Friday 26th September - Cairns Marlin Marina

We’re leaving Cairns today, for real! First stop will be the Low Isles which is about 35nm north of Cairns, or about 8nm NE of Port Douglas.

6am wake-up alarm, and by the time we got us and Lazuli ready we left the marina just after 7am.

Motored out of the channel until we could put the sails up.
With the sails up, Kristie took the helm while I worked.

I took over during break between meetings and kristie got in a quick nap

We were getting close to the islands, and with timing it looked like I would be in a meeting as we got there!
Decided to get the sails down a bit early and motor the rest of the way there.
I had to put myself on mute and turn off the video briefly as we had to pick up a mooring while I was still on the call.

The rain started just before we had finished getting ourselves settled.

I had one more work meeting, then it was my turn for an afternoon snooze.

As soon as we’d first picked up the mooring we’d had numerous bat fish swimming around, shortly followed by some reef sharks.

Kristina and I fed the bat fish some of our mouldy bread.
They had to compete with the Remora who’d turned up with the sharks; the reef sharks kept swimming around but obviously weren’t interested in bread!

Saturday 27th

Had breakfast, then headed in to walk around the island.

Checked out the lighthouse and museum. There’s the usual history and story of the island which was interesting.

You can’t get into nor up the lighthouse.

The only occupants these days is the pair Ospreys nesting on top of the lighthouse; they have their own custom build nesting platform that they’ve made good use of.

There are a couple of day boats that come out from Port Douglas, bringing loads of snorkelers out.
We put on our gear and swam out to where they all were.
Lots of dead coral :( Two years ago they had flooding and the freshwater line got out past these islands and as a result most of it died.

We did find a local turtle who needed a good scratch. It spent ages scratching up against the coral, but was also happy for us to give it a scratch; it’d come out and present it’s side and let us give its shell a good scratch.

Emma ended up getting a bit cold; Kristina (who’d been stubbornly refusing to get wet) finally put her togs on and came out for a snorkel.

There were still lots of other tourists out from Port Douglas.

We anchored the swimming mat out a bit and enjoyed some time playing on that.

Kristie and Kristina went for a walk to get a few more photos, and on the way back Kristina was swimming in the water and doing backflips and just splashing around.
One of the crew (lookouts / lifeguards?) from the commercial boats was worried Kristina was in trouble and went over to help her and herd her back to the main group of her passengers!
Kristie had to explain we weren’t with them. We’ve had this a few times, but good to know that they’re keeping a good lookout!

Back to Lazuli for a late lunch.

Lazy afternoon on devices; I enjoyed watching the AFL Grand Final, cracking game - GO THE LIONS!

However, 3/4 way through the game Starlink dropped out and we lost all 240V! The inverter was switching off as soon as I tried to enable the 240V circuit.
We still had enough reception to tether phone to watch the last quarter of the game!

Heavy rain just as the game was wrapping up, so put the sides up.

We were treated to a cool double rainbow when the rain cleared.

With the game over I could spend some time trying to see what was wrong.
Looking in the engine bay I discovered our coolant overflow bottle was empty, and its contents in the engine bay :(
Never a good sign :|

Without Starlink, the girls spent some time up top crafting some necklaces.

Too dark to do much more investigation - that’s a job for tomorrow.

Sunday 28th

We had planned to head off to the some of the local reefs today.
With no inverter/Starlink, and coolant in the engine bay we weren’t going anywhere.

Late last year our inverter had done the same thing, and we’d had an electrician out to fix it.
He had pulled out the 300AMP fuse from the inverter, cleaned it, and put it back end and it worked.
I figured I’d try the same.

I pulled the cover off the inverter and gave the fuse a bit of sand and tightened it back up.
Inverter now working! Starlink online: girls back to their happy place!

Now to sort out the engine. I topped the overflow up and had Kristie start the engine.
Wasn’t long before I could see the coolant coming out of the hose at the top of the engine.
I tried tightening the hose clamp, but after a few turns it became apparent that hose clamp was rusted and completely broken :|
Luckily I had a few spares so fitted one. Got it tight enough that it didn’t leak anymore.

Lunch, then fed the batfish some more.

We’d seen one of the commercial snorkeling boats take their passengers out to the western side for a snorkel, so we figured we’d go and check that out.
The coral there was in even worse condition than the main area on the eastern side

We gave up pretty quickly and went back to the main area for another snorkel.

