Tuesday 4th November - Cairns Marlin Marina
A few final jobs before we leave - filled up the water and offloaded what rubbish we still had onboard.
Left the marina at 7:40am and started motoring out to Sudbury Cay
It was forecast to be 5kts, but it was gusting 15 on the way out.
Had the line out, and caught some seaweed; we had 3 hits on the lure but nothing stuck :(
Motored through a rain squall before finally grabbing one of the two moorings out at Sudbury Cay.
Lunch.
Hoot was on the way out so we were in contact with them. They’d gone to check out a reef further north but ended up on the other mooring here.
Kristie and I geared up for a snorkel; we saw flat worm, maori wrasse, and 3 large cuttlefish.
Andrew and I both had our spear guns. Andrew got a tusk fish and cuttlefish.
I tried to get a cray with hand spear but just pissed it off and it fled back into the safety of its rock :(
Bride and Andrew were walking around the cay when we were done with our snorkel. We stopped to have a quick chat and organised sip’s ‘n dips.
Back to Lazuli to wash and get dry. We were going to Hoot for dinner (fish and calamari!), so I made up some potatoes to take over and put them in our billy boil.
Got drinks and cheese and headed into the cay with the girls.
Andrew had brought in one of their coconuts and the means to open it up.
Having drinks with friends on a tiny bit of sand in the middle of the ocean is one of the many things we’ve really enjoyed this year. It never gets old.
Dinner on Hoot. Delicious fish, and lots of calamari!
Wednesday 5th
Kristie awake to see the sunrise; the sand cay is quite small and offers very little protection from the swell, so it’s very rolly.
We left at 7am and motored (no wind) to Russell Island. Hoot stayed there to wait for the wind.
Kristie had a nap, and I got in some work while underway.
Arrived at 9:30am and picked up the most northern of the 3 moorings there.
School and more work.
The other boat there left, so we took it’s mooring as it was a bit further down and should protect us from the swell a bit more.
Lunch.
Tender into beach for beach combing.
Found a few shells, and had a good chat with a lady who had just arrived and was spending a week camping on the island.
She suggested that as it was low tide we could walk across to the other headland and there was a track to the top.
With our togs, wetsuit/water shoes on we walked across to the other headland and looked for a path up.
It was a bit of a scramble; and only Kristina and I climbed to the top.
Kristie and Emma got about halfway up, then went back down and made their way back across.
Great view; the wetsuit boots not the most sturdy option for rock climbing.
We all enjoyed a sit in the water to cool down once we were back across and closer to where our tender was.
Bride and Andrew had turned up and were out snorkeling/spearing.
We dropped the girls on Hoot; and with Bride’s permission, Emma set their fish (live bait) free!
Kristie and I went back to Lazuli to get the swim mat to take back to Hoot.
Bride had set up a line running from the front to the back, under the middle of their cat that could then be used for some in-water tight-rope walking.
The girls played on Hoot’s davits/lines for ages.
We made good use of the mat while the girls were playing.
Dropped the girls to Lazuli, gave them dinner, back to Hoot for sips ‘n dips.
Thursday 6th
Left Russell Island at 6:50am, lure in straight away. Hooked a few seaweeds.
Kristie took over while I worked.
No wind, no swell, so we went to check out Eddy Reef. Anchored but even at mid-tide there was too much NE swell for us to stay there.
Brief attempt to sail but not enough wind.
Motored the rest of the way to Goold Island instead.
No fish.
Friday 7th
Woke up at 5:30am with alarm, anchor up by 6am.
Saw some dolphins.
Sailed once we cleared Goold and had a nice run down and around the side of Hinchenbrook Island.
Anchored in the northern section of Zoe Bay to try and get out of the NE swell.
Had a long tender ride into beach; decided to stop about half-way down as the waves crashing on the shore were getting bigger.
Ended up with a 1km walk down the beach: hot and soft sand. Stingrays and shovelnose rays where swimming up and down in the shallows.
Kristie and Emma tried to take a rainforest track (trying to be croc safe) from the beach to the waterfall; they walked for 15min before accepting it may be the wrong track and had to turn around and go down the beach like we did.
Kristina and I hadn’t waited and had got to the falls and had a swim, fed the fish, and 30min later with no Kristie or Emma we started to walk back.
Met them 2min later just after crossing the creek.
