SEPTEMBER 2002 Sunday September 1st, 2002 Latitude: 14 degrees 39 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 0 seconds East Watsons Bay, Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia Sam, Bill, David and I had a nice walk on the beach this morning and then checked out the exclusive Lizard Island Resort gift and dive shop. There is reported to be a good dive on the north side of the island called the North Reef. The divers gathered this afternoon in Mermaid Cove (this site of Lisa’s first ocean dive) to take off for their dive. I decided to snorkel the top of the reef out to the point. Bill had some problems with his diving gear and decided to camp out on the beach. David and Sam found some beautiful canyons in the reef and observed some beautiful corals, lionfish and large blacktip reef shark.  The top of the reef where I was swimming was filled with beautiful table corals in a variety of colors. I too found the canyons to snorkel, but glad I didn’t see that 5-foot shark or I would have been running back on water to the beach. I did see an interesting fish with bright orange, neon blue and silver vertical stripes. After looking it up in the book it turns out to be a Harlequin Tusk fish.  Also observed was the Bicolor Angelfish, the front half being orange, while the back half was purple, divided by a yellow stripe with a orange tail. There were hundreds of little Blue Devil Fish and Blue Damsels in the table corals. Soon a huge school of hundreds of yellow and blue fish started swimming towards me. I thought to myself, what is chasing these guys, that they will swim right at me. Well I soon found out when I saw the small reef shark following at the end. I thought this looked like a good time to end the snorkel and head to the beach. Soon after I landed on the beach I saw Sam and David returning from their dive. After a wonderful time in the water we went on to explore Turtle Beach which we had passed on the way out. I put on my mask to check out the fish in this area while everyone else collapsed on the beach. Sam and Bill came over to enjoy the sunset from the cockpit of Francis. While they were here an announcement came over the radio for all boats in Watsons Bay. As it turns out, it was an announcement from the POO (party organization officer). There is to be a party on the beach Tuesday afternoon for all boats. Sam called to let them know we would be attending and they happily replied they were glad the American contingency would be there.  Monday September 2nd, 2002 Latitude: 14 degrees 39 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 0 seconds East Watsons Bay, Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia I love a day when I get to learn new stuff and see so many new things that I cant wait to rush back to the boat to look them all up in my books. It’s such an amazing world that we live in where I can spend so much time in the water and every time see something new and amazing. Well today was such a day. We hiked the shores of the island to the research station where we had previously gone on the tour. Sam and Bill hadn’t been yet, and we thought it was so good we didn’t mind going again.  Our host actually remembered me from a few weeks ago. Probably because I asked so many questions. Once again our hostess was full of wonderful knowledge that she shared with us. The painted rock lobster has molted his shell since we were last here, so we got to see how much he had grown. We were filled with facts about coral, crown-of-thorns, sea stars, crabs, mushroom corals, sea cucumbers and brittle stars. I could write volumes, but I will just tell you it was all very fascinating. After the tour the host showed us a great snorkel spot to check out. This time we came prepared with our gear and lunch! Down the beach we hiked until we made our way to the reef she informed us about. It was a pretty long swim against the current and waves, but as it turns out it was worth the effort. For those who are interested here is the list of Blue Lagoon reef life I saw in this short one hour swim;  Red Seafan Corals, Sponges, Stinging Hydrozan that looked like yellow feathery ferns, Bulb Tentacle Sea Anemone with the Spinecheek Anemone Fish, Christmas Tree Worms, Spaghetti Worms, Tube Worms, Blue Sea Stars, Bryozoans, Feather Stars, Blue Spotted Ray, Reef Lizard Fish, Large Groupers, Hexagon Groupers, Chinese Grouper, Many Spotted Sweetlips, Oriental Sweetlips, Two-lined Monocle Bream, many varieties of Butterfly Fish, Banner Fish, schools of large Surgeon Fish, Titan Trigger fish, a large school of Orbicular Batfish and last but not least the Octopus. I could have stayed in the water all day, but I was the only one who brought a wet suit and the others were cold, so we made the long journey back around the beach and over the granite boulders. It was a long day so we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the boat. Around 6:00 at night we saw Sam and Bill head out of the anchorage in their dinghy towards a disabled boat. Turns out the boat had gone out fishing and got a fishing line wrapped around the prop and needed help getting to the anchorage. With the help of another dinghy they towed them back in and got them anchored safe and sound just before sunset. What a busy day we’ve had. Tuesday September 3rd, 2002 Latitude: 14 degrees 39 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 0 seconds East Watsons Bay, Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia This morning David and I were invited over to the Carrick Roads boat for mid morning tea. These Australian folks sure are nice and friendly. We had a nice long chat over muffins and coffee with Rob and Michelle. They are originally from Tasmania and Adelaide. Early afternoon Sam and I went to shore to visit the resort to see if Sam's mail had arrived. We were severely chewed out by the resort management for coming on to their property and allowing their guest to see us. We were quickly shoed away down a back road where no one would see us. The scum of the earth that we are we walked away with our heads hanging in shame. Not! At 2:00 the POO (party organization official) was on shore helping people with their dinghies as they arrived for the party. You should know that the POO is a 7-year-old Aussie boy with a face full of freckles and few missing teeth.  