Sailing From Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania

I mentioned the other day that I may be going on a sailing trip. Well, the details have been worked out, and tomorrow or Thursday (Australia time) I'll be headed to Hobart, Tasmania, on a 38-foot sailboat. Skipper: Craig. Crew: Me. (Home, gnawing fingernails on walls, ceiling: Christine.)

Short story shorter: Craig, friend of Christine's who lives in Hobart, bought a sailboat on the internet a few months ago. It's here in Sydney, so he flew up last Thursday to get it ready and sail it back home. I had expressed interest in tagging along when I first heard about this some months ago, but Craig said he had had a close friend going back with him, and said no. I forgot about it. On Thursday, when Craig got here, he said that his friend had backed out. There ya go. 

It's take up to two weeks. Highlight of the trip: the Bass Strait.

I'll be out of internet and phone range for much or all of that time. Hobart is way down there: Nothing but open water between us and Antarctica. I will of course have much to post here when I return.

The route is the same as taken in a what is a very famous race here, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, held every year stating Boxing Day.

Did I mention I've never sailed before? (I have been on the sea, as I said in that other post.)

Here's the boat (second one out). Best I could do for now:

Here's Craig showing Christine around, up on the bow:

Skipper Craig and Christine on the Southern Ocean.

Playing "The Shack" on Saturday, September 3

The Shack is a very cool Northern Beaches venue. You're even encouraged to bring your own snacks and drinks:

The bio:

Little Thom sings wickedly funny songs about medical procedures, bikinis, an obscene dog, whiskey, and whether or not life is really all it's cracked up to be. And some other stuff. He has written hundreds of songs in his three-decade-long career, and has released three recordings, the latest of which, Bottomfeeders, contains no hits whatsoever, including the tender, "I Can't Wait (To Do a Tracheotomy)."

White-faced Heron, Tide Pools, Cowries

Some pretty cool pics and a new animal for me - the cowry - over at the other blog.

My First Blue Bottle Jellyfish Sting

And info on the colony of creatures that is a blue bottle jellyfish.

Australia: Where Even the Turds are Alive [update]

My Australia blog has a new post about turds.

Chinese Coal Ship Damages 1km of Great Barrier Reef

What a monumental disaster:

The Australian authorities have said a Chinese bulk carrier which ran aground off Queensland has caused widespread damage to the famed Great Barrier Reef.

The cleanup is likely to be the biggest operation ever undertaken there.

The Shen Neng 1 was refloated on Monday night, in a salvage operation brought forward because of the threat of bad weather and heavy seas.

The Australian government has indicated that a prosecution will follow because the ship ran aground in a no-go zone.

Here's a map made by someone on Google Earth of the route the ship was supposed to be taking, and the route it did. It was headed north, between the mainland and the reef, when it suddenly headed west, straight through the reef. Authorities think the skipper may have been trying to save time. He and his crew have been arrested.

On top of the physical damage the 755-foot ship did, besides the tons of oil spilled on the delicate reef, authorities are afraid that paint from the ship's hull - which is toxic and meant to stop marine life from growing on the hull - was rubbed off the ship, "because it has immediately started killing off corals in the vicinity."

Photos here.

Ten-week-old Oil Leak Catches Fire

In the Timor Sea off northwest Australia.

More from Geology.com.

Images of the oil from Earth Observatory.

Personal Story About Single Payer Health Care [updtd]

My spouse is from Australia. Her sister still lives there. They both recently had similar, quite invasive (use your imagination) diagnostic medical procedures performed on their lovely selves, my spouse here in the U.S., using my work-based insurance, and sis in Australia, using their national, single payer system. Cost to spouse (and me) and sis', out of pocket:

Spouse: Roughly $3,000

Sister: $95.

Just one example, yes. But a real life one, and one that resonates with us big time.

Update: Lest anyone use this post as research (hello!), I should add this personal story, which I think is an even better example.

* * *


Two quick single payer facts:

Single payer health insurance is a system by which the health care expenditures of an entire population are paid for through one source – the Federal government or a subcontracting entity – using tax revenue from individuals and employers.

Distinctly different from socialized medicine, whereby the government owns and operates health care facilities, a “single payer system” is simply a financing mechanism. The government collects and allocates money for health care but has little to no involvement in the actual delivery of services. Care is provided privately at hospitals and clinics but paid for publicly.

"Stoned wallabies make crop circles"

Headlines like that just kinda jump out at you don't they? (Oh crap - I swear that pun was unintentional.) Back to our story:

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said.

Lara Giddings, the attorney general for the island state of Tasmania, said the kangaroo-like marsupials were getting into poppy fields grown for medicine.

She was reporting to a parliamentary hearing on security for poppy crops.
Australia supplies about 50% of the world's legally-grown opium used to make morphine and other painkillers.

