JULY 2002 Monday July 1st - Tuesday July 2nd, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Not much exciting on a Monday in this little town of Bowen. David called the dive shop in Mooloolaba that serviced his regulator and they asked that he send it back for them to fix it, so off to shore we went. We visited the wonderful bakery for breakfast, visited the Internet place and I hung out in the laundry mat while David went to the post office. Pretty exciting stuff. Tuesday, the Happy Now boat and crew decided to take the boat out and sail around the point to Murray Bay just north of Horseshoe Bay. They asked us if we would like to go along and have a snorkel with them. I jumped at the chance while David decided to stay behind and work on a few boat projects with out me in the way. We had a nice hour long sail over to the bay and found a lovely spot to anchor in 10 feet of water close to the shore. We warmed up with some hot chocolate before we decided to go for a swim. With all of our wetsuits on we sped our way to the beach in Dudley’s Fast dinghy. When we landed, it became apparent that we found the only clothing optional beach. Boy, were we over dressed! We quickly walked by all the red bottoms and breast to the other side of the bay, which was Horseshoe Bay. We thought we could start snorkeling over there and go out around the point and back to Murray Bay and the dinghy. The giant pillars of granite that guarded Horseshoe Bay marched out into the ocean providing us with a splendid place for snorkeling. We were glad we wore our wet suits for it was still quite chilly in the water. But once I saw the view I didn’t mind one bit. There were all kinds of lovely hard and soft corals of brilliant colors. There was a table coral that was such a brilliant white, it appeared to be giving off light. It wasn’t long and I saw the biggest school of fish I’ve ever seen. The fish were all a brilliant neon light blue with yellow tails. I believe I have identified these as the blue and gold fusilier. It was really quite a site as literally hundreds of these blue fish swam beneath me in long ribbon. It was definitely enough to make me stop and take notice. There were other interesting fish I saw as well including the beaked coral fish, dwarf spotted grouper, and my favorite, the potato grouper. Then I saw something I’ve never seen before, there were long white tubes, about 1.5 – 2 feet long and about the diameter of my fingers. They were anchored on the ocean bottom and waving around to the beat of the swell. How unusual, I initially thought they were some kind of tubeworm but after further investigation in my book they look to be some kind of sea whip coral. Learn something new everyday. Back at the boat we had a nice lunch in our little bay and then motored our way back to the Bowen Boat Harbour. A quick stop at the jetty for some water and it was back for another try at the pilings. It’s pretty easy when there are 3 people on the boat. All had a fun day, except for David who worked on the boat all day, but I think he enjoyed his peace and quite. Wednesday July 3rd, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Wednesday I was determined to ride my bike out to the Giant Mango. With the spare tube now fixed I was off in search of the brightly colored fruit. First I rode by the Bowen Coke Works. Bowen is one of the major coal producers in Australia and there is a giant jetty further up the coast where they deliver the coal to ships.  The next spot on the Bowen sonic tour was the salt works. Bowen is also one of Australia’s largest producers of salt. There are several large settling ponds where they pump in ocean water and let the evaporation process begin. As the water become more saline it gets moved around to other settling ponds until after lots of evaporation, salt crystals appear which are then scooped up into a giant sized mountain. Here it remains for a year while rainwater leaches through the pile cleansing it along the way. Eventually it is bagged up for sale. I kept on going down the road in search of the mango. Finally off in the distance I can see the brightly colored replica of the mango. Apparently Bowen is also famous for their mangos as well other fruits and veggies. It’s the major producer of fruits and vegetables in Queensland. This giant replica of the mango towered as high as the eucalyptus trees and was brightly painted with red, yellow, orange and green paint. It would have been hard to tell what it was if weren’t for the sign in front of it saying Big Mango. Just another piece of Australiana. With my curiosity satisfied I was on my way back to the marina. I found a little veggie stand on the way back where I filled my pack for 3 Aussie dollars. When I returned David informed me that we were going to the movies with the Happy Now's. There is a classic old theater in town and thought it would be fun to see Spider Man there. The theater was built in 1950 in the Art Deco style and has been owned by the same man for over 40 years. He has a cabinet in the entry with all his weird collections of shells, money and other various strange things. At last we were allowed in the theater, needless to say we were the only ones in the theater. It appears to be the original décor as well as the rows of old canvas beach chairs. We had a sit in the old moldy smelling sling back chairs for the fun of it but opted for the newer chairs in the back when the movie started. Another busy day in the little town of Bowen. Thursday July 4th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Happy 4th of July. Today we thought we would crash the traditional Australian 4th of July party that happens in Eastern Double Bay. The original plan was to take the boat over there, but David has the boat torn apart working on the water system, so we couldn’t really get there. Dudley and Philippa have a dead winless, so we couldn’t get there on their boat either. Happy Now’s have their 4 wheel drive truck and we thought we could get there that way. Gandalf was already there and said there were 47 boats and only two were American and they were looking for reinforcements. We were so convinced that we could make it there that David stopped by the bakery and got two apple pies. What’s more American then apple pie? We all had backpacks packed and were prepared to hike whatever the distance through the woods to get to the celebration. We drove down many little red dusty single lane roads until we finally reached a big locked gate. I got out to see what was going on and if we could unlock the gate. It looked like there should be a guard there. Just as I was investigating a man in a pickup truck came along and opened the gate from his truck. I ran up and asked him if this was his property. Indeed it was. I then asked him if he would please let us drive on the road to the 4th of July party. Boy did I get an ear full.  