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Matilda - Horn/Thursday Island and On to Darwin



I finally arrived on Horn Island after 3 days of travelling via 5 flights from the UK (due to flight cancellations etc) to have Jonathan waiting for me at the airport - what a lovely welcome. The final flight was in a small propeller driven plane that was a bit white knuckle (to me anyway) when it landed in the strong winds - Jonathan had heard from a local that a bit fell off the plane that came in the previous! My fellow passengers mostly consisted of kids from the Sacred Heart School on Thursday Island returning from a school trip, and volunteer teachers going to the 'Deadly Ears' kinder school based in one of the more remote communities (I hope the translation of its name into the local dialect is a mite less alarming) .

Due to weather conditions, all the World ARC boats were anchored off Horn Island, leaving poor Nick on his own at Thursday Island (just over the water). That night we headed to the Wongai Tavern (the only pub on Horn Island) to celebrate Karstens birthday plus Irina and Michaels anniversary. We were careful to park the dinghy at the jetty as we had been warned about salty crocs on the beach (we are definitely at the Top End).

Despite the pub closing at 9.30pm we still managed to get the juke box pumping and some spirited performance art on the dance floor/bbq patio. The landlady asked if we were coming in again tomorrow evening so she could get some extra staff in and she'd stay open a bit longer - that's knowing your customers (I suspect they had never had such a lively Tuesday evening in a long time). We were happy to confirm that this would indeed be the case as we still had Andre's (of Beatoo) birthday to suitably commemorate, Kelsey leaving the World ARC and the rest of the boats were on their way.

The following day we went over to Thursday Island in Kipper, our little dinghy (a bit of a damp ride back). Although Horn Island is larger in size, Thursday Island has a much larger community, but even so, there is not much beyond the main road. The community, arts and information centre/gallery would have been really good if it had not been for the mega decibel building work going on, so we went for a wander around the shops until the skippers briefing. You know you are in a small town Australian community when practically every shop, no matter what else it sells, always adds ''and bait''. My all time favourite (although not here) was Costume Hire and Bait. After a very wet ride back to the boat, there was a repeat performance in the Tavern that night, but we sensibly headed back to the boat before things got too messy.

Before heading for the start line to Darwin on Thursday, we dropped Kelsey off at the bus terminal for the airport. Very sorry to see her go and we wish her the very best for the future - that I am sure will be a huge success in whatever she goes for. I suspect the second half of the World ARC is going to be very different due to the various boat and crew changes - with the age demographic taking one mighty leap skywards.

So off we go again. This time we were only 10 minutes late at the start line, and were very lazy for the first night, sailing purely under headsail. We have since launched the parasail and are making great progress, leaving it up all last night and pretty confident we will be able to do the same again tonight. We were asked to identify ourselves to yet another Maritime Patrol plane this morning, and were shadowed by a stealth naval vessel (no AIS on) this afternoon - not sure how this invasion of boat people (if you believe the media) is happening unnoticed.

So far the crossing has been relatively uneventful. The shaft on the Duogen has cracked so will have to carry out temporary repairs in Darwin and hopefully my brother can bring out a replacement to Bali. We are already missing it badly, we have been taking it for granted that the Duogen power generator in water mode provides all our power needs and more on crossings, now we have to fire up the noisy engine for 2 hours a day just to recharge the batteries - yuk.


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