Thursday Island was a turning point in a few ways. Turning left. Turning to longer passages. Turning away from blue water and coral reefs. Turning away from Queensland, my home state for 8 years.
I am doing my best to exercise a certain amount of cynicism and disregard to cruising guides and other people's recommendations. Like the "experts" in the boatyard that always know what you should do and how you should do it, the cruising world is flooded with "you must go there" and "don't go there" - advise. These experts' effects can be seen with cruising yachts all around the world.
When we sailed through Albany pass, just south of Thursday Island, I had a look at my well out-of-date cruising guide for Australian coastline. The author, Jeff Toghill, writes that the starboard side of the channel should be favoured. Albany pass is only a mile-long narrow gap between Cape York and Albany Island. Tidal streams flow up to 7 knots through the pass. As we slowly sailed through in light winds and a few knots of current, I found myself favouring the starboard side. I then moved to the center. We came out hugging the port side. I did not see any explanation in the cruising guide nor in my charts to why one side of the channel was better than the other. (No shipping travels past this tiny passage.) But I found myself smiling at the thousands of yachts who over the years have sailed through Albany passage, favouring the starboard side. Because someone said so.
The same phenomenon was evident in Thursday island, which is classed as a bad anchorage riddled with strong currents, little protection from the wind and poor holding. "... all of which adds up to a most unsatisfactory anchorage, and one in which a constant anchor watch must be maintained." as Mr. Togghill writes. The end result? A large yachting community huddling behind Horn Island across the straight, next to a mangrove swamp and a $14 ferry trip from Thursday island. All cruising yachts go straight there because their cruising guide tells them to. I didn't want to see Horn Island. We anchored directly in front of the pub by the beach, next to a large public jetty on Thursday Island. Anchor holding was good, currents were mild, the anchorage calm and dinghy access to town easy. I admit that we had neap tides and light winds throughout our visit.
The calms in Thursday Island were a sign of things to come. Out of the average 1% calms in August, we got two decades worth