Apparently he was the owner of the failed Onetel telephone company, and has become very secluded according to the locals. He got a map out and showed me how much of this land was his and that there was indeed a road that went almost all the way down to the beach. I told him we were Americans trying to reach our way to our fellow Americans for a 4th of July party on the beach. That didn't go over well with him. He said he saw a whole mob of boats there and that the whole beach on that side of the bay is his property! He even went so far to tell me that he had just kicked two mountains bikers off the path, and chastised a yacht that had come ashore. So I hope he didn't come down and put an end to the festivities. He seemed like quite the party pooper. There was no way he was going to let us down that road. He said he didn't want to let that kind of stuff get started on HIS property! I guess he didn’t have any sympathy for us poor Americans on our big day. So we went to the national parks service to see if there were any other roads that would get us close, and there wasn't. So dejected we went to the Faust Dam inland from Proserpine to have our own celebration. Dudley had prepared some shrimp and coral trout for the barbee and I had made 4th of July placemats and posters to hang up in our picnic area. We pulled out a few chairs and popped a few drinks and we had our own Aussie/American 4th of July party. Dudley did a great job of cooking the shrimp on the barbee and the rest of us did a great job of eating them as well as the sweet corn and apple pie! After a very pleasant day of relaxing by the calm waters of the dam we headed back to the little town of Bowen. Friday July 5th - Saturday July 6th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Friday morning a guy from the office came by dinghy to inform us that there is a package for us; it must be David’s diving gear. So I went ashore while David went to work on the water system. Sure enough he got his regulator back in working order plus they reimbursed him for the postage and sent along a baseball cap. That was impressive. We spent the rest of the day catching up on chores. Saturday David went into shore for a run, when he returned with the dinghy I went a shore for a bike ride. When I got to my bike I had a flat tire awaiting me. I quickly fixed it and then headed up to flagstaff hill for some 360-degree picture taking of the Bowen area. I rode through town and stopped by the toy store where bike supplies are sold. I went in to get a new bike tube. All my tubes now have at least one patch. Once inside I found something else Bowen is famous for, the bindy, bullhead or pain in the butt thorn that keeps giving me these flats. The man helping me has a big supply of spare tubes and about 200 patch kits by the cash registrar. This not so funny little thorn has a lot of funny names and keeps getting stuck in my tires. With a spare tube in my pack I felt better about ridding back out to Rose Bay and Horseshoe Bay. There is a trail connecting Rose Bay and Horseshoe Bay that I thought I would ride my bike on, but after two more flats I turned around and decided to stay on the pavement. Another beautiful day at Horseshoe bay, I relaxed on the beach for while before I started the long trip back to the boat harbor. When I returned they were setting up for a big party at the yacht club with loud music that is to go on all night, which was 5:00 am. We had Dudley and Philippa over for a movie to avoid having to listen to the loud booming all night long. Sunday July 7th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Today we are off to Townsville by car through the bush county. We are going up to visit some sailing friends we made there last year and get their advise on our next destination. We want to go out to Flinders Reef and being that it is considered off shore (on the outer side of the great barrier reef) it’s not in any of the cruising guide. Flinders is in all the dive guides and is to be one of the best diving sites in the Great Barrier Reef region. Our friends in Townsville have taken their boat out their many times, so we are going up to see how they got there and where they thought the best anchorages were. Just as we left Bowen we drove by hundreds of acres of mango trees, tomatoes fields and various other veggies. Soon we were in open bush lands and I spotted some giant birds along side the road grazing in the grasses. Upon further investigation it turns out they were emus. Further down the road we made the turn off to Inkerman lookout. From this lookout we could see the Berdiken Valley, known as the valley of liquid gold. The Berdiken River runs through this valley providing the irrigation needed to produce the enormous amounts of fruits, veggies and sugar cane. We could also see Cape Upstart, which would be our next boat stop, looks to be a nice anchorage there as well. Back towards Townsville we drive by many beautiful properties and stations with hundreds of twisted stark bone white trees against the blue sky. I think how Georgia O’Keefe would have loved the colors and shapes here. Finally in Townsville we meet our friends for lunch and pour over the charts and the possible places for us to anchor and where the best diving is. Looks like it was worthwhile visit. After lunch we all went to the Museum of Queensland where we were treated to an excellent display of corals, fossils and aboriginal artifacts of the region. The big attraction of the museum is the displays from the ship Pandora. This was the ship that came looking for the mutineers off of the HMS Bounty.  They did find a few in Tahiti along the way to Australia. These prisoners were kept in a wooden box on the deck and became know as Pandora’s box.  This ship hit the reef in northern Australia and sank. This museum has most of the relics recovered from this ship and many interesting displays about the Bounty and the Pandora. Now on our way home we are passing many fields of sugar cane. Its cane-harvesting season here and they harvest the cane with a machine that looks very similar to combine. Once the cane is cut it is loaded into little miniature rail cars and connected to the sugar cane train bound for the nearest refinery. After the cane is cut for the day that portion of the field is burned at the end of each day. That night as we head home we pass many fields alight with the blaze and smells of the burning cane. Monday July 8th - Tuesday July 9th, 2002 Latitude: 20 degrees 00 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 15 minutes 2 seconds East Bowen Boat Harbour, Queensland, Australia Monday and Tuesday were spent finishing up chores and running back and forth into town to get the things we will need for the next few weeks. Laundry done, shopping done and the last of the boat repairs done we are finally ready to head out to Flinders Reef. The Happy Now’s will be joining us on this expedition and they will have two guests joining them from the United States. We gathered Tuesday afternoon to plan our strategy for sailing through the Great Barrier Reef during daylight and yet still be able to arrive at Flinders in daylight as well. Looks like it could be tricky depending on the winds, but worst case scenario we would arrive at 5:00 am and have to wait for day light to enter the reef. If the winds are slower we have all day to get in there. We feel real good about our chosen route and are really feeling like explorers again going off the beaten path of most cruisers. We have checked and doubled checked all the weather reports for the next week and it looks like we will have some good weather as well.  