Highland Fling

There’s always a place where you call it quits, and for us it is here in Manly Harbour.

After ten months, thirteen days, five hours and twenty five seconds (for those pedantic people amongst us!)  we are tied up at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron marina in Manly Harbour, Moreton Bay ending our sojourn from Royal Brighton Yacht Club on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne, Victoria, to Cairns and back here to Moreton Bay near Brisbane in Queensland.

It is our final destination, and the end of a very long passage for Highland Fling as our family yacht. We have owned her since 1999 and she has been a faithful friend and welcoming house to us for all those years.

She has seen our children grow, taught them how to sail and is now well ready for a new family and their own adventures.

We also are ready for a change, but as we pack up our belongings it is with more than a little sadness. Thirteen years is a long time to love a yacht…..

It's really hard to leave Mooloolaba...

We left Mooloolaba early in the morning and headed out against the last hour of the incoming tide. Once offshore the passage was brilliant, a great big sparkly day of sunshine and beam reaching in 12-15 knots! Bellissimo! The Fusion was belting out U2′s Beautiful Day (which should only be heard on a beam reach, it’s cruelty to have to listen to it on a 30 kt beat in cold weather) and we enjoyed our time in Spitfire Channel.

Spitfire Channel is the main shipping channel out for the Port of Brisbane. The last time we left Moreton Bay we came across the bay from Scarborough Marina and decided to take the more inshore passage, the appropriately named Skirmish Passage and although we sailed in some tight confines, we missed the adventure of looking over each shoulder to see who was sneaking up on Fling!

We passed five ships at close proximity during our passage and as we approached Moreton Island, the winds built. Eventually we did a very careful jibe, and dropped both sails.

Entering Tangalooma anchorage from the north is a little frustrating as passage has to be made south by a couple of miles to clear the sandbanks which protect the anchorage.

We anchored, were unhappy with our choice so up-anchored and set it again.  Much better!

 A very camera shy turtle hung around as we got settled, then took off as soon as I pointed the lens at him. It’s kind of nice to still see them this far south though, somehow I had decided that they stopped swimming south at Fraser Island.

The beach and the water are for once, exactly as the travel brochures claim! 

Tommorrow morning will start a whole new chapter in Highland Fling’s life…

 We always enjoy Mooloolaba, and not always for it’s great beaches, user friendly marina or it’s fantastic shopping and dining. Behind Mooloolaba there is a hidden hinterland of small towns and communities high upon the ridge behind the canefields. The Sunshine Coast is indeed one of our most favourite parts of the Australia’s East Coast and a place which we think would be most enticing to live upon.

We visited our friend Ken at Maleny Wagyu and were amazed at the progress of his family’s Farrier Trimaran which is taking shape in the farm’s shed. It was great to catch up and as before we left loaded with good fresh produce from the Maleny Wagyu farm. (Despite the fact that we are supposed to be eating the boat out before Brisbane) Fresh rocket, home grown banana’s, coriander and macadamia pesto, lettuce and more of those grand macadamia’s from the driveway! The very best we could offer was a lunch onboard Fling the next day, as Ken hadn’t seen Fling in 10 years.

After leaving Ken I claimed my birthday present, a lunch at the Spirit House restaurant in Yandina.  The day was misty and rainy in the hills and it served well to highlight all the lush greenery the spirit house gardens are surrounded by. We enjoyed lunch watched carefully by a beady eyed water monitor or two!

The rest of the week passed quickly, having Ken down to lunch onboard Fling, seeing a movie and enjoying a beach walk and swim every day.

Yesterday we spent time with Deb and Neil from Zolibato. We have loosely sailed together for months now and it seems a bit strange to realise that we will be heading back off into different worlds soon.

We are now so very close to the end of our cruising year…

Wide Bay Bar at dawn

We picked our way through the Sandy Straits and settled into the Inskip Point anchorage at sunset. Andrew spent a sleepless night waiting for the alarm clock and at three am we were up and ready to beard the dragon of Wide Bay Bar in her den! Good thing we chose the catch her in her sleepy mode because she was a dream to cross.03.55hrs was the top of the flood tide and the predawn light made it easy to isolate the lead lights from the low scrubby background.

With the Mad Mile crossed in reasonable comfort we headed south to Mooloolaba. Not much wind to set us off, but eventually a decent wind filled in. How lovely to enter the Mooloolaba river and see it clear and blue again, as last time we were here it was stained the colour of dark coffee from all the rainfall. I just love standing on the deck and looking at all the fish below.

How great to be on the Sunshine Coast again!

The Marina was hosting a boat  show, their first I think, and it was great to see that the yacht club has finally again opened for buisiness after a five year delay! We spent the evening with Dianne and Mark, owners of Mustang Sally ,a Hunter 44 DS and fellow sailors from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria.    

We will spend a few days here, catching up with friends and just enjoying this lovely cosmopolitan environment before we head south to Moreton Bay to prepare to leave Fling and return to Melbourne.

Wasn’t easy!

We planned to leave on the Monday from Bundaberg. No go. Less than half a nm out from the marina Fling’s engine coughed, skipped a beat then stalled. I quickly turned her into the incoming current while Andrew raced downstairs to diagnose the problem. We had an air leak into the fuel filter system. When we removed it we found an adjustment fitting broken. We rejected the onsite chandler’s incomplete replacement part ($100.) and caught the marina bus into Bundaberg where we found a complete replacement kit for half the price.