It was past low tide so we dragged our dinghy up and plunked the anchor in the sand. We met at the campgrounds with the other yachties for a barbee and social gathering. It was really fun meeting Australian yachties and others from around the world that were here to share this wonderful day with us. By 5:30 the party was breaking up. As we all headed to shore to climb into the dinghies we realized we hadn’t been paying attention to the tide coming in, and most dinghies were way out in the water floating on their anchors. It was so funny as we watched most of the men go out to retrieve the dinghies in waist deep water. Oops! That’s what happens when you are having too much fun. Our old friend Kase has arrived and tonight we watched the sunset from his cockpit. Wednesday September 4th, 2002 Latitude: 14 degrees 39 minutes 07 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 0 seconds East Watsons Bay, Lizard Island, Queensland, Australia Lots of boats left this morning to begin the journey south. There appears to be a good weather window for the next few days, and so it looks like we will think about leaving as well. This morning we met Sam, Bill and Rob from Carrick Roads at the beach to hike the Cooks Look Trail one more time. This will be David’s 5th time up the trail, and my second. Once again I proved the human minds ability to forget pain until I began the hike up. It was just as a hard and steep as I remembered, but the views along the way are so stunning you tend to forget the hard work along the way. We all signed our names in the book again. After another stunning hike Sam and I decided to go for one last snorkel over at Mermaid Beach. She came by to pick me up in her dinghy, but just after I climbed in the outboard died and we were soon floating away. Unable to get the outboard started we began paddling back towards the boats. Rob on Carrick Roads saw us damsels in distress and came to rescue us in his dinghy, he tried pulling us back to Francis, but as soon as we got there his outboard died. Now we are all hanging on to each other via the Francis dinghy so we wouldn’t float out to sea. We were all laughing so hard we could barely pull the starting cord. Finally Rob got his started and headed home, David got Sam’s started and we went off snorkeling. Just as we got near the mooring buoy the outboard died again, so I jumped in with the dinghy rope and swam to the mooring and got us attached before we floated out to sea. We were snorkeling the edge of the reef looking for the canyons when all of the sudden we spotted 4 of the largest fish I’ve ever seen in my life! They were Bumphead Parrotfish and were a good 3-4 feet in length and 2.5-3 feet in height. They had the typical Parrotfish beak but on a much larger scale. This particular beak looked like it could do some serious damage to an arm or leg, let alone the coral they feed on. These fish also had a very large bump on their heads, giving them a square looking head. I wonder what the purpose of this bump is? Maybe they brake coral or fight other fish with this big bump. This fish is mostly a turquoise blue blending into a green around the face. We had a wonderful last snorkel at Lizard Island. This evening we had Blue Banana Sam and Bill and Rob and Michelle from Carrick Roads over for pizza and birthday cake. Tomorrow is Sam’s birthday and it looks like we will be sailing, so we will have a prebirthday party tonight. I think a good time was had by all. Thursday September 5th, 2002 Latitude: 15 degrees 13 minutes 06 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 19 minutes 08 seconds East Cape Bedford, Queensland, Australia 41.7 Nautical Miles traveled in 6.5 hours Today is Blue Banana Sam’s Birthday and for her birthday she wanted to go diving at the Cod Hole on the northern end of ribbon reef number ten on the outer Great Barrier Reef.  This is about 14 miles to the southeast of Lizard Island. In order to get there, have a dive and make it to Cape Bedford by the end of the day we would have to get an early start. By 7:00 am we were both raising our anchors and waving good bye to all our new Aussie friends in magical Lizard of Oz. We motored our way around the northern end of Lizard Island and headed southeast towards the Cod Hole. Which way is the wind blowing? You guessed it, from the southeast. Once again the old weather report didn’t have it quite right for this area of the world. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t blowing 20 knots! And with seas of 1.5 to two meters it wasn’t a very comfortable ride. Needless to say I waited too long before I took a seasick pill and found myself very ill! After about an hour of bashing into it with waves coming up over the cockpit David decided that this might not be the best day to be diving at the cod hole. I would have been too sick to do anything but lay in dinghy and wait for them. So we called the Banana’s and after a mini conference decided to give the cod hole a miss and head towards Cape Bedford. Good thing we celebrated Sam birthday yesterday, for today isn’t much fun. Sam did say she would be happy with a good sail and once we headed southwest we were having a sail racers dream of. With the sails close hauled and the toe rail lying in the water we were zipping along at 7-8 knots most of the day. Racer David and racer Sam