It’s an early night for us to get some good sleep before we go. Wednesday July 10th, 2002 Latitude: 19 degrees 43 minutes 5 seconds South Longitude: 147 degrees 45 minutes 3 seconds East Cape Upstart, Queensland, Australia 38.0 Nautical Miles traveled in 7 hours 50 minutes By 7:00 am we were untying Francis from the pilings and making our way to the public jetty to pick up my bike and fill up the water tanks before we head out to sea again.  At 8:20 we were heading out of the channel and leaving our little town of Bowen behind. Happy Now was making her way to the water dock when we left and will be close behind us. Once we rounded Cape Edgecumbe David put out his fishing line again. I always chuckle that he keeps trying for we’ve been in Australia for 2 years now and haven’t caught one fish! Well it wasn’t long and I heard the zing of the line go. David ran back to the pole and we had a fish. We worked for about 10 minutes to get it on to the boat. It was a beautiful silver fish with spots and a long pointed snout. This fish had a mouth full teeth as well! We looked it up in one of our books and it looks to be a 2 foot long spotted mackerel. I got out all the fish cutting gear and let David go for it while I looked the other direction. Now that beautiful fish is in our frig. We called Happy Now’s and told them to throw in a line and soon after they caught a spotted mackerel as well. Back to the sailing and the wind is dying fast. Around 11:00 am it was time to turn on the engine for a bit of motor sailing as we go by Abbot Point and the giant coal loading dock that stretches out into the ocean. Around 2:00 pm the wind has picked up enough for us to turn off the engine and get sailing again on this beautiful clear blue day. By 3:50 we are rounding the point of Cape Upstart and looking for a place to anchor. At 4:10 we are anchored in 15 feet of water in a beautiful little bay tucked in behind Cape Upstart. Looks like we will all be having our gift from the sea of fresh fish tonight. Our first fish caught in Australian waters. Thursday July 11th _ Friday July 12th, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 42 minutes 8 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 26 minutes 7 seconds East Sand Cay in Flinders Reef, Queensland, Australia 117 Nautical Miles traveled in 26 hours Up before dark today to get the boat ready to go by 6:30 am. By 6:30 both Happy Now and us are motoring out of the bay and towards Flinders Passage in the Great Barrier Reef. By 8:00 am it is obvious that we have around 17-20 knots of wind directly out of the east. Of course this not what the weather report predicted, but we can deal with this. By 10:00 am we have been averaging 7.5 knots, which is already putting us way ahead of schedule. David and I roll in the headsail and then David went forward to hank on the storm sail. We had high hopes that this would help slow us down. By noon we are passing Darley and Dingo Reef as we close in on Happy Now, who has agreed to go through the pass first. At 1:00 pm we have passed Mid, Prawn and Shrimp Reefs and have already reached our first way point of 18 degrees 56 minutes 45 seconds South and 148 degrees, 0 minutes 25 seconds East. About 1:40 pm we have now reached our second waypoint of 18 degrees 49 minutes 15 seconds South and 148 degrees 0 minutes 1 second East. It appears that beside having 25 –27 knots of wind out of the east we also have 2 knots of current with us spiting us out of the pass at 2:45 pm as we cleared Anzac Reef to our west and the Vipor reef to our east. This has put us almost 3 hours ahead of our worst-case scenario for arriving at Flinders! Now what to do? We are safely out of the reef zone and need to drastically slow the boat down. The swell is from the southeast and is a good 2 meters plus hitting us just in front of the beam. Not a very comfortable ride. Poor Dewey has been sick twice already! We now have an ETA of 2:00 am for arriving at the reef.  Happy Now has decided to go for it and arrive at the reef early and just heave to outside the reef until daylight. We have decided to slow the boat down and see what happens. We put one reef in the main to see how that would slow things down, but a half hour later we were putting in the second reef. With a double reefed main and storm sail we are still making around 6 knots. We now have an ETA of 3:30 am. At 5:15 pm we watched the sun slowly set over the horizon with a green splash. Of course we got to see it several times as we went up and over the waves. By 8:00 pm the wind seems to be calming down a bit and our speed has dropped into the 4-knot area. This is making us feel much better with an ETA of around 7:00 am. David and I took turns keeping watch throughout the night. We passed one fishing boat and went through a squall at around 4:00 am. At 6:30 am we are one mile from the entrance to the reef and we have spotted Happy Now drifting off in the distance. We are still waiting for the sun to make its appearance so we can enter and make our way to the sand cay. We turned on the engine to take down our sails and to our surprise there appears to be something wrapped around the propeller! We are not able to get any engine speed. Great, this is just the kind of stress one needs after being up all night when you’re drifting by a reef! After not getting anywhere in forward we tried reverse and were able to get some speed in reverse so we tried forward again and now have some speed. We must have cleared off what ever we were dragging along. It still didn’t seem totally clear, but we were at least moving. We told Happy Now to take the lead in getting us to the anchorage. At 6:45 am we passed our waypoint of 17 degrees 41 minutes 0 seconds South and 148 degrees 20 minutes 0 seconds East. If not for the GPS telling us we passed by here it would have been hard to tell this was the entrance, for there were waves everywhere and nothing really looked like a pass. Flinders Reef is 16 miles across and the sand cay where we plan on anchoring is still 8 miles to the east. Which way is the wind blowing? You guessed it, straight out of the East. We bashed our way through the 4-6 foot seas to our little cay. I stood on the bow and directed David around the coral bommies as we picked our anchoring spot in front of the sand cay. By 9:00 am we were anchored at 17 degrees 42 minutes 8 seconds South and 148 degrees 26 minutes 7 seconds East. The wind is still up so we put out two anchors and sat down to have a look around.  