A Pirates Life For Me

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**Sorry this this is kinda long, I have a whole week of adventures to update you on!**

Last weekend, Jake a I flew down to Melbourne to visit with some camp frineds. We had no place to live, no jobs, and really no place to stay in Sydney...so it seemed like the best thing to do! Our friends Anna and Scott picked us up and took us to Scuba's house. (all camp people of course) Friday we were on our own, so we ventured into the city. There is a ton of stuff in Melbourne to see and do! We didn't see any of it...we spent the whole day at the Australian Open! We bought $19.00 open ground tickets, and were able to watch everything but the big match that evening. We got there right before the gates opened. As soon as 2pm rolled around, we rushed inside like children being let loose in Toys R Us. We really didn't know where we were going or what we were going to see. We followed the crowd, and that led us to see Maria Sharapova warming up! I'm not a huge tennis fan by any means, but it was cool to sit in the front row and see one of the best womans tennis players in the world hit with her coach. Opposite her there was another crowd, so we wandered over and saw Wilfred Jo Tsonga hitting. He looks big on TV and he is huge in person! We spent about an hour watching the two of them warm up. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Jake and I goofing around watching tennis. We would go sit in one of the small stadiums and cheer for someone we had never even heard of. Most people who were there seemed to have a purpose. They either had someone to cheer for, or were arriving early for the Federer match that evening. We were just causal fans who had a blast watching tennis for five hours!

The next day was Australia Day. It is kinda like our July 4th, only no one in Australia knows what they are celebrating. We got up around 10pm, and went to watch Scuba and his brother play cricket. There are a lot of reasons why America is great. Sliced bread, democracy, and WE DON'T HAVE CRICKET! It is absolutly the most boring sport ever. It was fun watching Scuba and his brother play, but other than that...I'd rather pay for gas in Ohio. Ok maybe not...that go against everything I have ever preached. But you get the point...there are far better things to do with your time. Luckly for us, we bought some beers, subs, ect...we kept ourselves entertained. The best part was that there was a house next to the cricket pitch (pitch = field) that was giving away a lazy-boy. As we were grabbing it, the bloke (bloke = man) that owned the house said we should take his couch as well...he was going to be throwing it away. We told him we were taking it to our apartment down the road! So we grabbed both pieces, and sat in comfort as we watched paint dry. We had a good afternoon. We got bored about 4 hours in and wandered off. We came across some kids and dads playing cricket and got invited to join them. We figured it couldn't be any more boring to play that watch. We actcually had a good time...it wasn't to bad. The only part that was embarrassing/bad were the 10 year olds who were way better than us. I'm used to baseball. Cricket is totally different. These kids live for it...it is almost like they have been brainwashed to love it...kinda like I'm going to brainwash my kid to LOVE Michigan and hate Ohio. We played for about an hour, and then headed back to Scuba's game which was winding down. That evening we went to a pool party which was good fun. As I mentoned, no one really knows why Australia celebrates Australia Day. They just use it as an excuse to party.

One of the reasons I went down to Melbourne is that I got invited to sail back on a 38 foot sailboat. I had to take the oppertunity! Scuba drove me and Max (another camp guy I'm living with) about an hour south to Geelong where our boat would leave from. We left port at noon on Monday with nothing buy open seas for the next 4 1/2 days. I didn't realize how long it would be until I actcually got on the boat. That was a LONG time to be in one tiny space with seven guys. Max and I were on one shift with Gordon (the guy who owned the boat) and there were four other guys on the other shift. We went three hours on, three hours off. We had 6-9pm, Midnight-3am, 6-9am, Noon-3pm. The first 2 1/2 days, we had GREAT weather! The nights were cold, but the seas were never too rough. On Wednesday, Gordy said we would be stopping to have dinner in a small shipping town called Eden. I was so happy to get off the boat, shower, have a real meal and walk around. The boat we were on is a racing boat, so it is not built for comfort. For 2 1/2 days straight, we had bread, peanut butter, chocolate, beer, cheese and crackers. The steak I had in Eden was delicious. As we pulled in, a storm was coming through, so we threw the idea around of spending the night there. It sounded like a good idea to me...sailing in a storm when you don't have to is not high on my list of things to do. Six of us wanted to stay, one...Gordy wanted to go. As soon as we finished our dinner, the rain came and we took off into the storm. The major difference between sailing at Michigania and sailing out in the Tasman Sea (yea Tasman sea...how cool is that?!) is you HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE GOING!! That night we had 30 MPH winds, we were strapped into the boat...and when I was sailing I was following a heading of 011 degrees north. I couldn't see a thing!! There was lighting everywhere, waves crashing over the boat, and time seemed to be crawling along. I've never been happier to go to sleep. The next day was smooth until abour 3pm when we got a warning about another huge strom creeping up behind us. We were about 10 hours away from Sydney, and decided to push through it. When I say decide, I mean we all wanted to pull in somewhere, Gordy didn't. When we took over at 6pm, the winds were blowing at about 20 MPH and growing. When our shift ended at midnight, it was blowing 35 MPH and we were soaked. We got knocked over during the shirt which means a HIGE WAVE knocked out boat on its side...the mechanics of the boat bright it back up right, but it was scary. So at Midnight we went below to sleep...and didn't even come close to getting some rest in the next three hours. The boat was swaying back and forth so hard we couldn't lay still for longer that 2 seconds. We were wet, cold, hungry, and SOOO TIRED! We took over at three and the wind had picked up. The waves were coming from two directions, and at times over 10 feet high. I was at the helm for an hour and half, and it was the most demanding thing I have ever done. You have to be so concentrated on heading in the right direction while at the same time avoiding 10 foot waves that you can hardly see!!! I was so happy when 3am came around, and we got to go below to warm up. We pulled into Sydney at 7am...about six hours later than we though. It was a good expierence, but nothing I would jump on to do again. That day, I was watching the news, and the big story was that the storm we sailed though was one of the worst Sydney had seen in years.

So I'm back in Sydney now. I think we found a place to life, and I have some temporary work. This guy needs help restoring his house. Jake and I both got hired and worked all day yesterday and will work whenever the weather is nice. It is rainy here today, we just watched the Super Bowl. If I work 4 days a week for this guys, $1600 a month is plenty to live on here. Things are starting to get figured out, it just takes time. I have some videos from the sailing trip that I'll add. About once an hour a pod of dolphins would come up next to the boat. Max got some on video...I'll make sure to add it.

I hope all is well at home. Tyrell Pryor commits tomorrow. I'm so nervous. If he doesn't go to Michigan, he'll end up a drugged out loser at Ohio State. The world certainly does not need more losers. I hope that was a selling point Rich Rodrigurez used when talking to him.

Go blue

dan

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Photos

Cheering
We had no idea who we were cheering for. We just picked someone and went with it!

Sleeping on Board
There is nothing like taking a snooze on a boat in the middle of the ocean!

waiting for the storm!!!
the biggest storm sydney had seen in years hit us!

about to take over!
6pm on the last evening. We had no idea how big the storm was going to be!

Night Sailing
a bit different that camp!