We are currently sitting anchored at Lizard Island with 30 knots of wind blowing and rain! Who said Australia was sunny and hot. We have been here a month and it has rained probably 50% of the time. Even though we are in the tropics we are still sailing in trousers and a coat! The bad weather has meant we have done lots of sailing and very little snorkeling and no diving on the reef.
We had a nice few days at Lady Musgrave Island. The wind dropped and we had a good snorkel on the reef and a walk around the island which was covered in Noddies. They are pretty birds but make walking under the trees a dangerous pastime unless you have a hat on!
Our next stop was an overnight sail to Great Keppel Island. A pretty anchorage but very rolly so we did not get a good nights sleep. We had only stopped here to get internet access and arrange our lift out in Darwin so after a quick stop, we continued north to Pearl Bay. In our guide book it said this was a lovely anchorage so we had high hopes. Unfortunately, when we got there it was a big disappointment so we didn't stay. Instead, we went another 10 miles north to Island Head Creek which was very pretty and very calm water. Navigating the river entrance was quite a challenge as there are sand bars and it was low tide but we managed not to hit the bottom. The river has very big tides so there was a swift current running. We had a lovely evening with friends Stefan and Sue sharing the prawns they purchased in Bundaberg.
We continued north to the Whitsunday's with a quick stop at Hexham Island. This was an interesting overnight sail as off Mackay the chart showed a ship anchorage area. Usually these areas have maybe one ship in them but this was full of at least a dozen ships. Dodging through them was quite an adventure. Our first stop in the Whitsundays was CID Harbour, Sawmill Bay which was lovely and calm, then we headed into Muddy Bay, Airlie Bay to provision and meet up with Roy and Liz off 'Evelyn' who we had met when we transited the Panama Canal. Unfortunately, we did not see Liz but had a good catch up with Roy who gave us lots of information for our trip north.
We had a few stops in the Whitsundays, first was Blue Pearl Bay, Hayman island where we had a few snorkels and saw some big Trigger fish. Then we headed to Butterfly Bay, Hook Island where unfortunately much of the reef had been destroyed by a recent cyclone. Our last stop was Hook Reef but this was a waste of time as it was so windy we could not lower the dinghy let alone contemplate a snorkel.
After a very uncomfortable night we left and had a really good sail to Shark Bay, Cape Upstart. After a quick overnight stop we had another good sail to Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island. The following day we left for Orpheus Island where we were hoping for a walk but it poured with rain! As there was nothing else to do we left and headed into the Hitchinbrook Channel. The entrance is very shallow and tidal and interesting as you sail past a very long sugar conveyor belt which is 3 miles long. The channel is about 25 miles long and passes through between lots of hills and mangrove creeks. We saw very little as it was raining the whole time!
Another quick overnight stop in Mourilayn Harbour and then we headed into Cairns. It was a lovely sunny afternoon when we arrived but the remainder of our 3 day stay it rained! We met up with John, the Ocean Cruising Club Port officer, who very nicely took us to chandlers to buy parts. We then spent the remainder of our time there fixing the boat! We had discovered that one of our leaks was a hose from the cockpit drain which was completely in hole. We changed both hoses which took us a whole day as we had to remove so many other things to get access to the back of the boat. Even so accessing the hoses involved Mike in being a contortionist!
After provisioning we left for a short 40 mile sail to Low Islets. It turned out to be a motor as there was no wind. The island was very pretty and we had 2 sharks circling the boat looking for food. After no wind all day, we had lots of wind overnight and the anchorage was very uncomfortable. So we were up early the following morning for a long sail to Lizard Island. We had lots of wind and for a time we were doing over 10 knots. We then reduced sail but still did 103 miles in 14 hours, a very good speed for us.
The wind has continued to blow since we arrived and the rain has stopped for a few hours. We walked up to Cooks lookout yesterday afternoon. It was a brisk hike as we left it till the rain had been stopped for a while and it was quite late in the afternoon. As it was a bit of a scramble in places and potentially slippery when wet, this turned out to be a food idea! From the top, we understood the problem Cook must have had trying to find his way through the reef as we could see very little!
We plan to leave here tomorrow morning to continue north. We can spend very little time anywhere as we are on such a tight deadline to get to Darwin and we still have a long way to go. The wind is forecast to stay at about 30 knots so it should be a quick trip. We are told the winds get stronger as we head north and the Crocodiles get more serious!
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