We are anchored in 25 feet of water and the water is so crystal clear that we can see the ripples in the sand beneath us. It’s really nice to be able to see how your anchor is set with out leaving the dinghy. Flinders Reef is named after the famous explorer Mathew Flinders, who actually explored parts of Australia in a ship called “Francis” 200 years ago. So we now feel like true explores that we have landed behind our little sand cay. The little sand cay that lay before us is the only bit of land in this whole reef. It is only about 10 feet high and is composed of sugar white coral sand. This sand cay is home to one of Australia’s automatic weather stations and is the only thing that sticks up from the beach. There are no trees or grass, yet it is home to many birds. It’s hard to imagine how beautiful this place is. I would have to say this is by far the most beautiful place I’ve seen in Australia. You would think that we would be totally exhausted and we were, but we were so excited to be here that we all met on the shores of the sand cay for some exploration.  There are hundreds of birds that call this little cay home. The most distinctive bird being the Masked Booby bird. There were many nesting pairs and some that were guarding a chick. These birds were about the size of a big goose and are white with yellow beaks, big yellow eyes that stare out from a black mask and bluish feet. The chicks were as big as chickens and had white fluffy down. There were also brown boobies and black-naped turns that buzzed overhead as we walked the circumference of the island. There are also many beautiful shells, some of which housed orange crabs. Now that we have explored our surroundings it was time for a nap. We were sound asleep when all of the sudden we were awoken to a large thud as the boat went up and down. David ran to the cockpit to see what had happened, only to discover a triple-decker fast cat called Spoiled Sport out of Townsville. This is one of the big boats that does drive trips out to this reef. This giant sized boat plopped its anchor down between Happy Now and us and looked to be staying for the night. They lowered their big dinghies in the water and took all their passengers to the sand cay. It wasn’t long and we could see people walking through the nesting grounds of the boobies. I hope they didn’t disturb them too much. We were so careful not to get close to them and now this. By this afternoon the winds have died down considerably making this a lovely spot. We joined Happy Now’s to watch the sun set from their cockpit but the big dive boat was obstructing our view.  Everyone was extremely tired after our big voyage and day of exploring so it was off to bed for hopefully some good sleep and dreams! Saturday July 13th, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 42 minutes 8 seconds South Longitude: 148 degrees 26 minutes 7 seconds East Sand Cay in Flinders Reef, Queensland, Australia Water Temp 79.8 degrees; Air Temp 82 degree F The wind is still blowing about 12 knots from the east; this didn’t make for comfortable sleeping last night, as there is quite a fetch that builds from the east causing us to bump around most of the night. Everyone was so exhausted that we slept through most of it. Luckily the lights of the giant dive boat let us know where we were all night and around 6:00 am the giant boat left us leaving us to our own private reef again. Today was going to be diving and snorkel day. We met the Happy Now Crew on the outside of the sand cay for some diving. We found a safe place to anchor the dinghies and everyone except for me was off diving a big coral wall on the outside of the reef. I stayed behind to keep an eye on the dinghies and snorkel in the coral reef in that area.  I can only say that this is the most spectacular place I’ve ever seen. All the exotic reef life that you mostly see in the glossy scuba magazines and picture books was alive and well in this reef. Things I never dreamed I would ever see, being that I’m only a snorkeler. I had a good time swimming around with my favorite white barred triggerfish and finally getting to use my underwater camera to capture some of the new corals and fish I was seeing. David reported that the coral wall went down further then the eye could see. He also said they had at least 150 feet of visibility, which is more than we’ve seen anywhere on our trip across the pacific so far. The divers were gone for a good hour, when they returned they all had happy faces. We decided to break for lunch and refill the scuba tanks, then regroup around 2:00 for diving and snorkeling of the coral bommies by our boats. Around 1:00 in the afternoon we heard a jet go by, when I looked out the window it was making a pass so close to us that I could read “Customs” on the side of the plane. It wasn’t long and they were calling us on the radio. They are the part of the Australian Coast Watch system and wanted to know who we were, where we were from, where were going and if we had a cruising permit. Turns out we are all legal. They are really watching the coast carefully these days in Australia with all the illegal Indonesian fishing boats and refugees trying to make their way here.  With that excitement over it was back to the exploring. We first went to the bommies over by Happy Now. The girls snorkeled while the guys all went diving. The water was so clear I could watch David on the bottom of the reef, 55 feet below me. The corals and fish once again astounding! I saw many new things and David and I took turns using the camera to document the wonders of this bommies. The most interesting thing on this bommie was the giant yellow sea anemone with wonderful little yellow clown fish swimming in and out of its sweeping tentacles. Several trips around this bommie and we were ready to explore the one by Francis. This one was only about 35 feet deep but much wider and richer in fish and coral diversity. The first thing I noticed was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. It was a giant sized Prickly Sea Cucumber (Thelanota ananas). It was about 4 feet long, 6-7 inches in diameter and was bright orange with large bright orange thick thorns covering its body. Upon closer inspection the skin of this creature was black between the thorns making for a great color contrast. Where did such a creature come from? Further down the bommie there were some lovely gorgonian fan corals that David pointed out to me. I was able to dive deep enough to see them for myself and get some pictures. I spotted something in a cave that I thought was a lion fish, but it turned out to be a feather star that actually looked like a clump of brown and white feathers. Feather stars are in the echinoderm family, which is the same family as the more common starfish. Feather stars are filter feeders and can have up to 2oo feathery arms that wave around in the current collecting food, but most have 10-20.  This was only one of the many varieties of feather stars found on this reef. There were also black and green feather stars, some with their feathers stretched out filter feeding while others had their feathers curled up like a fern. In fact the green ones looked very similar to a fern. Feather stars are also known as crinoids, which happen to be one of my favorite fossils. Amazing that these creatures are distance relatives over millions of years. There were many of the same ol’ fish of brightly colored wrasses and parrotfish of blues, pinks and greens.  