Returning to Fling we quickly fitted the new unit, tested it briefly and felt we had spent a good day. We donated the missing part from our old unit to the chandlers. Early the next morning we put our marina key in the deposit box (again) and departed the marina. This time we made it almost to the heads before Fling misbehaved. Again we returned. Andew again pulled the system apart, looking for the tiny air leak which was causing our problem. Eventually he found it, but not before having to blow into the inlet tubes of the diesel pump. We again reassembled the filter system and this time ran the engine under load for an hour in the marina. All good! Plans were made for leaving the next morning. Marina key retrieved again and another day’s fee’s paid. At six am we prepared to depart, once again leaving the marina keys in the safety deposit box.

We felt confident and MORE than ready to depart. We backed out of our pen and almost immediately ran aground. Not enough tide just yet….. An hour later and casting off our lines for the fourth time in three days we were underway.

And Fling’s engine just purred….. it must have been all that loving attention!

We spottted lots of dolphins as we closed on Urangan Harbour. Today finds us at Kingfisher Bay Resort which has great day facilities (a lovely swimming pool, showers, a small local shop and restaurant/ bar all close to the pure white sand beach).

We bumped into Reg and Rhonda from Ocean Addict today and enjoyed some time over lunch, although anyone watching us might have been surprised by our strange behaviour…. the March Flies were out in squadrons (think squadrons in D Day numbers!) and if you couldn’t hear our conversation then you just might have wondered why we kept on slapping each other! By body language we looked like we had a perculiar form of Tourette’s syndrome which causes one to slap rather than swear! Average conversation along the lines of… “Oh Reg… watch out, four on your shoulder…( insert slapping motion, with gusto! ) , and where are you headed next?”…We all wondered what the overseas tourists would remember the most of their experience on Fraser Island, worlds largest sand cay…epicentre of annoying insects

The pool and the boat were the only safe havens….and we enjoyed both. Any thoughts of Buddism were quashed by the quiet glee we felt watching the March Flies fail to learn to swim in the pool!

We just caught up with the P2P rally group again for sundowners on the marina lawns. The crew had been resident in the marina for a month and the final count was 400 kilo’s of Cocaine, not the 40kg of Heroin as we had originally thought, announced by the Cruising Yacht Club,and yes, the lovely Spanish crew did indeed win last week’s prize for the best dressed pirates……….fitting, eh?

Friday Freedom crawling with Customs Agents

We spent another day relaxing at Pancake Creek. In the morning we checked the crab pot, but alas, no crabs. We repositioned it and headed over to the other side of the inlet to enjoy looking at the small coral reef while the surface was flat and calm. Thoughts of our friends shark ravaged crab pots kept us from swimming too far from the beach.

As the tide made it’s way out we walked the ridges of sand flats, looking across to where the bushfire in the Rodd Peninsular National Park still burnt, coming seemingly closer to our shore all the time. All that smoke made for another grand sunset and moon rise which we veiwed from behind the security of our insect screens! Laughably our crab pot had become stranded again by the tide and was proving to be a comfortable perch for a huge white bird who would have deterred even the dumbest of crabs!  We left just predawn, rounded Bustard Head and headed south to Bundaberg. On the whole a great day’s passage, but slow with the wind on the nose the whole way. By late afternoon we were down to a double reefed main but at dusk we removed the reefs when the wind died out significantly.

We made our way into the Burnett River and tied up at seven pm. The smell of curry wafting across the marina had us ravenous and as soon as Fling was sorted we dashed to the Baltimore Cafe searching for the delicious smell….

Foiled! It was being cooked aboard another yacht so we sated our hunger with pizza’s and chilled white wine, totally unaware of the drama unfolding just across the lawns of the marina.

The marina is quite full at present with Port to Port rally yachts. A total of 84 visiting and returning to Australia yachts have been filtering into Bundaberg Port Marina since early October, crossing the Coral Sea from Port Vila. One, which arrived five days ago, sailed by a young Spanish crew will not be leaving anytime soon. During our dinner on Friday evening a large team of Australian Federal Police, Customs agents and Forensics specialists descended on the yacht and commenced searching it. Cars coming and going through the roundabout near the Marina were also searched. The search on the yacht continued all the next day and they removed somewhere between 40-45 kilo’s of heroin. (Local word has it at 400 kilos!) This morning the yacht was removed from the water and impounded. SV Friday Freedom has now been dubbed S V Friday Lockup by the rally participants! Our bus driver told us the young Spanish couple had recently won an award for ‘best pirate costume’ during the rally!

Today we joined several rally cruisers on the courtesy coach to the Shalom Markets. I found it quite interesting to hear their first impressions of Australia. One cruiser was astonished to see so much birdlife, whilst others were amazed at the low cost of fresh food at the market. Another cruiser suggested we should have been at the market at 6am to get the ‘best pickings’, and I reflected he had probably not yet had a chance to realise Australia’s bounty after crossing the Pacific. We came back to Fling loaded with Mango’s, Avocado’s, Limes, Spring Onions and a huge bag of fresh mint, coriander, basil and dill which, given that we really didn’t need much speaks volumes of the quality of fresh food available at very reasonable costs.

The fish marketing factory next door has just opened a factory door shop, so this afternoon I topped our fridge up with Panko crusted whiting fillets, cooked tiger prawns and the local speciality, spanner crab meat. All local, and all for very reasonable prices.

Tomorrow we will head off to Hervey Bay, getting closer and closer to our end destination….

Sunset, Pancake Creek

 
We left Great Keppel island early in the morning as the wind had shifted East-South East and made for an uncomfortable and potentially unsafe anchorage.