were having great fun while I just watched the world go by and tried to recover from seasickness. We arrived at Cape Bedford by 1:30 and anchored in 7 feet of water at low tide. I spent the afternoon recovering, but managed to appear in the cockpit just in time for a beautiful sunset. I hope Sam enjoyed her birthday sail, even if she didn’t get to see the giant Cod. Friday September 6th, 2002 Latitude: 15 degrees 43 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 03 seconds East Hope Island, Queensland, Australia 33 Nautical Miles traveled in 6.0 hours The sun rose over a clam anchorage at Cape Bedford and David thought we should get going before the wind came up. So at 6:30 am we lifted the anchor and began the slog south. The Banana’s were soon behind us and with a 10-knot breeze from the southeast it started out pretty smooth. The wind wasn’t right for sailing so it looks like a day of motoring.  A few hours after we left the wind picked up to 18 knots and we were bashing into it once again. Good thing Hope Island is close by. As we closed in on Hope Island we could begin to smell the organics of the exposed reef. The low tide today is at 2:30 pm and is a very low tide of 0.09. When we neared Hope Island I gave a good look in the binoculars and then rubbed my eyes and looked again, for I could not believe my eyes. There was a sailboat on the beach! How did he manage this with all the coral? But as we got closer we could see that he intended to be there for he had anchors and halyards going off to the side and little stands holding his boat upright. The captain looked busy under the boat working on the prop. This looked like an impossible task and will be very interesting to see what happens at high tide. By 12:30 we pulled into Hope Island and found one of the new moorings available for us to try. The reef and all the surrounding bommies were very exposed as they lay basking in the sun. We got the dinghy in the water quickly and got ourselves on shore for a good look at this low tide. I walked a long way out on the reef looking at all the strange creatures. The soft corals lay flat like someone had let all the air out of them. They were hardly recognizable. The hard corals were perched up above the rest of the muck like little tables. The brittle stars arms were waving around in the little bit of current looking for food. There were many varieties of strange looking sea cucumbers. If you stood still you could hear the snap crackle pop of the reef and every once in a while see a big squirt of water from a clam. I even saw one of the giant clams perched up high above the tide. How strange it looked out of its element. I wonder how all these things manage to survive at these extremely low tides. Soon David was after me to get going for he and Sam wanted to go diving and hunt the illusive lobster. We went around to the north end of the reef. I took my snorkeling gear, but was afraid I wouldn’t see much, being that most of the reef was still above the waterline. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw many big fish and bommie that was covered with a sea anemone colony. I counted 17 anemone fish and at least 4 different species. It was quite entertaining. Soon the divers were back but they were lobsterless. Guess we will be eating spaghetti tonight. Around 5:30 the high tide was coming in and was high enough to lift the boat off the beach and we watched it float around the side of the beach over the soft corals and out to the anchorage. This guy must have done this before. By 6:00 the sun was setting over the mountains and thus ends another beautiful day. Saturday September 7th, 2002 Latitude: 15 degrees 43 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 03 seconds East Hope Island, Queensland, Australia The weather report didn’t sound very promising today. We may end up staying put for the day. There is suppose to be an afternoon northerly sea breeze, so we will wait and see if it materializes. Sam and bill came over for a cuppa (Aussie for a cup of coffee or tea). While they were visiting it started raining so not a good day for snorkeling.  We decided to stay here for the day and see what tomorrow brings. We went to shore at low tide to take another look at all the strange things perched above the waterline. The smells and sounds are really amazing and all the sea birds were having quite a feast, as all the life is exposed and easy pickings for a few hours. We finished off a drizzly day with a delightful dinner at the Blue Banana. Sunday September 8th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 22 minutes 50 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 33 minutes 45 seconds East Low Islands, Queensland, Australia  39 Nautical Miles traveled in 6 hours 20 minutes When I looked out to the mountains this morning I could have sworn we were in Seattle. Not much point in sticking around in the foggy rain, so by 7:00 am we let go of the mooring and motored out behind the Blue Banana. We motored our way south in a gray drizzle for several hours, but at least there wasn’t any wind and I wasn’t getting sick. It wasn’t long and the sun came out and dried up the drizzle and it turned into a beautiful day. The sky is now blue, the seas flat and David and I are enjoying the lovely ride south. I soon heard the zing of the fishing line take off as David ran back to reel in what ever we caught. He spent a good 10 minutes reeling in the biggest fish we have caught so far. It was a Spanish mackerel of about three feet in length. I hate to kill such a beautiful thing, so I told the fish we were sorry and thanked him for our dinner tonight. I called Sam and Bill and told them to quit fishing for we caught enough for all of us. We were soon racing for the Low Isles, neck and neck with the Bananas, but David decided to let them have the