Briney Logs 1

13th March 2016
So I had to get a new journal. Stupid Betty threw the last one, the one I’ve been keeping since we left home, into the sea. I chucked her in to get it. Da grounded me for three weeks. As if she’d drown, she’s practically got gills! She can swim better than most of the adults back home, but no, just because she’s a tearful brat I have to do all her chores! Good thing is she’s too scared to tease me about it, she’ll think twice before she annoys me now.

Anyways, guess I’d better introduce myself, context and everything. I’m Kai Finnegan, I’m seventeen years old and I hate taking long walks on the beach. Seriously, I live on a rotten boat, when we make land there’s better things to do than spend my time at the seaside. And yeah, me and my family live on a boat now, a big yacht that was old before I was born, thanks to Mum. Long story. So just now it’s Mum and Da, me, and my little blisters Charlotte and Betty. Sometimes I think there’s cameras installed and this is some sick mastermind experiment to see how long it takes a man to go mad under these conditions. I don’t remember having an Uncle Rob till he kicked the bucket.

Guess the bright side is we’re docked just now, at an actual city, Darwin- not the scientist- in Australia! Literally halfway around the world from where we started, most awesome country so far; it’s sunny, hot, beautiful and everyone speaks English! Think I might’ve gone to heaven or something! Tons of other teenagers around, surfing and I didn’t even need a dictionary to go find a bookshop for this. I’m gonna head back and stock up tomorrow once I finish me chores- we only arrived today but Da’s calling this our “summer holiday” even though it’s march. Just means he can splash out and stay near the city awhile, even if we’ve still got to sleep in the yacht- I could deal with not going to a few museums if we just got to stay in a hotel for once!


17th March 2016
I’m out of habit writing in this thing. Started the last one, the first one, back when we left home, my pal Macey gave me it and I told her diaries were gay. To be fair, they are, so it’s a journal and it got written in like every day and wrecked by Betty. This thing’s waterproof if I close it properly, so I’ll keep writing in it and make sure to drown her properly if she touches it.

They’ve let me go off on my own at least, after chores, get away from all the madness I get cooped up in and chat to people. That’s pretty fun, it’s not hard to make conversation when you tell them you’re sailing around the world! This girl, Anna, she told me it makes me exotic, which is pretty good considering I come from the dullest country in the world. She even invited me to the beach with some friends tomorrow to show off, was pretty hot too. The rest of the city was awesome, we’ve seen all these shops, I got a ton more books to read, we ate in this great Italian place, went to the cinema.

It felt like being home again, before this nonsense. Gonna treasure this, the Pacific isn’t renowned for its big cities.


19th March 2016
Really hitting the holiday stride now, we went to the carnival yesterday on all these rides, even the stuff too big for Betty. I think Dad’s getting over it, or he’s in a good mood, he’s letting me off with less chores again, but I think he just wants a day on the boat to sit and read while Mum takes the little blister, and I’m heading back to the beach. Anna and her pals are teaching me to surf a bit, great times- sure I fall off a lot, but I can swim as well as any of them so no problem, and compared to back home these waters aren’t too cold.
Charlotte says she’ll come along, but she’s cool, she’s not the little girl she was when we left home. She can get along with teens okay, I guess she is one now, and she’s not fool enough to try any dangerous stuff so taking care of her is a cinch.

22nd March 2016
Back at sea, sailing around the north coast. Da says we’ll stop in more ports for the next little while going around New Guinea, but nothing that big again till we hit New Zealand. So back crammed into the rustbucket with two manic sisters, a dictator and a biologist. It sucks, I literally saw this big Cruise ship, the Accordion going the same route we are. Faster on the sea, bigger on the inside, more stops, safer, and with all the rubbish we’ve ran into it probably would’ve been cheaper for us to have got a cruise instead of this floating truck. I’m back on double chores for saying so to Da, he says I’m disrespecting great uncle Rob’s legacy, insulting our ship. Think he meant “t” instead of “p” at the end.

26th March 2016
Not a bad day for once. Did homework and read and fished for a while, Mum got excited after I caught this fish and examined it for something. Betty went to bed early, the rest of us spent the night playing cards, playing Cheat and Racing Demons and everything, just under the stars. Nice and peaceful for once, especially at night, even when Betty got back up she was too tired to be annoying.

I think I saw something weird though. Not recently. Back when we left Darwin. I saw a mermaid, like, seriously, a girl in the water with a big long fish tail that looked like that Anna girl. I was too freaked out to believe it at first, but I’ve read stuff about mystics before, they’re meant to be able to shapeshift- hell, obviously or we’d just be thick to not notice them for so long- so maybe she was really one and she was saying bye? Man that sounds really sappy and stupid doesn’t it… Bits anyway, could just be coincidence, but it’s not that insane to think someone I talked to could be a mystic right? They were still dead rare when we left home.


28th March 2016
Grounded again! Just, stupid, totally uncalled for, Da is a jerk! All I did was bring up the Accordion Cruise ship again and it’s not like it was unrelated, having a whinge, I brought it up because it sailed past us like nobody’s business. Betty would’ve brought it up and said the same thing but just cos she’s a brat that’s all right. Having to write this on deck too cos we’ve hit a fogbank, I’m keeping an eye out in case we run into Moby Dick and get eaten like old Pinnochio. Guess they might be real, might be monster whale mystics or something out there, that’d be pretty beast.

Reckon I’ve got mystics on the head the past couple of days. Sort of, hit me, that revelation- if they can look human and were hidden all that time, I mean, I could’ve known some back there too couldn’t I? Even Macey could be a fairy or something and I wouldn’t have known she was lying through her teeth, she could’ve just been a mask almost. Heck, that’s grim, that’s paranoid but I just can’t help it- if magic’s real how do you tell what’s what?


29th March 2016
Something’s up. We’re lost. It’s colder, our compass is going haywire and we can’t get in touch with people- radio’s not working, nor phones. The sun looks weird, but it rose and we’re heading south west, we should see the coast, but we can’t. This is weird.