Greetings from Thursday Island

Dear Cracklin Rosie fans


We (being Jim, friend and experienced long-distance sailor Wayne Fletcher and Don) have had a good trip from Cairns to Thursday Island over 10 days (I think), calling in at Cooktown and Lizard Island and sundry bays and coral cays along the way.  We have been favoured with moderate to strong trade winds coming over the stern, which when combined with goose-winged headsail and main have pushed us along at between 6.5 and 8 knots.


Cooktown has an excellent museum dealing with its Indigenous, mining and wartime history, and of course Cook also features - the Endeavour's anchor and one of the cannon are there.  Lizard Island had excellent snorkelling over beautiful coral and untold giant clams.  We had just come back onto the boat when two little reef sharks and a giant cod turned up to say hello.  The other interesting place we called into was Portland Road (or Roads) which consists of about 10 houses and a café that has an excellent reputation, which was unfortunately closed for the day ....  just our luck.


We arrived here yesterday and have spent today reprovisioning (food, fuel and water, plus lemon juice to keep scurvy at bay) for the next leg, being 727 nm across to Darwin, which we hope to achieve in 5 days.  Thursday Island is a pleasant, very tidy and laid-back town of about 4,000 people located across two islands (connected by ferry) and the local people are attractive and friendly.  It would be nice to have spent more time here.


But back to our trip from Cairns.  Having Wayne on board has been great and we have learnt a lot about long-distance sailing from him.  He has also fixed some of our dodgier sheeves and blocks and even climbed the mast to inspect the mysteries that happen up there!  Wayne's other major contribution has been in augmenting our food supply, and after careful choosing of a squid lure, we have caught two mackerel and have enjoyed several great fish meals.  One of them came in at about 8 kg and has so far fed us for three meals, with at least one more to go.  We are getting more confident and have made minimal meat purchases here, with an expectation of at least one more mackerel (or perhaps a dolphinfish) to get us through to Darwin.


We continue to have Adventures.  We had a battle getting to an anchorage in the Hope Islets located amongst coral reefs, but after getting the anchor secured (which we checked by diving on it), Wayne and Don swam ashore and walked around a little well vegetated coral island, looking for stranded sailors.  Getting out the next morning was also rather stressful, but we managed to get out without incident.  We were not so lucky when we anchored north of Lizard Island at a large bay called Bathurst Bay.  We had howling winds of - we think - up to 40 kts, and at about midnight we realised that the anchor was dragging.  After three men in their underwear peered at the GPS, and blundered around in the dark on the deck, we managed to get the boat to hold by letting out the remainder of the anchor chain.  We had a similar experience at the Piper Reef, where after going ashore for some snorkelling off Farmer Island, we noticed that the island seemed to be moving away from the boat.  Panic!  It was back to the boat via dinghy and re-anchoring in better, shallower ground. 


We have done our first overnight sail, which each crew member doing a three hour shift through the night.  It all went very well, with the plotter and chart providing assurance that we knew where on the planet we were, and also where all the bits we could bump into were - definitely important info.  We wore harnesses attached to the boat throughout, which is essential safety behaviour!


What else?  Yesterday, we had a great sail yesterday between Escape River (just south of Cape York) via the Albany Passage to Cape York and then here to Thursday Island.  We went through the Albany passage (between Albany Island and the mainland) on the flood tide in light winds at up to 9 kts, and admired the great scenery.  We then went ashore at Cape York to join untold grey nomads in walking to the furthest point north - again great views over islands and nearby beaches - with our boat looking very smart anchored safely below the Cape over a white sandy beach.  We have seen quite a lot of turtles, one dugong, one crocodile, lots of dolphins playing under our bow, and some high-leaping fish giving the bait fish a hard time. 


Alright, that is probably enough for now - we will report in again from Darwin.


regards


Don, Jim and Wayne.

Greetings from Cairns

Dear Cracklin Rosie fans

Greetings from Cairns, which welcomed us yesterday (16 July 2015) with absolutely no fanfare – harrumph! 

We had about a week in Townsville getting some sail repairs done and also collecting Jim’s daughter Jenny who joined us for the run to Cairns.  We had a good time – catching up with Townsville friends over dinner – and making new friends amongst the yachty fraternity.  Having access to Ian Watson’s car was a huge help – thankyou Ian and Louise Watson.  As well as the boat maintenance type activities, we went to the excellent Museum of Tropical Queensland, and the Aquarium which was also very good.  We became good friends with Michael and Ann Trimble who were moored near us in the marina, and shared meals, beers and bottles of red.  Ann shamed us by having table mats when we had dinner with them, and so we now have table mats – of a fashion.  Michael is an ex-ship’s master and provided us with many interesting tales of life at sea.  He also explained celestial navigation to us over a beer, but alas, we may need further instruction. 