There were new two private boats from Port Douglas with a bunch of kids playing in the water (the adults were up having a bbq/drinks).
Our girls enjoyed bringing out all the toys (mermaid tails, buckets/spades, beach ball) from the tender to play with them!
They had fun snorkeling and playing on their SUP.

I had a good chat with the adults (one of them happily dropping the F-bomb every 2nd word around the kids!).

Kristie was still out snorkeling and saw a few bigger reef sharks, whilst we had a few baby sharks swim in the shallows past the kids.

Kristie also found a few turtles out snorkeling, whilst we had a few swim past us in the shallows.

Back on Lazuli for Sip’s ‘n dips.

Monday 29th

Dropped the mooring line at 7am and motored to Opal Reef. One of our dive club members (Dave) now works for one of the dive boats operating out of Port Douglas, and had recommend visiting Opal Reef.

It would be about 25nm to get there. I got in some work while Kristie skippered.

Had the lure out, and hooked a Mackerel. I wasn’t prepared and took too long to get ready and it flicked itself off the gaff hook and lure :(

Anchored at Opal. Easy enough approach in the middle of the day in good conditions (less than 10knts wind).
Dropped anchor in about 7m on sand, and put out 50m of chain and ended up sitting in 11m.

Kristie had a nap while I did more work.

There are two commercial operators that come out here. One of them has a few mooring and their two boats rotate between them.
We waited until they had left, then Kristie and I geared up and took the tender over and went for a dive together.
I think they call the site “Rayban”. It was an easy dive, 5.5m max depth! Quite a lot to see and great coral.

Ended the dive hanging out with a massive cuttle fish. It swam away to the sand to start with, then came back and was happy to let us get closer while it was feeding.
It was pretty cool to see it stick its tentacles into the coral to grab its food.

With the dive done it was time for Kristie to fill tanks while I did a bit more work.

Sip’s ‘n dips.

A few game fishing boats had come in late in the afternoon to shelter for the night.

Tuesday 30th

Early start to get in the water before the commercial boats turn up.

Back to “Rayban”, and by 8am Kristie was in the water with Emma.

She had a good dive (about 13min). Previously Kristina has gone first, and Emma and I swim along with Emma diving down.
This usually means she gets cold pretty quickly when it’s her turn to dive. We switched it up so Kristina could stay warm on the tender while Emma was diving.

With Emma done, Kristina jumped in and had her turn.

Fantastic spot for them to dive: no current, shallow, great visibility, and lots to see!

They both loved the “Midgen Berry” (dog-faced puffer fish) and a also found a “clam family” (two big clams, and two littler clams all huddled together!)

No snorkeling, so back to the Lazuli. Kristie swapped to a new tank and I took her out to do a solo dive on a large bommie out the back.

She saw plenty of fish, some good structure; overall a good enjoyable easy dive.

Back to the boat just in time for a client meeting (swapped my rash shirt for work shirt!).

Traci and Matt off Vellamo turned up in their tender to say hi (they’d just dropped anchor near us and were off for a snorkel).
Kristie had been messaging Traci on FB, and we’d waved to them as we left the Low Isles as they’d only turned up late the afternoon before we left.

They invited us over to their boat (a Catalina 470) for Sundowners later this afternoon.

The girls and I got ready to go for a snorkel, and Kristie geared up for a dive.
Took the tender across to the “North of South Opal” spot where the commercial operators go. About the same distance north as “Rayban” is south of where were are anchored.
The girls and I enjoyed a 54min snorkel, while Kristie had a solo dive.
We followed along with her to start with, the girls enjoyed diving down to wave at her.

Turned around to swim back towards the tender. This is one of our favourite snorkeling spots.
There was a lot of good coral, and some cool structures that had some “swim-throughs” that both girls enjoyed.
Emma spotted a very cool anemone bowl at the start of our snorkel, but by that time Kristie had swum past it.
With Kristie on the way back, I sent Emma off to bring Kristie over to it (it was only in about 2m deep).

We all took turns swimming down to check them out and take photos.

Kristie enjoyed her dive; she saw a school or razor-fish, a few eels, and had a baby Remora stick with her the whole dive.

When we met back up it tried to attach itself to Emma (she didn’t enjoy that one little bit!) and then it liked the look of my black fins!

