Coral Cays

Arlington Reef

Haydee loves tuna!

Vlassoff Cay

Sunset fishing

It's been a few days since we visited Fitzroy Island and I have to admit that the islands and resorts are starting to blend together. From memory, Fitzroy was quite good. After a decent lunch at the tavern, we completed two scenic walks - one to a secret garden that was a little bit of over-promising and under-delivering in my view and another along the island's coast to Nudey Beach. Everyone was clothed!

From Fitzroy, we sailed into Cairns Marlin Marina where we spent a busy few days restocking, maintaining and cleaning. The kids enjoyed Cairns' lagoon which we visited a few times despite some dreary weather.

We are currently exploring the reef as we make our way slowly from Cairns to Port Douglas. Green Island was inundated with day trippers, so while it was nice it was not our favourite spot. Our next stop was Arlington Reef. We did some fishing and saw a black tipped reef shark take a fish right near us. After moving to our anchorage we did some great snorkeling and had a comfortable night sheltered amongst the coral.

As we sailed from Arlington Reef today, we had a strike on one of the lures and landed a 72cm, 4.1kg tuna. At least three feeds in that one. Soon after, we saw a feeding frenzy (bait fish, medium fish and sharks) beside us and then at the back of the boat. We continue to catch more sharks than fish, with Heather landing one last night and Cameron catching another one tonight. We definitely stay out of the water around dawn and dusk!

We spent this afternoon anchored in amongst the coral at Vlassoff Cay. The water is warm and spectacularly clear. Life is good.

After visiting Michaelmas Cay, we will head back to the mainland to restock at Port Douglas for a trip up the Daintree River where the kids hope they'll round out their wildlife experience with wild crocodiles. But not too close up, of course.