53. Tomorrow or Tuesday I shall start getting mail ready for sending off with these sheets; it will be given to Bill Wallace for mailing when Lochiel gets to T.I. Apart from the map points and perhaps a few words about Portland Roads there probably will be little to write and as we shall reach and leave P.R. in darkness and the only place we are interested in or which, in fact, exists at P.R., the Fisher store, is some miles from our landing point, there will not be much to say anyway. This diary is good practice, though, and keeps me informed as to the date. Monday, 19 April 1948. At the very bottom of Map Sheet 1 there is a prominent headland jutting almost due east into the Pacific. No name is given on the map but it is Cape Grenville and we were level with it when we rose this morning, having made no stop at Portland Roads last night. Resto- rations Island is marked with a beacon and I stayed up until we had passed that point. Weymouth Bay and Temple Bay followed and then we ran off that sheet onto No. 1, where we now are, which shows the rest of our journey. Bill Wallace says that but for the stop at the scene of Darwin's wreck, we should have been able to reach R.I.P. this evening but as it is and with that port being in the condition it is, not navigable at night, we shall not dock until tomorrow morning. We are some distance out from the main shore line but heading in toward it and should close up on it about the area of Pudding Pan Hill. Then travelling north, we shall pass in turn the mouth of Escape River, Turtle Island, the mouth of Jacky-Jacky Creek and Somerset, swinging west around Cape York village and the extreme Tip and then running south-west down to R.I.P. We hoisted sail yesterday afternoon, which increased our speed by about a knot, and had us bouncing around over the waves like a cork. The wind freshened during the night but dropped toward dawn and now there is not much more than a alight breeze blowing. The engine had to have an overhaul this morning and al- though the main-sail was at right angles to the hull, there was barely steerage way on the ship. A turtle was sighted floating perhaps asleep in the water and Perry and Koko were planning to get if for food; they did not, however, and now, the engine is chugging away again, we are bowling along at a good speed. Our cargo consists of eleven pieces, special, which means ammunition, medi- cines and such things, to be kept away from the engines; forty-eight pieces of food and equipment, which were packed in fairly small lots so that we should have cases and crates of a usable size for other purposes; fifty-two pieces of expeditionary equipment and supplies, mainly in our expedition boxes; fourteen pieces of personal baggage, including our blanket rolls and personal boxes; our tree bicycles make up the balance. There will be something of a job in the checking of them tomorrow when we land. During Len's visit to Thursday Island he arranged with the man who runs the saw mill at Rad Island, Richard Holland, (known to his two sons, Ted and Bill, as Ginger Dick, the bastard) to transport us somehow to our camp site at Lockerbie Springs, and we hope to be met by Ginger Dick, our own Jetty Joe and the three black boys who have been provided by the Protector of Islanders. If we are, and Ginger Dick is ready, there is nothing to delay our departure from R.I.P. straight out to Lockerbie. Lockerbie can be sighted by drawing a line from Red Island to Somerset and spotting it about the middle. Then we shall erect our camp and be in shape to start work on Wednesday morning. Now I have to close up and get mail ready for despatch; tomorrow I shall find out what arrangements we can make for the despatch of later mail but this at least, should get away fairly promptly. There is one trick - before leaving New York we understood that there was daily plane service between Cairns and T.I. but actually it is once a week.