Back onboard and Kristie started filling tanks. We had another o-ring blow out - lucky we have a bag of spares.

Sip’s and dips on Vellamo, left the girls back onboard with their iPads. They have a lovely yacht, lots of room for just the two of them.

Even though we were out at the reef with no land, we had a few birds think they could roost on the front railings.
Kristie shooed them off before she went to bed, but they came back and made a bit of a mess on the front deck :|

Wednesday 1st

Quick breakfast, then a family snorkel back at “North of South Opal”. Saw two turtles, went back to the anemone bowl which had since flattened out. The clown fish were still there though.
Spent some time diving down to that and the giant clams nearby. Emma’s ears started to get sore, so wasn’t a long snorkel this time.

Back to Lazuli and got ready to leave.

Had a good sail up to Mackay Cay while I got in some work. Just about everyone we met who had sailed north before highly recommend this spot.

Lure out. Work meeting. 5minutes after the meeting finished we hooked (and successfully landed) a long-fin (Albacore) Tuna, probably 60cm or so.

Processed the tuna while underway.

Picked up one of the two moorings, and quickly got ready to go and get dinner; jumped in the tender with Kristie and my spear gun.
Kristie finally managed to spot a decent sized Coral Trout that I got.
It’s not really sporting; they just sit there looking at you.
Not long after getting the trout in the boat, a large reef shark encouraged Kristie to get out of the water.

Coral Trout and chips for dinner. Yum.

Thursday 2nd

Got in a bit of work early in the morning.

Took Kristie for a dive on the bommies (we’ll call them the ‘Stepping Stones’) just out the back of the mooring.
There was good coral up on top in the shallow sections, but not much below the 10m mark.
Easy dive with good visibility.

Once back on the boat, the girls and I cooked up some banana muffins.

With plenty of fresh tuna, it was time to make sushi.
Emma helped Kristie make the rolls, and had them and sashimi for lunch. So tasty.
(I had cooked up some honey soy chicken for Kristina as she isn’t a fan of tuna).

Kristie and Emma produced a delicious platter of sushi that we all enjoyed.

Went into the cay for a play. There were a few other boats with some kids, so they all enjoyed some time on the swim mat and playing with the ball.

Emma and I flew the kites briefly, it’s been a while since we had them up.

The four of us went for a snorkel. There was a nice warm layer of water on top coming across from the reef (at times the water was too warm!).

We saw numerous Clown Fish, plenty of clams, a nudi and lots of Christmas tree worms.
The girls love swimming down and making them collapse down. One rock had over a dozen Emma got in one go!

Got back to Lazuli and I grabbed a scrubbing brush to give her a bit of a clean at/below the waterline. Kristina enjoyed jumping off the boat and swimming around.
We were in about 12m of water and could clearly see the bottom!

Headed back to the cay at about 5:30 to have sip’s ‘n dips on the cay by ourselves.

Saw some crabs, and a few turtles and a ray in the shallows.

Just as we were finishing up the cheese and drinks, a fishing boat turned up with a young couple and their dog who were going to sleep the night on the cay.

We went back to Lazuli and had tuna steaks for dinner.

Friday 3rd

With strong wind coming on on the weekend, we needed somewhere sheltered. Mackay Reef wouldn’t be any good in 20+kts.
Our options were either Port Douglas (not keen as it’s pretty shallow), or Hope Island (or even further north to Cape Bedford).
Mel off Rhythm had mentioned to us how good Hope Islands had been for them when they had to find shelter in 30kts.

We left just after 8am, and sailed for a few hours. The wind was WSW so first part of the track was fine and made reasonable speed for the given wind.
We saw some dolphins but no interest in us (we miss the pods that we had in NSW that would come checkout your boat!).

Eventually wind dropped and swung to dead behind us, so had to motor the last 15nm up to Hope Island as we couldn’t do better than 4kts.

The previous evening we’d spent some time all talking about this region and the experience Captain Cook had up here.
They had hit Endeavour Reef just before midnight on 11 June 1770. The ship began filling with water, and they couldn’t pump it out quicker than it was coming in.

