Port Douglas and beyond

Haydee's prawn claws!

We left Port Douglas and headed out to Low Isles, two islands about 8nm north-east of Port Douglas. One of them people aren't allowed onto at this time of the year, which is fine because the other one is fantastic - great snorkeling, friendly turtles, friendlier locals (the caretaker and his family), calm anchorage and some slightly extroverted black-tips thrown in for good measure.

Low Island

From Low Isles we sailed back inshore to the Daintree River bar. We had no issues finding the fairway marker and the two channel markers after it that are meant to guide you in through the deep water. What we did have trouble finding was deep water. Everything except the depth of the water was spot on - we entered the channel a few minutes before the highest high tide of the day, followed the channel markers and, shortly after entering said channel, skimmed then hit the bottom. The wind had kicked up some decent waves which, when we were in their troughs, weren't enough to keep us off the bottom. We've bumped the bottom a few times before - anyone who says they've never touched, even if they own a kayak, is either yet to bump the bottom or they're outright lying - but this was not good bumping. The jolting was bad, the noise was hideous and knowing we had two little kids on board was worst of all. I had to keep doing stuff - ordering the kids to put on their jackets, getting the handheld VHF ready for our mayday call, double checking where we were in the tide, anything to avoid sitting still - Haydee shed quiet tears and Cam sat quietly in his seat. Shane was focused on getting us back to deep water and did so with minimal swearing and maximum grace. I recently read an article in a sailing magazine by a lady who wrote a book called "A Fright A Day" (and thought at the time that she probably shouldn't be a sailor) - we're a long way from a fright every day but attempting the Daintree bar counted as one of them. After making deep water, we scooted back to Low Isles, dove under the boat the look for gaping cracks, monitored the bilge for water ingress and pretended the whole thing never happened - aside from publishing it on the world wide web.

Holding on for dear life, at Hope Island

From Low Isles, we continued north to Hope Islands. The Hope Islands provide amazingly calm anchorage even in dreadful weather, which we sort-of had while we were there although it did clear enough to allow some swimming and kite-flying. From Hope Islands, we moved to Cooktown. That is all I have to say about Cooktown. Seriously though, there is heaps of history on display but, unlike 1770 who have a similar claim to fame, Cooktown is a little stuck in the past. And they need to dredge their harbour (we didn't bump, it's just shallow!)

Anchored at Lizard Island

After an overnight stop at Cape Flattery, we sailed to Lizard Island and were stunned by just how good it was. Beautiful clear water, fantastic snorkeling, secure anchorage, lovely beach and super-friendly locals made this one of the highlights so far. There is a small community of long-term (some as long as 3 months) yachtie residents anchored in Watson's Bay who gather each afternoon on the beach and make visitors very welcome. And we saw more of Lizard Island Research Station's work than I did in 3 years at UQ. One of the highlights was a super-friendly postgrad who showed us some baby coral he'd made. Amazing. Shane and the kids were energetic and did lots of walking and we also celebrated Shane's birthday while we were there. Cam made him some little "toothy critter" gang hooks (we're so proud!) and H made him a lovely nautical paperweight for charts. He also scored a new spray jacket and swim shirt. Lizard Island was our turnaround point and we've been sailing south-ish for the last few days now. The wind has been kind to us so far although we're keeping our fingers crossed and our fuel topped up.