25th Cooktown Next morning we sailed on to Cooktown. Fuelled up at wharf taking on extra fuel as from here on we expect fuelling stations to be limited. Did a “Cooks tour” of the town and visited the sight where Cook beached and repaired the Endevour. Strong wind warning out so have stayed an extra day catching up on bookwork and winch repairs. Off to Lizard Island tomorrow. From here on we expect communications to be spasmodic so will blog when we get the opportunity.

24th Bloomfeild River
On the way to Cooktown we stayed at the mouth of the Bloomfeild River overnight, we tried to get into the river but was blocked by banks, there must be some way in but we couldn’t find the crazy maze entrance and picked down behind a hill for the night, a few line squalls passed over during the night and, we thanked our oversize Delta anchor for holding on.

Townsville to Cairns

24th May on to Cooktown Left Cairns at 6.30am. Drizzly rain, no wind so motor sailing once again. Sailed past the front door of Iris’ house which has a beautiful position right on the beach. Gave her a big wave whist she was standing on her front lawn at 7am (might have got her out of bed)! At present we are 17 miles south of Pt Douglas where the dividing range meets the coral coast. The Crew of Spindrift

21st& 23nd May onto Cairns Left Mourilyan at 0500, to make it all the way to Cairns, booked into Cairns Marina for two nights, Phil arranged with Bill’s Marine for a complete check over and maintenance of our two motors here, before we leave civilization. Sylvie got an early start on the washing and re- stocked the boat beer low here must fix this. Last night we went to dinner with Iris Fenn at the Football Club and had supper after at her place, mega cook indeed, we had a selection of four different sweets, we were still full at breakfast time. Whilst at Cairns we had the two motors overhauled. Great service from Bill’s Marine. Also installed some anti splash guards for the motors. Visited night markets and all had a Chinese massage!!!!

20th May Hinchinbrook Island Hinchinbrook Island is rugged to say the least, obviously old volcanic country, almost entirely Igneous rock, we sailed on out of the channel and on to Dunk Island for a midday beer, and became tourist for the day, ordinary hamburgers are $17.50 each here, so we went back to the cat for lunch (spotted mackeral). Overnight at Mourilyan Harbour, this place is so concealed you have to line up the entrance before you can see the way through, good quiet night.

19th May Townville
Pat left the boat here. We booked in overnight at the Marina [i]Phil & Sylvie went off to Jupiters Casino to break the bank, we think the Casino is still solvent. We departed Townville at 0700 and sailed on past Palm Island, surprised to see it very quiet here, we sailed on to Lucinda, passed the amazingly long Molasses Jetty and went into Hinchinbrook Channel, picked down for the night at Hancock Island, great spot for the night, few mozzies.

Townsville

18th May
Don’t know why they call it Cape Bowling Green & Bowling Green Bay we have been taking greenies over the bow most of the morning, not much of a bowling green when we were there, now heading for Townsville to fuel up and stay the night at the Marina, Pat gets off here. During the run to Townsville we managed to get the new staysail up and pulled her real tight. We shipped a bit of water over the bows but everything held, shes a beaut little sail. Lots of wind around both outside and inside the boat thanks to the curry. The entry to the Breakwater marina is interesting. Quite a shallow area around the channel.

Cape Bowling Green

17th May
Left Gloucester at 0600 the wind went on the nose and we had to motor all the way to Cape Bowling Green and stayed the night. Phil had cooked a curry for dinner which was absolutely superb. Although we had our doubts over the repercussions of eating curry on board.

Hamilton Island to Townsville

16th May
Our Log now reads 546 nm, we are moving up East Coast at about 7 Knots average, mostly light winds, for this part of the trip.
The stay we had at Hamilton was great, Patrick was our buggy driver and he tried to frighten the guts out of us around the Island, with a lot of success, we all survived the trip and had great time.
After leaving Hamilton Island we went to the Whitsunday Sailing Club to catch up with some old CYC yachties, Peter & Di Utber and Dave Richter, we had a great meal at the Club, next day they gave us a hand to locate and fix up a new spinnaker Pole, the new pole proved handy on our run to Gloucester Island, the crew had a nice few beers at the Gloucester Resort, we anchored here and stayed the night, Phil caught two mackerel.

Coral Coast Sailing

14 May
Departed Mackay for Hamilton Island, and arrived at 1630hrs. The photo is Phil Wood standing on Spindrift at Hamilton Island Resort Marina, Pat in the cockpit.


13 May
Sailed to Mackay and stayed at the massive great marina. Restocked our stores and Bill Smith departed for Hervey Bay. Patrick Walsh arrived on board at 1800 hrs at the marina. Barry and Pat had a great dinner of bacon and eggs while Sylvia and Phil meet up with Sylvias brother and wife, Mat and Chris, and had a wonderful dinner.

12 May
During the night, 0200 hrs, some light squalls caught up with us. We furled all sails and still managed 7 knots with just the bare pole. The squalls lasted the rest of the night, and all the way to Curlew island. We were happy to pick down at Curlew.

11 May
Left Gladstone 0630 heading for the famous inside passage called "the Narrows" (bad move...). The tide was out and we got stuck waiting for an hour and a half, the tide was too low for this bus. Finally got going again, and met a fisherman broken down and towed him through to the end of the narrows. To make up time, we sailed overnight to Curlew Island.

10 May
Dinner at the Gladstone yatch club. There is some nice boats in there. Gladstone is a huge exporter of coal, with about 15 ships queued up waiting for coal.

9 May
We walked 3 km's for boat parts, and when we finally arrived, the shop was shut. Bugger. Left Sandy Strait 0930, and practiced "Man Overboard". We were a bit rusty but should get better. Sailed overnight to Gladstone. Passed a few ships in the night, but we had no troubles with picking them up on the radar.

8 May
Departed Garry's Anchorage at 0800, and sailed all day, weaving our way up to the Great Sandy Strait. Spent the night in Urangan Marina (Hervey Bay) where we met up with Susan and Ross, Bill Smiths daughter and son in law. We had a nice meal at the boat club. Susan supplied some nice pies for the boat which was very welcome change.

0600 6 May.
After a months hard works at Newport, we slipped into Monty's on Caboolture River to give her a nice clean bum. First night stop was Mooloolaba Marina. Crew were Sylvia and Phil Woods, Bill Smith and Barry Scott.

The next day we sailed to the south end of Fraser Island and crossed the notorious Wide Bay Bar (many a boat has come to grief here). Arriving at the Bar, we were behind a big trimaran, and we thought "this is great, we will follow someone who knows the way." To our surprise, he didnt seem to know the way and did a 360 and started to follow us into the Bar. We now had the blind following the blind. We surfed all the way in with breakers trying to come on board.
Looking for a nice and cosy spot for the night, we picked down at Garry's Anchorage on the west side of Fraser. Nice stay overnight with a quick walk on Fraser inthe morning.