There were many verities of butterfly fish, angle fish in small to large sizes, Moorish idols, and several species of tangs and triggerfish. Some of the new species I saw for the first time were the giant unicorn fish, which actually have a horn on the front of their head. I also saw for the first time a black and white snapper that had black and white horizontal stripes with white Pokka dots in the black dorsal stripe. So all in all it was a great exploration of swimming around in our own exotic tropical fish tank.  After spending most of the day in the water, it was time to dry out and relax. Sunday July 14th - Monday July 15th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 23 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 13 minutes 2 seconds East Flinders Reef to Haycock Island, Hinchinbrook Channel, Queensland, Australia 141 Nautical Miles traveled in 27 hours The wind shifted to the northeast in the night, making this a very bumpy place to be. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever gotten up to take seasick medication while sleeping on the hook. The weather report today is predicting stronger winds from the northeast, being that we are in the southeast corner of this reef it doesn’t make this a great place to be anymore. On the bright side it’s great wind for us to make it back through the Great Barrier Reef to the mainland. We will be sad to leave here, but when you are a sailor the wind dictates your life.  David and I decided to make one last trip to the sand cay for some picture taking and exploration. We found a big piece of coral that was hiding about 12 giant orange hermit crabs.  I tired to document all the birds I saw on the island and have added the frigate bird to the list. By 10:30 am we were taking in the anchors and heading across the reef behind Happy Now. The Happy Now's have decided to try a dive site on the northern end of the reef, so we will now part our ways for a while as we make our way out of the pass. As I looked back I could see the little sand cay in the distance with its beautiful turquoise and green waters surrounding it. Up with the sails and we are having a lovely sail under these northeast winds. It’s really weird that it seems calmer outside of the reef then it was inside. Around noon we were once again buzzed and questioned by the Australian Coast Watch. We informed them that we would be sailing all night through the reef, so it’s somewhat comforting knowing someone knows where we are. We were able to sail for a few hours before the wind started dying and we had to turn the engine on to keep up 4-5 knots. By 1:30 pm the wind has completely died, so we took down the sails and motored our way across the glassy sea. The ocean was now calm and flat with barely a swell. Hard to believe this is the same ocean we arrived on 3 days ago.  By late afternoon we had motored our way through some rain clouds, it was nice to have a fresh water rinse on the boat. We are now heading in a southwest direction to the Palm Passage in the Great Barrier Reef. This passage is further north then one we came through on the way out here. The Palm Passage is much wider, has a light at the entrance and exit and has been mined to a depth of 200 feet. We feel that we can go through this passage at night so we are not so concerned with the timing of it all. At 5:45 pm the sunset over the glassy seas leaving behind a coppery trail. I took the first watch until 12:30 am. The night sky is filled with the light of the Milky Way, the Southern Cross and a little sliver of a moon.  The wind seems to be filling in from the northwest, which still helps us go in a southwest direction. At 2:oo am we spied the first light to the entrance of the Palm Passage at 18 degrees 14 minutes 0 seconds South and 147 degrees 05 minutes 0 minutes East. A large ship has just made its exit out of the passage and heads north. By 4:00 am the wind has clocked around to the southwest, the very direction we are trying to go. The seas are starting to build giving us a bit of a bumpy ride again. I knew these calm seas couldn’t last forever. By 5:30 am the wind has picked up to a good 25 knots, which means the seas have also increase in size. This passage is so wide that we aren’t getting much protection from the reef either. Around 5:00 am the site of the light marking the other end of the Palm Passage comforts us. The waves are a good 8- 10 feet now and we are really bashing into it. We can’t even turn to get it off our nose until we are safely out of the reef. So a few more hours of bashing into it I guess.  With every 4-5th wave the bow crashes into the water with a big bang leaving a red and green glow in the water from our running lights. The waves are crashing up and over the bow and occasionally over the dodger and into the cockpit. What a mini epic adventure we are having. We were able to let the headsail out and turn off the engine. We are making a good 6-7 knots until a big wave slows us back down to 4 knots. Finally by 6:30 am we have cleared the last of the Great Barrier Reef and can turn slightly to the northwest relieving some of the bashing. Now it’s just hitting us on the beam. Our original plan was to go to Orpheus Island and hang out there for a few days. It was our favorite spot last year and we were really looking forward to it again. But with the southwest wind there is no safe place to anchor there. The weather report sounds like it will only get worse over the next few days with a possible gale warning. Being that we are so tired we decided to head toward the Hinchinbrook Channel where we know we will protected from anything and then we can get a good sleep, for we both only got about 3 hours of sleep last night. A quick look through the tide tables lets us know that we will be arriving a couple of hours before high tide, which is good, for this can be a very shallow entrance.  At 9:30 am we have passed the northern most Palm Island of Pelorus and head towards Lucinda and the beginning of the Hinchinbrook Channel. With the protection of the mountains and the islands this is a much more comfortable sail. By noon we have rolled in the sail, turned on the engine and start to pick our way through the buoys to the Hinchinbrook Channel. We have decided to anchor at little Haycock Island just a few miles up the channel.  What a welcoming site this calm still water is. At 1:00 pm we have safely anchored in the muddy waters of the mangroves. With mountains all around us we are looking forward to a peaceful rest. We celebrated with hot showers and a hash brown omelet before turning in. Tuesday July 16th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 16 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 2 minutes 7 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook Marina, Hinchinbrook Channel, Queensland, Australia 16.5 Nautical Miles traveled It was like we anchored on glass last night, letting us have the first good night sleep we have had in days. When I looked out this morning there wasn’t even a ripple on the water, we were the only boat in site and the only noise was that of the mudskippers and birds on shore. I couldn’t have imagined a more peaceful setting. Hinchinbrook Island is the largest island off the Queensland coast stretching 34 km from north to south. Its highest peak is 1121 meters and it is covered with lush, dense rainforest. It is only separated from the mainland by a fairly wide and deep channel.  