All right. Before we start here is the best picture I’ve
been able to take of a bloody dolphin.
This smelly bastard was back near the cockpit but still wouldn’t jump
when I pressed the shutter…
He was just coming up for air to expel his noxious fumes
near my cockpit. If he could speak he
would’ve be saying “Pull my finger!”
17th June
2013
Lizard Island 14o
39.493S 145o 14.997E
Cooktown was cool. It
has a really relaxed feel. Tourism and
welfare support seem to be the two industries.
The historical buildings and the pubs are still there. Most of them have Juvenille Justice and
Centrelink offices in them but, it still has a great feel to it. There is also
a busy motor trade fixing the tourists 4WD’s as they go up the cape.
In my morning walk the council guys were cutting the verges
and cleaning the horse crap off the roadway. No hitching posts in front of the pubs though.
I should’ve taken a picture of it on the way up to the hardware store because
they had cleaned it up when I came back.
Definitely a blog photo opportunity squandered.
I found the hardware store and paid $29 for a drill
bit! I asked the girl serving me which
drill I got to go with it but, she gave me a blank look and pointed me to the
hand tool section. I sighed resignedly and just left.
They love their memorials and statues to some bloke who came
here.
They seem to put a new one up every generation or so. This one is from the phallic era.
Back on the boat and after a well deserved coffee at Cook’s
Landing café.
The little power boat in front of the café is coming back
from Darwin. He has about 20 jerry cans
that he carries in the boat and the dinghy which he tows.
“Cruising yachts
don’t race unless there are two or more boats on the water at the same
time.” This saying has no affect me
as you all know that I don’t have a competitive bone in my body. I’ve never passed another boat until
today! The ketch who will remain unnamed
tried everything. (You know who you are) Raising and lowering sails, jibing
into the bays to get the clearer water and the winds off the hills but I just
kept on coming. They eventually gave up
and settled in behind me realizing that I, for once, would be first at the
anchorage at Cape Flattery. I was tempted to empty the holding tank as they
were following me in but, I would never gloat.
Did I tell you that there is not a competitive bone in my body?
The red in the water is not the blood spilt in anguish but
the coral spawning. It is really thick
in places.
Seriously a great sail here and I think I’ve got the boat
finally worked out sailing downwind. The sea state was quite good today and
easy to get the boat balanced which probably helped. So much so that, as I was turning into Cape
Flattery I checked my course and realized I was on a direct run to Lizard
Island. I worked out that I should
arrive just after sunset. Even though it would be dark this is probably the
most popular anchorage in this part of the coast. I knew there would be some boats already at
anchor to show me where to go and there was a dozen! I’ve parked out the back of them and will go
in tomorrow.
18th June 2013
I apologize for all the children who are going to die as I
write this post.
There is a hill (291m) here on Lizard Island that all
cruisers have to climb. Back in the 18th
century (1770 for those who can’t grasp the concept of zero), according to
local folklore, Captain Chef was sailing his ship Endeavour up the coast trying
to find a way out to the ocean through the Great Barrier reef. I thought the Endeavour was a space shuttle
so why he didn’t just thruster over I’ll never know…
Anyway, if you go into the beach you can follow his
footsteps up to the top of the hill. It gives some spectacular views of Lizard
Island. The walk is a brisk climb that is
well marked. On the way up this is the view back to Watson bay.
Charisma is the yacht
furthest out to the right. It is a very
popular spot
Once at the top of Captain Bake’s lookout I was finally able
to place my rock from Cairns on the rock cairn at the top of the hill.
When I was in Cairns I kept asking the locals “Where are the
cairns in Cairns?” They didn’t get it
but, must of thought I was a Kiwi who hadn’t heard of stubby bottles.(I did
warn you!)
After the legalities of the stone placing I reenacted to
famous moment when Captain Sauté looked
out from the hill and said…
While I was fooling around being silly some French cruisers
came up and joined in the fun. He was
upset, in only that way that a Frenchman can be, that he hadn’t brought a rock
for the cairn and went back down the hill to find one. His wife donned the hat and the egg slice and
took a couple of pics.
It’s amazing how much fun you can have with kitchen utensils
on the top of a hill. If we had bought a
skillet anything could have happened. When
her hubby came back we had a bit of a catering ménage a trois…
Back to the history lesson…
It’s was really good that Captain Flambé found this gap as
we could get rid of another wingeing Pom. The only trouble was that he was blown back
in a couple of hundred kilometers further up the coast. So. I’ll have to sail
through more references to Captain Short Order before I hit the gulf where the
Dutch take over the historical references.
Back down the hill for a nana nap and I then took Merv for a
walk around to the bay next door.
Absolutely beautiful bay with two public moorings without
another boat in sight. Back around to
the crowded Watsons Bay for a snorkel down the lagoon and Sundowners with the
cruisers…
This last picture is of the western side on the island
called ‘the lagoon’. I snorkeled with another cruiser along the three km back
to here with the tide…
You could easily
waste a week or two here with the right company.
19th June
2013
Bathurst Bay 14o
12.702S 144o 26.159E
Left just as the sun came up and the Coral Princess was
anchoring. Are they following me?
