Saturday 26 Sept 2020.
Caught up on sleep (after 2-3 hrs on first night) Woke to the "Northwind 7" TS motoring past about 8 am and the stunning views of cloud and rainforest cloaked mountains.
Other yachts were also up-anchoring too and most were heading south in the opposite direction to nearby Lucinda. The trip north was a longer one with few boats to be seen at all.
Had to motor all the way as the weather was unusually dead flat calm again. The Tohatsu sailpro 6 pushed Teria along at 5 knots and with no range-anxiety at all. This was just the situation where the reliable fuel miser motor came into its own and made the entire trip feasible in the week long time frame.
The first stop was the bay west of Agnes Island, mentioned in "Cruising the coral coast". The land out here was a bit more windswept and scrub-like. A few km's westward the Thonsborne trail met the sandy beaches tucked under the towering mountains above, if any hikers or boats were there they were unseen, dwarfed by the huge landscape.
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| Eva Island, off Cape Sandwich |
A light 5 knot SE seabreeze kicked in , so set sail Northwards but was soon motor sailing to keep the speed up and traverse the length of long sweeping beaches with sand dunes. Was able to steer for Eva Islet off Cape Sandwich keeping the motor assisted sails drawing (this reduces revs required and saves fuel)
Decided to take the opportunity and head for Brooke Islands group as the weather was forecast to remain good for the day. These Islands are about 15nm off Cardwell and about halfway to the barrier reef. Way out in exposed waters territory.
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| Brooke Islands |
The Islands formed a beautiful chain of rainforest green humps, laced together with light green coral reef and surrounded by azure blue waters. A magical place that had to be sailed along, slowly ghosting at about 1 knot. Birds were happily living there in the National Park and a marine National park is over the entire area too. One of natures' gems protected.
South of Brooks, a few "reef boats" zoomed by about half mile off, returning from a mornings fishing or diving trip. These are usually about 5-8m long with powerful outboards or inboard engines which can get them out there quickly during the calm mornings and run back downwind when the breeze kicks up (They cost about 3-10 times more than Teria and consume that much more fuel too, but are made for well-funded no-nonsense boaters with limited time afloat.
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| Brooke Islands |
Teria ghosted along the lee side of the group, slowly passing a barnacle encrusted floating object - a lost divers' flipper, floating for months in the ocean.. Stayed outside pyramid shaped bouys which marked the no anchoring zones near the fringing reefs and anchored for late lunch off a sand cay beach on the Northern end of the small archipelago.
It would have been an amazing place to snorkel, but being solo it was too risky. Only an activity to be done in a buddy system with someone able to operate the boat onboard. (so minimum 3 person crew).
The VHF radio now picked up the crackle of Cairns marine rescue as well as those of Cardwell and Townsville. It was geographically between Townsville and Cairns. At least help if needed was within radio range in all directions here (and no need to last resort of the EPIRB)
The Offshore Islands from this point north are quite different from the ones to the south. These Islands have beautiful dense rain-forest cover, while the southern ones are often windswept scrubby rocks. To the north i could see the Barnard Islands and Dunk Island in the distance. Westward behind Hinchinbrook the Cardwell ranges cloaked in rainforest stretched northwards toward Tully and Innisfail. This area is its own cruising ground with Cardwell as the base ramp.
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| Beach at Brooke Islands |
Hand-steering for long distances like this sure makes an old fella tired, so a good feed, re-hydrate a good recovery nap did wonders. It also brings thoughts of auto-pilots to mind. (like the Raymarine ST1000 tiler pilot..) For now a tiller-brake and remote steering ropes will do. These ropes allow me to sit in the hatchway under the shady bimini/ pop-top and steer from there when motoring.
A bit of afternoon sea-breeze came up about 3pm. So set sail for Gould Island, but with time running out , changed course for the closer Cape Richards. Approached this an hour or so later, running downwind on a broad reach.
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| Cape Richards |
Sailed on to the first sheltered embayment near the Cape. Green sea-turtles surrounded Teria, it must have been their sea-grass feeding ground and have never seen so many in one place before! The area looked a potentially exposed to a bit of wave action, so motored a mile or so further along to a National park camp ground on the west shore of Missionary bay.
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| National Park anchorage, Missionary Bay |
Rounding the final headland there, smoke from a family's beach side fire indicated the first people on shore since Zoe Bay. The sheer scale of Missionary bay was mind blowing. A postcard over water sunset followed by a dome of stars later were other highlights.
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| Missionary Bay sunset |
The other good thing was mobile phone reception returned here. The phone and internet signal had been cut off since somewhere off Lucinda. So it was nice to catch up with family again and switch the star identifying app,
The ice in the esky was all melted by now, so ate the last fresh fruit. Started on the dehydated and tinned foods. (the precooked meals lasted first 2 days on ice)
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