We weren’t the first to go, by dawn four other boats had moved on. We made our passage down to Cape Capricorn, just about ON the tropic of Capricorn! Another yacht from GKI was already anchored there and we had heard great things about this lovely spot. We gazed up at the old railway which used to cart all the provisions to the lighthouse. A very steep incline to say the least!

Alan Lucas says this place is remarkably unaffected by swell, even in established SE winds. That’s great but by now our wind had shifted and was staying firmly in the East- North East. A very, very unpleasant night at anchor, rolling and lurching in the greasy swell. Not much sleep had by any of the three yachts sharing the bay.

Our neighbours from GKI (Ocean Addict:a Jeaneau 43 DS) left just after daylight. The other yacht headed north. We waited for the wind to abate and left around nine am. The first hour of rounding Cape Capricorn was long and slow. Riding up the swells and down. It seemed to take ages. Once clear we could set a better course south and were much more comfortable. A double reefed main and one reef in the headsail were all we needed for comfortable sailing. Comfortable but not a pretty day, grey clouds and a lumpy unhappy sea.

We revised our plans and headed through the East Channel for Gladstone Harbour. Last time we were here the harbour looked busy but now it looks about three times more hectic!

There’s heaps of industrial development going on further up the harbour and the place is jam packed with vehicle landing barges from all over Australia, all working around the clock to deliver machinery and people to service this incredible industrial growth. Sailing along the outside of Curtis Island we marvelled that no sign of the city or such development was visible at all during the day.

Port Gladstone Marina is set in a man-made basin and surrounded by a lovely parkland. To get into town you must cross the opening bridge and walk uphill. Best to taxi back if you have more than a few provisions. We enjoyed a few nights of good sleep, some provisioning and a lovely dinner on the balcony of the Yacht Club. At dusk we watched hundreds (if not thousands) of Flying Foxes make their passage north to roost for the night. You could barely hear a person speak for the sound of hundreds of Rainbow Lorrikeets which flocked to the pine trees next to the yacht club .

We set sail this morning for Pancake Creek, happy to revisit another favourite destination. As we passed the Rodd Peninsular National Park we could see a significant bushfire in progress. The Rodd peninsular makes up the northern boundary of the Pancake Creek area.

Picking our way in with the tide we settled in, put the outboard on the dinghy and set our new crab pot …. Ocean Addict’s crew came by the boat to tell us that three of their four pots had been attacked by sharks last night and were completley shredded!

As we digested this thought we looked around us at a true paradise…Miles of inlet,the Bustard Head lighthouse winking,  amazing sandbanks, the full moon rising to Starboard, and a smokey sunset happening to Port…..

Sharks….here?

Long Beach, GKI

We spent three or four days at Rosslyn Bay Marina, resting and getting our engine issues resolved.

Two blades of the raw water impellor had dislodged and were preventing the coolant from circulating effectively. Quickly fixed, once someone could attend to do it. We serviced the engine, restocked Fling with all sorts of goodies and celebrated Melbourne Cup Day in fine style with Neil and Deb onboard Zolibato. Deb came up with a most creative facinator, and the local prawns and Debs avocado dip were sensational.

Yesterday we happily fled the marina, heading over to what I think is possibly my most favourite island on the Queensland coast, Great Keppel Island. It’s just eight nm offshore but the water is clear, the beaches pristine and it has both southerly and northerly anchorages. Sadly it is about to be redeveloped to include a golf course, many more accomodation buildings etc… We like it as it is!

This morning we walked the beach, pure fine white silica sand. We encountered fresh turtle tracks in the sand where a turtle had made her way up the beach last night to carefully dig a precise hole to deposit her eggs in. All neatly buried, her tracks led back to the beach. We wish every one of her 100-150 little babies the best of life and hope they all make their way into life safely!

The water here is crystal clear, this morning I could see the track our anchor chain had made in the sand in 5m of water. We finished the day off with more of those lovely prawns from the Rosslyn Bay Fish Market, this time served as thai coconut prawn miang with a watermelon curry salad. A perfect way to enjoy the sunset!

We slipped into Mackay after a wonderful day of zooming across mirror flat sea’s, watching butterflies and the odd dolphin grace the surface of the water. The continual ‘Red Tide’ algae bloom we have seen since we left Townsville persists, but on a flat calm day gives the ocean an almost silky texture. When sailing up to a patch of red tide the air smells almost of ozone. We have seen so much more algae this year than previously and wonder if the early northerlies had an effect on surface water temperatures.

In Mackay we caught up with Jenny Wright (Another Dimension) and Deb and Neil (Zolibato). We had all cruised together on the Northern NSW coast and we have been in touch with Neil and Debbie during the Whitsundays. The last time we saw Jenny was here in Mackay, some four and a half months ago. We shared a great dinner, catching up before we made our seperate ways south. Jenny and the Another Dimension crew were heading off for a non stop delivery to Mooloolaba. Zolibato and Highland Fling were heading south to Yeppoon.

It’s a lonely bit of water, the 200 plus miles between Mackay and Yeppoon. A beautiful cruising ground with multiple islands and a course which puts you mostly offshore. There are no townships or ports to visit, as much of the mainland area is owned by the Department of Defence, and during this passage much of that land and sea was off limits due to the live firing of shells by the military who use this area for training.

Mariners notices are posted about these events and a reasonable amount of safe anchorages are kept free for the cruising sailor.

Coming south we had a few surprises, my first being the sight of a ship looming high above me from my galley window! We had picked our way through around thirty ships at anchor outside of Mackay, but I was below decks and didn’t quite see this one coming up! Andrew had fun surprising me with it’s close proximity!

