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After a well-earned break at Townsville, it was time to continue our voyage south back to Airlie Beach. We had 2 long days ahead of us and the forecast for fresh 20 knot headwinds meant it was going to be a bumpy ride. Once again we wanted to arrive at our destination before sunset, so we departed the Townsville marina just before 5:00am. We set sail soon after and made good speed through the darkness with Townsville in our wake.

Here is the same scene with some light so you can see Catherine at the helm.

Once we left the shelter of the bay, we found ourselves in 15-20 knot headwinds and 1.5-2.5 metre waves. There was no sunrise to greet us, just a dull, cloudy dawn. It was a bumpy, wet ride. Some of the bigger waves broke over the bow and washed over the boat, sending water pouring into the cockpit and out the transom. It was inevitable that leaks would be revealed and it became wet inside as well as outside the boat.

Hard to believe but we actually enjoyed the challenge of the tougher conditions. It was also our best day for spotting sea life: 1 turtle, 2 dolphins and 3 whales. We rushed on deck when Dan yelled “Whales!” We missed seeing one whale breaching just 50 metres away but were fortunate to get a close-up view of a whale that came up for air next to the boat only 10 metres away. Its tail gracefully arched into the air as it dived alongside us. It was spectacular.

We made good progress and reached our overnight destination by 4:30pm. Upstart Bay was well protected from the wind and waves so we had a calm evening at anchor. Dan and Gig had a quick swim. We enjoyed drinks and nibbles watching a beautiful sunset. Dinner soon followed and then early to bed because, once more, we were going to weigh anchor before dawn.

We still had headwinds for our final day but by 5:00am the wind and waves had moderated. The weather continued to improve throughout the day and by lunchtime we had terrific cruising conditions. It was still going to be a long 12 hour day so we had to optimise the wind shifts to maximise our speed to windward. We had been doing this for several days now as our southbound journey was always into the wind. Our on-board analysts, Dan and Gigi, applied trigonometry and wave propagation theory to work out whether we should keep heading off-shore, tack in-shore or motor directly into the wind. The brains trust did an excellent job and we arrived at Airlie Beach ahead of schedule. Yay, go maths!

We celebrated the homecoming from our Lizard Island voyage with Carpe Diem at a nice restaurant in Airlie Beach. We had lots of laughs reminiscing about our adventure. Some of the highlights we recalled included:

• the joy of sailing, particularly on warm, sunny days knowing that it was a cold winter back in Melbourne;
• hiking to Cook’s Lookout on Lizard Island, retracing his steps of 247 years ago;
• snorkeling at Lizard Island, seeing not just many colourful tropical fish but also scary reef sharks;
• seeing several whales, some of which appeared on cue with Catherine’s “wailing” calls;
• the quintessential tropical beauty of Blue Lagoon on Lizard Island;
• the camaraderie of sailing in tandem;
• arriving at beautiful tropical islands like Orpheus and Dunk and exploring the reefs and beaches; and
• marvelling at awesome sunrises (Lizard Island) and sunsets (Upstart Bay).

Thanks Dan and Gigi for being a part of our southbound voyage from Lizard Island. We couldn’t have done it without you! Enjoy the next stage of your holiday on Hamilton and South Molle Islands. We look forward to having you back on board in a couple of weeks.

After carefully watching the weather forecasts, we left Lizard Island on Monday 26 June and were relieved to get reasonably good conditions. It’s quite possible for strong 25-30 knot trade winds to blow for days and even weeks on end, trapping boats in the sheltered bay at Lizard Island. Fortunately, we had winds of only 15-20 knots and the seas were mostly about 1 metre, conditions not unlike those we might encounter on Port Phillip.

Monday and Tuesday were long days sailing into the wind, from sunrise to sunset. Our progress was slower than our north-bound voyage. Tiring but it gave us more time to marvel at the rugged coastline of this part of the world. We stayed at Cooktown on Monday night and Port Douglas on Tuesday night. After 9 days on the boat, we enjoyed refreshing showers, dinners out and quiet nights tied securely in marinas.

On Wednesday we left Port Douglas at dawn for a relatively short 6 hour trip to Cairns. Dan and Gigi spent the afternoon sightseeing and in the evening caught up with Gigi’s childhood nanny. Catherine and I spent the afternoon shopping for more anchor chain! We finally found what we needed in the third shop and were trying to work out how to get 100kg of anchor chain back to the boat when David called unexpectedly. As luck would have it, he was in Cairns, too, continuing his family holiday, so we loaded the chain into his rental car and he helped us load it onto Debonnaire.

Thursday’s voyage from Cairns to Dunk Island was the longest leg, 79 nautical miles (147km) into the wind. To make sure we arrived during daylight, we left Cairns at 3:30am. It was a windy day with showers, so we were feeling quiet weary and ready for bed by the time we anchored at Dunk Island at 5:30pm. We originally planned to have a lay-day at Dunk Island to recovery after such a tiring trip. However, we were expecting strong winds in a couple of days so we decided to push on while the weather was still good. Friday morning was another early start, up at 5:30am to weigh anchor by 6:00am and head to Orpheus Island.