See: https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/endeavour-voyage/endeavour-reef
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_Reef

We were headed to Hope Islands

The Hope islands were named by Lt James Cook on 13 June 1770, after his ship HMS Endeavour narrowly escaped sinking after running aground on the eastern part of Endeavour Reef at 11pm on 11 June.
Cook writes of taking a risk and sailing from the reef on the morning of 13 June in favourable conditions but the three operational bilge pumps could not keep up with the flow of water.
Cook wrote “we were always in hopes of being able to reach these Islands”.
Cook speaks of he and the crew thinking the situation so dire that the best scenario would be to ground the boat on the reef surrounding the islands if the mainland could not be reached.
They aimed to build a vessel from the wreck to make it back to the East Indies.
However, some crew members were able to “fother” the leak using a sail so that the water could be cleared easily using one bilge pump.
Endeavour was able to be sailed safely to what is now Cooktown so that repairs could be undertaken.

I had my morning standup. At one point the lure hooked onto something, but whatever it was didn’t stay attached.
No fish for dinner :(

Picked up a mooring. There are four here, and only one was free at the time.

Lunch, then Kristie and I went into the island for a walk.

It’s not big, about 500m circumference.

Checked out the camping area, which didn’t look that appealing!

Saw a bunch of birds: a pair of Osprey (I think), Pelicans, a Kingfisher, Pied imperial pigeons, Bridled terns, a little Sandpiper.
Will take my SLR and zoom lens back to the beach next time we’re in there!

One of the boats that was on the island must have dumped their bait before they left as there was a bunch of squid bait in the shallows, and a few reef sharks swimming around.

We walked 50m back up and sat in the water for an hour to cool off.

One of the cats was swapping moorings. Went back to Lazuli stopping off to have a chat with him.
Steve on “Sharkbite”, a Fusion 40. He was here by himself and going to do a bit of kite surfing over the reef.

Put the green light out, but nothing big and no squid.

Saturday 4th

Wind was up a bit today. Late start to the day. We had plans to go walk around the reef flats at low tide.

I wanted to have another go with the spear guns. Water was pretty murky due to the 20knts wind coming over the reef!

Ended up with a pair of sweetlips.

Back on Lazuli and got the fished cleaned up and in the fridge.

Super quick lunch to get into land while the tide was down.

Didn’t see too much; not as much to see as Musgrave Island.

Emma dropped half her banana muffin in the water on the way back to shore :(

Quick walk back around the island

Enjoyed another swim/sit in the water.

Baked Sweetlip for dinner.

Sunday 5th

Windy today. More than yesterday. Too windy to do anything on the island.

Watched the NRL Grand Final after dinner. Great game - GO the BRONCOS!!

Emma watch the last half with me.

Monday 6th

Woke up this morning and the wind was down a bit from yesterday.

Had breakfast and spent some time looking at the weather, and then we made the decision to sail to Lizard.
We’d have reasonable protection from the reef along the way, so even with the forecast 15-20 it should be ok.

Took a bit of time to get Lazuli ready to go.
The washing up still needed putting away, the generator was still on the front deck, and I wanted to take the engine off the tender and lift it up to the pushpit.

We got going just before 8:30am, and had over 60nm to go. Estimate was an arrival between 4 and 5pm.

Had the main up with #2 reef, and the small headsail out.

Most of the trip was pretty good, swell between 0.5m - 1m, or even less when behind the reefs.

The wind picked up the last 2hours, and we lost a bit of protection from the reef. Ended up surfing down waves at 10-11kts.

Furled the jib once we got behind the island, and then dropped the main once we got to Watson Bay.

Dropped anchor in about 4m or water, and put out 40m chain.

Around 20 other boats on this side of the island, mostly fishing or mega yachts.

Cheese and Whisky, and then bacon and eggs for dinner.

We finally made it!! Lizard Island has always been our end goal, our final destination.
This is as far north as we’ll take Lazuli. We’ll stay here until we get some reef days, then it’s time to turn around and head south.
Until then, we’ll enjoy island life on Lizard Island.

Thursday 18th September - Cairns Marlin Marina

The local fuel wharf is extremely busy with all the commercial vessels that need refueling.

I left the booking a bit late and the earliest booking I could get was 10:45am.

So with the boat ready, we had time to do school and a bit of work before we had to head off.

Got to the fuel dock and filled up: ~130L of diesel.

Our plan was to get to the reefs, but the forecast for today and tomorrow had swell and wind was a bit too much, so we planned to have two nights back at Fitzroy Island.
Motored all the way there, and grabbed a mooring.
Got one in close.

