Australia

Great Barrier Reef

There are a few entrances to the Great Barrier Reef, some more challenging than others, and all less than perfect.

After a couple of hours trying to figure out which to choose and how to weave through this maze of reefs, I came across a book on Amazon called The Torres Strait Passage Guide by Ken Hellewell. It details his passage through the Raine Island entrance to Thursday Island.

The book contains waypoints to create a route and recommends places to anchor if you choose to stop. Although you could, using this guide, carry on to Thursday Island sailing at night. We would have struggled without it.

To see what I mean, work this out. Raine Island is at the bottom right, and Thursday Island is at the top left.

Spotted by the Border Force

Word on the street – or ocean – is that the Australian Border Force is very strict. So, I wasn’t expecting a positive reply to my request to anchor in the Great Barrier Reef on the way in. But they couldn’t have been more helpful – no problem, they said.

They did, however, illustrate their on-the-ballness a couple of days before we arrived at Raine Island. A Border Force plane flew low overhead and hailed us on the radio for details of our vessel and intentions. Fortunately, we submitted all our paperwork well in advance and kept them notified of changes to our arrival time, so all was good. Fortunately for me, I was asleep down below when this happened. Maria jumped out of her skin.

The rest of the sail to Thursday Island was event-free. We sailed during the day and anchored in a couple of places at night.

Border Force gave me the phone number of the harbour master for Thursday Island, so I called him the day before we arrived to check the wind and currents. He suggested we anchor at Horn Island instead. So we did – timing our arrival at Horn Island for slack water and anchoring at the end of a row of sail-to-Indonesia boats that had arrived before us.

Our first mission was to clear in. To do that, we had to wrangle the dinghy off the deck and attach the outboard so we could whizz over to Thursday Island the following day for our 1000 am appointment with the officials. We couldn’t go over to the island by ferry because we were still under quarantine,

The giant crocodile basking on the beach behind our boat gave that exercise a bit more frisson.

Thursday Island

Customs and Biosecurity were already waiting for us at Engineers Jetty as we approached. It was good timing for them because they could witness us getting well and truly stuck before we reached the dock.

After a few minutes of pushing, pulling and sharing some uncommon expletives with our Australian cousins, we made it to a section of the dock with enough water to get near enough to get off the dinghy. Then we were warmly welcomed with a shake of the hand and escorted to the Customs office – a very grand-looking colonial building.

After the clearance was complete (an easy affair despite the look on my face), the customs officer drove us to the biosecurity office. On the way, he gave us a mini-tour of the town, pointing out the restaurants, pubs, supermarkets, and petrol stations just in case we needed them—which we did. Rumour had it that the fuel pump at Horn Island was broken, so we brought over some jerry cans to get more diesel.

Biosecurity clearance was also straightforward. It involved an interview lasting no more than 15 minutes about what we had on board and whether we had any infestations (no): minimal hassle and a minimum fee.

Before getting here, our concern was that we would be subject to a full biosecurity onboard investigation, which can be very expensive. Not only do you pay by the 15-minute segment for that, but you are also likely to lose a lot of stuff. But the biosecurity folks in Thursday Island don’t do the onboard search. Only if you are staying for longer than a few days in Australia do you need to make your way to Cairns for the full biosecurity clearance.

Now that we were cleared in, it was time to get some diesel. Luckily for us, we met the crew of Sand Dallor, who also wanted to get fuel. They had organised a taxi to take them to the petrol station and invited us to join them.

Even luckier for us was bumping into Bev, who you can see in one of the photos below. She asked how we were getting over to Horn Island. I told her. She said something like, “On one of those rubbery things?” followed by, “I’ll have a word with my husband.”

I stood around for a while, clueless as to what was happening, until her husband came over, picked up a couple of the jerry cans and walked down to the pontoon with them.

The upshot was that they offered to take us to our boats on Thursday Island and tow our dinghy behind their substantial—and very fast—boat (the Sand Dallor people had arrived by ferry). This was fantastic generosity from a couple of lovely people.

Tour of Thursday Island

A couple of days later, we engaged the services of Bryan, the fuel-carrying taxi driver, to take us on a more comprehensive tour of the island. It didn’t take long – it’s a small island. But what we saw was interesting.

Constructed between 1891 and 1893, this heritage-listed fortification was primarily built to guard against potential threats, particularly from a feared Russian invasion during that era. I had no idea.

Thursday Island Cemetary contains the graves of over 700 Japanese pearl divers who died, possibly from the bends, between 1878 and 1941. Over half of these unfortunate divers were under 21.

I’ve probably sold the tour a bit short here. There was more to it than an old colonial fort and a graveyard. Bryan shared a lot of the island’s history with us. As hinted at in the additional photos below (excluding the Top Pub one), there’s a lot to be told. You should hear from him if you ever get the chance.

Horn Island

The rally organisers had arranged a meet-up at the Wongai Beach Hotel. By organising, they might have informed the hotel that we were coming over for drinks at 3 p.m. So, watching out for that crocodile, we took the dinghy to the ferry dock and then walked over to the hotel, passing the less-than-cheerful-looking Blikiam Holiday Park, now understandably closed.

Also, on the way to the Wongai Hotel, we checked if the fuel station was working. It was. So, the next day, we embarked on a mission to fill up our tanks, which took several trips and several hours.

And that was that. It was a very active four-day stay in the Torres Strait Islands, during which we met some lovely people. It’s time to pull up the anchor and head to Indonesia.