Come Saturday morning, the weather was better than expected so we decided to take the opportunity to move onto Townsville and spend today having a break. Carpe Diem preferred to stay at Orpheus Island for Saturday and travelled to Townsville today instead. We had a terrific time in Townsville, enjoying dinners and brunch out at nice restaurants; sightseeing, including the Townsville Aquarium; and relaxing on the boat in the marina.

Everyone on board is well and enjoying the cruising holiday.  So far, we have seen 2 whales, a turtle and a sea snake, all of which raised much excitement.

Tomorrow, it will be another early start. We have 2 more long days into the south-easterly trade winds to reach Airlie Beach, the end of our Lizard Island cruise.

(I had hoped to post updates of our voyage more frequently but the combination of early departures, late arrivals and poor internet access at sea has left less time for correspondence.)

After nearly losing The Endeavour and all her crew on a reef, Lt James Cook needed to find a route out of the Great Barrier Reef into open ocean. While repairs continued at Cooktown, Cook went 20 nautical miles offshore to Lizard Island and from the mountain top was able to see a safe passage through the coral reefs.  We also climbed the mountain on Lizard Island to Cook’s Lookout, a 90 minute hike to the 358m peak. It marked the end of our “pilgrimage” following Cook’s voyage up the east coast of Australia, from Point Hicks in Victoria, past Botany Bay in NSW and finally to Lizard Island in far north Queensland.

It has been a 2,100 nautical mile (3,900 km) voyage from Melbourne to Lizard Island. It has taken Paul and Phil two years to prepare and we’re so pleased to have reached our northern-most destination, overcoming challenges and having plenty of laughs throughout our adventure. We celebrated with Carpe Diem—Paul, Helen, Cathy and Harry—but they forgot to tell us the theme was “island wear”.

We had a quick trip from Cooktown to Lizard Island on Sunday 18 June. We anchored in Watsons Bay next to the resort and were immediately greeted by reef sharks circling the boat. Plans to swim off the back of the boat were cancelled.

Having travelled for 9 days, we were looking forward to relaxing at anchor for the week. We sat on the beach, read our books, swam in the bay, snorkelled to look at the colourful tropical fish in the coral, hiked up the mountain and walked to Blue Lagoon on the other side of the Island. The warm, tropical beauty was in stark contrast to winter in Melbourne.

This part of the world is dominated the by south-easterly trade winds. Not until Lizard Island did I appreciate how strong and relentless the trade winds are. And the mountains on the Island seemed to funnel the winds through Watsons Bay in particular, often blowing at 20-30 knots. This meant that we couldn’t sit at the back of the boat for happy hour or sail out to the Cod Hole, a famous dive spot on the outer Barrier Reef. It also tested our anchor, which had trouble holding in the strongest winds. We had to set our anchor, or a second anchor, 17 times during our stay because it dragged: not much fun at 3:00am in pitch darkness and howling winds. (Sorry Rosie, that wasn’t in the brochure.)

We bid farewell to David and Rosie at Lizard Island.  They had cruised north with us for 12 days from Airlie Beach—thanks guys, we thoroughly enjoyed having you on board. As their light aircraft flew back to Cairns they would have had sensational views of the Great Barrier Reef. We then welcomed Dan and Gigi who flew in to Lizard Island on Saturday 24 June to join us for the cruise south back to Airlie Beach. They were able to spend a day enjoying what Lizard Island has to offer before we set sail south.

(Sorry for the delay posting this log of our stay at Lizard Island.  Mobile internet access was unreliable.)

It’s amazing that Lt James Cook travelled as far as he did up the east coast without running aground on uncharted waters. His luck ran out in far north Queensland where he struck a reef and sustained significant damage. He was able to free the Endeavour and make it to a safe inlet for repairs at a place which is now known as Cooktown. He landed on 17 June 1770; how fitting that we arrived today on 17 June.

We left Port Douglas at 6:00am this morning in flat water and calm conditions. We followed dramatic mountains along the coast, passing famous places like the Daintree Forest and Cape Tribulation.

The winds increased during the day to 25 knots. Fortunately, the wind continued to blow from the southeast and we had a quick downhill run to Cooktown. We arrived about 3:30pm and had time to look around town before happy hour and dinner at a pub.

We even had time for some fishing. A school of enormous gropers are regularly fed at the marina so we joined in the spectacle.

Tomorrow we depart for Lizard Island. We are very excited about reaching our final destination. I hope to continue updating this log but we might not have mobile coverage so there might not be any posts for about 10 days.

Just a quick post while still within mobile range to update our movements.

Thursday was a lay-day stopover in Cairns. Busy buying provisions and servicing the boats before pushing further north. Although not a restful break, we did enjoy some good restaurants ashore.

On Friday we travelled to Port Douglas. Just a short trip, arrived at 1:00pm and had time to wander around town and relax on the boat.

On Saturday we head to Cooktown which will be a long day on the water.

Mobile communications are likely to be more difficult in this remote northern region of Australia.

Standby for updates to this log entry.

Debonnaire out.