last mooring since we had the last one at Hope. We managed to find a nice spot to anchor not far away from our new friends on Sub Zero. They are an older Australian couple we met at Lizard Island. They came by later in the day and invited us over for sundowners on their beautiful catamaran. Around 5:00 tonight we enjoying the beautiful sunset over the Low Isles from the cockpit of Sub Zero. Sam and John went out to visit all the prawn trawlers to see what they could get. Soon they came back with a bucket of fresh prawns. Yum! Fresh fish and prawns for dinner tonight! Monday September 9th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 29 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 33 seconds East Marina Mirage Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia 9.2 nautical miles traveled in 2 hours Looks like a beautiful sunny day today. There was no wind and the anchorage was dead flat clam. What a nice thing to wake up to. High tide is at 10:30 am today so if we leave by 8:30 we will get to the marina around high tide. The windless decided not to work again so David and I had to pull the anchor in ourselves. That’s a good workout first thing in the morning with a hundred feet of chain out! We had a lovely motor in beautiful sunshine on a clam sea from the Low Isles to Port Douglas. Now it appears that our alternator is not working as well. David quickly discovers that the positive and negative cables have broken off! What next? Always something to fix on a boat. We safely made it in to the marina and began the long list of chores. We haven’t been hooked up to power or water for over 4 weeks, so there is a lot of cleaning to do. Finding the laundry and the Internet were treats as well. We were very busy until dinner when we finally took a break. Tuesday September 10th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 29 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 33 seconds East Marina Mirage Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia Finally a good nights sleep here in the marina. We had a very relaxing morning and soon the Banana boat was on it’s way in.  After we helped them into their slip we had nice lunch at the pier. Now that we are hooked up to power and TV we are inundated with the September 11 remembrance ceremonies. We had no idea that Australia and the rest of the world would be so sympathetic. Of course we also hear all the other news that we have been away from for so long i.e. the potential war on Iraq. Tonight (which is actually Sept 9 in the states) there are to be many TV shows remembering the victims of Sept 11. The national news show here in Australia has their main news anchor in New York this week reporting live from New York City. This afternoon our friends from the boat Sedona came to see us. They drove up from Cairns to see the Bananas, and us and get a feel for Port Douglas. We had a lovely afternoon and evening visiting and catching up with our long lost friends. Wednesday September 11th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 29 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 33 seconds East Marina Mirage Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia September 11th. Hard to believe it’s been a year already and I’m sure none of us will forget where we were when we heard the news. Last year we were in Townsville and will never forget the kindness of our Australian friends. This year we have the company of two other American boats to spend the day with. This morning on the news they showed a tribute that was taking place on the beach in the gold coast region of Queensland. Over 5000 people dressed in red, white and blue t-shirts formed a giant human American flag on the beach. Underneath the flag were letters spelling out “Gold Coast Australia Remembers” it was very moving and gave me goose bumps to see how much our Australian friends sympathized. At 8:47 am this morning most cars in Queensland Australia turned on their headlights in remembrance of the attacks and all Australian and American flags were at half-mast. Patsy and Alan came by this morning and picked up Sam, Bill and I so we could go visit the Rain Forest Habitat. I had been here before, but I thought it was so fantastic I wanted to go again. Of course the highlight was petting and feeding the kangaroos. While Sam and I were petting the kangaroos a hungry Emu came up behind Sam and let her know he didn’t want to be left out by giving her a big peck on her shoulder. No blood was drawn, but I think it hurt just the same. After lunch Patsy and Alan left to head further north into the Daintree. David and I spent the rest of the day and night watching the tributes to the September 11 tragedy. Many Australians get confused by the fact that we Americans call September 11th, 911, for in Australia they write their dates backward from what we do so it would be called 119 in Australia. So we have found to simplify things they call it S11. Thursday September 12th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 29 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 33 seconds East Marina Mirage Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia Today September 11 is officially over in Australia, but the remembrance ceremonies are not. There were live specials on TV all day of the events going on in the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Canberra Australia had special ceremonies yesterday and today including one of the most beautiful candle light visuals I’ve ever seen. Prime Minister John Howard spoke at a special church service for the 10 Australians that were killed in New York. I guess when you are in a foreign country you really get a feel for how this tragedy affected the whole world. Even though it happened on American soil, it seems to have effected the planet as whole. I paid