We were getting off the boat, and gave the girls a choice of snorkel or walk.

Emma chose to come for a snorkel, and Kristina stayed onboard.

Emma took charge of Kristie’s underwater camera for the entire snorkel. We enjoyed the snorkel, and amongst other things Emma saw a nudi.

It started raining so the three of us quickly jumped back into the tender and back to Lazuli to close hatches and put up the sides.

No walk this afternoon as it was raining.

Our new infill is nice and waterproof; the old one had so many patches and was so old that there were many drips!

With no walk, I had time to catch up on the last blog.

Friday 19th

A bit more rain during the night.

I worked downstairs, and the girls did school up top. Wasn’t long before the sides had to come off as it was getting too hot.

Kristie made the most of clear skies to clean the girls hatch windows; they were getting a bit mouldy after a week of rain.

Lunch.

Then more rain, so the sides went back on.

I did more work.

With the skies finally clear, we took the tender into island; Emma stayed behind and Kristina came with us.
The boat on the mooring next to us was trying to leave, but the skipper was getting in the water to untangle the mooring line from their prop.
Wasn’t anything we could do to help.

The three of us walked to the Secret Garden, it’s only a few hundred meters in.

With that done, we continued the walk to Nudy beach.

There was a rope swing set up on the beach.

Back on Lazuli, the mooring had been banging on the hull a lot, so I pulled the mooring line up onto deck so it wouldn’t bang down the side of the boat all night.

Saturday 20th

Up early to leave Fitzroy at 6:30am.

We motored to Vlasoff Reef, but too rolly to bother stopping. Continued motoring to Michaelmas Cay.

Michaelmas Cay is a bird nesting habitat, and I had read reports of bid poop over boats: I was a little concerned for the new infill and dodger!

There are two moorings there, and both were taken. I took a bit of time to find somewhere away from the bommies to anchor. We dropped anchor but then picked it back up and got closer behind the cay.

Another yacht dropped anchor in front of us and looked like they were over our anchor.

Dropped the tender to go have a chat with them about the anchor. He ended up diving on his and said he couldn’t see ours which was good.
I also had a chat to the yacht on the other mooring and found they were leaving in the afternoon and arranged to take their mooring when they left.

The four of us took the mat into the cay for a good swim. It was busy on the beach with a two big tourist boats.

We checked out the birds; very noisy!

Tender back to Lazuli as the other boat was about to leave. Quick anchor up and got the mooring.

Kristie and I went for a dive. We weren’t sure on the best spot (one of the DM’s from the boat had mentioned to Kristie on the marina that diving there wasn’t that great!)
Viz was ok ish on the outside of the reef, inside down less than 5m.

It wasn’t our best dive: Kristie did a bounce dive to 330m, and my new watch started (and continued) in free-diving mode :|

Kristina and I fed all the fish off the side of Lazuli, so many fish and lots of different types.

We had our Sips ‘n dips while chatting to Bride and Andrew on Hoot (who were out at Bait Reef) who were also enjoying sundowners.

Had the green squid light out; we saw a few bigger fish swim through using the light to hunt, but no squid. It was a green zone so didn’t matter anyway!

Sunday 21st

Kristie filled tanks after breakfast.

Time for a family snorkel: Kristina jumped off the front of the boat, and we went over to the coral where we’d seen others swim.

Kristina and Emma used all the battery in the dive camera, and it went flat.

The snorkel wasn’t too bad; lots of giant clams and numerous of turtles.

Back on Lazuli and we motored to Hastings Reef.

This is where Kristie did her very first ever dive on her Open Water course.
The plan was to take the girls for a dive here and then we might go for a dive.
However by the time we had done lunch and were ready we’d only have time for Kristie to take the girls for a dive then we’d need to head somewhere else as conditions weren’t good enough to spend the night here.

We had dropped anchor in a clear spot between two large bommimes.

Very quick tender ride into the reef and tied onto a mooring ball.

Kristina did a 20min dive while Emma and I followed along. Kristina was swimming around and pointing out everything. I took photos, and Emma kept diving down to check out them and other reef attractions.

Emma then donned the dive gear and did a 10min dive. She was getting a bit cold after her snorkle so kept still and Kristie more or less had to push/pull her through the water!