It was a big day today, 79 nautical miles (146 km) from Dunk Island to Cairns. We were up at 5:30am to weigh anchor by 6:00am while it was still dark. It was so beautiful at that hour looking over the calm, peaceful anchorage.

We had breakfast along the way and thanks to Chef David we had delicious savoury French toast with bacon.

The weather started off pleasant but became more windy in the afternoon, reaching 20-25 knots. The seas started to build but we were quite comfortable on Debonnaire because we were travelling downwind. It was cool and we had to take shelter inside when there were a couple of passing showers–everyone except Rosie who was driving the boat!

We followed the mountainous coastline along a relatively straight course. We had good speed, often around 8-9 knots, and took almost 11 hours to reach Cairns. When not at the helm, we spent our time relaxing, doing things like reading, snoozing, splicing ropes and watching the scenery. David took aerial photos from his kite, like the following one showing Carpe Diem and Debonnaire travelling in tandem.

We had a delicious dinner tonight at a seafood restaurant. Cairns has so many restaurants abuzz with lots of people, particularly in the tourist areas along the foreshore.

Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to sleeping in and spending the day in Cairns.

Saw our first whales today! We weren’t expecting to see whales until a bit later in the season so we were excited to see a mother and calf just off our course lolling about and splashing their fins.

We were on our way from Orpheus Island to Dunk Island just off Mission Beach. A relatively short day, just 49 nautical miles (91 km). Most of the day we had a 15-20 knot southeasterly breeze from behind, making it a comfortable and fast cruise. The wind faded away in the afternoon and we motored the last few miles to reach Dunk Island just before 3:00pm. We anchored at the resort which is still closed since Cyclone Yasi in 2011. We relaxed on board, reading and taking in the beautiful view. Dave launched his kite and took the following photo of Debonnaire at Dunk Island.

We had a bit of everything today. With only a short sail from Magnetic Island to Orpheus Island, we had time in the afternoon for some shore leave.

We departed Magnetic Island at 7:00am as the sun began to shine on the mountains surrounding Townsville. The day promised sunny skies, warm weather, fair winds and flat seas. We started in a gentle 10 knot breeze which soon freshened to 15-20 knots. It was terrific reaching conditions for Carpe Diem and Debonnaire to speed along at 8-10 knots. We got a blast of wind at 25-30 knots and even with a reef in the mainsail we maintained good speeds around 8 knots and passed other cruising boats. All on board loved the sailing conditions.

The winds shifted later in the morning and we took the opportunity to fly the spinnaker. The winds eased as we sailed between the Palm Isles and eventually we had to douse the spinnaker and motor the rest of the way to Hazard Bay at Orpheus Island.

Debonnaire and Carpe Diem had the bay to themselves. We anchored carefully to avoid the reefs. We then launched our tender to explore the bay. David and Rosie walked along the secluded beach and found lots of wildlife, including oysters, clams, stingrays and small fish. Catherine also explored the shallows and Phil went snorkelling in the deeper water to look at the coral.

Back on the boat, we relaxed in the warm late afternoon sun. Carpe Diem visited us for drinks and we shared stories of the day’s fun.

Catherine and Rosie prepared a delicious dinner of Moroccan chicken, cous cous and salad.

Afterwards, we marvelled at the stars in the clear night sky and watched the moon rise on our peaceful anchorage.

Another awesome day sailing to Magnetic Island today. Although cool and overcast, we had a following breeze in the morning that increased to a 20 knot reach around the middle of the day. David, Rosie, Catherine and I took turns driving the boat. It was great fun scooting along at 8-10 knots. David claimed the top speed of 10.5 knots.

We arrived at Magnetic Island at 4:00pm and were welcomed by the friendly marina staff. We washed the boat to clean off ash that covered the decks when we sailed through a plume of smoke from a large bush fire south of Townsville. We freshened up and then went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant. We’re staying on Magnetic Island for just tonight and tomorrow we head off to Orpheus Island.

David & Rosie arrived in Airlie Beach Friday evening and we were soon off to dinner with Paul, Helen, Harry and Cathy from Carpe Diem. It was a fun dinner and everyone was excited in anticipation of our next major voyage. In the morning, we were going to start our 9 day, 460 nautical mile cruise north from Airlie Beach to Lizard Island.

The first leg of the voyage from Airlie Beach to Upstart Bay was going to be a long, 11 hour day. We didn’t want to arrive late and set the anchor in the dark, so we decided to leave just before dawn at 6:00am. We quietly slipped out of Abell Point Marina and made our way north as the dawn sky began to get lighter. We enjoyed light winds and flat seas.

 

During the day we had an opportunity to fly our spinnaker. The wind increased to 15-20 knots and we were comfortably doing 8-10 knots. It was a sensational downhill run for a couple of hours.

The coastline was dramatic with imposing headlands and mountains further inland. Cape Upstart was a beautiful, rocky point. In the photo below you can see Carpe Diem passing the headland.

We found a good anchorage in Upstart Bay. We watched the sun set while having drinks and nibbles, a relaxing end to a wonderful day’s cruise.

We have another long day of sailing to get to Magnetic Island tomorrow, so after chicken pies for dinner we had an early night and set the alarm to be underway by 6:00am.