tribute by hanging up a new American flag off the back of the boat. Our old one was tattered and torn and I thought this would be a good day to trade it out. We spent the day relaxing and taking in all the events from home. Friday September 13th - Tuesday September 17th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 29 minutes 08 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 27 minutes 33 seconds East Marina Mirage Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia The bad weather they were predicting has finally arrived with strong winds and showers. Looks like a few days to relax and catch up on some chores. I went into town to get some supplies from the office supply shop, only to discover that not Australians were sympathetic to the Sept. 11 tragedy. The owner of this shop had a whiteboard pulled out in front of his store that had anti American things written on it. Then when I went into the shop I heard him ranting and raving about the how the Americans deserved everything that happened to them and how stupid we were for not understanding why it happened. Guess he didn’t care if there might have been Americans in his store. Funny though he was selling many American products and selling things to me! An American! So I guess the jokes on him. If he weren’t the only one in town that had the things I needed I would have left. Oh well everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that is what makes us different from a dictatorship. There’s always one bad apple I guess. We spent the rest of the week taking in the sites of Port Douglas, fixing the broken things on the boat and just enjoying the luxuries of being at the dock again. Wednesday September 18th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 43 minutes 35 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 40 minutes 40 seconds East Double Island, Queensland, Australia 25.7 Nautical Miles traveled in 4 hours 20 minutes The weather report this morning predicted light southeast winds of 6-10 knots. If you can’t wait for a northerly, this light wind should be easy to motor into. It looked like a beautiful clear sunny day, so David made the decision for us to head south. We were going to try one more time to make it to the outer reef and head to Michaelmas Reef. It was only 30 miles away so it should only take about 5 hours to get there. By 11:00 am we were pulling out of the Marina Mirage and saying good bye to Port Douglas until next year. The first hour and half of the trip was fine, calm flat seas and light winds, but around 12:30 the wind began to pick up and by 1:30 we were really bashing into it. The wind was now up to at least 20 knots and the seas had built up to 3-4 feet. Every third to fourth wave would bury the bow in the water and the speedo would show our speed go 5, 4, 3, 2.…. and then slowly back up only to be bashed by a big wave again. Well this wasn’t going to help us out. Once again the old weather report didn’t have it right! Our new ETA was after 6:00 pm and that would not be good light to enter into a reef-infested anchorage. We quickly changed plans and course and found ourselves on the way to Double Island just 14 miles north of Cairns. Once we turned to the southwest we were able to put up the headsail and keep up a steady 7 knots until we reached Double Island. We were relived to finally be anchored in this quite but rolly spot. Even though there is a huge reef providing protection to this anchorage the waves wrap around the island and made for a very rolly night. If the wind calms down we will head to the reef tomorrow. Thursday September 19th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 36 minutes 35 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 58 minutes 10 seconds East Michaelmas Reef, Queensland, Australia 17.9 Nautical Miles traveled in 3 hours 30 minutes We awoke this morning to an absolutely calm anchorage. How nice is that! Looks like it will be a good day to sail to the reef. The Blue Banana called us from Port Douglas to inform us they are on their way as well. We had a lovely motor sail for 3 hours until we reached the Michaelmas Reef. There were already 3 sailboats on the 3 public moorings, so we were going to have to pick our way through the coral, bommies and giant dive boats to find a place to anchor. We finally found a little patch of sand to drop the anchor in, but unfortunately the chain will be lying on coral. Not something we like to do, but it is very crowed here and we weren’t left with many options. This little tiny island known as a sand cay has no trees and just a few patches of grass, yet there are hundreds of sea birds that we can see from the boat and many of them are flying circles around our mast. A couple of hours later the Blue Banana arrived and found a patch of sand not far from us. Now we can get ready for a dive. Sam and David went diving, while Bill and I went snorkeling.  Sam and David were off to dive the steep outer walls, Sam armed with all her underwater camera gear, ready to capture anything exciting. As usual it was fantastic snorkeling. There were many of the giant clams of various colors and I even saw 3 of the very large Bumphead Parrotfish. One of the new things I saw today was from the sea cucumber family (Holothuriidae-Bohadsschia graeffei), it was white with cream colored bumpy patches and little brown spots. The most unusual feature was the mouth, which had black feathery looking tentacles reaching out to grab food. Bill had enough and went back to sun bake in the dinghy, so I headed out to the area where I last saw Sam and David. I managed to find them and then snorkel above where they were diving.  