iPod Tunes in Real Life: John Butler Trio!

One of my staple items on the boat is my iPod. It's absolutely invaluable for staying awake on night watches, passing the time during off periods, and providing a soundtrack to some of the amazing views from the boat. After cycling through various groups I don't often listen to in an attempt to change things up a bit, I will inevitably return to favorite groups that just never get old.

One of those groups is the John Butler Trio, who happen to be from Australia. I forget how I first heard of these guys, but their albums have been in constant rotation in my car and on my iPod for many years now. As soon as I knew I was going to Australia via sailboat, I started looking up tour dates, hoping to be able to catch the John Butler Trio live. Their website is seriously outdated, and various internet searches returned nothing.

In Cairns, however, I spotted a poster for ReggaeTown, a two day festival in September... with the John Butler Trio headlining. Sadly, we planned to be gone from Cairns by that time. My search continued. In Darwin, hope was renewed at the Mindil Markets, which was hosting the closing ceremonies of the Darwin Festival. We ran into our friends from the boat Lilly Bolero at the markets, and they casually mentioned that a few of them were going to a John Butler Trio concert... that very night!

It took .05 seconds to decide that the admission price was worth it. How many times will I be able to see one of my favorite bands, the John Butler Trio, live in Australia? Adam and I combined the cash we had on us and were able to buy our tickets, with only change to spare. We entered the amphitheater and found good seats up front on the grass for our little group, made up of WTP and Lilly Bolero sailors. As the grounds filled up around us, we took in the sight of so many people and chatted, anticipating the moment when the lights would dim and the music begin.

The group Blue King Brown opened, and they amped the crowd up exceptionally well. There were a bunch of members in their band: drummer, percussionist, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, two backup singers, and a very energetic lead singer, who also played guitar and bongos in between the times she spent dancing around the stage and even through the crowd. I had never even heard of this group but was very impressed with the energy and talent they brought to the stage. And John Butler was still to come!

The lights came back on after Blue King Brown was done and the process of taking down their set and assembling the next one began. We didn't know how many openers there were, but guessed it would be John Butler next from the sheer amount of time it was taking to get all the instruments set up. There was one guy in the back corner whose sole job was to tune the multitude of guitars.

Sure enough, as the lights dimmed a second time we saw three people walk on stage, and then the sweet sounds of the John Butler Trio filled the amphitheater and spilled over into the night. Song after song was better live than any recorded version I had heard, and we joined with the rest of the crowd and danced to the music. John Butler is an incredibly talented guitarist, and even keeps the fingernails on his right hand longer so he can finger pick better. Intricate songs are played amazingly fast, and on top of all that he sings. The drummer was hilarious and clearly the prankster of the group. At the end of the show he repeatedly tried to dramatically break his sticks by throwing them high into the air and at the stage's floor, but was unsuccessful. He ended up just tossing them to the crowd, which was ecstatic about that. The bassist rounded out the trio, and surprised the crowd by playing both a stand up bass and a didgeridoo for one song.

This awesome show was surely a highlight of my time in Australia, and I can't wait to pick up some new music for my iPod... starting with more John Butler Trio!

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On the Subject of Swells, and Future Destinations

I joined up with the WTP and crew in Tahiti, with limited offshore sailing experience. The thought of multiple days at sea was new to me and I didn't quite know what to expect. The most noticeable thing on the boat was (and still is) the degree to which the size of swells affect the motion of the boat and the location of various secured and unsecured objects down below. Things that don't get a second thought when we're calmly at anchor become the most persistently annoying source of thumps, bumps, and squeaks when we're rocking and rolling around underway. Often I search for the culprits of these noises for days before figuring out what's causing them and finally silencing them.

Aside from the noise caused by things bumping around, the general level of comfort while moving about, sleeping (or trying to), and being up on watch is directly affected by the size of the swells. In big swells, it requires both hands and timed ricocheting off walls to move from the galley to your bunk. Once you arrive at your bunk, more careful timing is needed to determine the precise moment at which to aim and launch yourself into said bunk. To become comfortable, I usually strategically place my sleeping bag between myself and whatever side of my bunk I'm more likely to roll into harder. It also helps if I spread myself out as flat as possible, as this reduces rolling.