We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash
Lara Giddings, government official

"The one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry was that we have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," Lara Giddings told the hearing.

"Then they crash," she added. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

Photo of stoned wallaby from here.

Update II: Two Suspects Arrested in Australian Wildfire Arsons

They're "assisting police," the report says. Hopefully they'll catch the bastards.

Update: Composite photo of man wanted for questioning released.

And: mysterious death of a firefighter near Melbourne, who was killed in his home - by a suspcious fire. This after he'd been fighting the wildfires for days.

Neighbours said the fire started about 3.30am, a series of explosions ringing out before the house was engulfed in flames. The fire started inside the house, but police would not comment on where his body was discovered.

Hopefully that story doesn't end uglier than it already is.

Update II: One suspect arrested.

Australia is Getting it Bad

Temperatures to reach 116 in Sydney today. In Sydney. On the coast. Conditions are "tinder dry" and fire dangers are worst in history.

Up North, major floods in Queensland, and crocodiles are being swept out of rivers and into urban areas.

Christ.

Good luck to family and friends. Please stay safe.

Humaroo: Kangaroo Genome Similar to Human

DNA evidence, these researchers say, shows that human and kangaroo DNA is far more alike than expected, and that we went our separate ways on our evolutionary paths perhaps about 150 million years ago.

It is endlessly fascinating to think that we humans share common ancestors with every living thing on Earth. With the kangaroos: a kangan, or, better - a humaroo.

Aussies for Obama

While watching election day coverage yesterday with my gorgeous, hilarious, and courageous wife, Tin - who is also Australian - she got a call from her sis in Sydney. All the way Down there, they were so nervous and excited about the race. In honor of the Aussies for Obama, some news from this morning:

Sydney Morning Herald: Australia embrace Obama for president

Canberra Times: Australians favour Democrat for poll

The Age: King's dream realised in the election of Obama, says PM

The Animals Are Going to Win

Queensland's flying foxes may be spreading a deadly virus to humans...as a reaction to habitat loss.

"It's like a biological weapon protecting their ecological niche. Only when humans try to destroy that balance that the virus jumps out."

House Close to Apology for Slavery

This type of thing can seem meaningless and nothing but show or worse, but it has its place, in my opinion:

While many states have apologized for slavery, it will be first time a branch of the federal government will apologize for slavery if the resolution passes, an aide to Cohen said.

And it can be done exquisitely:

Man Attacked By Crocodile; Friend Shoots Man

My God, I love Australia.

Hey, I passed right through Marrakai Station on my way to Jabiru in '06. How cool.





Photo by LT, NT, 2006

BBC: Aborigines 'used in experiments'

Sydney Morning Herald, and the BBC:

Aboriginal children in Australia were sometimes used for medical tests, it has been claimed.

Aborigine rights campaigner Kathleen Mills said she had heard of children being injected with a leprosy treatment and becoming very ill.

She said many members of the "Stolen Generations" - Aborigines taken from their homes and raised by white families - had similar experiences.

Senior politicians said they had never heard such claims before.

Photo via AustraliaDay.nt.com

Tasmanian Devil Cancer News

BBC:

...scientists say Cedric appears to be naturally resistant to the contagious tumours which have killed half the devil population in Tasmania.

Cedric is the first Tasmanian Devil to have shown any immunity from the disfiguring disease.

Photo from the U. of Tasmania Foundation's Tasmanian Devil Appeal. And here's Save the Tasmanian Devil.






Sydney Harbor Bridge: Lights Out

Sydney celebrated "Earth Hour" by turning off the lights on the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. (Video in link.)

8:00 tonight. One hour. Candles and wine.

Phto by LT over Sydney Harbor, 10/06






Australian History Taking Place Today

I just got a call from my Aussie other half and she said the Australian parliament is just about to begin a session in which the new (dirty freaking hippie) PM Kevin Rudd will officially apologize to the Aboriginal people.



She'd gotten a call from her sis, in tears, and called me in tears just to let me know. Goddam, moments like these remind me why I'm on this side of the political sphere.

National Indigenous Times. AFP. (Wish I could find a video link. Anybody?)

Link to link for live video.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signalled a shift in mood in Canberra Tuesday when he invited Aboriginal elders to stage a welcome ceremony for his centre-left government, the first such event in the parliament's history.

He followed up by releasing the much-anticipated text of the formal apology to Aborigines he will deliver to parliament Wednesday, going much further than the highly qualified statement initially expected.

The apology is being viewed as a watershed in Australia, with major television networks airing it live and huge screens being erected in major cities to allow crowds to watch as it happens.

A great giant Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi! to Kevin Rudd and the good people of Australia today.

Update: Link to a DKos diary with the text of the apology [which I'll now put here, also]:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations – this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again. A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility. A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.