This is the latest tale of traveling adventure, for previous logs visit the archives. If you are new to Bad Latitude and wish to get a better idea of the whole adventure then it is best to start at the very beginning. The logs are updated when we get the chance, due to the erratic nature of sailing it is difficult to know exactly when we will be able to update the site, so for this reason we have the update alerter which will inform of any update via e-mail.

Issue 6 - 07/09/2001 Gove to Thursday Island

The next day the forecast was good - light North Easterlies 1-1.4 metre seas. So after cooking breakfast for 9 we set off to the jetty to refuel and refill the water tanks. This became a bit of a mission as the wind was blowing across the harbour pinning us onto the jetty. Every combination of tripping lines was attempted until the tried and tested method of full ahead and hard to starboard did the trick!

We set off from Gove at around 11 am and picked up an unusual North Westerly land breeze that stayed with us until 9pm. As there were now 9 of us we split the watches into 3 people on for 3 hours, then off for 6.

It was around 9 pm that the Easterlies kicked in and due to the shallow nature of the Gulf of Carpentaria the seas picked up quickly and uncomfortably to around 1-2m, so the Genoa came down and the Gardiner diesel engine was brought into service. The shallow nature of this stretch of water produces short choppy seas which rapidly induced sea sickness in most of the crew. May in particular spent the entire crossing curled around a bucket. Peter Lau came on watch one night, and without clipping on almost flung himself overboard in his homage to Neptune, Lydia had to grab him in order for him not to go overboard. Unfortunately for Peter Lau his teeth weren't held by Lydia and they went over! Only myself, Lydia and Lisa didn't feel the effects of the choppy seas.

The days and nights ground on with the relentless pounding and rolling motion. Those who could go below without being sick chipped in to cook and clean and keep the crew going. The boat was a real sight by this time though as people found any comfortable spot they could to get some rest between watches.

After 2 nights the wind dropped and so did the seas so we all thought the last night of the crossing would be smooth.....how wrong we were! At around 8.40 pm 20 minutes before our last evening watch the winds picked up to 25-35 knts which whips up the sea like a washing machine. Nkhwazi was like an out of control rocking horse, each wave almost stopping us dead in the water, there was no comfortable place to sleep by now and I found myself in the forward cabin were the worst of the motion was with my head wedged under the bookshelf and my right arm ready to hold on when necessary! I swear I was airborne most of the night! Needless to say I didn't get much rest until the 2nd reef was put in the main at around 4.30 am, the motion was now steady enough to get some an hours sleep before our 6am watch.

So after 4 days and 3 nights of wind and swell on the nose we sighted Booby Island, named by both Cook and Bligh who independently named it due to the large amount of birds that were resident there. We followed the leading lights through to Thursday Island before we dropped anchor just off Horn Island at around 1 pm Saturday - time for a well earned rest and a cold beer!

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