Voting Abroad

We had planned to vote in the upcoming election on November 6. However, our absentee ballots had not arrived by the time we headed down under to sail Sea Child toward Australia & the Great Barrier Reef. So we had our ballots mailed to us at Mackay Marina, our entry port, and they had arrived after about a 5 day transit via FedEx. We had expected to sail to Mackay, where we have found the best provisioning options in all of Queensland, but our freezer problem kept us north in the Whitsundays for longer than we expected. With time running out, we decided that it would be best if we rented a car at Airlie Beach, and drove the +150KM south to Mackay. With road construction and two lane highways, the drive took us over 2 hours. Add in the massive rain squalls that peppered the drive and the right hand drive/left side road, and we definitely had an interesting experience while performing our patriotic duty.

The lands between Airlie Beach and Mackay are massive and impressive and quite different than anything we have seen on this Sea Child journey. The prairie-like landscape of Queensland, Australia, featured beautiful farms with cattle grazing in fields of green, nursing their young as they gazed upon the passing cars. Another incredible ranch had a herd of horses galloping along with their white long legs and mains blowing in the wind, impressive and beautiful all at the same time. As we ventured further south toward the mountain region of north Mackay, the ranching turned to sugarcane farming, with field after field after field all laid out along beautiful rolling green hills. The cane fields were more like rows of grapes and reminded us of vineyards rather than cane farms. Every so often, a cane house would frame an edge of a large field, quite reminiscent of the plantation homes that dot the Upcountry, Maui region. As we drove along and the sunset came upon us, we finally reached the Clarion Hotel at Mackay Marina, tand retrieved our absentee ballots.

After a wonderful dinner at the Clarion, we began our drive back to Airlie Beach, and once outside the city limits of Mackay, the rains came down in earnest. This slowed our progress back north, and with the road construction along the way, we pushed onward. The fields were now black under the rains and clouds, the full moon invisible. The Bruce Highway connecting the Whitsunday Region and Mackay is populated by large double trailer trucks who barrel toward an unknown destination. Their distant taillights guided us back to Airlie Beach, where the delightful Whitsunday Sailing Club served us cold beers as the mission to vote was almost complete. We made our votes the next day and went to the Australian Post Office to send fastest delivery to Maui. We decided to pay the extra money to mail these ballots back and we realized that we must be crazy Americans, determined to cast our votes from faraway shores. After all the effort to rent a car, drive the distance, and pay the postage, we found ourselves out +$200 AUS. We really must be crazy Americans. And we insured that we can remain active participants in any dialog regarding American affairs. Well, thats what we tell ourselves, anyway, to justify the effort!!


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148 DEGREES, 50.178 MINUTES EAST

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