Thursday 23rd October - Lizard Island
Today we say goodbye to Lizard Island, our home for the last two and a bit weeks.
We’d organised with Hoot that we’d aim to leave at about 8am, and head out to the Cod Hole at the top of Ribbon #10.
We were up early 6am to start getting ready.
During the usual pre-departure checks I found quite a bit of water in the bilge under the engine :(
Once that was gone we were ready! A quick radio call to Hoot confirmed they were ready to head off earlier, so we had the anchor up at heading out 7:30am.
There was a bit of wind, so got around the corner and put the sails up.
The wind was pretty much SE, so we were taking out, heading north of east (not in the right direction!).
Sailed that way for quite a while, before tacking and heading south.
Our tacking angle was probably 110degrees - there was a bit of current heading north.
After 2hrs of sailing, and still 5nm away (upwind!) we dropped sails and motored out. Hoot did the same.
Vellamo had left earlier than us and were smart enough to not try and sail. With their iron headsail up, they were already out there and on the western of the two moorings.
We went to check out the 2nd, however it looked like a yellow mooring (it was in fact a red mooring), however it looked really close to the reef, and there was too much swell coming in for us to be comfortable out here.
Turned around and went to find somewhere to anchor. We ended up about 1nm around the corner in some sand.
Dropped anchor in about 16m, and ended up sitting in about 21m.
Hoot by this time had gone in and taken the mooring (they had offered it to us after discovering it was a red mooring).
Quick Lunch, then getting ready for us all to dive!
Kristie and girls went over in our tender, and Andrew came over in his tender and took the rest of the dive gear and I.
Kristina wanted to say hi to Tora, the cat on Vellamo, so Kristie stopped there to say hi.
It was then time for Kristina and Emma to have a quick dive. They saw a few Cod and enjoyed their dive.
They dived the Cod Hole before I did!
Hoot had offered themselves up as the dive platform.
Kristina and Emma enjoyed swimming and jumping off their cat while we got ready to go for a dive.
Whilst swimming one of the fish liked the look of Kristina’s white and green sock and took a bite of it, and put a hole in it.
(thankfully no toes were bitten!)
All 6 of us adults (Bride and Andrew off Hoot, Traci and Matt off Vellamo, and Kristie and I) then went down for a dive.
Traci had issues with her new mask so they went up to the surface and we kept diving.
Bride and Andrew swam off, so it was just Kristie and I by ourselves for the dive.
We went down to about 24m and found a big cod that was happy (well, it didn’t seem to care!) for a few photos.
Headed back west and up into the shallower sections as the viz dropped off as it got out into the deeper sections.
Visibility would have been about 30m. Excellent coral cover. We saw some of the large Cod this place is named for, as well as an eel, reef sharks, Maori Wrasse, humphead parrotfish.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 18.1
- Duration: 63min
- Average Depth: 8.7m
Kristie and I then took the dive gear back to Lazuli, leaving the girls on Hoot with Bride and Andrew.
We had a pod of dolphins come up close just as we got back to Lazuli.
I ended up removing more water from the bilge.
Sips ‘n dips on Hoot with Matt and Traci.
We had a huge pod of dolphins swam past, and do some fishing in the channel to the east of us.
It was a long, slow, wet ride back to Lazuli!
Friday 24th
Breakfast while Kristie filled tanks.
Cleaned up bilge and discovered one of the hose clamps on the hose coming out of the raw-water stainer had come off.
I replaced that, hopefully that’s the cause of the water ingress.
Kristie and I geared up and headed over to Hoot, leaving the girls on board Lazuli.
The 4 of us went down (and stayed together this time).
We would have had 40+m vis this dive, and no current.
We went out east and came back along the wall.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 23.7
- Duration: 72min
- Average Depth: 8.9m
Back to Lazuli for lunch, and Kristie filled more tanks.
I had my friday afternoon client meeting.
Back to Hoot for more diving. Vellamo were hosting drinks this afternoon, so we took all our supplies with us.
Kristie went for a dive with Andrew and Matt, while the girls, Bride, and I snorkeled.
The visibility was still amazing, so we could snorkel above them and watch for a bit.
A very friendly cod came up at the start of the dive and hung around for a bit, posing for photos.
We enjoyed our snorkel, checking out the wall in front of Hoot.
