Back to the Reef

We visited Arlington Reef, Vlassoff Cay and Michaelmas Cay after leaving the islands off Cairns. On the first day out, we anchored off the southern side of Arlington Reef, a massive (35km long) reef, and dropped lots of fishing lines overboard. Happily, we caught lots of fish (have a look at our movie below) some of which we kept, some of which we threw back in the interests of preserving worldwide fishy-ness. I'll have to share my dumb fish-smart fish theory another time...

Michaelmas Cay

After a calm night nestled inside the U-shaped reef we sailed to Vlassoff Cay and were privileged enough to see a shark feeding frenzy en route. The sharks weren't big but the birds zipping in and out to pick up scraps were brave. Vlassoff Cay was stunning although our night anchored off wasn't the best. Despite being much more used to rocking and rolling than we were three months ago, we spent a rolly night at Vlassoff Cay, rocked by swell bending around the reef. Shane and I both woke up early as a result and decided to move to Michaelmas Cay before breakfast. It is impossible to see reef unless the sun is shining down from overhead and on the way into Michaelmas at 7am or so we were surprised to see the depth of water under us drop from 25 metres to less than 2 metres in the wink of an eye. It was around the same time that we both saw snorkelers in the water 50m in front of us, a giveaway that there is reef ahead. A quick u-turn took us back out to deeper water where we anchored, ate bacon and eggs and waited for the sun to get overhead so we could see what was under us. After moving into the sand cay, the swimming and snorkeling at Michaelmas were fantastic - the beach not so. The reef is huge but the sand cay is only 400m or so long and more than three-quarters of that is dedicated to sooty terns and other sea birds who nest there. The birds own the island, and people aren't allowed ashore at all, between 3pm and 9.30am. 40,000 birds aren't quiet but it was a noise that faded into the background after a while. Amazing to see but you would have hated it, Mum!

Beers, pink lemonades and chips
at the Port Douglas Yacht Club

After three fantastic days on the reef, we arrived in Port Douglas and started our tour of the town with a few beers at the Port Douglas Yacht Club. So far I'm impressed - it isn't as upmarket as I expected (I don't quite know why I expected upmarket) but is relaxed and has everything we need, other than a willing and able sail maker (we need some work done on our mainsail - it never ends!). Sunday was act-like-a-tourist day; we visited markets, had a ride on the "Ballyhooley", a stinking, filthy steam train that the kids enjoyed, and had a very average lunch at the Central Hotel.

The plan from here is the Low Isles, Daintree River, Endeavour Reef (which Cook bumped into in the the middle of the night), Agincourt Reef perhaps then Cooktown followed by Lizard Island where, sadly, we'll rip on the handbrake and do a u-turn.