Hello everyone. Well, it's been an event filled 3 or 4 weeks since I've last written. I believe I left you about 150 miles south of Cairns, which, as it turns out is sort of the last outpost of civilization in this part of Oz!!! Our next stop was in the Hinchinbrook channel between the mainland and an island of the same name. Here the mountains come right down to the sea and the scenery is spectacular. It's also very well sheltered and some of our friends who went outside regretted their decision when the wind kicked up. The channel, itself, is about 25 miles long, so we anchored 1/3 of the way in and had a pleasant night. Our next stop was Mourylian Harbour which just had some big factory, but it breaks up the trip up to Cairns. So up early, hoist anchor and off we go. We were about 5 miles out of the channel and I was below, charting our position when, BANG, we hit something. Turns out there was an uncharted and, small enough not to show on radar, buoy out there. You cannot believe the shit the captain took from the crew, but, fortunately, Rendezvous is built like a tank, and, other than a chunk out of the gelcoat on the port bow, there was no damage. We saw a convoy of a couple of Oz warships on the way. This is where they start heavy duty patrolling and there is even a TV show, Sea Patrol, about their exploits. We resisted the urge to call them and ask if we were all being filmed. On arrival at Mourylian, we found one of our mates had run aground, and Joey helped to get him off. We're still waiting for the obligatory bottle of something for our efforts, but the guy is Canadian and they're almost as cheap as the Swiss. (these are facts, folks, they are not idle prejudicial comments). In the middle of the harbor was a fairly large ship we were all trying to avoid and that kept just going back and forth. We finally called them and it was "scraping the bottom" of the harbor, dredging, I guess. That PM, as we were the only ones with a phone, we did the fleet another favor and called the Cairns Marina to make reservations for everyone. They had space, but said they could only guarantee us 2 nights which was okay with the others, but we needed more as we were waiting on the lovely Olivia. In any event, one can anchor out if need be.
So, it was Friday, and we arrived Cairns mid afternoon with the Marina chick, Sandy, that I spoke with on the phone coming down to help us with our lines. After we tied up, she says she knows our boat. One thing led to another, and it turns out she was crew on Lone Star, a large charter cat in the Caribbean and was there the same time as us. Not only that, she used to date my friend Mick (who I'm sure you'll all remember dinghied up in Port Vila and was skipper on Douce France, a 130 foot sailing cat). She also had and we just missed, as a house guest, Mike the cook from the Willie T when I was there. Small world, but the connection helped us get the days we needed and moved to a better slip in the marina!!!! The marina, itself is right downtown and the prices were really good--nice to get out of the Whitsunday area!!!! Joey took off exploring and captain had a nap. About four, the phone rings. Seems the crew had found a fairly sleazy happy hour bar to which I rushed. Beers and drinks were back down to reasonable levels and they were raffling off stuff as an attraction to customers. The real attraction, however, was the topless totally hot chick selling the tickets. Oh yeah, we're going to like Cairns!!!!
We had to stay about 5 days as Olivia was arriving late Tuesday, and we were waiting for new top battens for the main as the ones the sailmaker provided were not strong enough and broke. These guys changed the sail shape without asking me as they were told by South Africa, it was the new spec. Makes the sail flop more and that's how we broke the battens. As it turns out, one of the new ones they sent was too short. How they did that was a mystery to us, but there wasn't time to get one to Cairns by the time we found out we had a problem. Somehow or other, they got someone else to ship up a new one to Cooktown, but it's been blowing too hard for us to measure and trim it to fit as they sent an extra long piece just to be sure. We spent an enjoyable few days in Cairns. There's a place called "Night Markets" that doesn't open until 5 PM, and they had 40 minute Chinese massage, including an elaborate foot treatment for $15. Yep, definitely like Cairns. Oh, and there's a casino a 5 minute walk from our slip. No craps, but I took them for a few hundred at blackjack. Great place, this Cairns!!!!! Olivia arrived tuesday making the crew happy, and we hung out another day so she could check the city out.