The shores are indented with many streams and smaller channels lined with thick lush olive green mangroves. We gave the weather a listen to this morning to see if we could make our way back to Orpheus Island, but it’s not looking good and the wind is currently blowing from the south-southwest. At 10:00 am we started to motor our way up the channel and see what there is for anchorages along the way. What a glorious sunny morning as we make our way up the channel surrounded by towering mountains dripping with vines and trees on both sides. I closely watched the shoreline for crocodiles and dugongs, but all I was able to see were the many giant white egrets and herons having their breakfast on the shores at low tide. We spent the better part of the day making our way up the channel. With the south wind funneling down the channel we were able to have a nice relaxing sail with just the headsail out.  We thought about anchoring at Scraggy Point, but if the wind stays from the south that would put us on a lee shore, something we didn’t want to worry about.  We gave the Hinchinbrook Marina a call to see if they could fit us in today. She informed us that their channel is silted in and that it’s only one and a half feet deep at low tide, so best to come in closer to high tide. They do have a dredge working in the channel so give them a call when we get close. By 1:00 pm we were making our way down the channel just two hours before high tide. We barely made it in with just a couple of inches under the keel.  By 1:10 we were tied up and washing down the boat. Everything was coated with a sticky layer of salt. Our lines were so salt incrusted that we could barely wrap them around the winches anymore. We spent several hours soaking all the lines, washing the sails, dodger, pillows, cushions and cockpit. It feels good to have everything cleaned up again. With the work out of the way we can finally relax. Wednesday July 17th – Monday July 22nd, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 16 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 2 minutes 7 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook Marina, Hinchinbrook Channel, Queensland, Australia With a strong wind warning for the whole northern coast of Australia we decided it was best to stay here for awhile. When we stayed here last year this was a brand new marina that was far from being finished. Wow, have they made some progress in the last year. It is now a full-blown resort with Bali style cabanas around the marina. A lovely little café that’s open from breakfast to dinner, serving up luscious coffees, wines and pastries.  They have added showers and laundry, which is a nice touch. The best feature is the luxurious 25-meter freeform shaped swimming pool. It has a beautiful waterfall that pours into the pool, all of which is beautifully landscaped with luscious tropical palms and shrubs. What a little oasis in the middle of nowhere. Next to the pool there is now a tennis court and a sport club on its way up. This has turned into a lovely spot to wait out some bad weather.  We made several big walks into the town of Cardwell for some shopping and exploring. David found a used bookstore so he was happy and I made a visit back to the nature center. It was so well done that I didn’t mind a second look. The interior was done like a tropical rainforest with replica trees and animals of the tropical rainforest stretching up to the ceiling. There are lots of information on the animals and fish of the mangroves (including the crocodiles!) Along with the information about the rainforest they also included the Aboriginal stories and legends of the animals and the people who first lived in the area.  I was really able to take it all in this year without someone tugging at me to go.  It was very well done and I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit this center again. The strong wind warning is still going strong, everyday we think we can leave and then we hear on the weather that there is 25-30 plus knots of wind. It’s hard for us to believe it, for we are really protected by the mountains that surround us in Cardwell. Our friends on Happy Now are in the next harbor north, they called us on Saturday to say they had up to 37 knots of wind when they finally made their escape to Cairns. I guess the wind is really there, so we will wait a little longer. We want to be able to stop at Dunk Island and be able to enjoy it. We were able to keep ourselves busy catching up some reading, boat maintenance and relaxing. Tuesday July 23rd, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 55 minutes 8 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 08 minutes 2 seconds East Dunk Island, Queensland, Australia 17.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 3 hours, 45 minutes This morning the weather bureau finally lifted the strong wind warning and we were ready to make our escape. We puttered our way out of the marina at 9:15 am, just 45 minutes after high tide so we still had plenty of room in the channel. Even though the strong wind warning has been lifted, the seas are still pretty stacked up. It was 90 percent overcast with light misty drizzle in the air. Guess it wasn’t going to be one of those beautiful sunny sailing days. Once we left the protection of giant Hinchinbrook Island the full force of the winds and the seas hit us. The wind wasn’t too bad for we were going with it, but those seas! They were hitting us right on the side, whap, whap, and whap! Rock, rock, rock, it’s a good thing Dunk Island is only 16 miles away. It wasn’t long and Dewey left his whole distaste for the situation at the bottom of my feet. I wasn’t feeling well anyway and that just about sent me over the rail. Not everyone gets to have this much fun. After a couple hours of banging around the sun finally came out and let us see the way to Dunk. It wasn’t long and we were anchored in front of the resort on this little island.  Unfortunately I had developed a very serious migraine from all the bouncing around so I took 2 painkillers and went straight to bed, there wasn’t going to be any exploring on my part today. Wednesday July 24th, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 55 minutes 8 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 08 minutes 2 seconds East Dunk Island, Queensland, Australia Up and feeling like new women today. Good, now that the headache is gone we can get back to exploring. We launched the dinghy and went to shore to stretch our legs on the hiking trails. Dunk is the largest of the family islands and is host to a nice resort as well as National Park campground for those coming over by ferry or airplane. Being that Dunk Island is in part of Australia that receives the most rainfall per year, it is covered with a lush tropical rainforest and is home to many rare birds and butterflies.  