It’s certainly an underwater wonderland here. After the underwater activities were over we decided to go visit the little Bird Island. There was a special little area roped off where people were allowed to walk. The rest was suppose to be off limits to humans and reserved for the birds. There were literally thousands of birds on these islands. Looks like most of them were Black Noddy’s and a variety of Terns. There were a few Frigate and Brown Booby birds mixed in as well, but they were certainly outnumbered. We stood in amazement as we watched the swirling tornado of birds fly around us. The day ended with a beautiful sunset over the mountains. Friday September 20th, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 36 minutes 35 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 58 minutes 10 seconds East Michaelmas Reef, Queensland, Australia There was no wind what so ever when we awoke today. I spent most of the night watching us spin 360 degrees around our anchor to make sure we missed all the bommies that were near us.  Looks like we made it around safely and this morning I can see the anchor below the boat. This morning we picked up Sam and her diving gear in the dinghy and made our way out to a bommie we noticed the dive boats going to yesterday. David and Sam made their way into the deep blue while I stayed on the surface snorkeling. The water was so clear here that it was like looking through a glass aquarium. There were many batfish and many beautiful feather stars. I saw the most beautifully colored parrotfish I’ve seen to date. I also saw another one of those giant bumphead parrotfish. When Sam and David returned they reported seeing turtles and a very large shark lying sleeping on the bottom. When we returned from diving we noticed our new Aussie friends on Sub Zero had arrived. Sam and I kayaked over to visit them and then went snorkeling on the bommies in the anchorage. The day ended with another beautiful sunset and a tornado of birds flying overhead. Saturday September 21st, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 46 minutes 20 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 51 minutes 10 seconds East Trinity Inlet, Cairns, Queensland, Australia 23.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 3 hours 50 minutes One more beautiful day here in paradise. There is no wind what so ever as the boat drifts gently over the anchor. David dove on the anchor this morning to make sure it was clear of all coral so we could easily bring it up today when it comes time to leave. Sam and Bill picked us up in their dinghy so we could have on last snorkel this morning. We went to several bommies on the outside of the anchorage. We saw several green turtles and David finally saw one of those large lobsters that grow here. Unfortunately we are in a protected marine park and he couldn’t grab him. Guess that lobster knows when he has a safe home. By 11:30 the sun was at the right angle in the sky for seeing the bommies clearly in the water, so it looks like now is a good time to get out of here. The anchor came up smoothly and with me standing high on the bowsprit directing David through the coral we safely made our escape into the clear blue waters. There wasn’t a lot of wind so looks like we will motor most of the day. After a few hours we were able to get a boost from our headsail and then we made great time towards Cairns. We arrived in the Trinity Inlet in Cairns around 3:30. After we got settled in we met our friends on Sedona and Blue Banana in town for dinner and then it was on to the parade of lights. We heard from the locals that this is an end of winter celebration they have every year. The parade was definitely entertaining and was topped of with some splendid fireworks.  Not a bad way to spend the day. Sunday September 22nd, 2002 Latitude: 16 degrees 55 minutes 45 seconds South Longitude: 145 degrees 59 minutes 20 seconds East Fitzroy Island, Queensland, Australia 15.5 Nautical Miles traveled in 2 hours 30 minutes It was a very lumpy night here with the north wind blowing right down the channel and the current running out. Boats were bouncing around all over the place. When I looked out this morning we were just inches away from another boat, so at 6:00 am we were up and looking for a new place to anchor. It’s not a very pleasant anchorage so looks like we are going to head out of here today. Sam and I went to shore for some early morning grocery shopping while David prepared the boat to leave. Upon our return everything was ready to go and so off we went to Fitzroy Island. We had to pound into the wind a bit until we made our way out of the channel, but once we turned to the east we had a lovely motor over to Fitzroy Island. We found a great spot to anchor and then David and I got the dinghy in the water and were off to shore for a little exploration of the resort. Sam and Bill soon kayaked over and we saw them for a bit before we went back to our boats. This was much better then being in that busy channel with ships and speedboats zooming by. Even with the wind blowing from the north we enjoyed a quite, peaceful and non-bouncy night at little Fitzroy Island. Monday September 23rd, 2002 Latitude: 17 degrees 56 minutes 0 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 08 minutes 0 seconds East Dunk Island, Queensland, Australia 59.