Thursday, bright and early, we took off for the Low Isles, an atoll sort of place about halfway to Cooktown. Several boats in the lagoon and lots of people swimming, but we saw a 6 or 8 foot black tip reef shark swim by the boat and deferred water sports. Also had a really cool and large angel fish come up under the dinghy. Another early start and off we went to Cooktown which Aussies refer to as an open air lunatic asylum. (Joey actually took that literally and I had to explain they just meant the people up there are different-really different.) By this time, we'd lost both internet and cell signal and are yet to regain cell. Just now around the Penninsula have I gotten really mediocre wifi-still no cell. Anyway, we arrived at Cooktown just in time for the big Captain Cook and Queen's Birthday festival.. It was a bit of a mission getting into what they call the lagoon to anchor but after asking a half dozen times, we were finally pointed in the right direction. Cooktown used to be a gold minig boom town with 92 brothels which are legal in Oz. Don't know if any of the brothels remain, but there are about a dozen pubs for the 400 people that still live here, and the authorities gave special dispensation for drinking in the street during the festivities. Certainly free spirits and rugged indivualism here. We stayed over the weekend and left on Monday for Lizard Island--another day hop.
Lizard had a $1,200/day all-inclusive resort and a nice large protected anchorage. Good hiking, etc. and the yachties ginned up a "yacht club" with a bench under a tree where we all convened for happy hour. While yachties are not welcome at the main resort, there is a "staff bar" which a bunch of us decide to try out. Turns out we hit it just right.as that night was a "State of Origins' rugby match (sort of a state vs. state all star game) and happy hour which was very reasonable and was extended for the entire game, and they had a $2 sausage sizzle going as well. One of the couples even had a son on the NSW team. So instead of just happy hour and back to the boats for dinner we all stayed for the game. Olivia and Joe managed to kill several bottles of wine and spent the next day in bed, partly recovering, partly hiding from the rest of the people in the anchorage. When we got back we were charging the batteries when about midnight, boom, alternator goes. Turned out another bolt sheared off, but there was no damage other than to Joe's hangover the next morning when we had to fix it. Of course, we didn't have the right threaded bolt and it took 3 times as long as it should have, but we did get it working before he disappeared for the remainder of the day. We (well, not we, just me!!) did one more night of happy hour on the beach, but then the weather got iffy. A rolly night was followed by what looked to be stormy weather early. It did clear, and we decided to go for what someone said was a good intermediate (intermediate to Cape Melville, our original destination) stop (since we got a late start) at Ingram Island, a little dot of land behind a reef. Well, we had a rough night of it. We were rocking around so much, I slept in the main cabin lest the anchor break out. It was awful!!
Around Cape Melville is a group of islands called the Flinders. Our out of date cruising guide said there would be lots of trawlers sheltering there during the day and even a fuel barge to service them. NOT. Pulled in between two islands to the main anchorage, and there was only one other boat until all the other guys from Ingram came in. I should mention that we haven't been doing much in the way of shore excursions because this part of Oz is full of viscious, huge, man eating salt water crocodiles. They get up to about 2,000 pounds and 20 feet long.