We decided to chew off the monster hike to the top of the highest point on Dunk Island. It was a beautiful hike through luscious tropical rain forest with vines and leaves dripping from the sky. It had rained last night and earlier this morning leaving everything with a fresh wet smell of rich earth mixing with moss and bark. We finally emerged through the trees to an overlook at the top of the mini mountain. From here we could see all the way back to Hinchinbrook Island and all the islands we had passed on the way here and the mainland with spectacular views of Mission Beach. While at the lookout we met a real nice Australian couple. (Turns out they have anchored next to us) They have been sailing up and down the coast of Australia from Brisbane to Thursday Island nonstop for 4 years. They say nah…., to the cyclone season and keep on going. They filled us in on some great spots yet to come, and said we will most likely see them along the way. After we made our way back down the mountainside David and I took a wander through the resort and soon found ourselves at the beach club sipping a brew and relaxing by the beach. David was ready to call it a day, but with my renewed energy I went on exploring the little island just off of Dunk called Purtaboi.  This little island is not far off the coast of Dunk, for resort guest paddle kayaks out on a regular basis. This little island is off limits during October to May for the soul purpose of giving the rare birds their privacy during breeding season. The beach there is made up of large coral chunks and a few shells. I enjoyed sitting along the beach listening to the tinkling of the coral as it was being polished by the surf going in and out. Instead of wind chimes I have beach chimes. I wandered the shores finding a few beauties to keep along the way. Soon I heard David in the dinghy coming back to get me, putting and end to my adventures for the day. Thursday July 25th, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 36 minutes 17 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 07 minutes 39 seconds East Mourilyn Harbour, Queensland, Australia 21 Nautical Miles traveled in 4 hours We awoke this morning to voices calling to us from outside. When we poked out it was our new friend Kase on Jereeve. He was circling our boat in his boat to let us know he had come in last night and was already on the go. We met this older man from New Zealand with his son at Port Hinchinbrook and he is full of many survival stories. But it appears he has developed some bad eye problems and this will be his last sailing trip before he has to sell his boat.  Just one of the many characters you meet along the way.  We are planning on heading to Mourilyn Harbor today, being that it is only 20 miles away we are in no big hurry. After a leisurely breakfast we will leave.  By 9:10 we were pulling in the anchor (literally… the winless has given up again!) there was actually enough wind to put up the sails and head north. The wind fluctuated off and on so there were few times where we had to motor sail, but it was lovely sunny day with puffy white clouds and calm seas. It wasn’t long and I spotted several large boats out by the reef. As we got closer I counted 18 boats of various sizes all in the same area. At first I thought they may be dive boats, but then I remembered the missing fishing boat. Last Saturday morning while we were waiting out the strong wind warning in the marina, a fishing boat sank by the reef just off of Dunk Island. Two of the three crew escaped with the dinghy. One of the two must have been crazy for he thought he could swim to shore; the other man clung to the capsized dinghy. After 40 hours he was found and saved, but the other two were never seen again. They’ve had planes, helicopters, and rescue boats out looking ever since. After the sharks I saw here last year, I don’t think their chances for survival are very good. Even the man left with the dinghy said sharks were circling him. But it looks like the coast guard and their friends are not going to give up the search just yet. It was a very eerie feeling to sail by the area where they think they were lost. We were soon passing by the Banard group of islands and then Mourilyn Harbor was in view. We entered the harbor in what appeared to be a crack in the giant rock wall. Once we were inside it opened up into a beautiful flat glassy place to put our anchor. The Moresby River forms this vast expanse of wetlands and mangroves and escapes to the ocean through the high rock walls that guard the entrance. There is a lot of activity in this little harbor for it is home to one of the largest sugar factories in Australia. There is a large bulk sugar storage building and accompanying sugar jetty where they load the sugar up on large ships to be carried away around the world. The main activity seems to be lots of fishing tinnies zipping by most of the day.  We spent a relaxing afternoon and evening in this calm anchorage. Friday July 26th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 55 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 59 minutes 02 seconds East Fitzroy Island, Queensland, Australia 42.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 9 hours Up and on the go by 7:00 am. When we came out to lift the anchor we noticed that a huge tanker had come in the night and tied up to the jetty at the sugar factory. Can’t believe we didn’t hear that. We were soon our way with a nice 12-knot breeze out of the west-northwest and making around 7- knots of speed. At this rate we may make it to Cairns today. As usual this only lasted a few hours and we were soon back to motor sailing. David decided to put his fishing line out again to see what might bite. Around noon we were going by the Franklin group of islands. These are beautiful little rounded rock islands with white sand beaches. One island even had campers and a dive boat. It was about this time that our friends on Happy Now gave us a call and said they were on their way to Fitzroy Island if we would like to stop there for the night and meet them. With our current speed of around 4 knots we would get there around 4 this afternoon so that should work out good. We were having a nice relaxing sail enjoying the hilly to mountainous coastline on the way to Cairns. Around 2:00 David went down to make himself some lunch. I was just thinking we should reel in the fish line for we were getting close to Fitzroy Island, when I heard it go zing……… I called David to come up and sure enough we had another fish. This is unreal, two in the same month. I rolled the headsail in to slow the boat down while David did battle with his fish. This fish was putting up a good fight; we finally had to turn the boat around and go after it for we were running out of line. Finally after a half-hour battle we were able to get the fish on board. It was a whopper of a mackerel again. Looked to be the same kind of fish we caught before. I took some pictures of David with his fish, I then told the fish we were sorry and thanked him for our dinner tonight. By 4:00 we were anchored in front of the resort on Fitzroy Island. This anchorage has a reputation for being rolly and it looks like we will get to experience that tonight. Just as we were anchoring a giant 4 Decker cruise ship came and anchored right behind us. Soon it released it’s pod of passengers to be fed on shore at the resort.  