We were still in the water when the divers came back, so Emma and I followed them. Emma enjoyed playing with the air bubbles as they came up!
Once dry, we all converged on Vellamo for the afternoon. The girls were down stairs watching their iPads, with Tora the cat keeping a close eye on them.
Enjoyed our drinks and nibbles, then we all got to enjoy Traci’s famous sunset cocktail - grapefruit and vodka.
Had another pod of dolphins swim past.
Back to Lazuli for dinner.
Saturday 25th
Breakfast, and then Kristie filled tanks.
I had a look through the back lazarette to see if I could spot anything else that might be the cause of water ingress (there wasn’t any new water in).
Vellamo and Hoot left before us, both wanting more time at Lizard Island.
We were off motoring at 8am.
Autopilot on the entire way, which gave me time to work on the previous blog.
We arrived at bottom of #10, and dropped anchor in about 6m of water at 11:30am. 1 minute later the first of the seabirds landed on Lazuli.
It was just over 14nm from our spot at the top of #10 to where we stopped at the bottom.
No water intake!
Lunch.
Kristie dived on one of the random bommies out the back.
Visibility was only about 5m, and it wasn’t long before she was back on the tender after getting buzzed by a cranky reef shark.
Family snorkel on one of the shallower reefs in close.
We had a shark swim past us while Kristina was out between the reefs all by herself. I got out there with her and brought her back in.
The coral cover was ok, not as good as we had at the Clam Gardens. We still enjoyed the snorkel and saw a large eel, pufferfish and some clownfish.
Loukia turned up about 3:45pm. I went over and invited them for drinks, but they declined as they’d had a big day (they’d come all the way from Lizard).
We were on time for dinner, but Emma took herself to bed at 7pm! Those late nights and big days had caught up with her.
Sunday 26th
The infection on Kristina’s food had grown significantly, so Kristie did a Tele-health video call with a doctor.
He gave us a script for some antibiotics, but we’re just a little far away from the nearest pharmacy.
He recommended (as we couldn’t get there soon), that we drain and put some antibiotic cream on it.
With that done, we motored over to the patch between #10 and #9. We ended up picking up the mooring on Pixie Pinnacle.
With the NE forecast, I wasn’t happy with the idea of anchoring in close as we could get blown towards the reef edge.
Lunch.
Checked AIS and saw that the Spirit of Freedom dive boat might be heading our way, so we held off diving until we knew what they were doing.
They ended up heading away from us and went to No-name reef just north of Cod Hole: time for us to go diving!
Quick tender ride (about 20m) over to the tender mooring at the top of Pixie Pinnacle.
Viz was about 25m. We had a Manta swam past at one point. Great dive! There were plenty of clownfish, and so much fish life everywhere.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 25
- Duration: 62min
- Average Depth: 11.5m
Back to Lazuli for a quick tank change, then Kristie did a solo dive on Pixie Wall, heading west from the mooring.
I had a quick snorkel, and found her a pipefish.
Visibility was about 20m. A great dive other than her float/line getting stuck on the plate coral, which limited her exploration of some of the canyons and overhangs.
With me on top in the tender, she could do a one way dive. Started at one mooring, and made it to the next.
More tank filling, then sips ‘n dips.
Monday 27th
Kristina’s foot bubble/infection had filled up again, so we drained it again.
Kristie and I then went over to dive Pixie Wall. Jumped in and went east this time.
Lots of fan coral, canyons to explore, more pipefish, some nudi’s, and had 2 barracuda follow along for quite a while.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 15.2
- Duration: 63min
- Average Depth: 8.4m
After the dive we motored down to Ribbon #5, about 32nm south.
Kristie was skippering (dodging reefs) while I worked.
We lost Starlink about 5nm out from our anchorage at the bottom of #5.
There are two moorings there, but both were taken. Went in closer and took a while to find somewhere to drop the anchor.
Ended up in about 10m of water on a clear sandy spot between bommies.
Ribbon #5 is one of the few that is not a Green Zone. I had green squid light out at night and could see a few larger fish swimming around underneath.
I dropped a lure in, but it was half-hearted and they showed no interest in it!
Tuesday 28th
Kristie filled tanks. One of the moorings was now free, but we decided we didn’t need to move next to Loukia and fire up the compressor!