Last Friday, with Jenny Crossland on board, we left and just sailed the 10 nm over to Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island which is a very pleasant anchorage.  As usual there were plenty of other boats there!  From there we went to Little Pioneer Bay at Orpheus Island, having seen two whales en route.  Little Pioneer Bay is another lovely spot, and after ringing the next door James Cook University Research Station to receive assurance that there was nothing nasty in the water that would bite us or sting us, Jenny and Don took off for some very good snorkelling over a fringing coral reef about 50 m from the boat. 

From there, we had a pleasant sail past Hinchinbrook Island and then through the Family Islands to Dunk Island.  On this leg, we were involved in a genuine emergency, being the first contact to pick up a radio message from a man on a houseboat in a creek on the other side of Hinchinbrook Island who said his wife was missing!  We then immediately informed Ingham Voluntary Marine Rescue and for the next 40 minutes, we acted as the go-between for messages for and from the man (who was obviously very distressed) to and from the shore-based authorities, who by now included the police, in confirming details and the man’s location.  Because of the situation, the police were anxious to talk to Jim and Don, and while at Dunk Island, we were collected by the Police and taken over to the Police Station at Mission Beach (about 3 nm from Dunk Island) to provide separate formal statements.  We were relieved when we compared our statements after returning to the boat that it seemed we had been involved in the same incident!  There was a report about the missing woman in Wednesday’s Cairns Post, and sadly she is still missing, with the Police still searching and investigating.  It does not look good ….

From Dunk Island, we had a long day motor-sailing to Fitzroy Island (just off Cairns).  The weather was great for the trip, although the impact of the cold snap even reached here, with jumpers being de rigeur all day!  Fitzroy Island is simply wonderful!  It is a hilly island, with rainforest vegetation, white corally beaches, crystal clear water and beautiful fringing coral reefs.  We anchored very comfortably just off the beach, and the weather was ideal.  On Wednesday, we spent the day variously bush walking, snorkelling (excellent), swimming, sitting in the bar reading a book and having dinner with yachty friends who we met in Townsville.  The coral is absolutely wondrous in its diversity, and both Jenny and Don had close encounters with turtles.  Don sent a photo of the lovely scene to his family, and daughter Helen responded immediately with a photo of her in-tray at work! 

Yesterday we made the short trek into Cairns (about 15 nm) where we have today picked up Wayne Fletcher for the journey across to Darwin and we will say farewell to Jenny who is flying home to Perth on Sunday.  We will then head north again via the Low Islets, Cooktown, Lizard Island, the Flinders Islands, Lloyd Bay, Morris Island, Margaret Bay and other places, the names of which we have forgotten, to be in Torres Strait at the end of the month.  We must go ashore at Cape York just so that we can say we have done it.  From there we anticipate being in Darwin on 8^th August.

Because services are rather limited going north, we have done a huge shop today, although the menu on board is rather limited.  We have ascertained that Wayne is happy with curried egg sandwiches for lunch and that he likes spaghetti bolognaise ….  Bangers and mash are also a local favourite.  However, with Wayne’s expert advice, we are expecting Big Things in the fishing department, having had no success at all up to date. 

Ok that is just about enough for now.  Given that communications will be a bit dodgy from here on we have activated our satphone.  The number is 0011 8707 7611 5660.  We will not have it on all the time, but if you ring you can leave a message and we will check it at least twice a day. 

Ok – next stop Cape York!

Regards

Don and Jim

Greetings from Townsville

Dear Cracklin Rosie fans

Greetings from Townsville.  When we last reported in, we had just arrived in Hamilton Island with Bev and Ken Mullin in tow, waiting for Ken’s partner Janette Spencer to arrive.  Hamilton Island is Rottnest Island as we would not like it to be, with full-on large resorts, a comfortable marina, a very expensive grog shop and untold little golf buggies running around that one can hire.  However, it does have a good bakery, better ablution facilities than can be found on Cracklin Rosie, better coffee than Moccona instant, and $10 cocktails while watching the sunset. 

