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 9 - 30/09/2001 Cape York, Escape River, and Cape Grenville

After motoring through the beautiful Albany Passage and an invitation to party with some Pearl farmers over the VHF. We managed to sail around Turtle Island and into the mangroved expanse of Escape River. So named because of the explorer Kennedy who was exploring Northern Queensland with his Aboriginal guide Jacky Jacky. Kennedy was on the southern bank of Escape River being 'chased' by Aborigines, he rushed across the river away from them to be greeted by another tribe of Aborigines on the other side who murdered him. Jacky Jacky escaped and went on to complete the exploration. Unfortunately for Kennedy the Aborigines on the south side were actually friendly to the European's and had he not tried to escape he probably would have lived!

Other than being a cyclone haven and housing a pearling station, with it's three out of place Palm trees - Escape River is a pretty unremarkable place. Pristine Mangroves line the estuarine river and crocs can be seen on the shores at low water. Nothing more nothing less. This wasn't the place to get stuck while the trades kicked in. So of course that's exactly what happened.

Waiting for the 25-30 knot South Easterlies to stop we had to spend almost three weeks at Escape River so things began to get a bit grim. Bread had to be made every day, meat (other than the fish we caught) was getting scarce and tellingly people's tolerances were getting low. Due to the scarcities we had to ration water and have salt water showers with a bucket slung over the side. Estuarine salt water for those who don't know is invariably brown, it ain't nice, and it leaves you clean but sticky. Despite the hardships we spent the days playing chess, Ludo and fishing (I caught a huge Trevally, and an even bigger Spanish Mackerel that was too bid to get in the dinghy - honest).

May also caught a large mackerel which I cooked up for us and the owner's of the two other yachts we shared the River with - Don and Fritz who from Armellia II and Dica. I made Thai red curry, and Tracy followed up with Chocolate sponge pudding.....we became masters of cooking with nothing!

By about the tenth day in Escape River Lydia and me had ran out of the slab of Victoria Bitter we had bought in Thursday Island. Despite the fact that the rest of the people on board had LOADS of beers left that they could have sold/given away. To be fair to Pete the Skipper, he did sell us some whisky but it's not quite the same. One amusing aside though along the same lines; The bilges had flooded twice, once when we ran aground near Darwin, and once at Escape River. This led the beer locker to be soaked with salt water, twice. The cans beer are kept in are thin and they rust. Despite our best efforts to dry each individual can (yes even in Escape river when Me and Lyd didn't have any beer we helped dry each individual can). But by now the cans had developed an annoying habit of springing leaks, shame! Oh yes, poetic justice not seen on this boat since Lau spat his falsies into the Gulf.

Anyway it was safe to say things were deteriorating onboard. Despite Lau hating the Norwegians prior to T.I. - so much so he wanted to write into Lonley Planet to tell "these foreigners not to come to Oz if they're loud." (eh??). He now bizarrely seemed enraptured by their presence, almost overnight. The Norwegians themselves moaned about everything, mainly 'dirt' and 'cleaning'. Every day. Kim seemed it funny to tap mindlessly and sing deliberately out of tune onboard a fifty foot boat stuck in a crocodile infested mangrove lined river. Things were getting crazy, and a little bit nasty.

Finally we made a run for it to Shelbourne Bay, the weather hadn't changed in all this time we just had to go. The passage was hellish, the weeks in the River had ridded us of our sea legs and it was a nasty overnighter. May selfishly took the skippers bunk which was the only place a decent night's sleep could be had. This would be OK if she had done her watches like everyone else, but she didn't, she just lay there prone for the entire night.

We spent two days there before we moved South again to Cape Grenville. Now the second day something weird and a little disconcerting happened. Pete began muttering something about hunting and shooting the wild cattle and feral pigs that roam Northern Queensland. OK whatever, we'd heard this story before, I took it with a pinch of salt or blamed it on the cabin fever everyone seemed to have after being holed up in the river all that time. Then he began unscrewing the panel which normally supports his Didgeredoo. The panel concealed a semi-automatic shotgun. hmm. Now I know people were being rubbed the wrong way on the boat and this guy has a shotgun. And we're in back end of the middle of nowhere. On a boat. Various things did cross my mind before I blurted out "mind if I come?" Don't know why but I volunteered to go ashore with this bloke, thankfully Lyd wanted to go ashore too. The other's decided to stay on board, Pete Lau mumbling about getting speared in the back by enraged Aborigines, and he was serious. Somehow this made me want to go even more, it adding to the sense of danger and adventure.