We sailed to Curlew Island that day and were treated to the spectacle of a single handed sailor in a seriously low freeboard catermaran ghost into the anchorage just on dusk, sail through the boats whilst under spinnaker, then casually throw out his anchor, drop his kite and settle in for the night. Pure poetry in motion and such a delight to watch!

My next surpise was having a small shark leap out of the water next to the boat just next to our boat as I helmed  our passage out from Curlew Island the following day. It must have just been sunbaking and was as startled as we were when we passed.

The very next surprise was when we decided to take a course between a shoal( 0.2m)  and Hunter Island. 0.3 nm, (approx 450 metres) from the shoal crossing our engine stopped. We needed it to get us through the tricky chicane of the passage. Up here the tides rule, and the currents are to be respected. With no engine: no crossing the passage. Andrew went down and diagnosed overheating. We tacked away and used every means possible to cool our engine. After half an hour we tested it again and made our cautious way through the shoals. Another seven miles and we were anchored for the night behind Hunter Island. I swam the boat and scrubbed the raw water intake and Andrew replaced the water impellor. We thought we had it all fixed.

The following day we were again up before the sun and on our way. This time we had to transit the Broad Sound passage which has very strong tidal currents. ( Mackay has the largest tidal range on the East Coast of Australia, our tides were 6m)

We plotted our course, but had to keep clear of Cape Townsend by 4nm, due to the military activities.This made the passage difficult as the tide wanted to press us down and we could have sailed faster out of the mainstream. Passing Island Head the tide vs wind was at it’s peak and poor Fling slammed into the waves. Just past there we could lay off the wind and we made a smoother passage to Pearl Bay…until the engine stopped again! ( AND immediately after I had logged us off with the Coastguard!)

This time it was much less of a drama, as we could happily sail at 7 knots toward our destination, an easy bay to enter.

During the course of the morning we heard a single handed sailor radio the coastguard to announce he had struck a submerged object and was taking on water. An hour or two later he radioed that he was managing to control the leak with his bilge pumps and was 16 nm off South Percy Island. When we arrived at Rosslyn Bay we read in the local paper that sadly his batteries failed and he was unable to call the coast guard again. His vessel sank and he commenced rowing his dinghy after activating his EPIRB. He was rescued by helicopter after two hours of rowing. He estimated he had another four hours of rowing to reach South Percy Island. The tenacity of the solo sailor….

We left Pearl Bay at 5 am on Sunday morning to sail down to the port of Rosslyn Bay near Yeppoon. We had a great sail, Andrew spied a sunfish, some turtles and we saw loads of tuna leaping out of the water.

We are now in the harbour and will have out engine cooling system looked at before we depart.

Seven days of sailing, but we are happy to be further south and we salute the crew of Another DImension who have sailed nonstop for the last four days to deliver their yacht safely to Mooloolaba.

Our cutest ever helmsman calls the shots!

Meet Finn, our new Helmsman! He comes to us with two plus years of sailing experience, and local knowledge! Pretty damn good considering he’s just two and a half! Still, he started his life out sailing on Port Phillip Bay in winter and would happily sail anywhere. He made short work of tidying our ropes and was an exemplary crew member!

During our enforced week at Airlie we took time to catch up with Finn’s parents, who we cruised with ten years ago. We also met their lovely new daughter, Saskia. She’s just a little young for the helm yet ( can’t walk or crawl so far) but she did seem to be pretty happy to be afloat! That’s always a good sign.

Caught up again with Paul Lobsten and his crew from Shearwater, and met some new friends, Greg and Annette on Antidote, a Seawind 1180. Most cruisers are heading south now and there’s a sense of keeping an eye out for each other as we all head south of the cyclone region.

We left yesterday to head for Shaw Island where I was determined to try out my new crab pot. Alas! Shaw’s beach is closed due to bird nesting, and with the tide against us, we detoured into Cid Harbour for the night.

The decision was made easier by the distraction of a mother and baby humpback broaching out in the middle of the passage for a good hour or so. Hard to go forward when that was to be viewed and enjoyed!

Today we were up with the Welcome Swallows, our little avian alarm clocks who love to wake us about an hour before we ever wanted to be awake! Good thing though, we left Cid at 0530 hours and caught a magic carpet ride down the Whitsunday Passage just letting the current sweep us along. We’re now anchored at Goldsmith Island and from here will make our way into Mackay Harbour tomorrow. Lots of turtles here and a peaceful anchorage for our last night in the Whitsundays. As we anchored we wondered how long it would be before we ever made our way back through here again…..

Welcoming party

Two long days of sailing found us back at the Whitsundays. Our first day of sailing had us on the go from 0730hrs. We left Townsville behind us and rounded Cape Cleveland, aiming on an anchorage off Cape Bowling Green by early afternoon.

Typically, Cape Bowling Green was it’s usual unwelcoming self in the afternoon seabreeze, so we sallied forth to Cape Upstart another thirty or so nautical miles along. The water’s fairly shallow here, so when a sea breeze blows against a tidal push it can get a bit unpleasant. Which it did.

We arrived at Cape Upstart at 2030 hrs, anchored in the dark and fell into a deeply needed sleep.

Off the next day to Montes at Gloucester Passage and we were happy to arrive in time to pump up the dinghy and venture ashore for another great meal. There are few places on the east coast of Australia as welcoming and relaxed as Montes. The food is always good and the relaxation factor of eating right on the beach at sunset is magical! The following morning we made our passage down through the northernmost Islands of the Whitsundays. These, we feel are the unknown gems of the Whitsundays. Quietly isolated from charter yachts, they sport beautiful beaches and are set in clear turquoise water. The Mainland offers several large deep bays giving great protection from the SE trade winds.

