Itinerary, and talked about the goals we had to accomplish for Reach the World. For the rest of the day, we all did chores around the boat. We worked from 9am until 5pm. I spent a lot of time in the engine room again, working on electrical wiring, while the rest of the crew did things like painting, cleaning, fixing things, and organizing food and supplies for the big trip ahead.

NEXT DAY