Our next stop was Morris Island, about 1/3 of the way to Cape York. Huge drama!!!!!. The anchorage was reasonably crowded, but about 4 PM the excitement started. On the radio comes Aqua Magic which had taken an outside route to Morris as opposed to all of us that followed the ship channel. Keep in mind we're still inside the reef and in major shipping lanes north and south. Anyway, after their turn west towards Morris, they managed to hit and go aground on the one tiny bit of reef between them and us. It was marked on our chart, but they must have had an older version. Anyway, after all sorts of radio traffic, sat phone calls and a local trawler's refusal to go to their aid(really bad form!!), the tide rose and they floated off. By the time they got to Morris, only about 5 miles away, it was dark, and we directed them to anchor between us and their friends on WindBird. Well, bad things happen in threes. First, we learned they had lost two nice fish on the way up, then they ran aground, and, finally, when anchoring, the male aboard Aqua Magic severely tore up the fingers on his left hand. (originally, we assumed he'd caught it in the windlass letting out the chain, but found out today his wind generator is mounted rather low and he managed to get his hand caught in that--basically a big propeller.) So, more traffic, more calls, and finally a guy off a smaller trawler dinghied over and patched the guy up. We then heard 2 fingers were pretty much severed. So--those guys all went to one place on the way that had a clinic and we went on ahead. Turns out the fingers were pretty chewed up but they were saved. I now hear the guy is sort of a bad luck guy and stuff like this happens all the time. Apparently, yesterday, when they pulled in here at Seisia, he had problems anchoring and ran into another boat. Shheee, I almost forgot to mention we caught a rather large billfish on the way to Morris. We're not sure what it is, but it tastes good!!!
My God, this is getting long, but I'm getting there. So we went on to Portland Roads, characterized in our guide as an "outpost" of civilization bertween Cooktown and Cape York. nope, no way. A couple of B & Bs, sort of. The plan was to go from there to Margaret Bay, then Escape River, then, Seisia, where we are now. So who's there, but one of the guys, Paddy Mitchell, involved in the Morris Island drama, so we dinghied by and offered him a ride in to check the place out. He had a plan to just stop at Margaret for a few hours and then sail overnight to the cape, saving 2 or 3 boring nights. So we changed our plan and went along with him. Former RA Navy man so we figured he knew what he was doing in the shipping lanes at night. Meanwhile, ashore, we met one of the B & B owners, a recently retired school teacher. Alan, as well as wife, Liz, and daughter, Nina. He invited us for happy hour, lavishing home brewed beer and home distilled Rum on us 'til 7 or so--after dark. Turns out he built the 37 cat we anchored next to and pretty much set up the place from a shack when they bought it, to what is now a pretty nice pensionne. Right, remember the croc stuff--yeah, and we were a little nervous walking down to the beach and into the water to get the dinghy, but he escorted us and nary a croc was seen. Yes, we are wimps.
Almost done. So our sail to Margaret Bay and on up to Albany passage and around the Cape York was pretty uneventful except we caught something like 6 or 7 fish--nice ones. A few tuna and mackerel and a really nice Wahoo. Albany Passage is a bit tricky, because it's narrow and the tides create a big current so you have to gauge when it will be with you, but none of the books agree on which tide table to use. Luckily, we hit it right and passed over the northernmost tip of Australia and down and around another 15 miles to Seisia. Lots of cruisers here and weather permitting, every night there has been a BBQ and happy hour at a nice little beach gazebo. Friday night--this is a dry town but gets an exemption for this event--was a big party at the fishing club with burgers, beer and a band. The crowd that was here when we arrived departed and a new one has arrived--it's Sunday the 22nd, all of us now waiting to cross the Gulf of Carpenteria on the way to Darwin. The weather has turned a bit sour and it's quite rough out there so we're all waiting until Monday or Tuesday when the forecast looks good.
Overall, this leg of our journey has been a real eye openner. In may ways it was more remote than some of the out islands of Vanuatu, and we're definitely not used to dealing with a huge reef system and 10 foot tides and their associated flows. We're in Aborigine country, hence the dry town, and while it is unspoken, the Aussies don't exactly hold them in high regard. Finally, we've been spoiled for the last couple of years with pretty good wifi and cell service. Fortunately, we have a load of carryover satphone minutes that must be used or lost by mid-December, but my crew, especially the new one, has My Space and all that other stuff to deal with which isn't practical on Iridium. Oh well, back to civilization in a week or so, but then 3 months of primitive living in Indonesia. We all have to make adjustments.
One final note, the cptain is pretty lonely without Rose, and, while we haven't been able to speak, through email it seems she is making a pretty good recovery. That'd be nice!!
Cheers
Tim, Joe, & Olivia
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