After Janette arrived, the five of us had a short sail to Cid Harbour, which is a very safe anchorage between Cid and Whitsunday Islands, where we stayed the night, along with about 17 other boats.  We dined alfresco on a gourmet meal prepared and cooked by Janette on our hanging-over –the-stern-barbecue, based on what scraps we could find in our larder and some items from the Hamilton Island General Store.  Janette and Don slept outside in the cockpit, given that things are pretty crowded down below with five on board.  The next day we sailed across to Whitehaven Bay, which boasts a very white 5 km long sandy beach, and joined untold tourist boats, other yachties, and two seaplanes who arrived for the Whitehaven Beach Run.  We watched this event until the tide had turned to allow us to get through the narrow Solway Passage and back to Hamilton Island.  The trip back was rather rough, but the team held it all together, if you get my drift.  At a rather critical time, the engine decided to play up, and after a lot of head scratching back at Hamilton Island, Jim and the local mechanic found that all the fuel pipes had been incorrectly fitted in Hervey Bay.  It remains a mystery to Those Who Know About These Things how the engine had been working at all.  However, all is now fixed.

On arrival back in Hamilton Island, we met Helen Burnside and husband Mike Cleaver, who had come over to replace Ken and Janette.  After effecting the changeover on the 21^st, and the aforementioned engine repairs, we (Jim, Bev, Helen, Mike, Don), plus a satisfactory amount of food and refreshments and far too much luggage set off for a circumnavigation of Whitsunday Island, with overnight anchorages at Cid Harbour, Nara Inlet on Hook Island, Cateran Bay on Border Island and Whitehaven Bay.  Mike and Don tried sleeping outside in the cockpit three nights in a row, each time being chased inside by rain in the middle of the night.  Not happy! 

Cid harbour was even busier this time, with 38 boats anchored across the expanse of Sawmill Bay.  Helen, Mike and Don did some exploring ashore, and Mike swam back to the boat, just because he could!  Nara Inlet was less crowded and we copped a wind squall as we entered which buggered up the headsail furler.  However, smart work by Jim resulted in a repair and after looking at some Aboriginal cave paintings in the morning, we pressed on to Cateran Bay (Border Island) through the quite narrow Hook Passage.  Despite having been told it was not a good idea to tow the dinghy, we towed the dinghy until the painter (explanation for landlubbers – rope connecting dinghy and boat) came adrift from the dinghy, which was then seen floating about 30 m behind Cracklin Rosie.  After some heroics by Mike, Jim and Don, we managed to recover the dinghy, get the outboard off it and haul it onto the foredeck.  This incident has been added to the many Lessons in Cruising that we are having every day!  We did some enjoyable snorkelling over a fringing coral reef at Cateran Bay, and again at Chalkies Beach the next day, while anchoring overnight again at Whitehaven Bay.  Finally, we returned to Hamilton Island, having completed our circumnavigation.  While not in the same league as Flinder’s circumnavigation of Australia completed in a leaking sailing ship on 1803, we did feel some sense of achievement.  After saying farewell to Bev, Helen and Mike last Sunday (28^th), Jim and Don reprovisioned the boat, and set off for Townsville on Monday 29^th. 

Since then, we have had four very good sailing/ motor-sailing days into Townsville (arriving yesterday afternoon 2^nd July).  We covered 150 nm, with overnight anchoring at Gloucester Passage, Cape Upstart (named by Cook) and Cape Bowling Green (yes that is right – God knows who named that!).  Today, we have had morning coffee with Louise Watson (spouse of ex-Ag Dept rangeland hero Ian Watson who is kite-surfing in Cocos) and her mother Pat.  Louise has kindly lent us Ian’s car, and we have since made a modest contribution to Townsville’s economy getting haircuts ($15 ea!) and purchasing some more boat stuff.  We look forward to shouting Louise and Pat a feed at the Yacht Club over the weekend.  We are ahead of schedule and will be here for about a week while waiting to collect our next volunteer crew person in Jenny Crossland who is arriving here on the 7^th, and after she has checked out Townsville, we will be on our way for Cairns, via some promising looking anchorages.  In Cairns, we will be collecting experienced ocean sailor Wayne Fletcher, who will be with us until we reach Darwin in early August.

Now – on the subject of the blog – we are still having trouble with uplifting photos through our phone hotspots, and so in response to overwhelming requests by no fewer than one person, we will start a Facebook as well a blog, hoping that it is easier to get the photos into Facebook.  However, the text will be the same in both places.

Ok, that is enough for now – we will soon be going over to have a sundown drink with a nearby boatie couple and then home for dinner.  It is all go here in Townsville. 

Regards

Don and Jim