Westward Beyond the Horizon: The Amazing Adventures of the Sea Cat Chowder, #3

By LeCain W. Smith

With over four years of cruising down the Americas and across the Pacific Oceans under her paws since she left home, Chowder presumes she is capable of handling anything. But, when voyaging around the world for six years on a sailboat there is always more surprises in store for an exploring sea cat, especially when the unexpected is bound to happen.

            In this last book of the series, Chowder first finds herself in Australia, a continent full of crocodiles, kangaroos, and aborigines. Over the remaining years of this grand voyage, Chowder, Captain Lee, and mate Sheila first plot a course through the islands of Indonesia to the exotic countries of Malaysia and Thailand. Eventually they sail across the Indian Ocean to South Africa and further beyond into the South Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean Sea, before making the last crossings via Bermuda to their new home on the downeast coast of Maine.

            During this time, Chowder reveals her experiences with alligators, prancing dolphins, powerful lightning storms, pirates, Komodo dragons, water spouts, large rolling seas, boa constrictors, dancing elephants, and spouting whales. In addition, she shares more stories about unusual glowing seas, bad storms, coral reefs, manta rays, lemurs, Zulu dancers, jungle safaris, exotic religious temples, and unusual indigenous ceremonies. Her life would never be the same!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Windrose Productions
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9780961550875

LeCain W. Smith

LeCain W. Smith, known to his friends as Captain Lee, was born near the ocean on the coast of Maine and was called to the sea early in life. Over the years different sailboats took him on many nautical adventures, and on most every voyage, he had a cat as a companion. With time, his skills came to include teaching sailing and navigation, boatbuilding, boat deliveries, yacht surveying, acting as a harbormaster, and chartering boats as a licensed captain. In addition, he wrote several nonfiction books with nautical, historical, and health-related themes. While living in Port Townsend, Washington, during the 1980’s he spent five years building a forty-three foot ketch and then completed a six-year voyage around the world. In company with his mate Sheila and trusted sea cat Chowder, this extensive exploration took them through many remote islands of paradise and exotic parts of the world. When it was over, Chowder felt that all their adventures were definitely worth sharing. Since LeCain had produced Far Away, a documentary video about the South Pacific part of their voyage, Chowder decided to tell her own version of the complete story with a trilogy of books, starting with: Sailing South ‘til the Butter Melt, and followed with this one: Far Away Islands of Paradise, and ending with Westward Beyond the Horizon. For more info about ordering, reviews, interviews, and personal links go to his website at www.windroseaway.com.

Book preview

Introduction

Ahoy there, mates! It’s Chowder, the global puss cat, onboard the sailing yacht Perelandra. I am now down under the equator in Australia, a country that some people call the Land of Oz. My captain Lee, his partner and first mate Sheila, and I have arrived in the place where indigenous aboriginals under the spell of dreamtime and those who arrived both long ago and more recently live as Aussies among the kangaroos and crocodiles.

After a couple years sailing down the west coast of U.S.A. and Central America in Book One (Sailing South ’til the Butter Melts) and more than two years sailing to numerous islands in both the South and North Pacific Ocean in Book Two (Far Away Islands of Paradise), we now continue moving westward to more fascinating, exotic, and remote locations.

In this third book of the trilogy covering the last two years of my voyage around the world, we first cruise along the northeast coast of Australia to Darwin and up through Indonesia and Malaysia to Thailand. From there, we cross the Indian Ocean to South Africa, and then make our way across the South Atlantic to Brazil, up to the Caribbean, and through the North Atlantic to the state of Maine, back in the States.

Within the following pages covering the final years of our global voyage, I share plenty of the wonderful and exciting experiences we had on this journey. Among other things, they include visits to desolate islands, exotic religious temples, and tribal villages, as well as confrontations with ugly insects, giant snakes, and pirates, and encounters with alligators, aboriginals, wild animals, waterspouts, freak waves, Komodo dragons, and strange people. We also had unexpected times with friendly manta rays, dancing elephants, spinning dolphins, spouting whales, lightning storms, glowing seas, and powerful gales. Since there is so much to tell you about, I shall get right to it.