Once the tanks were done we did move across to the free mooring.
Kristie and I geared up to go dive one of the patches between #5 and #4.
We tied on to one of the moorings over there.
Jumping in quickly as it was so hot.
There is a nice wall there; we swam west.
Great dive! Saw a nudi, a few eels, crayfish, white tip reef shark. We had another more curious shark came to check us out a few times before it swam off.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 21.5
- Duration: 62min
- Average Depth: 9.3m
Back to Lazuli and I grabbed the spear gun and jumped in on the bommie behind the mooring.
The fact that this is NOT a Green Zone shows… didn’t see anything of a size that could be taken.
Lunch.
Emma and Kristie made damper (GF flour and lemonade).
Kristie filled tanks while that was cooking.
With tanks filled, Kristie and I went back over to the same mooring on #4.5 but this time swam east around the corner.
Another great dive, we saw 5 Maori Wrasse at the start.
Saw a decent sized eel, crayfish, nudis, and a cool flat worm.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 16.8
- Duration: 61min
- Average Depth: 9.2m
As we got back in the tender, we could hear Kristina talking on the VHF to Hoot: “Mum and Dad are diving… again”.
Turns out Hoot were about an hour away.
Back on Lazuli Kristie filled tanks.
I cooked dinner and put in the Billy Boil, hoping to save time for dinner later on.
Sundowners on Hoot. Loukia was the yacht on the other mooring. We motored past them on the way to Hoot to invite them over.
They declined (for a 2nd time!) as they were going to be off early in the morning and their tender was already out of the water and packed away.
On Hoot, the girls used their 4G connection to do their streaks (Duolingo and Roblox!); I used it to set up Ocean Mode ($3.20/GB).
I hadn’t activated Ocean mode, and while you can access your Starlink account from the app while you’re in a restricted region, the multifactor auth requires internet access :|
The lightning storm on the mainland gave a good show. Others who were further south than us got a bit of rain, but no storm out where we were.
Wednesday 29th
With Hoot here, we had breakfast then met up over at the #4.5 site again to dive with them.
We went east, and had a great dive with about 25m visibility. Andrew spotted a lovely anemone bulb still closed up!
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 16.8
- Duration: 61min
- Average Depth: 9.2m
Diving done, and time to head down to Ribbon #3. Only 9.3nm to the south.
Hoot stayed where they were to have a break from diving (WTF!) and to go fishing.Kristie enjoyed a nap on the way down.
Two moorings here, and both were vacant!
Spoil Sport was on Steve’s Bommie when we turned up, but looked like they were packing up.
We still had tanks to fill, so compressor out and Kristie filled tanks over lunch.
Spoil Sport then moved over to Ribbon #2.5 (the patches between #3 and #2).
AIS makes it easy to see exactly where they are diving :)
Turned on Starlink so the girls could get streaks and we could check weather forecasts.
Enjoyed watching the dolphins that swam past.
Kristie and I geared up and did the 0.7nm tender ride from the mooring to Steve’s Bommie.
Excellent dive!! 25m viz, quite a few nudies, a few large cod, schools of fish, pelagics, lionfish, clownfish, pipefish, and the plaque.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 23.9
- Duration: 62min
- Average Depth: 13.5m
We got back and Emma was keen for a snorkel. Kristina still using her foot as a reason to stay dry.
Jumped in on the reefs just to the east of the mooring. Not much coral but she enjoyed the warm layer of water on top.
Emma enjoyed swimming down close to all the clams she could find.
There was a large school of black fish came past with a few humpheads.
Kristie filled the tanks again.
Emma and I played Minecraft. As we had no internet she was bored and wanted to play something.
We spent an hour on a few worlds together… her crafting and me wandering aimlessly attacking chickens and other animals!
They both are struggling with no internet. Addiction is real.
Kristie realised the intake hose had fallen out at some point during the filling.
Sip’s ‘n dips with just us.
We’re getting low on meat, so dinner was Carbonara with just bacon (we usually add chicken).
Had the night on the reef by ourselves; at the other reefs there had been game fishing boats that came in to the reefs to shelter for the night.
Thursday 30th
Woke to a light sunshower, and bird poop on the decks. We’d had a few perch on the spreaders over night :(
Analysed tanks and found one had 7ppm, and the other was 4ppm. So we dumped all the air from them and refilled.
