Cape Bedford - Lizard Island

We managed to get through the gas drama by stripping the boat bit by bit to find the culprit which was setting off the alarm.  It can be set off by almost anything including hairspray and other seemingly innocent items.  No Luck. Ian then located the sensor and found if he blew into it, the alarm stopped . . . . momentarily.  Hmmm, if blowing sort of works, maybe sucking is better. It was and we were on our merry way.

We enjoyed our solitude at Cape Bedford and woke to a glorious sunrise.















These startling white Silica sand dunes look like snow fields from a distance.  We followed this coastal scenery from Cape Bedford to Cape Flattery where we left the coast for Lizard Is.

IAN SAW ANOTHER WHALE!  And this time so did I!

A Humpback Breaching

WOW!!!!!!!

We had a great day sailing with 15 to 20 knot winds.  Wasted no time and grabbed our cameras, got the dinghy into the water and were climbing the hill on Lizard Is to Cook's Lookout which is 358m high.  This is where Cook climbed to find a passage out of the reef.  Apparently, when he did reach the outer reef, he couldn't get back in fast enough because the surf was horrendous there.  This is where the continental shelf drops off from around 300m deep to around 2000m.  








The view from up there is spectacular. 

Cook should have had a camera.

The plants on this island are amazing.  Early Golden Orchids were starting to bloom alongside mushrooms which didn't look edible but were very nice to look at.  The orchid plants 

themselves were higher than me (165cm).

At the top there were an odd combination of plants all growing from one rock. Bright orange and bright yellow lichen painted the rock from which grew a Golden Orchid festooned with miniature  Old Man's Beard.

The next day we took a walk past the area where Mary Watson had her cottage.  There is a large cleared area bordered by the beach on one side and mangroves on the other. Beyond the mangroves is a particularly beautiful pandanus grove which is a sacred area to the Dingaal people who were the traditional custodians to Jiigurru (Lizard Is).

You can just see the clearing on the left hand side of the picture with a border of trees and white sands of the beach.  It must have seemed an idyllic lifestyle before Mary met her tragic fate.  Google up Mary Watson/Lizard Is if you don't know the story.

 Back into the dinghy the following day we saw this blue Osprey fishing.  We had noticed some of the birds here look blue and put it down to the turquoise water reflecting off their white feathers.

A Reef Egret spear fishing.

It is now Sat 28 July and the wind is at it again.  We were going to head to Howick Is today, then on to Cape Melville or to Flinders Islands (Qld) the next day. We'll try that tomorrow.  

Will be out of reception for a while.

Strong winds

We spent about 4 days at Hope Isles.  The wind had changed dramatically from very light 10 Knots to about  30 knots and stayed that way.  To windy for fishing and snorkelling.  We made it over to the island once and had a great time stretching our legs and taking photos.     

The Donovan Ranges are at the northern end of the Daintree Rainforest.  In the background you can see the Craggy outline of Mt Pieter Botte 959m

 A few on the residents of Hope Isles.  The colourful one on the right is a Sacred Kingfisher.

 Ian taking photos with Winkali in the background.








Below I managed to get an in focus shot of a Crested Tern in flight.

This "baby" giant clam left in the dry at low tide, seemed to be winking at me.

Me reorganizing our stores so we could find things.

Ian took this photo between Hope Isles and Cooktown.  The wind had created enough swell to create a spectacular spray over the bow as the ship went through.





We're trying to leave Cooktown now, but for some reason our  gas alarm has come on which means that we can't use gas for our cooking till we can work out why it's doing it.  We may have to spend another day in Cooktown.  Frustrating - especially for Ian who's trying to figure out what's wrong while I'm writing this.

Light Winds

We woke to the beautiful tranquil scene of Low Isles on a calm day.






                                                                                                                                                                                                 And watched the lighthouse keepers hard at work preparing for the onslaught of the tourists boats.




While we watched the lighthouse keepers, an Osprey kept his eye on us, after all, we were on his yacht!

A Brown Booby was busy trying to spot fish for breakfast.

 We decided the winds were too light to sail to Hope Isles as we had planned earlier and decided to sail to Snapper Is, about 8 nautical miles from Low Isles.



We took the dinghy over to the island to do some exploring and Ian found a dangerous shell and managed to overpower it. I was safe.

This lovely piece of coral showed itself in the low tide pools.

Our lucky omen, the Sea Eagle flew overhead.  We had a great day.

Departure Day

Today was Departure Day.  After a late night and very early morning, we miraculously managed to depart.  A minor drama occured when Ian discovered our very full water tank had emptied itself into the bilge.  Not finding any leaks in the tank we almost thought we would have to dismantle the boat to find the problem.  It turned out we had been over-enthusiastic and overfilled the tank which caused the breather valve to syphon out our precious water into the bilge.

Whew!!!!

A short trip for our first day.  From Half Moon Bay (Cairns) to Low Isles.

Took some photos, drank some wine, a light dinner. . . . .

We're on  our way.

 You don't actually have to get in the water to see what's in there.

 Terns turning.

                                 

An Osprey preening.

Moving out of home

It is one thing to decide to sell everything and go on an adventure.  The reality is that you have to sell everything! Ok, the decision isn't hard, but if you're not much of a salesman, you have to either sell everything  very very cheap or not at all.  We decided to go for the cheap sell. It worked :)  and we made some people very happy.

Now we are cleaning cleaning cleaning our rental.  We desperately want all our bond back to make up the deficit of our cheap selling.
The more we clean, the more items we find to. . .  sell? dispose of more likely. Now it's costing a fortune in Tip fees.

Well, we laugh at money. . . . .   ha,  and we laugh at cleaning and organizing . . . . .ha, ha.

WE'RE GOING SAILING!

How it started

This is Winkali.
Last year Ian and I decided to buy a yacht.  We would sell our "things" give up our day jobs and sail to far off places before we got too old.

We found Winkali in Yamba and sailed her to Cairns last December.
Since then, Ian and I have added equipment and stuff to get her ready for the big event.





















Of course, if one decides to go off sailing, it helps if one knows how to sail. . . . . .

This is Ian, who knows how to sail :)                                                        

Ian doesn't like having his photo taken so he always pulls faces if he knows I'm taking his photo.


Just to even things out, here is a photo of me.  I also don't like having my photo taken but I love taking photos.

but it isn't all fun and games.












We are now in the process of disposing of all non-essential items such as cars, trailers and cement mixers and buying other essential stuff such as fish hooks, triangle shaped sheets (to fit our boat shaped bunk) and lots of rice in case we get lost in a storm and have to live off survival rations.