PART ONE

THE EXOTIC FAR EAST

Chapter 1 – Life in the Land of Oz

On a map, Australia may look like the world’s largest island, but it is actually the world’s smallest continent. The geography varies from a large desert interior, a mountainous area in the east, and a mixture of forest, plains, tropical jungle, bush lands, and swamps around different parts of the coastline. Except during the southern summer, most of the cruising yachts spend their time venturing along on the northern coast of the country where conditions are warmer.

After sailing for months through remote tropical islands and having recently crossed the Coral Sea from Papua New Guinea, we were now in a country where modern civilization had all the conveniences we had previously been living without. Lee and Sheila were excited about doing their laundry in washing machines, taking hot showers, going to the supermarket, and venturing off the boat in the vibrant seaport of Cairns. I was thrilled with real kitty litter, some new kinds of cat food, and other special treats that Sheila got for me.

Even though this country is modern, it has a wild-frontier feeling with large areas where few people live. It is also populated by the original indigenous inhabitants, known as the aboriginals, who represent one of the oldest living cultures in the world, dating back over 20,000 years. With a strong belief in the Dreamtime, the act of going walkabout, songline stories, and a unique view on the qualities of nature, these people bring a very different perspective to this country. Sadly, this knowledge was repressed after Captain Cook discovered the land and the first English explorers, including a number of convicts, came to settle here during the late 1700’s. Ever since then, the aboriginals have struggled for equal rights.

I have to admit that when I heard about Dreamtime, I quickly developed a fondness for it. However, going walkabout had little appeal for me. I would let Lee and Sheila do that, while I settled for simple walks around the deck and remained in my own personal dreamtime on the boat. Anyway, as usual I was not allowed to go ashore. However, I did get my picture taken when we cleared in with customs and immigration and got our Australian cruising permit. They said it was because I was in quarantine, but I think it was because I looked so cute.

Once formalities were completed, Lee and Sheila went shopping, checked out the local yacht club, and had a big, fresh, greatly anticipated salad at a local restaurant. Meanwhile, I sat on deck and admired all the sailing yachts and big ships in the busy harbor. It was not long before Lee and Sheila made friends with cruisers who came from distant parts of the world and reconnected with old cruising friends. Most were planning on heading along a similar route up the Queensland coast inside the famous offshore Great Barrier Reef. We would now be in good company.

After Lee and Sheila went on their own walkabout, including an inland trip to see a music concert in the town of Karunda, followed by a few days of mucking about around Cairns, they decided it was time to depart. The plan was to cruise leisurely up the northeast coast of Australia, go over the top at Torres Straits, and head west to Darwin, where a couple of old friends, Peter and Pam, would fly in to join them as crew members. This passage up and over to Darwin would take about two months.

As things turned out, quite a fleet of sailing yachts had a similar plan, and we would spend a fair amount of time sharing our adventures with them. Since the Great Barrier Reef extends most of the way up this coastline and prevents large ocean swells from entering the cruising waters inside the reef, the seas were fairly smooth. The prevailing trade winds from the east made sailing on a reach up the coast close to shore a very pleasant trip. No rolly-polly ocean waves for me to deal with. And since there were also plenty of places to anchor by the shore or next to the scattering of nearby islands, it was not necessary to sail overnight. Coming to anchor each evening with a number of other cruisers made the end of each day enjoyable. I got many good pats and rubs when our new friends rowed over for an evening get-together on our boat.

Although we did occasionally anchor near the outer reef so Lee and Sheila could go diving, most of our stops were by small islands near the mainland coast, and excursions ashore were common. The best island anchorage that we visited was at Lizard Island. Although we didn’t see any lizards, there was a high hill in the center that provided a spectacular view of the surrounding reefs. On the top of this peak was a small park called Cook’s Look, named after Captain Cook, that famous world explorer who previously sailed all over the Pacific Ocean. In the middle of the hilltop park was a message box where passing sailors could leave notes or letters. Lee and Sheila decided to leave the following poem.

26,000 miles from home,

And half the world left to roam.

We follow along behind Captain Cook,

Constantly amazed at the risks he took.

At GPS and charts we peer,

He did it with lead lines and a compass to steer.

But like him we find it a treat,

To have solid ground beneath our feet.

