10′ 35S by 142′ 14E – Yes, we know. We said we were going to Thursday Island. Thursday Island is a small island in the middle of a group of islands. Horn Island is the next island over and has a better anchorage than Thursday Island, so we are anchoring at Horn. Kind of like when we went to Luganville but were anchored across the channel at Aore Island.
Yesterday, almost as soon as we finished writing the blog post saying the ride was good, it got worse. We are getting close to the end of the reef system, and the number of reefs is thinning out, taking away our protection from the open ocean. It is still a much better ride than our typical ride in the Pacific. Yesterday afternoon we also noticed the mountains are getting lower and drier the farther north we go. We must be out of the rain forest now. At the tip of Australia’s mainland it looked much like Lizard Island large hills, but not large enough to call a mountain, dry grass and a good number of trees. Here is a photo of the northern tip of the continent:
Both Horn and Thursday (called TI by the Aussies) Islands are located in the Torres Straits, the body of water separating Papua (formerly Irian Jaya)/Papua New Guinea from the tip of Australia. The Torres Straits is dotted with islands. TI used to be a popular site for Japanese pearl divers to look for oysters and pearls. Horn Island was a battle zone during World War II, suffering eight Japanese air raids. 5,000 troops were stationed on Horn Island during the war.
We arrived around 1300 at the anchorage off Horn Island. The town doesn’t look like much from the distance. The perimeter of the island is mostly mangrove trees, with an area that is cleared that has a couple of docks. There is also the remains of what looks like it once was a dock that was destroyed in a storm. Behind the docks/remains there are a few low buildings visible. There are several fishing boats in the anchorage and a few large industrial boats crossing the channel between the islands. We dropped anchor a few hundred yards from the dock, along the mangroves. From our spot, we can see some low buildings hiding behind the mangrove trees. The tropical birds call out to one another within the trees.
Directly in front of us is Prince Wales Island. Prince Wales is much larger that TI and Horn, and except for a small handful of buildings, looks to be all vacant land.
TI is to our right. It is the smallest of the three islands, but the most densely populated. At the farther end of TI are lots of buildings nestled together from the shore all the way up the hill. The town takes up a little less than half of the visible portion of the island, then abruptly ends into green rolling hills containing two large windmills and a radio tower. We are directly across from the vacant portion.
We knew our friends aboard the boat Fafner were here. We first met them in San Diego through the puddle jump group. We have seen them again in Tahiti, Niue, Tonga, and Fiji. They are doing almost the same route around the world that we are, so we are hoping to see them again often along the journey. After getting Kosmos situated, we met up with Fafner on Horn Island to go to lunch.
The first impression of Horn Island up close wasn’t any better than the impression from far away. It is dry, dusty and lacking much charm. The buildings are mostly homes. Many are on stilts. Many of them look like manufactured housing. There are a few trees and bushes about, but no grass and not a whole lot of greenery overall. The roads are paved, but covered in so much dirt from the dusty environment that the road beneath is hidden in all but the most high traffic areas.
Lunch was easier said than done. We went to the tiny tourist hotel. We were told they stopped serving lunch at 14:00 (2:00 pm) and directed us to another place a few blocks away.
We walked into a bar and gambling hall (Oh, and did we mention that the crew of Fafner is a family with two teenage girls?). They also stopped serving food at 14:00. They sent us to a small grocery store down the road. We found the market. The shelves were almost completely empty, with only a few goods available for purchase. They did have a counter where you could order food, and we all got burgers. Given the sad state of the store, we were pleasantly surprised at how good the burgers were. They were topped with lettuce, beets, fried egg, and pineapple.
During lunch, Christi noticed a pain deep inside her nose. After lunch, we all went back to Kosmos to hang out and compare notes about the next leg of our journey. As is normally the case after a passage, we passed out pretty early. A full night of sleep is a beautiful thing.