From the Arafura to the Coral Sea - the Gulf, the Cape, and Lizard Island 

Dear friends

We are currently in Port Douglas where we have been berthed for the last week waiting out some strong south-easterly winds before heading south.   We have really enjoyed our time here, especally a day trip to Cape Tribulation.  It always feels amazing to come into a marina and the civilisation associated with that, but after a few days we find ourselves yearning for the sea and the wind! We are off tomorrow in some great northerly winds and hope to get to Magnetic Island, off the coast of Townsville, by the end of the week. 

We departed Gove at dawn for our trip across the Gulf of Carpentaria - Stewy's good planning led to an uneventful sail from a weather perspective - flat seas and little wind, so we motor sailed much of the way.  There was heaps of sea life - turtles, seasnakes shedding their skin on the surface, brown boobies, and lots of fish jumping out of the water.   Those fish turned out to be big-eye tuna, delicious for sashimi, and I caught two effortlessly.   The ease of catching these contrasted dramatically with the description in my fishing book - 

".. regarded as one of the most prized gamefish, with its dogged fight and deep circling forcing the angler to fight for ever centimetre of line. "   Well that was bollocks, although they were smaller ones!

We arrived as Seisia, a small community near the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of Bamaga, early in the morning after 3 days at sea.   Seisia is about 20 nautical miles short of Cape York on the Western side, and was a fabulous place to spend a few days waiting for the next weather window to round the Cape.   The big jetty there is a favourite for the local kids and they spent lots of time doing bombies and swimming, despite the crocs that live on the nearby island.   They seemed to know when it was safe to swim, and when it was not!  The locals were extremely friendly and welcoming, and there was a great supermarket to restock our fruit and veggies. 

There is a regular ferry service which runs between Seisia and Thursday Island, and I took the opportunity to join some of the other yachties for a day trip to TI.  The 1 hour journey through the Torres Strait Islands was terrific, and we had a great tour over the island with a local guide, followed by lunch at Australia's most northern pub.  I was enchanted by TI - an amazingly beautiful part of the world with really friendly people.

The cannons at Green Hill Fort were not built to ward off the Japanese during WWII, as we first thought, but in the 1890s in respose to Russian expansion into the Pacific Ocean.  The black  memorial is to Bernard Namok, who designed the beautiful Torres Strait flag, and the Japanese memorial is to the over 700 pearl divers who lost their lives, mostly from decompression illness associated with their diving. 

After 5 nights at Seisia, we departed early for Cape York.  Once again we need to time our passage to align with the best currents.  This meant we anchored just below the Cape and had a few hours to explore before rounding the tip and making our way through Albany passage, on the other side of the Cape. 

Rounding the Cape into the Coral Sea brought clear blue water and much cooler winds, quite a relief from the steamy northern territory and west Cape York area.   But it also brought lots of coral reefs and ship traffic through the narrow marked shipping lanes inside the ribbon reefs.   We quickly learnt to keep out of the way of the large container ships and tankers which when loaded, can throw up quite a wake. 

We arrived at the beautiful Lizard Island at midnight after 2.5 days at sea.  Fortunately one of the other yachts was just ahead of us and advised on a good place to anchor in the dark, among the 30 other boats in the bay.   Lizard Island is home to a very exclusive resort (Kevin Rudd was a guest while we were there!) and is also the northern terminus for the yachts that cruise up and down the Queensland coast during the sailing season.     It was our first opportunity to swim, snorkel and dive in crystal blue water since leaving Exmouth.  

There was a coral reef just a short swim off the back of the boat, on which we snorkelled most days, more so after the national parks authority shot the 2 metre crocodile which had made its way over 15  nautical miles of open sea from the mainland.  On one day, we witnessed this amazing feeding frenzy on a dying giant clam - 6 reef sharks and lots of fish fed on the clam for over an hour. 

The social life on Lizard Island was amazing.  There were drinks on the beach each afternoon and the resort opened its 'staff bar' to yachties three nights a week - a delicious and cheap meal and lots of friendly company!   

 It was hard to leave Lizard Island after our 7 nights there, but move south we must to avoid the cyclone season.  We had a great 24 hour sail to Port Douglas and will shortly be moving south again. 

Given we are moving into the less adventurous, more populated and well known bits of Australia, I am going to put the blog into abeyance, and will used facebook to post some pictures and updates.   I will restart it when (if?) we get to Indonesia next year.

Our plan now is to keep heading south to around the Brisbane area to spend Christmas, and where we will haul the boat for new bottom paint and other jobs some time in the new year.  We are going to head back to Perth to see my lovely sons and other familiy as soon as the borders open, hopefully January/February.   

Sampai jumpa lagi

Naomi