We sailed on, heading for Airlie Beach and seeking shelter from the next week of strong South Easterly winds,arriving on Friday afternoon.

Sunday provided a weather window to escape from the marina for a day. We headed out into the oily eerie calm which we have noticed usually descends on the Whitsundays the day before a well established SE blow. We motored across the passage to Bali Hai island, also known as Black Island. It’s just off Hayman Island and opposite the Stonehaven anchorage. Even before we picked up the mooring line a school of large batfish buzzed us. The water, thanks to the recent northerly winds was flat and clear. The snorkelling was fantastic, great coral and lots of fish. A turtle circled our boat at a safe distance. We hand fed the batfish, who were mostly polite, just occasionally mistaking our fingers for food! At two pm we noted the cold air clouds high in the sky and headed back to the marina. A gift of a day in what will be a week of marina locked life! Today the forecast wind has filled in and we have kept ourselves busy with boat tasks. Our topsides are now gleaming and varnishing the navigation desk and oiling the teak is on the to do list for the rest of the week. No good weather for sailing south until Saturday at the least!

Breakwater Marina, Townsville

There are things which draw you to this town. It’s not just the colonial architecture, the broad coastline parks, the markets…. it’s the people.

I’d start with the local marina. We were last through here several weeks ago and yet when we contacted the marina by radio to advise that that our arrival was imminent, we were greeted by our first names, despite our correct radio transmission which only gave our yacht name and call sign. Tired and grumpy as we were on arrival we expected a friendly hand to assist us to tie up to the fuel wharf. Nobody came. Eventually the woman from the office came down to greet us cheerily as we attempted to drive/drag Fling upwind to the low pressure fuel pump.

She apologised, the person who would normally catch our lines and assist us was currently helping an injured marina resident into the shower. We felt bad for feeling so grumpy and selfish.

Our marina neighbour has a progressive, degenerative disease which prevents him from speaking. But he has all the friends and communication in the world. People constantly stop by, call out and ask if he needs anything and chat with him, allowing him to answer in his own way. Today I overheard a live-aboard cruiser asking him if he would like to drive her to the shops to get his groceries. This warmed my heart to see someone who recognises that even though one skill is lost, the others should still be recognised. Our neighbour has all his skills, except speech and it was wonderful to hear someone acknowledge that. Every night our neighbour feeds the marina fish. Never let anyone tell you that fish have a poor short term memory as these fish gather and mill around a good fifteen minutes before they are fed at exactly 1800hrs each evening!

During our five days stay here we have enjoyed the Friday Night Market on the Strand and ‘Cotters Market’ the Sunday market which fills the main street in town with fresh local produce and local art works. We have chilled out in the Tobruk Pool each afternoon, where the 1956 Olympic Team trained. We also caught up with Paul Lobsten and his crew for a dinner at the CYC on their magnificent deck.

We have repaired our anchor winch and our new halyard is reeved, so tomorrow we will be off. The northerlies look like holding until the end of the weekend so hopefully we will find ourselves in the Whitsundays by then.

Dawn: Cairns

We left Cairns at six in the morning, the sky eerie and still blanketed by smoke. Light and shifty winds assisted us past Cape Grafton and we rounded the corner for our southbound passage into an unexpected headwind of eight to ten knots. Not the predicted northeasterly wind we had planned for our passage to Mouriliyan Harbour.

The south-south easterly kept steady for a while and whilst our friends on Kalani attempted to encourage us to stop at Fitzroy Island to watch the AFL Grand Final we were intent on sailing south. The winds built slowly but consistently until we were abeam of High Island when they accelerated to twenty five knots with larger gusts. We abandoned Mouriliyan Harbour for High Island, a delightful little continental island with a coral and sand beach. Anchoring is deep as it is steep to and we duly anchored in 8 m of water and put all available chain out. A single Parks moorings exists but it was occupied by a trawler whose gantry’s we had keep a constant watch on given the tiny space we both had to share. When he left we gladly took the mooring, but found that the solenoid switch on the anchor winch had failed so Andrew hauled in all our chain, heavy 10mm, many metres, by hand whilst I wondered if I would shortly be a widow!

Once on the mooring we felt more secure, still getting blasts of 20-25 knots but surer of holding than we would have been in coral rubble at anchor.

Sleeping was something we were looking forward to, but not to achieve as our mooring was placed in one of those unique spots where the wind and tide create a back eddy so all night the mooring buoy sailed and danced around Fling knocking violently on her sides. Try sleeping with an apartment neighbour testing out his new battering ram and you might get an idea of how noisy our night in paradise was! We vowed to leave at dawn and duly set the alarm. The wretched iphone still thought it was in Melbourne and so woke us at 0430 hours instread of 0530 hours. No great problem really as we had been awake all night and as it turned out would be all the next night also! The wind blew as strongly as it was unpredicted by the BOM and continued all the next day. So we stayed.

Another dawn later and we slipped our mooring, careful that it hadn’t wrapped itself around our keel in it’s midnight meaderings. We were ready to continue on to Moriliyan Harbour but found that after a few hours of stronger winds the seas abated so we continued along another twenty nm to Dunk Island, arriving at 1600hrs and picking up a sadly now disued resort mooring.

We passed Instant Karma on our way into the anchorage and they came by later. We motored along the beach to view the resort that they had visited as cruising sailors for the last few years. It was frightening to see the level of destruction that cyclone Yasi had caused up close.We certainly didn’t realise the complete extent of the damage from our anchorage on our last visit when we stayed aboard Fling. Paul and Kathleen were able to point out to us where they used to walk through dense rainforest, just a few tree trunks now, sky showing clearly between them. We realised that the piles of sand near the beach had been dumped there from the reforestation project, as masses of sand had blown inshore during the cyclone.