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 10 hours 10 minutes What a peaceful nights sleep we had here. There’s not a breath of wind on the water this morning. The weather report is predicting light northerly wind for the day with stronger winds in the afternoon. This is just the weather we need to head south. So at 7:00 this morning David and I were motoring out of the anchorage waving good-bye to the Blue Banana, who has decided to hang our here one more day. We had to motor for several hours before we were able to put up the sails and get a boost from the wind. With the sails up we were able to go 7 knots and make great time on this beautiful day over the flat calm sea. Infact it was so calm that I was able to get out my art supplies and do some watercolor painting. Now that’s a first! I was pretty excited that I could do something in the cockpit without getting sick. Too bad all days aren’t this nice. We were initially heading to Mourilyan Harbor, but we neared there around 2:00 in the afternoon. We looked at the ETA for Dunk Island and found we could get there by 500 this afternoon, so we decided to keep going while the going was good. Around 5:00 we arrived at Dunk Island and there was only one other sailboat anchored in the harbor. With the wind blowing gently out of the north we felt we would be fine here. It was a little bumpy, but nothing to uncomfortable so we will stay here tonight. We enjoyed a spectacular sunset over the mountains as we called it a day. Tuesday September 24th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 16 minutes 10 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 02 minutes 30 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook Marina, Queensland, Australia 20.6 Nautical Miles traveled in 4 hours 0 minutes The seas flattened out to nothing by morning and we were hanging comfortably on the anchor. The destination for today would be Port Hinchinbrook Marina. Our friend Gary on Shearwater is there and we haven’t seen him for months. David gave him a call on the phone only to find out that Gary is leaving today to head south again. He has crew that needs to get back to Townsville. Hard to imagine that after all this time we are going to miss him by a few hours. As we motored our way towards the giant Hinchinbrook Island we saw a sailboat off in the distance heading our way. It turns out to be our friend Gary, so we motored his way and had a nice little chat a sea as we passed each other heading in opposite directions, like two ships passing in the night.  Well hopefully we will see him within the week when we head to Townsville, for he will be hanging there for awhile. We finally arrived at the Hinchinbrook Marina with a couple of feet under the keel. We pulled into a slip next to a boat called Golden Apple, sounds like they should be from Wisconsin. We spent the better part of the day cleaning up the boat and getting the laundry done. At the end of day we managed to squeeze in sometime at the beautiful pool here. This time the water was absolutely a lovely warm temperature. I was really enjoying myself until 4 screaming babies arrived. I guess its time to move on. We enjoyed a lovely calm night tied to the dock. Wednesday September 25th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 16 minutes 10 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 02 minutes 30 seconds East Port Hinchinbrook Marina, Queensland, Australia Looks to be a lovely day here. David started out the day with a run around the resort while I just relaxed at the boat. David walked into town to pick up a few groceries while I worked on some art projects. We finished off a few chores and spent the afternoon at the pool. We were going to wait for the Blue Banana to arrive, but now they aren’t sure what they are going to do, so looks like we will get going while the going is good. The weather and the tides will be with us tomorrow so well enjoy this last night tied up to the dock. Thursday September 26th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 35 minutes 45 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 10 seconds East Little Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island, Queensland, Australia 35.5 Nautical mile traveled  in 5.5 hours The weather is still fantastic for heading south for the next few days so we figured rather then hanging out in the marina we would hang out at one of our favorite spots, Orpheus Island. This marina only has one and half feet of water in the channel at a zero low tide. Today the high tide is at 11:30 am and is a 2.15 meters (around 7 feet) we need to have 6 feet to get through so we calculated with a low tide today of 1.26 (around 4 feet) plus the foot that’s always there, there would be around 5 feet at low tide, so we only needed to wait a couple hours for it to get high enough for us to get through. By 9:00 am we thought we would give it a try. Lucky us we made it through never seeing anything shallower than 6.8 feet, so we still had a few inches under the keel. Now the next worry is getting down the channel and through the bar at Lucinda at high tide, which is at 11:30. We had a lovely motor down the channel, but with time being the critical issue today, David kept the motor running at 6 knots. The channel was so calm and flat today that you could see the reflection of the mountains and clouds on the water. Every once in awhile we would see a water bug or flying fish scoot across the water.   There were many boats in the channel today, many still heading north. As we neared the bar at Lucinda we were greeted by a pod of dolphins jumping high in the air. I’ve never seen them do that before. By noon we were passing by the big jetty in Lucinda toward the ocean again. We noticed that an eagle had made a giant sized nest in one of the pilings holding up the jetty.  By the time we were going out of the bar it was a good hour and half past high tide so we watched the range markers closely as we exited. We never saw anything less the 9 feet of depth. So we were really lucky today to time everything so good. Now we are free and clear to get to Little Pioneer Bay at Orpheus Island. As we approached Little Pioneer Bay we noticed that there are now public marine parks moorings there. And there were a couple of empties, so we tied up to one of those and we are now hanging comfortably in the bay. We have heard that the marine parks have put out 138 new moorings this year through out the Great Barrier Reef in an effort to save the coral from our nasty anchors. What a great idea! It saves the coral and makes our life a whole lot less stressful. David and I dinned in the cockpit tonight enjoying yet another beautiful Queensland sunset. Friday September 27th, 2002 Latitude: 18 degrees 35 minutes 45 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 29 minutes 10 seconds East Little Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island, Queensland, Australia We awoke to another beautiful day in Queensland.  