23th June
2013
Margaret Bay – Cape Grenville 11o 57.225S 143o
11.583E
A reasonable sail up here.
I stayed on the outside of the channel to avoid the commercial shipping
so that I could finish a book. Then I started a new one. Going around Cape Granville there are the
Home Islands group. These have houses on
them. The photo is of the community that
lives on Hicks Island which is the closest to the cape.
The group of people
on there are called
.
.
.
.
.
Wait for it….
.
.
.
.
.
A bunch of…
.
.
.
.
.
.
…Hicks.
I was going to have a winge about the weather that I’ve had
since Mackay but, the wind has been consistent and I don’t want to jinx it.
I’ve actually been able to travel safely in the right direction which is the
main thing. However, I’m not
superstitions, so…
I’m going to try to be kind and I’ve been to some beautiful
places but, when I’ve got there it has usually been too overcast to enjoy
it. It has only been sunny enough to
snorkel on two days out of the whole 14 weeks. Even allowing for half days it
has been overcast more than 19 days out of every 20!
Is this normal Queensland weather? The locals I’ve talked all say that it is
not. Or, is it a parochial attempt to hold up the sinking tourist industry?
I think I have finally figured out why they had to pay that
girl on the advertisement so much to stand on that cay and say, “Where the
bloody hell are you?”
Is it because they had to wait three weeks to find a
cloudless day to actually take the shot?
“Queensland - The sunshine state” number plates must have a
sense of irony or, is it just wishful thinking? Did the marketing guru at the
prison where they make these things have a room with windows?
“Queensland. Cloudy one day. Glum the next” - Just doesn’t
have the same ring to it does it?
They should have buried Jo Bejlkie-Peterson face down. Perhaps
the sun really did shine out of his…
I can smell a conspiracy…
There.
Rant over.
I feel better now.
24th June
2013
Escape River 10o
58.268S 142o 40.314E
Well that will teach me…
I left Margaret Bay at 5:00am so that I would get here at
low incoming tide.
Red sky at night,
sailors delight.
Red sky at dawn,
sailors be warned.
Gold sky at dawn???
Expect it to be bloody windy…
I was calculating
based on a leisurely sail at 5 knots average speed. The wind just blew and blew faster all day and
I had to slow the boat down or, I would have got here too early… And then it
started to rain.
I was still running down wind on just about bare poles and
still couldn’t get my speed down below 4 knots. I had the motor on just ticking
over to keep water directed over the rudder to give steerage. At about 2:00pm I was almost level with the
river entrance so I ended up heading back into the channel and pulled out the
cutter and hove too.
I was still doing 2 knots downwind but at least the boat was
settled even though every now and then it would drop off a steep 3 meter bit of
slosh. I took a couple of videos but as
usual they don’t do the conditions justice and I look a little bit pissed off
so I won’t bother to upload them. Highest wind gust was 42.6 knots – a new
record.
The bow spit took a bit of a hammering and that will give me
something to do tomorrow while I let this blow over. I’m only a day away from the top and want to
see if I can actually go around the cape with some semblance of sunshine. (I
don’t learn do I?)
Anyway, after “messing around in a boat” for three hours I
finally got through the entrance.
Actually there was plenty of water under the keel and I could have come
in at least an hour earlier. As I came
in the pearl farm gave me a call on the radio and suggested a safe place to
anchor.
This is the only safe stop on this stretch of coast for
yachts. I am the only boat here. Should
this tell me something?
Dinner has been two
Charisma specials and some cashews. Who needs sleeping pills?
Stuff it…
Here is a beautiful, isolated, coral surrounded, tropical
cay. Notice something missing?
The sun!!!
Have I told you that the weather has been crap?
25th June
2013
Finally used my Cooktown drill bit and fixed the bow spit. I
only lost one spanner in the drink.
It’s been drizzling most of the day but, I took Merv up the
river for a troll and caught some bait.
I was sharing the banks with plenty of small crocks so I kept the throw
net moving and didn’t hang around to do the Steve Irwin check for whether or
not they were male or female.
