This is the latest tale of travelling 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 7- 11/09/2001 Thursday Island to Cape York

Anchored in the Lee of Horn Island we decided to take a few days rest, prior to this though the ritual of hoisting the dinghy off the deck had to be performed, no mean feat when the dinghy weighs a ton. Using the Spinnaker Halyard the fibreglass dingy gets hoisted over the guard rails. The next job is to hoist the outboard over, this is done using the mizzen halyard and about six people (too many cooks?!). A quick scout around Horn Island showed the main attractions for us were the diesel pumps, a restaurant / museum, a shower block / laundry and of course a rough and ready pub.

The Torres Straight Islanders are really friendly and the whole group of Islands have a real Pacific Island feel with the Islander's heralding from Melanesia and Polynesia. The atmosphere was really laid back and with the different accents of the locals here it realy didn't feel like part of Australia. The kids at the holiday park / Laundromat especially loved the football I took along. The game started with just a couple of kids but before long I had a whole squad at my disposal!

T.I. and Horn both have museums that tell of the islands respective histories. T.I was once the centre of the Pearl industry the pearl and Mother of Pearl inside the shells was used to manufacture buttons. There is a memorial to the Japanese pearl divers who died working here and it is for this reason that some believe the Japanese didn't bomb T.I. during WW2 as a mark of respect for their dead.

Lisa, Lydia, May, Kim, Tracy and myself went on the museum tour of T.I. but we later found out the museum on Horn Island has more comprehensive history of the Islanders themselves rather than just the island.

Later that night we celebrated Lisa's birthday with many beers and a Lasagne and cake expertly cooked by Tracy. The older crew members left the boat for the evening prompting a discussion about the way the trip was going. Tracy wanted to fly the next day with Lisa to Cairns as this was the last airport for hundreds of miles; the overcrowding on the yacht, as well as some strange behaviour by Pete the skipper, Peter Lau and Brian were becoming tiresome and unfortunately were making the trip a chore.

Myself and Lydia felt we should wait and see if attitudes deteriorated and possibly meet up with another yacht on the way South. Lisa had noticed that there were distinct divisions between the generations but also felt we should give it more time. We had discussed it with Kim and May who had a stock response of not wanting to get involved, although Kim had received loads of abuse prior to this and clearly was involved......

Anyway we were also determined not to let the attitude's of others spoil the voyage so next day I dropped Lisa on the jetty so she could fly back to Cairns (I understand she had a great time there) and we headed East for Cape York.

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