Back to the falls for a family swim.
Fed the Perch some more shapes (they don’t appear to be fussy on what sort of shapes!).
We had a swing, and the girls did some “drawing” on the rocks/algae. All four of us had a turn sitting under the waterfall.
There wasn’t as much water coming down as when we’d visited on the way north.
Tender was high and dry when we got back, long and slow struggle to get it down to the water.
On the way up we’d timed our visit so we didn’t have to do this!
Sailed to Orpheus and grabbed a mooring there. Lovely and protected in a NE.
Saturday 8th
7:15am and we were off sailing towards Maggie.
8:10am had a visit from the Water Police. They came alongside while we kept sailing (we were only doing 5kts or so downwind).
They wanted to check the life jackets, flares, v-sheet, rego, EPIRB, and then gave Kristie a breath test.
It’s been a time since I had some “camping coffee” on a weekend morning, but if I did it wouldn’t be before a 47nm sail!
Anchored at Picnic Bay as Horseshoe was too rolly. We quite liked it here. Good protection from NE and very scenic.
Tender into beach to drop Kristie in for shopping.
Kristie took the bus to the marina to drop off the stubby cooler we’d taken from Vellamo, and then to pick up some supplies at the IGA.
Kristie ended up having a chat with Rhythm, there were planning to head off to see the coral spawning.
I brought the girls in to meet Kristie. I sent them both up the road to dump our rubbish!
Dinner at the pub across from the jetty; the girls enjoyed the massive fish tank we were sitting in front of.
Walked out along the pier for the sunset.
Tender back to Lazuli in the twilight.
Sunday 9th
No wind, so motored, with Kristie at the helm while I worked.
Had our trusty red & white lure out and caught a Spotted Mackerel on the way!
Anchored at Cape Bowling Green, which was ok in the NE winds (it’s normally referred to as Cape Rolling Green and is not a pleasant place to be in a SE wind).
Monday 10th
Anchor up at 7am to get out to the SS Yongala (only about 2hr motor away).
Kristie motored while I worked.
We had permits to dive the wreck, but our understanding was you need to book/pay/arrange to use the moorings.
At 8am I called the place that we were under the impression dealt with these, but they didn’t open until 8:30.
Called again but turns out 9am is opening time.
Called at 9am, but their building alarm was going off so they’ll call back.
Nobody called us back, so I called again at 9:30 but the usual person was away so got someone else to call me back.
Arrived at SS Yongala at 9:45am and picked up a mooring. Glassy conditions. Not a breath of wind.
Got a call back at 10am and the guy said it wasn’t them, and he couldn’t find who to call anyway.
Suggested we enjoy the dive and seek forgiveness if we have to ;)
Yongala Dive arrived at 10:10am.
Set up gear, discovered that my primary reg hose was leaking. Replaced that with one of our spares.
Kristie saw a turtle and sea snake on the surface.
Kristie swam our line over to the Diver Access Point (which by this time was much, much closer to their boat than ours!).
I took Kristie and her dive gear over in the Tender. Matt (owner of Yongala Dive) offered to surface watch if we wanted to dive together, so quick gear up by me.
Tied tender to their boat.
Strong currents - 8m viz.
Lots of life. Bull Ray, shovel nose, eels, turtle, cod, Maori Wrasse, nudi, flatworm.
This was my first dive on the wreck, Kristie has been here several times.
Many, many thanks to Matt for doing surface watch so we could dive together. A refreshing change compared to some dive operators that like to think they “own” the site they dive.
Dropped mooring at 12:20. Had another call at 1pm by mooring people but let them know we’d already talked to someone.
Enough wind to sail at 2pm. Anchored at Cape Upstart at 5:30pm.
Tuesday 11th
Alarm at 5am, breakfast on the way.
7am hooked something big.
We’d hooked one of its pectoral fins, so it was swimming in circles.
Took lots of circle work, but eventually after 25min I got my lure back!
Motored until Cape Gloucester, by which time we could sail straight to Airlie.
Arrived at Coral Sea Marina at 5pm. They placed us at the end of the arm.
We had a nice rainbow to welcome us “home”.
We have booked to stay at the marina here for a month.
There are a few boat jobs to do, but our main goal is to get Lazuli tidy and listed for sale before we head south.
We will enjoy making use of all the facilities here.