We both went over and dived wall on 2.5 again, this time we headed to the east.
Only 15m viz, awesome coral, reef shark, nudies, barracuda. Visibility dropped off a bit more as we got to the corner.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 15.6
- Duration: 61min
- Average Depth: 8.2m
Back on the boat and filled tanks, then lunch.
Checked and realised that we didn’t need Ocean mode at #3, so opened Starlink back up to the girls! They were delighted!
Post lunch dive back at Steve’s Bommie. Cod, Grouper, three eels, lion fish, big schools of pelagics, a flat worm, banded shrimp, purple anemone bulb.
Dive Stats:
- Max depth: 24.4
- Duration: 65min
- Average Depth: 12.8m
Radioed to let girls know to get ready to go for a dive.
Emma wanted to dive Steve’s Bommie, so headed back out there; Kristina stayed on board with her infected foot.
Emma did a 15min dive around the top of the bommie, with her max depth around 6m.
She really loved the dive here.
Back to fill tanks.
Friday 31st - Halloween
With nobody around us, and out on the reef by ourselves, Kristie gave thd girls all the Halloween lollies that she’d purchased in preparation for trick-or-treating.
Left the mooring at Ribbon #3 and we were motoring at 7:30am heading to Pickersgill Reef.
No wind, very, very hot onboard!
I worked.
Hooked a Mac Tuna while in a meeting, but threw it back.
Got to Pickersgill but too much swell. We had a weird NE swell, and most of these reefs don’t do so well in that direction swell.
Kept going south to Mackay Reef/Cay, only about 12nm south.
Kristie got a sun burnt back while sitting out in the sun briefly.
I called up Coral Sea Marina; we’d originally booked to stay with them for the month of November. We weren’t going to make it there by tomorrow!
They were happy to move our booking.
Got to the cay, and we all got into togs and went in for a swim with the mat… but not before a jump…
Jim and Jude (Nohea) were there and came to say hi and had a good chat with them while hanging about in the water.
Back to Lazuli for quick change and back to the cay at 5pm for sips ‘n dips with Nohea.
Girls dressed up in their costumes that they had for Trick or treating.
We enjoyed sunset drinks and cheese on the sand with us and Jim and Jude. I’d mentioned earlier during our swim we were out of a few essentials… like Weetbix.
Jude kindly brought in a care package of Weetbix for me :) Thanks! Jim’s comment was along the lines of “It’s good to get that cardboard off the boat!”.
Back on Lazuli we had done dinner when Coco and Van from a massive motor cat came trick or treating (with their Dad) in their tender at about 7:30pm.
Girls got dressed (we were all more or less just surviving in undies it was so hot!) and put together two small clipseal bags of lollies to give to the other two kids.
The girls missed being able to go trick or treating back home.
Saturday 1st Nov
Kristie and I went for a snorkel, and on the lookout for a tasty Coral Trout.
Didn’t see any trout, but saw a turtle, reef shark, large eel, and lots of fish. Just nothing to spear.
Swim at the beach and the girls enjoyed playing on the mat with the other two kids.
Dropped mooring at midday and sails up to follow Nohea south. They weren’t sure where they were going, but we were aiming for Low Isles to meet up with Hoot again.
Just under 22nm all up, and we only motored the last 2 miles as the wind was SE and we couldn’t quite make the island without tacking.
There are 5 moorings there, and they were all full when we approached. We were about to drop anchor when Kristie noticed one of the yachts on a mooring was leaving, so we quickly grabbed that.
Bride and Andrew came by in their tender and we organised drinks on the beach at 5pm.
Kristie and I went to Loukia (who were on one of the other moorings) to let them know our plans as well.
They invited on board and had a beer and a chat with Kelly, a solo sailor from Port Douglas on the mooring next to them.
(she has an even smaller boat than Loukia!).
Garry (Loukia) admitted they’d been about to raise their tender when they saw us come into the bay and realised they really ought to make an appearance for drinks :)
We went back to Lazuli to get the girls and supplies.
At the beach at 5pm for drinks and food. There are tables there so we set up on one of them.
Fiona and Gaz from Loukia, and Kelly joined us and Hoot (along with two of their friends they’d picked up from PD for the night).
Andrew opened some coconuts, and Bride shared around the coconut flesh and milk.
