Finally an update.

I must apologise for my lack of updates recently.  I'm still in the same spot since my last post, and in my head not much has changed.  However, in reality few things remain the same.

First off, Kev has been forced to go home, which I think is the smart decision.  Even though for the last several months of our travels we were separated by about 2000km, he was still on the same continent.  A friendly face in and amongst the world of strangers.  But, we must push on.

I am still working on Waltzing Matilda and my sailing knowledge is growing by the day and this is quickly becoming a sport I could seriously get into (and I thought SCUBA diving was an expensive hobby).  Big news from me?  Well I have actually come through quite a lot in the past few weeks (maybe 8-11 weeks that is).  The wet season is on its way out and the low pressure systems, also known as what become cyclones are skimming the coast of Australia with less and less frequency.  This brings great sunny skies and the generaly 10-15kts.  However, every now and again we get strong wind warnings (25-30kts) which can easily turn into galeforce (+33kts) winds.  Once you are out there, there is no turning back, you just have to find some shelter and wait for the gale to blow itself out, similar to a candle.  This leads to my first bit of news, during one of these wind storms I had to winch up sails to get out of it quickly and the strain on my elbow was just too much.  I severely sprained my elbow and somehow developed an infection in it at the same time.  This came close to topping my whopping hamstring injury in terms of pain.  But I made it through the trip and my boss drove me straight to the hospital upon my return to land.  And I must say, I am quite impressed by the Australian medical system, I was seen by the doctor with 30 minutes of my arrival and out the door again within the hour.  I've come a long way since then and I'd say that my elbow is now about 90% better and on the mend.

And I'm sure you will all be happy to know that I survived the tsunami.  All boats (at least out here) are equipped with an Emergency Broadcast Alert warning system, which obviously give you early warnings of dangerous situations.  When our warning system lit up yesterday, we immediately switched to the emergency UHF channel to find out the situation.  There was a tsunami approaching and meant to hit where we were at 11:45am.  So we make plans and wait, listening to the emergency channel for further information.  By 11:00am they had called the warning off and predicted that we would only see a rise of 10-20cm in sea level.  They were a little off, earlier the predicted seas were to 2.5m. we had seas to about 4m.  Nothing staggering like the 10m wave that hit the Solomon Islands, but still rather large for the area.  No harm, everyone made it back in safely.

Otherwise, the boat is booked out and I fly to Vancouver on June 13th.  So besides a few private charters with me being forced to be a five star chef, I need to dive the S.S. Yongala, hit Ayer's Rock and do a surf camp from Byron Bay to Sydney and I'll be happy to head home.  I will try to update more frequently than I have been.  Hope you are all well.