We left Port Moresby at 3pm in the afternoon after a final swansong lunch at the yacht club and some refuelling. I wasn’t sad to see the city skyline fade away but the three weeks I spent in Papua New Guinea were incredibly special and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit somewhere so off the beaten track. After all isn’t that really what travelling overseas is all about – expanding your experience.
The winds were in our favour and Verena picked up her heels and fairly flew towards the Torres Strait averaging nine knots in the brisk south easterly trade winds. We were all dreading the Torres Strait as on the map it looks like an intricate maze of reefs, rocks and islands with a small passage through – in some places only 1nm wide. Plus we had envisaged one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes and although there was a marked separation scheme (like a 2 lane highway) the thought of freighters coming from behind, the front and the side whilst trying to navigate meant guaranteed sleepless nights. However it turned out that we were entering from the rare north passage and wouldn’t hit any traffic until we passed Thursday island which would be in the early morning daylight.
So we traversed the dreaded Strait without incident until near Thursday Island when the sound of a chopper circling overhead kept me company on the early morning shift. ‘Sailboat at position approximately …….., this is Australian coastwatch helicopter 211.’ They continued to circle for five minutes while quizzing us on the number of people on board, the nationality of our boat and the last and next port of call before wishing us a good day and buzzing off into the sunrise. Around 15 minutes later they realised they had forgotten a few questions and came circling back around to ask if we had any diseases or animals on board… definitely a negative! I cant imagine us keeping a chicken in the back locker!
It took two days to sail through the Torres Strait and the whole time the depth varied between 10 and 30m deep. Hence the shallow waters were an amazing pale aqua blue in the sunshine. Long after the islands disappeared over the horizon we were still surrounded by the coloured water and it looked as if the boat was floating in a summer cocktail! About 80km from land and in the middle of nowhere we still had 12m depth in the late afternoon and the wind died out so we decided to anchor for the night. The seas were not so bad and being anchored was no worse than continuing through the night with the added bonus that we could all sleep the whole night through. This we did and it was heaven to wake up the next morning to a sun soaked breakfast in the cockpit with no visible land on the horizon. Heaven that is until a bat dropped through the hatch… no joke a BAT dropped through the hatch! I was preparing a fruit salad when the screaming started as this dark creature of the night dropped onto the saloon floor. At this point the bat decided to charge through the main saloon (I think seeking the dark at the front of the boat) and managed to scratch Kilian on the way through. Alfred managed to shoo the bat into the cockpit at which point it hung very happily from the wheel. On closer inspection the bat was rather cute although teeming with small spiders and we talked over giving it a bubble bath and keeping it as a pet. However when I informed Sheila Net, as I logged in at 8am, of the morning’s events an informed cruiser stated that North Queensland bats apparently carry a deadly disease which can be transferred by biting or scratching… the bat suddenly became less appealing and Alfred hastened its removal with a boat hook. A later review of Wikipidea showed that the bat was most likely a flying fox and therefore not dangerous but our little visitor sure made this our most unusual anchorage thus far.
The rest of the passage continued calm and sunny although incredibly slow as we had very little wind. No seasickness tablets needed! We also had our first run of fishing success catching 3 yellowfin tuna, a mackerel and a mahi mahi in as many days. Nine days later we arrived in Saumlaki in Indonesia – ready for a big sleep!
