Tiare Taporo III at Orpheous Is. Lat. 18 degrees 36.0' S Long. 146 degrees 29.3' E

More beautiful weather today, even if it was somewhat frustrating for sailing. We left Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Is. at 0900. The wing was SW (forecast SE!) but we have noticed this often happens and then often there's a wind shift to the SE in the early afternoon. SW would have suited us fine but it was very light and flukey. We tried polling out the genoa but gave that up as a bad job and just continued motorsailing with main alone. When sailing off the wing like this we always "prevent" the main to prevent an accidental crash gybe. The old Ford just trundled on at 700 revs (shaft speed 320 rpm) giving us over 5 knots. We filled the water tanks and recharged the batteries.
It was 25 miles to Steamer Passage at the southern end of Gt. Palm Is. and the whole way was characterised by incessant rolling as we had a small swell on the starboard quarter and in the light wind there wasn't enough pressure on the sails to ease the motion. However, once through the passage we came under the lee of Gt. Palm and the swell disappeared. At the same time the wind freshened a little and our speed picked up. We belatedly realised that the area south of Gt. Palm was another military exercise area where the airforce practice with live bombs and missiles! Fortunately there did not appear to have been any exercises scheduled for today and we are unscathed.
We had been strongly advised not to call at Gt. Palm although there's a reasonable anchorage because there is a sad history of rampant crime by the Aborigines who live there. It seems to have been another of many failed racially based Australian Government policies where there had been forced resettlements of Aborigines from their original homelands. We don't know the details surrounding Gt. Palm, but there was a very interesting programme on the ABC the other day and one of the issues highlighted was that often these resettlements were created out of complete ignorance of the peoples' customs and in particular rival tribes with enmities dating back hundreds of years were thrown together with no knowledge or thought for the consequences. This happened in the Torres Strait area in particular. It seems to us that the Australian Aborigines have very genuine grievances over the manner in which they were treated over many years and it makes the NZ Maori grievances pale by comparison.
We sailed past the southern end of Fantome Is. and then came round 20 degrees to the north on course for Orpheous. There is an exclusive resort here and boaties are not welcome so we gave that a big swerve and continued on to Pioneer Bay where we anchored at 1600. Good sheltered anchorage and fortunately no rolling!! We had a few weeks previously ordered some wine off a local website and one of them was Grove Mill Marlborough Pinot Gris - a most delicious drop! We made short work of a bottle of that and some cheese and crackers! On the way up here today we had frankfurters and hardboiled eggs with black pepper, Himalayan salt and butter so have hardly stinted ourselves. It was great to see that Jean's hip and back problems have more or less disappeared and also that she seems to have overcome any tendency to seasickness. Apart from the need to keep motoring, we both enjoyed the passage today and Jean is now completely back into the cruising mode!
As always watch this space.........
Love from us

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