Heading South

Sunrise at Low Isles

I'm writing this blog on day 12 of our big trip south.  We are anchored off Normanby Island after finally leaving Fitzroy Island this morning.  

I can hear some of you think "Geez, they haven't got too far".  Well, we have good excuses.  

The Great White Hunter had to put his fishing reel in for repairs before we left, so we decided to sail to Fitzroy Island while the northerly winds were blowing and wait there for a few days till it was ready.

We should have known that things in for repair are never ready by the date they tell you. 

 Five days later, we sailed back to Cairns to collect the repaired reel, have a shower and return to the boat which we anchored in Cairns for the day.  

It was then back to Fitzroy Is to wait for the next northerly wind (or less strong south-easterly).  We had missed our good weather window while waiting for the reel.  

That evening, Ian decided to try out the repaired reel.  He remarked on how easy it was to pull in a fish while we were at anchor, rather than under sail.  I remarked it was much easier since he had no fish to pull in.  He went quiet for a while.  I stuck my head up to see what he was doing.

A CORAL TROUT!

It was beautiful.  Almost too beautiful to eat.  

Lucky it looked just as good on the plate.

It tasted every bit as good as it looked.

Just to prove that it wasn't just luck, Ian caught another one the following evening.


During this time, my brother, Perrie, was visiting from Tasmania.  He decided to pay us a visit and jumped on the Fitzroy Island Ferry.

Perrie looking for Coral Trout

By now, we had been at Fitzroy for over a week.

Being quiet people, we tend to keep to ourselves mostly.  

Perrie isn't a quiet person. Extrovert is not a strong enough word to describe him.  By the end of the day, he had talked to most of the population of Fitzroy Island and introduced us to our anchoring neighbours.

The days drew on.  We walked to the summit of Fitzroy again.

Photo by Ian

Ian managed to get an action shot of this skink catching a March Fly.  Good on you Skink.

Photo by Ian

Among the many lizards on this island is the Yellow-spotted monitor.  We found this rotund fellow several times scrounging around the camping area.

Photo by Ian

Me getting interesting photos

We had covered all the accessible parts of the island by now.  The wind hadn't changed yet so we had to be inventive.  Ian photographed me taking photos of froth and pumice floating through this tidal rock pool.  (He had some very similar photos to mine)

froth

pumice

Some of the island residents came out to see what on earth I was doing.

A trawler heads off to work while we sit and enjoy the sunset                             photo by Ian

Finally, the weather report gave us the good news that the strong south-easterlies would ease off.  We left early the next morning to find they hadn't.

Well, we're at Normanby Island now.  The Frankland Islands tour boat has left with its weary but happy passengers. 

It's time for me to finish my beer, chips and this blog.

Cheers

Fitzroy Island

Before we go to Fitzroy, I have to include this photo of an Osprey whose eyes were larger than its belly when it caught this fish at Normanby Island.  Ian took this photo after wandering off by himself when he got sick of waiting around for me while I was taking photos in rock pools.

Ospreys have very powerful and sharp talons.  They have been known to drown after locking into a fish that is too large to carry.

On route to Fitzroy Is, we stopped at High Is, the northernmost of the Frankland Group.  Our anchorage bible 'Going Troppo', tells us that the diving is spectacular around here.  We were curious to look as we thought the other islands were hard to beat.

It is a case of the quick and the dead as far as moorings go, and we found that the only mooring was taken.  We found a good spot a reasonable depth and dropped our anchor.  As usual, we spend a few anxious minutes watching for clues that our anchor is dragging.  Clues such as a grinding noise as the anchor drags over the bottom, or the island whizzing past and disappearing into the distance.

We didn't have to wait too long before we noticed that the island was receding, so we upped that anchor and continued on to Fitzroy.

We had better luck at Fitzroy, not with a mooring, but at least our anchor held.  

As it is only 30km from Cairns, it is a popular day trip for both tourists who can access the island by ferry, and with local boat owners.

It is one of the larger islands in the area, covering 339 hectares.  Tourists are able to stay on the island which has a resort and a small camping ground.  

Also on the island is a turtle rehabilitation centre and a lighthouse, numerous walking tracks and coral reef surrounds.

Time to put on the snorkelling gear, we are getting addicted.  This turtle seemed quite unafraid of me taking his photo.  Maybe he is one of the rescued turtles.

This movie-let goes for 2.45 min and uses 8mb

As you can see from the movie, I had lots of fun with my camera.  I felt bad that Ian didn't have an underwater camera.  I needn't have felt bad though.  While I was down there, Ian popped up next to me. . . . .  with a camera? ? ?

He found it amongst the coral.  Someone must have lost it while boating or swimming.  It was a good find but we had to do the right thing and try to return it to its owner. We called the resort to let them know that we (Ian) had found a camera.  We had no response from the owner.  I doubt that anyone would report a lost camera if it was lost in the ocean.  

Ian has an underwater camera too now!







It was almost full moon that night, so we decided to follow the walking track to the old lighthouse.  
It was good exercise walking up the steep track, but we had to come back the following day to see it properly.  

Like most lighthouses, it has now been replaced by a solar powered beacon which is located on Little Fitzroy Is, a short distance from the main island.

I'm being obliging on this trip by adding a few photos of myself that Ian has taken.  The above one is the approach to the lighthouse, the one on the right is standing off a short distance to the lighthouse.  You can see the ocean in the distance.  The view over the Great Barrier Reef is fantastic.  What a life for a lighthouse keeper.  I suppose that could be said for any lighthouse keeper.

After exploring the lighthouse area, we continue up the track to the summit of Fitzroy Is which is 269m high.  You can see over the resort area, in the above photo, to where the boats are anchored.  Whew, ours is still there!  In the distance is Cape Grafton, part of the mainland coast.

We followed the path down the other side of the hill, feeling sorry for the people we passed going up.  We were experienced and had left at first light while the day was still cool.  They hadn't.

We kept a lookout for Major Skinks, which we had seen the day before on one of those rare occasions that we didn't have our cameras with us.  They had been numerous so we weren't too perturbed - till today when we couldn't find any.

Taken by Ian

But we did find quite a few of these colourful little Rainbow Skinks.







It was time to head back to Port Douglas on a brisk south-easterly.  We made good time.  We must have impressed this Black Noddy who swooped in and decided this would be a good place to land and have a bit of shut-eye.  

He features at the end of my     movie-let have a sleep and rocking to and fro on the waves.  He let Ian pick him up to relocate him to a better spot on the boat, but was quite happy to sit there on Ian's hand instead.




We're back in Cairns now, getting ready to sail again this week.  

We would like to sail south for now, and explore the east coast, but it's up to the weather man which direction we'll head off to first.