The anchorage at
Lizard will be crowded now…
A really horrible sail here today. The wind was just about right but the sea
state was just terrible. Short waves
that came from every direction making the boat lurch about. It was swinging up to
40 degrees either way of the course and just wouldn’t settle down. At midday the laptop launched itself off the
navigation table as the boat rounded up in a gully. The first time it has ever done that. Luckily
it landed on the bean bag before sliding to the floor.
I just gave up trying to find the right point of sail for
the conditions and kept the motor running at low revs to keep water flowing
over the rudder. It seemed to help point
me in the right general direction. At least the sun was out for most of the day
so it was just like a little roller coaster ride… for 6 hours. I’m glad I
didn’t break out the second bottle of rum at the sundowner last night.
Just after 1:00pm I was past the Howick Group and was able
to jibe onto a port reach which made the conditions much more tolerable. This trawler was the only boat I saw all day
and was having a hard time coming back the other way from Cape Melville.
Not exactly deadliest
catch but still punching a breeze.
A few firsts today in spite of the sea state. I travelled
72nm at an average speed of 6 knots. I
also recorded the highest wind gust to date whilst underway – 37.2 knots. No
wonder there was spray coming over the boat.
Charisma is nice and clean now after his bath.
Around Cape Melville in 30knots of wind and the geology has
changed…
I guess I’m not in
Kansas anymore…
Post script: I had a visitor just as was going to bed. A
fisherman came out from the shore to make sure I was ok. He thought I was in too close and hadn’t seen
a yacht park this close before. We
discussed tide changes and draft and we both agreed I would be ok. He left with my thanks for his concern. I must be into that that area where people
look out for each other. You know, away from ‘civilization’….
20th June
2013
Hannah Island 13o 51.562S 143o 42.757E
Today was a contrast from yesterday. The strongest wind gust was 15knots so I
ended up turning on the motor at noon to get to here before sunset. I started cruising through the flinders group.
My view of Flinders
Island.
Going through the channel I had a radio hail from the
customs vessel Storm Bay that took my details and wished me a pleasant
sail. They got me up and motivated so I
finally worked how to rig the boat wing and wing. This has the two sails out at opposite sides
and lets you sail directly down wind. It
was very pleasant in the light conditions today.
Topless and wing on wing at last.
(The camera angle has
luckily saved you the man-boob action)
Hannah Island is just a flat mangrove sandy cay that is
pretty typical in this area. There is
nowhere really suitable to stop on the coast in this section so you just anchor
downwind of one of these unless you want to sail overnight. There are cays everywhere and they all have
light towers on them. Like this…
“Golly, Gee” were the words I think I used.
A quick scramble back down and I found him. His painter(Ask GK, he’ll know what this rope
is. ) was caught around a mangrove stopping him from drifting any further but,
it still required a swim to retrieve him. There was only the one small crock
trail on the bank anyway…
Bad Merv
So… no photo. At
sunset literally thousands of finches flew the 30k’s across from the mainland
to roost in the mangroves and to probably feast on the insects attracted to the
light. I’m sure The Mustang would
confirm that they were the “Blue Breasted Mangrove Finch” species.
21th June
2013
Night Island 13o
10.364S 143o 34.271E
This is another Mangrove cay. Lucas’s guide book says there
is a grave on the island so I went for a search. I couldn’t find the diver’s grave as the
island is overrun with wild passion fruit vine and ‘wait-a-bit’ trees. I did
however find a grave of a different type on the seaward side. There was tons of driftwood caught in a
spring tide flood area and the amount of plastic bottles, foam, floats and
other rubbish was quite depressing. Someone
had obviously spent more time on the island than is warranted recently and put
some of the floats together to make…
Bouy Wonder!
Final pic of the day is of the small/youngest cay I could
find so far. It is still just a heap of
dead coral waiting to be broken down into sand and for a floating coconut to
find it. Give it a couple of millennium…
A little cay.
22th June
2013
Portland Roads 12o
35.579S 143o 24.354E
I am finally anchored behind a headland rather than a
cay. Great sailing day and even had the
pick down before 2:00pm. On the way
here I picked up another tuna that will feed me for the week.
Sushi and a bad shirt
day
The best lures seem to be the old spoons with the single
hook. I don’t even bother with the
mackerel any more and keep throwing them back but, they have been going through
my spoon lures. Cheapest and the
best! Just like me!
Portland Roads is a little place at the end of the
road. It has a couple of holiday houses
for rent, a bin for my rubbish, a café that wasn’t open, a telephone box that
wasn’t working, a public toilet and a fishing charter business that advertises
“I owe the bank nothing so,,, if the weathers favourable, the tides right and
I’m in the mood…I’ll take you fishin.”
And for the Navigator…If you walk up the road a bit you will
find a plaque to:
Actually Portland Roads is a pretty cool little getaway. The were some people who had driven over from
from Lockhart mission fishing with spears that I talked to. The young guys had
speared two barramundi each about 700mm long. Pretty impressive.
There has been no Telstra service the whole way from
Cooktown. I was actually expecting to at
least be able to make a call from here.
It looks like I’ll have to invest in a sat phone for the Kimberley next
year…
Well that has been week 14.
A lot of sailing fitted in and my track says that I have travelled about
700km.