Dudley and Philippa came over for dinner tonight to feast on our gift of fish, even Dewey had a good-sized piece. We will see if we can get any sleep here tonight with the rolling and cruise ship traffic. Saturday July 27th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 48 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 42 minutes 09 seconds East Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkeys Knob, Queensland, Australia 18.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 3 hours Sleeping last night was a pretty difficult task. This is one of the rolliest places we have anchored to date. The swell was wrapping around the island all night long tossing us beam to beam. Then you add the noise from the Christmas in July party of the cruise ship anchored next to us, it made for a pretty sleepless night. Finally around 4:oo am the noise subsided and the great ship roared away. We were able to get a few hours of sleep before we were to meet Philippa and Dudley on shore for a hike to the top of Fitzroy Island. Fitzroy Island is only 8 miles from Cairns and is a popular stop for everyone. The resort on Fitzroy Island operates restaurants, and dive shops, and provides camping, bungalows and villas for overnight stays. We met Dudley and Philippa at 8:00 am on the shore for an early morning hike to the top of the Fitzroy Island. The hike began at the beach and guided us through a tropical rain forest on the way to the ranger station and then onward to the lighthouse.  The lighthouse on the northeastern side of the island is no longer in use except as a visitor information center. The new lighthouse is operated from little Fitzroy Island just off the eastern shore of the larger island. After we had a nice look around the visitor center we continued on our journey up the hillside. We have now entered a new ecosystem, it appears we have left the lush rainforest and have entered a more dry bush land environment. The trail has turned from dirt to beautiful pink granite giving a clue to the islands continental origins. We are now climbing over lots of big rocks as we climb our way to the top. I soon saw David and Dudley take a big halt and ask for the camera. When I came around the corner there was huge snake along the trail. I think he was as scared of us as we were of him and he quickly slithered away under a huge boulder. Well, that made us stick close to the trail. We were soon to the top of the highest peak on the island, marked to be 269 meters (807 feet). The views are spectacular from here, to the north we could see Green Island, to the west is Cape Grafton and to the south the Frankland Islands. After the views were all soaked in we began the hike back down. The trail was fairly busy with all the day-trippers out to the island. We finished off the hike around 10:00 am and celebrated with an ice coffee before we made our way back to the dinghy. We arrived at our dinghy only to find a group a young Italian girls using it for a dressing room, David and Dudley certainly didn’t mind waiting for them to finish.  By 11:00 am we were raising the sails to make our way to the Half Moon Bay Marina. It’s only 18 miles to the entrance and with 20 knots of wind we should have a quick sail. One hour into our trip and the sky turned gray and we had a nice little rain shower that passed over washing the salt off our sails, then it became nice again just in time for us to enter the Half Moon Bay Marina. The Half Moon Bay Marina at Yorkeys Knob is about 9 miles north of Cairns. Last year we stayed in the downtown Cairns marina and that is the furthest north we made it. So now we are breaking into new territory for us, so anything north of here is a new adventure for us and one we are looking forward to. Sunday July 28th-Wednesday July 31st, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 48 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 42 minutes 09 seconds East Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkeys Knob, Queensland, Australia Dewey wasn’t feeling well yesterday and today he seems to have taken a turn for the worst. We called a vet, but he didn’t think it was serious enough to bring him in on a Sunday, so David and I took turns watching him the rest of the day to make sure he would be ok. Monday morning Dudley let us borrow his car to take Dewey to the vet. The vet said the first thing he noticed was that Dewey is severely dehydrated and they would need to keep him for a day or two to hydrate him. They would also run test on his blood, liver and kidney. We reluctantly said good bye to Dewey, but felt he was in good hands.  David and I went off to get some groceries and then back to the boat to wait for the vet to call. Around noon the vet called and said Dewey’s test had all come back fine, and he seemed to be bouncing back rather quickly so we could pick him up later this afternoon. Well, that’s really good news. At 4:00 pm we went to get him and had a long talk with the vet. He had given him a steroid shot and gave him intravenous fluids under the skin. He looks so much better. Dewey was very happy to be back at his own home and away from the all the barking dogs.  Tuesday morning Dewey had his old appetite back with vengeance and seems better then before. I guess we have the new and improved Dewey back now. With the Dewey crisis over David and I decided to head into Cairns and see the sites. Dudley and Philippa are heading in so we hitched a ride with them. The boys went off in their separate directions while Philippa and I went to the Cairns Art Museum to see the exhibit on Tories Straight Islander People. We also managed to sneak in some birthday shopping for Dudley whose birthday will be Aug. 3rd. David and I spent the better part of the day wandering around Cairns. It’s very different from last year. The whole waterfront is torn up and under construction, including the area by the marina. It’s really a giant dust bowl and we are really glad we are not staying here at this time. Wednesday Happy Now decided the weather was so nice they were going out to the reef in their boat and left us the car for the day. David and I took a trip up to Karanda for a look at the markets only to find that about 10 tour busses had just let out about 1000 people and it was very crowded. We didn’t last long in that environment so back to the marina we went. David and I had some packing to do, for tomorrow is my birthday and the Happy Now’s have arranged a surprise for my big day. We don’t know where we are going only that we will be gone for several days. We found a good Dewey sitter in our new friend Willie from China Moon, so everything looks good for a few days away from the boat.