When we were in dry dock we met a gentleman named Jim who was also having his boat worked on in. He lives in Thursday Island and gave us his number and told him to call when we got into town. Yesterday we went to lunch with Jim and his wife, Debbie.
Christi had awoken with her face more swollen than ever. She had one nostril double the size of the other, one chubby cheek, and a lopsided mouth from the partially swollen lip. She felt like a walking Picasso painting, but in reality you had to look to notice the swelling.
We caught the ferry and met at the cultural center restaurant. Unfortunately, the gallery was closed for making a video, but we still got to see a few nice exhibits in the lobby. Jim and Debbie are interesting people and very nice. The first thing they mentioned was some ominous news about a brand new (15 minutes old) cyclone watch that included the Thursday Island area. Hmmm. Cyclone season isn’t supposed to officially start for another two weeks, and they usually don’t form for another month. We didn’t mention that a few days after we left Vanuatu a tropical storm formed north of there, almost two months earlier than normal. We had left Vanuatu just in time. The cyclone season is starting early this year. They offered to let us use their Internet after lunch to check to weather situation more carefully. BTW, no internet café’s on Horn or TI.
After lunch, Debbie drove us around the island. It was raining on and off, so it was great to not be walking around in the rain. The island is cute. Being surrounded by islands, the views of the outer islands are fabulous from every part of TI. The rainy season has just started, and according to Debbie everything would be green again very soon. They get no rain at all in the dry season. In the afternoon the antibiotics finally kicked in, and Christi felt better and better as the day wore on.
After the tour of the island, we went back to their house to use the internet. The first thing we did was check the weather. Yup. According to the Australian bureau of meteorology, we were at the edge of the area the cyclone, named Guba, could hit. The site we normally get our weather from, Sail Mail, said the cyclone would miss us.
Deciding it was better to err on the side of caution, we immediately headed back to Kosmos, where we prepared for the storm. This was going to be our first real storm, so we were anxious. Eric put out all 400 feet of chain and an extra long snubber line. We brought up the dinghy and secured it. We took off all the window covers so we were ready in case we needed to move to a safer spot, which would be up a river. By 16:00 (4:00 pm) we were all ready. There was no wind and on and off light rain at the moment, but the storm was surely coming. It never did.
This morning we checked the forecast again. The storm was moving southeast and looked like it would miss us entirely. Lizard Island was near the cyclone’s path and getting 45 knot winds. We are so thankful we left Lizard the day we did. Another 48 hours in Lizard and we would have been in the middle those winds. That is twice now that we have just missed some rough weather.
We got the dinghy back down and went over to Horn Island to get lunch and go to the museum. The museum is located in the resort. It is a collection of artifacts, photos and memorabilia about the area collected by what we think is the resort owner’s daughter-in-law. She did quite a good job with the museum. About a third of the museum is devoted to the indigenous people of the Torres Straits, with artifacts and artwork reflecting their lifestyle, cultures and beliefs. Half the museum is devoted to World War II and the role played by those stationed in the Torres Straits. The rest of the exhibits are about the history and growth of each of the islands in the Straits. Since TI is by far the biggest city around, it obviously had the biggest exhibit, with lots of pictures of TI over the years as it grew and changed. The museum is not air conditioned and the heat was oppressive. We didn’t stay as long as we probably would have on a cooler day.
As we were walking back to the dinghy, it started to drizzle. It went from super hot to cold in an instant. As we were getting in the dinghy, the drizzle turned to rain. While riding back towards Kosmos, we saw a wall of water coming at us. When we hit the wall we were instantly drenched in the torrent of rain. It has continued to rain all afternoon, with some thunder and lightening, but fortunately, no wind.