We had a peaceful nights sleep on this mooring. I don’t know why I sleep better when it’s not our anchor holding us to the bottom. We enjoyed our breakfast in the cockpit today with the company of a turtle swimming around. We were soon off to shore for some exploring and work. David took his rake and machete and I took the camera. We waited until mid tide to head into the beach, for last year the coral really put a big slash in the dinghy at low tide. David set to work cleaning up the picnic area and clearing the trail. I took off hiking up to the top for a birds eye view of the anchorage. I couldn’t believe how different it looked from last year when we were here. Last year we had to bushwhack our way through the lush green dripping vines and waist high grasses to get to the top. This year when most of Australia is in a serious drought, you can see the effect it has had even in a subtropical place like this. All the trees were shriveled up, the leaves brown on the ground. The tall grasses were now short little brown patches and the trail was well trodden down to brown dust. I made it to the top in no time at all. The views are still spectacular from up here. I snapped a few pictures and soaked in the sites before I started back down. About half way down I met up with David who was still hacking away at branches laying over the trail. He has done a fantastic job cleaning up this trail. I wonder how long it will last. After lunch I wanted to go snorkeling so David went with me in the dinghy. I got in the water while he relaxed in the dinghy. I swam a good distance, but the water was very cloudy. Visibility was only about 3 feet. I could see lots of fish and coral, but it wasn’t easy. I swam half way across the bay before David caught up with me in the dinghy. Then we were off to find somewhere for me to snorkel. We must have been quite a site for I was hanging over the side of the dinghy with my mask and snorkel on while David zoomed me around looking for the best spot. Unfortunately I never found a spot worth getting back in the water for. I don’t know if this spot has degraded from last year or if it just doesn’t look as good compared to the other wonderful places we have been this year. After we got back to the boat we heard Sadona and Blue Banana calling us on the radio. They are on their way to Orpheus and wanted to know if there were any moorings left. No such luck. The place really filled up today.  There will now be 11 boats in this bay. Soon after Sadona anchored we were off to see them and see how they were doing. Soon the Bananas joined us and we all enjoyed the hospitality of Sadona while we watched the sunset. Saturday September 28th, 2002 Latitude: 19 degrees 15 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 30 seconds East Break Water Marina, Townsville, Queensland, Australia 43.4 Nautical Miles traveled in 7 hours The old Australian weather service is predicting a light wind from the northeast today. This is just what we need to get to Townsville.  With the high tide at 5:00 pm today this would be perfect timing for entering the Townsville harbor. By 8:15 am we left behind the mooring, Blue Banana and Sedona, who were leaving a little bit later to head to Magnetic Island. We started off motoring on flat clam seas. By noon there was still absolutely not a breath of wind and we have resigned ourselves to motoring today. Another strangely calm day and I was able to work on some more art projects while David read. By 3:00 in the afternoon we were entering the Townsville Breakwater Marina. After we got checked in we found our friend Gary on Shearwater and had a nice chat with him. David and I then found ourselves in town for pizza, which we took to the beach for a picnic and a lovely sunset. When we returned to the boat our friends on the boat Reana (Townsville residents) were waiting for us in our cockpit with a cold bottle of wine and treats. We had much fun catching up with them well into the night. Wow, it's great to back in Townsville! This is one of my favorite places in Queensland. Saturday September 29th -Monday September 30th, 2002 Latitude: 19 degrees 15 minutes 01 seconds South Longitude: 146 degrees 49 minutes 30 seconds East Break Water Marina, Townsville, Queensland, Australia David and I are enjoying life back in Townsville. We both love the beautiful palm lined walkway along the waterfront. David runs while I enjoy having a long stretch of smooth pavement to roller blade on. After a good roller blade I enjoy a swim in my favorite 50-meter pool in all of Queensland. Life is definitely good here. The waterfront in Townsville reminds me a lot of the waterfront in Santa Barbara, California, with out all the fancy expensive houses. There are many little picnic areas with barbecues, a large kids water park and long sandy white beaches with stinger nets, shark nets and lifeguards. What more could a girl ask for? Late Sunday afternoon Sedona and Blue Banana both found their way into the marina. There are now 7 American Boats here, 4 of which are from Washington State and 3 of those from Seattle. I think this is the biggest group of Americans we have seen together in along time. Last year we were the only American boat here on Sept 11th.  We've definitely been having a good time catching up with everyone while we enjoy the sites of Townsville.