Unfortunately the only thing that got shot were a bunch of coconuts, and very nice they were too. Not a sniff of anything big enough to eat, despite Pete's Rhodesian army bush training. Anyway thinking about it that was the first time we'd set foot on land since Cape York, it did feel weird to have space for the first time in so long.

So the next day after our unsuccessful hunting excursion we motored South to Cape Grenville where to our surprise there were about 20 fishing vessels, prawn trawlers, crayfishing boats, everything. This was a very weird sight. People were kite-boarding, drinking playing football on the beach and having a good time. After we dropped anchor and the rest of the crew cracked their beers a couple of the lads off the Cray fishing boat Pegasus came over to say G'day - Shane and the mad toothless skipper Ted. Noting that Lydia and I had a distinct lack of beer compared to the rest of the crew (nothing to do with my hints of course) Shane and another crew member the very bearded Jaysson returned with a can of VB for me, and some cigs and a VB for Lydia - What a result.

We told them that we were low on food and had been showering in salt water to which their generosity continued and we were invited aboard Pegasus to shower in unlimited hot fresh water later on. Fantastic!

However they came before that though with their 20 knot Dory's and me Tracy and Lydia went for a joyride (see the video). Everyone onboard Nkwahzi was offered a ride, the Crayfishermen even noted Peter Lau's enthusiasm for fishing and offered to take him fishing, of course though this was declined. So we clambered down into the Dory's. It was great to go so fast and they got air on the ocean swell, we ended up at an isolated beach where a downed US aeroplane from WW2 is visible at low water. We also took a trip at sunset around Sunday Island where Captain Bligh was threatened with a second mutiny during his open boat voyage form the Bounty. One of the crew challenged Bligh whilst alone - the crew member died!

Anyway after some food aboard the Nkwhazi Jaysson picked us three up for a shower and more of their generous hospitality. Loads of beers and much needed laughs were had by us and the crew of Pegasus. We told them of the situation on board Nkwhazi and were told to get off as soon as possible! I have never met such a large number of down to earth people as I have on Pegasus. They dubbed the Norwegians the 'Norwhinger's', nice!

The next day the usual suspects of me Tracy and Lyd went further down the coast with Jaysson and chilled out on a deserted beach all day. We sat talked and relaxed all day, despite the best efforts of the imaginations of those onboard Pegasus!

We returned to find the supply barge 'The Cairns Express' had arrived! We could finally resupply ourselves with beer, water and diesel. Jaysson gave us and Brian a lift over to the barge as we hadn't lowered our dinghy. Brian was being unusually nice and chatty to us onboard the barge which was unusual. Anyway we got some beer and headed back to Jaysson and Shane in the awaiting Dory. "Do you like Four X Gold?" Jaysson asked. Silly question really. He passed over the can. "That Chinese fella gave me them, said it was for getting rid of the Poms for the day the bastard". For maximum 'up yours' impact we gave Tracy one of the cans. Tracy doesn't drink lager often. Peter Lau's jaw dropped when we returned. In your face mate, in your face!

We later sussed why Brian was being nice anyway, he wanted to come on board Pegasus for a night out too. We another great night aboard Pegasus, telling us of how they dive for crayfish using a hooker attached to the Dory not a job I envy! None of them were insured, not by choice they just can't get any due to the danger involved in their line of work. We even got to hold a couple of the dark blue lobster like things.

Brian left after a short time, as he left he seemed to expect that we follow him back. Of course we didn't go and we carried on enjoying the hospitality of Pegasus until the small hours. The next day Lydia awoke to hear Brian snidely ear-aching Pete how "the Poms did their usual thing of expecting to be given drinks all night". To which Lydia flew into a rage, eventually being calmed by the Skipper. Hence my comment in the crew section about this guy, it was a pretty pointless thing to say.

It was around this time that we noticed that the rest of the Nkwhazi crew had eaten the final packet of Tim Tams and Tortilla chips in our absence with the Pegasus boys. Food which was communally bought and supposedly shared between us all and saved through the hard times of Escape River, yet was snidely eaten when we were absent. Anyway we didn't let the attitude of the others dampen the laughs we had here at Cape Grenville or subsequent destinations. We just let them gripe, be petty and the rest and we got on with having a good time!

Anyway special thanks though to go to Pegasus for their hospitality and making us feel sane again! Also extra thanks for donating their excess food to us it was bliss eating proper bread and fruit ! I'm sure the Nkwhazi crew were also grateful for your generosity. Jaysson even wrote about us in one of his poems:

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