Instant Karma headed north and we south. We settled on the Hinchinbrook Passage after some consideration of the weather and our limited anchoring prospects. Rockingham Bay proved to be her usual self with a lovely fast and bouncy ride across to the passage in rapid time. Enormous clouds threatened but happily didn’t deliver. With the wind in the East we received many catabatic bullets coming along the passage. Discussion was held as to reducing sail. When we did, a problem occured with out main halyard. Two hours and many trips up and down the companionway to check the plotter and safely navigate the tricky channels whilst trying to lower the halyard we finally achieved both dropping the main and arriving at out anchorage, exhausted.

It is spring here and the insects are out enmasse! We almost feel like we are under house arrest as we hunker down in our insect screened safety zone.We passed a fisherman today as we entered the anchorage. He was completely covered, including a face mask. Five bites by Marchflies just whilst anchoring and I can easily see his point! Total confinement tonight as we wait for tomorrows tide to get us to Orpheus Island, a pity about the new crab pot…

The exit tide for Lucinda Bar was not until very late afternoon, so we caught up on sleep and relaxed until just after lunch. At the first available chance we crossed Lucinda Bar and headed for Little Pioneer Bay at Orpheus Island. We arrived at sundown and to our dismay found all the moorings full. Anchorage is deep here and without a functioning anchor winch we moved on. At Hazard Bay we checked the depths again and after conferring with some other cruising sailors decided again to move on. The sun was almost down so we bypassed Juno Bay at Fantome Island as we couldn’t see well enough to spot the bommies. A night sail took us a further thirty plus nm to Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island. We arrived just before two am and were happy to enter the wide shallow bay. Nothing could have kept us from sleeping once the anchor was set!  A short sail around the Island had us in Townsville the following day.

Sunset on the Great Barrier Reef

 We headed out from Yorkeys Knob to Green Island, just 15 nm away. Green Island is where we finally reached our turn around point having decided not to sail further north to Lizard Island. The island is a true coral atoll and differs considerably from Fitzroy which is of continental origin. On arrival we had perfect conditions for entering the lagoon. Flat calm, midday sun and perfect visibility thanks to the recent arrival of the northerly wind. We entered through the channel and picked our way through the bommies to find a large sandy patch to anchor in. We did later find that a single Parks Mooring exists further out.

Green Island is a low rise cay formed by a fringing reef. It’s highest point is around 2m, and the vegetation is mainly Pisonia, Pandanus  and Teatrees. Bird life abounds with Banded Rails running about sorting through the leaf mulch wherever you walk onshore.

Being close to Cairns this little island can get busy in the tourist season. There is a small resort there and day facilities. The most action is underwater and we dinghied over to talk with Roy who runs the SeaWalker @ Green Island facility. Here we found unique tourism directed at the comfort market: Want to walk around underwater without getting your hair wet or having your makeup run? No problem! Simply turn up, put on a stinger suit, and a 42 kilo modern version of a divers helmet. The helmet weight reduces down to about 4kg apparent when underwater and 80 litres per minute of air is pumped through the helmet, so your hair stays dry!! The walkers take a short guided tour around a local bommie with support divers and photographers! This is indeed Luxe snorkelling!

We returned to Fling after an afternoon of snorkelling to enoy a bottle of French Champagne at sunset, a fitting place to celebrate our turn south point from.

Overnight a westerly land breeze had us up and down checking the anchor, worrying about being on a lee shore and wishing we had up-anchored and moved to the public mooring. We were up at dawn and left as early as we could get reasonable visibility for spotting coral bommies, it was a bit hairy leaving with 18 knots of westerly breaking up the surface visibility but we left with no regrets about our visit. A paradise day to say the least. Heading back into Cairns was by pure navigation as local fires have blanketed the area in smoke, the extra warmth from the grassfires increasing the land breeze effect. Cairns was visible from just two nm offshore.

Port Douglas Lookout

Eight months,four hours and fifteen minutes after leaving RBYC in Port Phillip Bay Victoria and we are tied up at the Marlin Marina in Cairns.

Cairns is the most northern city we will visit.

We park the boat, tidy up and head out for lunch. The following day we allowed ourselves a treat, two days stay at a five star resort, a pure comfort stop! Fling waits patiently in her berth and I feel a little bit guilty sneaking away from her.

Like Townsville, Cairns has a beachfront promenade, called the Esplanade. It has a swimming lagoon , loads of grass and palm tree’s and it’s streetfronts are full of eateries which come to life at night. There is a night market, which we found to be not much more than a shopping centre food court with a whole pile of tourist stalls and massage shops thrown in. Not very evocative of tropical life in Northern Australia, and a poor representation of Australia to the tourists visiting Australia.The  Saturday moring market proves to be much bettter.

We are tied up on the outer arm of the harbour. As are all the other luxe yachts! Ghost, a 122ft yacht from Hamilton BVI came in just before us and a quick stroll along our pier shows that despite the economy, there is still some serious money being splashed about.

November is Marlin fishing season here, so the marina is starting to fill up with huge luxurious motor yachts. The boat next to us is 60 ft long and Jared, the skipper spends maximum time preparing his boat for the season. The vessel is six years old and looks to be in mint condition.

Not all the boats ooze money though, one smaller yacht strives only for comfort, sporting two large battered cane armchairs in it’s tiny cockpit!