During the first two months of my time on the boat, we sailed from Tahiti to Cairns, Australia. The swells on some of the crossings were pretty big. Some, like the short hop from American Samoa to Samoa, were downright huge. We held a team meeting to test and secure strobes onto PFDs, just in case.

While it was daunting to have the boat pitching and rolling so drastically right at the start, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I would much rather see how rough it can be right away, because then anything calmer is appreciated more. The same goes for length of crossings. From Bora Bora to American Samoa took 10 days and from then on anything shorter seemed like no big deal, because we had already done something longer.
Our time in Australia has been very pleasant. Since we're inside the Great Barrier Reef the swells have been practically nonexistent, and with trade winds behind us we've had steady and good speed. Even across the Bay of Carpentia we had good weather, and many Australians we spoke to said that could be the worst bit of sailing in Australia. The temperamental squalls of the South Pacific are gone. Often we'll see massive thunder heads and a distinct line of dark clouds that will simply dissipate into nothing, and our days have been full of sunshine. We're not in a great hurry; as long as we make it to Darwin by the last day of the month to meet Halley, we're good.

I will miss Australia's sheer wildness, the 'life is good!' attitude of Australians, and the relatively calm comfort such protected sailing provides, but the allure of new places full of their own sights, sounds, people, animals, and foods is a strong one. We will probably (alright, definitely) encounter rough weather and big swells in the future, but the first sight of land in a new country always banishes thoughts of a rough crossing from my mind, and I am greatly looking forward to all the exciting destinations ahead of us.

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The Zoo!

The Cairns Tropical Zoo has been the highlight of my time in Australia so far. I love going to zoos and seeing all the animals, and this zoo had animals specific to Australia. Even better? We were allowed, even encouraged, to pet and feed some of them!!

We got to pet koalas and kangaroos. Koalas are terribly cute- they have huge ears and big noses. Romeo, the koala the keeper was carrying around and the one we got to pet, seemed to enjoy being held. (He reminded me a lot of my cat, Dart, who likes to cling to me in a similar fashion while purring.). Kangaroos are even softer. These kangaroos are extremely friendly/lazy from years of people petting and feeding them, and we could walk right up to any of them, even the baby one. I even shook his little paw.

We got to feed kangaroos, pelicans, cassowaries, kookaburras, frog-beaked owls, doves, and a lorikeet. The kangaroos ate pellets and also had alfalfa in their feed trough. We threw fish to the pelicans. Mine ducked. The cassowaries got fresh fruit through the fence; they enjoyed bananas and kiwis the most and dropped the other fruit on the ground. The kookaburras and owls got dead mice which we dangled in front of their beaks by the tail (we wore gloves). I was told the owl might be kind of nippy, so I carefully placed his lunch in a tree fork below him. He ate two mice, and seriously thought about a third. The doves ate fruit and veggies from bowls and even they seemed to have favorites. One ate all the peas, the next ate all the carrots. Will fed a lorikeet that got louder when his sultanas were held too far away.

This next animal we watched from behind a fence- the crocodile! The keeper showed how they wait under water for unsuspecting land animals to lean over for a drink, and then strike with lightning-quick speed. This croc's name was Zach, and he was massive. I was glad for the fence.

Finally, we watched the bird show, where owls, hawks, magpies, cockatoos, and a white-bellied sea eagle soared down over our heads to land on the keeper's glove or various trees around the grass stage. One little hawk got scared when a larger, wild bird happened to fly high over the zoo. He flattened his feathers and his eyes grew huge as he trained them on the larger bird, and the keeper sent him back to the aviary so he wouldn't become stressed.

We spoke to many of the keepers at the zoo and the general feeling was love and appreciation for all the animals, whether big and ferocious like the crocodile or small and cute like the koala. Everyone was eager to tell us about their animal charges, answer any questions, and explain why each animal's conservation is vital to the environment. This zoo and its animals are very awesome!!

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