Fresh coconut milk and gin is a regular drink for Bride, and Kristie enjoyed it also.
At least one of the coconuts had some lovely soft flesh. So good.
Emma flew her kite by herself for a bit, then she and Kristina took my phone for a walk around the island to take some photos.
We took some of the coconut back to Lazuli.
Had a late (8pm!) dinner of Pancakes and Bacon and maple syrup!. Yum. Our last dinner before we resupply in Cairns.
Sunday 2nd
Dropped mooring and leaving by 6:30am. Loukia was about 2nm behind us when they followed us out of the island. They travel a lot slower than us.
We spent a bit of time getting ready for jobs once we get to the marina.
Both our fridge and freezer had accumulated a bit of ice, so with the freezer low it was the perfect time to defrost these.
I had the camp fridge on and cold as a freezer, so transferred all the stuff in our freezer to that, and the fridge contents into the insulated woolies bags.
With the high ambient temperature it didn’t take long for the ice to disappear!
I got a bit more of this blog written.
We arrived at Cairns Marlin Marina at about 12:45. We’d called to ask for assistance… we shouldn’t have :(
The guy they sent down was completely useless a catching lines. We gave him our spring line and all he had to do was tie that off.. he just did one loop and left it at that..
The wind was blowing directly behind, so it quickly pushed us forwards and we touched at the front, and then ended up sideways in the empty pen.
No out best effort :(
With the boat sorted, Kristie started 4 loads of washing… no washing for 5+ weeks so everything we had needed a wash!
We had a full load of rubbish to offload.
Kristie then set off to head to the shops to get Emma’s iPad screen replaced.
Also stopped in at the pharmacy, newsagent, and Woolies.
I had a bunch boat jobs to do as well:
- Filled up all 3 water tanks
- Flushed the outboard engine
- Washed the decks (got rid of all the bird poop)
- A few trips to the laundry to bring back the dry cloths and put some more in the dryers
- Decanted the one jerrycan of diesel we had.
- Filled up a container to soak our dive regs in.
With Kristie back, I started walking to Anaconda to get the gas filled.
I decided I best call them first to make sure they could; turns out they were out of gas so I only wasted 200m instead of 2km!
We all had much needed showers, and then went to night markets for dinner and a massage.
The girls found some stuff to spend their pocket money on.
Cold Rock on the way back to Lazuli.
Monday 3rd
I took the tender to go and get fuel at 8am, Tuesdays is their busiest day so we couldn’t get a fuel booking for Lazuli until much later in the day tomorrow.
Filled up 4 jerrycans of diesel, and 30L of unleaded. Emptied 3 of them straight away and kept the one 20L of diesel in the locker.
Kristie did school with the girls.
I then set off for some shopping.
- Uber to Whitworths to buy a new bilge hose and other goodies
- Walked to spear/fishing place to get a new filleting knife
- Walked to Tackle world to get new red and white lure
- Walked to BCF to fill the gas bottle and buy a hand spear.
- Uber back to marina.
While I was out, Kristina and Kristie walked to the Marina office to pick up some packages, and then onto the Post Office, Target, and Coles.
They brought home a hot chook for a late lunch.
I had a work meeting, and Kristie had a nap up top.
Replaced the bilge hose; I ended up having to get both girls to help to feed it through.
Checked and cleaned the log/depth sounders; they both had substantial growth (the speed log wasn’t working at all)
Pizza takeaway for dinner. The girls and I had a quick swim in the lagoon while waiting for Kristie to bring the pizza.
Back in the water as soon as pizza’s were smashed.
Emma’s wobbly tooth finally came out (with assistance) at the lagoon. Kristie had to hold it for the rest of the swim and keep it safe.
Emma has previously lost one of her teeth at the pool in Yeppoon a few years ago and was most distraught thinking the Tooth Fairy wouldn’t come if she didn’t have the tooth!
We didn’t get out of the lagoon until 7pm.
It was so nice just to be in the water.
Kristie did another load of washing. 2 days spent walking around in the heat in Cairns was easy enough to fill a load.
Made the most of the marina amenities and enjoyed a nice cold shower.
Tomorrow we’re leaving Cairns and starting to head further south.
Cairns is HOT, especially when there is no breeze.
Yes, the Tooth Fairy visited Emma!