We hired a car for a day and headed off to the highlands, visiting the hill town of Kuranda, which is wall to wall craft market stalls and walking through the rainforest to view the Barron River waterfalls before returning to the coast for lunch at Palm Cove. Amazing waterfalls and rainforest walks to be found. We imagine they would be even more spectacular in the wet season.

The day before we left Cairns I wandered off to visit the local fresh food market, Rusty’s. It’s open three days a week and is a culinary delight. I can’t imagine why anyone would shop for fruit and vegetables in a supermarket when thay could come here. Every kind of tropical fruit, fresh herbs, and tasty street food can be purchased for very reasonable prices. I sampled Phillipino Empandas and Thai spring rolls as I shopped. My meal cost $2.50! I could have rounded it off with either fresh coconut juice or pure sugar cane juice. Fresh basil, coriander, watercress and mint joined the corn, apples, watermelon and asparagus in the backpack. I topped up on limes and lemons at 50c each ( When we were last at Hamilton Island the going rate was $4 each)  and if I could have remembered our stocks I would have also bought a few avocado’s for $1 each! Mango’s are still expensive though, $6.99 a kilo….it’s still early in the season for them.

On Saturday we headed off to Half Moon Bay Marina at Yorkey’s Knob. It’s just 5 nm from here and will be our home for the next few days. From our base at Yorkey’s Knob we visited the Mossman River Gorge and Port Douglas.

Mother and baby Humpback whales celebrate spring

Getting from Dunk Island to Cairns took a little patience so say the least. 

For two nights we rocked and rolled in our Dunk Island anchorage hiding behind the tiny bit of lee shore offered by the sand spit near the airstrip. The winds blew solidly all day and night and nobody left the anchorage, but another yacht joined us. As the last yacht out towards the spit they must have been very uncomfortable indeed.

Eventually the forecast predicted a slight decrease in wind speed, so we set off early for Mouriliyan Harbour. It’s only a 20nm passage, the first fifteen with the wind directly behind us and then some lee afforded by Kent Island, the larger and northernmost of the North Barnard Group. When we rounded Kent Island to head west and inland , Andrew spied two Humpback whales, a mother and her calf. They were practicing broaching and tail slapping and we watched them for half an hour or so as they travelled past us. Needless to say we have many photo’s of the water just after each broach! As we passed them the mother whale rolled onto her back, both pectoral fins in the air, we presume to recommence feeding the calf. It’s something we have never seen before. The calf slapped its tail and settled in.  Much to our amazement we have heard that female humpback whales do not feed for the entire time they are in the tropical waters. They produce an incredible 600 litres of breast milk per day for their young and lose serious amounts of body mass doing so. A tough post natal diet!

Mouriliyan Harbour beckoned. It’s an amazingly deceptive narrow gap in the hills, but once there a sizeable and well sheltered harbour. For us it was a blissfully peaceful anchorage. It’s one purpose? It is a shipping wharf for sugar, often transported as Mollasses and despite it’s narrow entrance it accomodates cargo vessels of up to 200m in length. There is a small fishing fleet on pile moorings and behind them a channel which accomodates small craft. Beyond that lies the rest of the Moresby river, lined with mangroves. The fishing is good here and we regularly had small tinnies (aluminium dinghys)  working the shore next to us, angling for barramundi amongst the mangroves.

The wind strengthened again and we waited another day. Day six from Townsville and we were keen for a shower (no swimming here, crocodiles abound!) so we were delighted to have the couple who man the pilot boats for the harbour come alongside and give us directions as to where we could shower in the VMR building. They gave us the most recent copy of The Coastal Passage, and directed us to the only shop in town: The bait shop at the boat storage yard. Here we bought ice and to my delight a kilo of frozen cooked prawns, perfect for paella today and wraps for tomorrow’s lunch. I longingly eyed off the coral trout, Moreton Bay bugs and Mud Crabs…

On our way to the shop we passed a Cassowary warning sign on the road. I was just about to remark to Andrew how those signs usually mean you won’t see any wildlife when one appeared, wandering about the gardens of the sugar storage shed! It looked like the local pet who would most probably be a nuisance at the friday afternoon after work BBQ’s!  Alas no camera! (Non Australians: a Cassowary is a very large bird, native to Australia. They do not fly and are approximately 1-1.25 m in height. They are only found in the tropics and look similar to an Emu)

Again the wind blew and blew as we sat snug at anchor for that day and enjoyed our Paella in the twilight. Early the next morning we set off for Fitzroy Island. Fitzroy  is a continental island 42nm north of Mouriliyan Harbour and just 15nm from Cairns.

With 22 knots apparent behind us and making speeds of 7.5 knots we flew along. Deep aqua blue water sparkled beside us and we were happy to arrive by early afternoon. We saw a few tuna or mackerel jumping out of the water and several flying fish but no whales.

Fitzroy island has a resort, a camping ground and a day visitor centre. There are walks through the forest and up to the lighthouse. The resort was redeveloped last year and looks quite attractive. Day visitors can buy a pass to use the pool, but the swimming and snorkelling off the beach is just as good. Much beloved by the locals is Foxy’s Bar, a ‘seventies themed pacific island bar’ (their words not mine!)  which offers reasonably priced meals, live music and well priced drinks, all with spectacular views across to Cape Grafton and out to Green Island, a Great Barier Reef atoll. It’s a very chilled out place. Local sailors head over on Friday nights, just to watch the football on tv and still have a view!

Fitzroy Island has eight marine park moorings, due to the coral growth, but you can anchor outside of the moorings. Picking up the second most southern buoy we found our anchorage to be rolly and our mooring buoy bashed the boat nonstop all night. The northern end is to be favoured in SE trades.