Signed SV (sailing vessel) Perelandra

At our next stop in a small village, we got to see and hear one of the most unusual instruments in the world: the didgeridoo – native to Australia. This is a long, hollowed-out wooden tube, originally a tree trunk whose center was eaten out by termites. When I heard the deep moaning sound it made as a person blew through one end, I felt like my tail was going to fall off. The tricky part is learning how to blow it correctly. Lee was never very good at this, even though he tried very hard.

One pleasant small town that we stopped at along the coast was Cooktown. It was the first place where we found a fair population of aboriginal folks. After years of repression, most of them seemed quite poor and were often unemployed, though some had jobs promoting their cultural arts or working in museums that honored their historical values and traditions. The lack of opportunities is a sad thing, and the government is now trying to help them.

Although Lee and Sheila spent some time trying to learn about aboriginal history and their present challenges, they were also interested in nature and went on numerous hikes into the bush, where wildlife was abundant. Even though they did not yet see any of the famous kangaroos that live throughout the country, they did see a dingo dog, one of the native species unique to Australia. I had no interest in dogs and especially one called a dingo. Sounds goofy to me.

They also saw some ant hills, snakes, and a variety of tropical birds, but what I found most interesting was the existence of feral cats. It seems there was a large population of these ferocious wild cats living in the bush. How they got there, I have no idea. I am not even sure how they survive, but I later heard they usually eat the local snakes, frogs, waterfowl, moths, mice, and insects. Definitely not a diet that interested me. Although I was curious about them, I was glad that they could not get close to me. The ones I saw by the shore were quite ugly, skinny, and mean looking.

Except for an occasional fly-by of Coast Guard planes and some lively evening gatherings of sailors, cruising up the coast was mostly very peaceful. In company with about a dozen other cruising yachts, sometimes pretending to race each other to the next stop, there was plenty for me to watch while perched on the cabin top. Although we saw a few fish jumping nearby, we were unable to catch any with our trolling line. We did see flocks of birds, but none landed on the boat for me to play with. Without any natural inclination to explore any further, I spent most of my time cuddled up in a pile of rope or near the person at the helm, rubbing my cheeks on the woodwork. After all, I can be very patient and content while relaxing.

Before long, we approached Cape York at the northern tip of this coastline. At this point, we would turn left over the top of Australia and head west along the northern shore. After avoiding some tricky areas with reefs and strong currents near the Cape, we found our way through a small channel to the other side. We were now at the head of Carpentera Bay, where we would need to make a longer crossing to the other side, which was about 367 miles away.

At this time of year, the trade winds were still blowing strongly from the east, so we would likely have a fast downwind crossing heading west. As it turned out, it took us only two days to sail across. Even though we encountered some rain squalls and the seas were lumpy with short, choppy waves, we made it across without any problem. Since the Aries wind vane steered the boat the whole way, the crew could be more relaxed and attend to other duties onboard. The fleet of cruisers had separated, so we never saw another boat during our crossing.

However, when we came into the port of Gove on the western side of the bay, we found plenty of yachts. Some that we had previously sailed with came in later that day complaining about the rough conditions during their passage. I was glad that we had a sturdy boat that rode those lumpy seas better than most.

After more reunions, parties, and a barbecue cookout at the local yacht club, we continued on along the north shore, stopping at various remote locations that were pretty much deserted. Most of this coastline was not that appealing, for it was very swampy, with mud, mangroves, and thick underbrush. The sea water was often a murky brown due to mud from coastal runoff. Although we did find a few pretty spots with nice rocky caves to explore, there was little of interest, especially for me. I became quite lazy and slept a lot. As the winds became lighter and more variable, we sometimes had to motor. Even though we did see a few other yachts, most of the time we sailed alone.

Since we needed to get to the frontier town of Darwin in time to meet our friends flying in from the States, we moved along, sailing each day to a new anchorage without staying long. Darwin is the primary location where visitors arrive in this part of Australia, and this would be our last destination before sailing on further north to Indonesia.

When we passed Cape Don and arrived in Darwin, we found some of our cruising friends already at anchor in port. There was also a nice yacht club, along with plenty of stores and places to get provisions for the boat. Even though I did not get to see