26th June 2013
A couple of other yachts came in last night. One of them had
a weather report so I stayed today here today and we went to meet the people at
the pearl farm.
Rusty in his office
Rusty and Bronwyn are a real couple of characters. When the bottom dropped out of the market
they bought the farm five years ago.
Just the two of them and their two dogs run the place. They took the afternoon off and showed us
around and even gave us a cuppa and some home baked biscuits. While we there the dogs cornered a boar on
the other side of the island and finally came back just as we were leaving with
some tusk wounds. “She’ll be right.
Happens all the time.”
Bronwyn showing us
her pearly whites
Everyone from the yachts really appreciated having the day
off. There’s a Russian, Swiss, French
and Australian boat here now so there were drinks on the sand bank with the
crocks at sunset.
27th June
2013
Seisia 10o
58.268S 142o 40.314E
An interesting day. As
I was nearing Albany passage the furler jammed on the genoa. Luckily it was fairly easy to furl it
manually although it now has the spare halyard jamming at the top at the
mast. It looks like I’ll have to go up
the mast tomorrow and sort it out.
While this was going on the autopilot decided it was time to
recalibrate and had a little hissy fit.
So I tied the wheel off and ran backwards and forwards getting the
furler sorted. Did I mention that before
this all went on I’d put the kettle on to make a thermos… and then a mackerel
took the spoon lure and tangled both lines!!!
It was an interesting half an hour before I finally got
everything sorted out. I was so busy
that I missed even looking up to see the entrance to the Albany channel.
I finally managed to take a few photos of the other boats
who went past me as I crawled along with just the main.
Boats lined up for
Albany pass
I rigged the cutter and halved the main and the boat was
eventually balanced. I was still doing over seven knots with the help of the
current so I headed towards the cape.
All the other boats headed around York Island but I went
through the straight between Cape York and York Island. It’s about 60 meters wide and passes the lookout
at the point.
These tourists
standing at the top of Australia were about to get a treat.
I’ll be in a few strangers’ photo albums now…
If you think I would drop my pants and do a brown eye at
them as I went past you don’t know me that well…
Well?
And here is the money shot…
“I’m the king of the
castle and you’re all dirty rascals…”
By taking my shortcut I caught up with the other boats as we went
past Possession Island. This is where in 1770 Captain Chef claimed Australia
and then buggered off back to England. “Mine! All mine!”
The last wave of the
spatula.
I finally limped into Seisia just after 2:00pm.
Three of the
four boats are doing repairs tomorrow.
Two of us have to go up the mast and I’m going to have a look at the French
boat who has blown a gearbox. I don’t have phone service here, but I do have internet
which is very strange. I went in and got
a phone card from the servo and called in at the public telephone box that
works! There’s two of them and they both
work! Next --- world peace. The only
trouble is that I bought the last two phone cards in town. So I can make $10
worth of calls before I have to hitch a lift inland to the Bamaga Post Office which
may have some more.
Jib and half main. Still doing 6knots though - with help from the current.
When we got back to the beach two 7 year old Aboriginal kids
had taken off with the Swiss dinghy for a joyride. They’d left it a couple of
hundred meters up the beach. I don’t
leave the key in Merv and none of the others had even locked their boats up…
Tonight was drinks on the yacht “Footloose”. The owner even answers to Kevin (Bacon) now
after knowing me for a week. A bottle of
small batch and a half bottle of white rum in a coconut were passed around to
finish the day.
By the way, there was even a sunset tonight and you can
actually see some stars in the almost clear sky.
28th June 2013
I went up the mast this morning just as the sun was coming up.
The view from the top complete with hanging camera strap.- Felini I am not.
Mast climbing is contagious...
Everybody's doing it now
I spent the rest of the day changing the impella on the outboard and taking in three lots of washing into town. I think the last couple of weeks finally caught up with me. Slept about 16 hours straight and basically missed an afternoon and a night...