Early the next morning I fed our stale bread to the fish, Andrew capturing a snap of a Remora, commonly called a sucker fish, who came to gobble up half a loaf all by himself! Remora fish have a suction pad on the top of their head which they use to attach themselves to mush larger fish for transport and feeding purposes. The suction pad is about 8 x 15 cm long and can leave a really nasty bruise should one latch onto your bare skin! A bit like the house guest you wish you had never invited! Goes away eventually, but not without pain!

Being very short on water we dropped the mooring and headed to Cairns first thing the next morning.

 Whilst beautiful birdsong lulled us to sleep last night at Opheus Island, our old friends the Welcome Swallows woke us early to get on the way to Hinchinbrook Passage. We love the Welcome Swallows, they are so tiny but make such an effort to have their gentle wake up call heard!  And wake we did, having read last nights forecast we decided to cut short our stay at Opheus and head for the protection of Hinchinbrook Passage.

The only concern was crossing the Lucinda Bar. If Fraser Island has it’s Mad Mile, then Lucinda has it’s Mad Three Miles!

Big difference though! No swell, and the bar as such is crossed in the first mile. There is about a two hour window for crossing at high tide. AND you can easily see the leads! Even with all the smoke haze they were clear to us.

Coastguard recommend you pass the Fairway Buoy to the north then line up the two leads untill you have almost sailed up to them. These instructions seem correct, just don’t expect to pass the fairway buoy and then immediately line up the lead lights. Sail back towards the end of the wharf to line them up, then just follow them in. 

The reason why this bar crossing is so long is that the Lucinda Sugar Wharf  extends for at least three miles out and there is significant silting behind it.

Once in its a short bit of mark spotting before an easy channel is then navigated to Haycock Island.

Haycock Island is about eight nm into the channel and provides a great overnight anchorage. It seems to be totally sheltered and we spent an incredibly peaceful night. Despite the 20-25 knots blowing outside the island.

The sunset was spectacular and the clouds gently lowered themselves over the mountain peaks as dusk settled into night.

In the morning we decided to head to the top of the passage, but as we arrived we settled on Goould Island instead. Only seven nm further on it looked like having good shelter from the prevailing breezes.

Shortly after that, with Fling lifting her kilt and dancing along at eight knots we decided to make for Dunk Island instead. What a difference to come out of the lee of the island! We now had 18 apparent beam on and a 1.5m local swell due east. A bit like walking from a sensory deprivation cave to a wind tunnel!

We flounced aroung, covering the 20 nm in record time and settled in behind the sand spit in Brammo Bay, Dunk Island.

Cyclone Yasi has had her way here and with devastating consequences. We had already passed Port Hinchinbrook Marina which may never be rebuilt, due to a nasty little clause in the contract….and wonder about the people we have met who had made their homes there in the harbour…

This month Dunk and Bedarra Island’s management announced they would not be re-opening in April 2012 as planned, and there are no plans for re-opening in the future.

This must surely be a big blow for the local community who depend on these two islands for tourism income.

Dunk’s wharf is unuseable. It’s tree’s are stripped of leaves and are now just starting to regrow, just as our Victorian trees did after the devastating bushfires. Local ferries just reverse up to the beach and allow the guests to walk ashore. This morning chainsaws echoed around the bay as reforestation work continued. Such a tragedy that this Island Group and it’s mainland support systems should be so effected by a weather pattern and an economic trend.

I just have to write this down now…

I have never been to a more serene and peaceful anchorage. Ever.

Tonight the sun set behind our stern, smokey and dusky with all the local fires in the hills behind.

The almost full moon rose over our bow, as seven yachts enjoyed a quiet bay.

Quiet except for the delightful cacophany of exotic bird calls and for the splashing of fish being hunted around the outskirts of the bay.

If ever a reward was needed for a day’s sail, and we had such an easy sail that we needed no reward, but if ever…. this bay is a paradise.

Hinchinbrook Island beckons, But I think I may need to stay a little longer in Pioneer Bay…

We headed back into Townsville to reprovision for our cruise to Cairns and to enjoy Ephemera, the Townsville outdoor sculpture exhibition. This is Float,one of our favourites, a floating sculpture made entirely of recycled bottle tops and cable ties.

Ephemera extends along The Strand, Townsville’s amazing park which lines the shoreline.

This park is several kilometers long, and has to be one of the most well used public facilities we have seen as we have made our way  up the coast. It doesn’t seem to matter what the time is, the park is in use. Birthday parties, fitness fanatics, quiet chats….

On Friday night we took a stroll to view the sculptures. We headed halfway along, then enjoyed a cool glass of rose at Jamaica Joe’s as the sun set. Turning right we headed up Gregory  Street in North Ward and had a fix of Japanese food at Gyo. More sculptures then home to our cosy berth at Breakwater Marina.

Breakwater Marina has suffered some damage from Cyclone Yasi last year, but it remains as one of the friendliest marina’s we have visited and is to undergo repair work next month. There’s a nice community attitude here, people look out for each other. We were a llittle disconcerted though, to hear that a saltwater croc visited the marina a week or so ago!!

Yesterday Andrew came back from onshore to tell me he had bumped into Paul Lobsten, owner of Shearwater (Salar 40)  ex RBYC and QCYC. How small this world is when you sail ….

We met Paul and his crew for drinks at the local that night, a great chance to catch up. They are also headed for Cairns.

This morning we headed off early for Orpheus Island, some 45 nm north. As we departed the marina, another RBYC yacht passed us, Roger Jepson on his Queensland based 50 ft Cat A Whiter Shade of Pale!