With the dive done it was then time to head back and get ready to move off.

We went towards Michaelmas Cay, but another boat was on the mooring. Our best option was to push on to Green Island and get a mooring there.

Sip’s ‘n dips then dinner. The mooring was ok, a little bumpy but could have been a lot worse!

Kristina and I enjoyed the clear sky and did a bit of stargazing on the front deck.

Monday 22nd

Kristie and I went for a cheeky snorkel before one of my work meetings.

Work for me, but the girls are now on school holidays!

Lunch.

Heading into the island, went over to say hi to Rhythm who were on one of the moorings. Kristie had been messaging them about the reefs/island further north.
They had 3 reef sharks circling their boat when we got there. It could have had something to do with them hosing fish remains off their boat!

In to the island. Kristie checked with the kiosk when they’d shut (3pm!) but was assured we could still get ice cream after.
The forest walk was very pleasant.

Got to the end then walked back along the beach. Had fun exploring the rock pools and playing with starfish.

Ice cream at 3:01pm, but not at the kiosk as that was closed - had to go to reception!

Had a swim in the pool. Girls had bought their mermaid tails. The water was much warmer than expected.

Sip’s ‘n dips back on Lazuli. We normally only do them on Sunday, but seemed to have slipped into holiday mode?!

Tuesday 23rd

We’re heading back into Cairns marina today, but we had time for a quick snorkel first.

We took the tender to the moorings to the north of where we were. Covered a bit of ground. Good snorkel.

The wind was perfect for a sail back to the channel. We hoisted the main up while still on the mooring.

I worked while Kristie sailed back to the channel.

Dropped sails in a break between meetings and then kept motoring down the channel.

They had given us a blow-on berth, and there was nobody else in the pen with us.

It started raining before we had finishing getting settled, so quickly got the infill and sides on.

Kristie went up to do a load of laundry, and I took the rubbish up.

I got in a bit more work.

Kristie took off to go shopping; new togs for Kristina and a few other items at the shopping centre.
Given her issues with the Shearwater going to 330m, she decided a backup dive computer would be good idea for when we go north.

I took the opportunity to wrap up all the presents ready for tomorrow.

Kristina and I had to do a quick trip out to buy some chocolates for Kristie that Kristina could put in the card/box she’d spent ages crafting.

The girls helped me bake cupcakes ready for tomorrow.

Wednesday 24th - Kristie’s Birthday!

Presents first thing in the morning, not much of a sleep-in for Kristie; Kristina was a bit excited and had been awake early and was moving around above our beds!

I cooked up some bacon, and served that with some French toast and maple syrup. Yum!

With breakfast done we got ready and went to the Cairns Aquarium that was only a few blocks away.

I think we enjoyed the Sydney Aquarium more, but this one had lots of displays that were more relevant to the reef and north Queensland.

Woolies on the way back for hot chook lunch back on Lazuli.

It ended up raining in the afternoon, so we stayed on the boat and had a chill afternoon.

Eventually the rain stopped and we could head off. We needed ice cream for Kristie’s birthday, so off to Cold Rock…

Followed by a cold swim at the lagoon!

We didn’t last too long. Hot showers were required, and then got ready for dinner (I gave the girls their Naan-Pizza on the boat).

We’d booked and arranged dinner at the Prawn Star (3 boats down from us!) and Stuart and Sanne were joining us.

The tiger prawns were tasty, and I enjoyed a few of the Oysters that Sanne shared.

Emma started to learn to peel her own prawns. Finally!

Kristina doesn’t like prawns, so she spent the time doing a few trips back to Lazuli: jelly fish costume hat, then her full costume, then another dress change, then back to get her notebook!
It was then time for the birthday cupcakes, so both girls went back to get them and the candles.

They grabbed their iPads so we could give them more time while we finished drinks.

Thursday 25th

The earliest I could have got Fuel on Friday was going to be 8:30am, and we were hoping to leave a lot earlier than that.
They open the fuel wharf up for filling jerry cans between 8-8:30 every morning.

Decanted the 20L diesel jerry I had, then took that and two others and the petrol cans to go get filled.

Came back and decanted one of the 20L fully to top up Lazuli, so rushed back to refill that one.
We could be away for sometime so trying to take a bit extra diesel with us this time.

I hadn’t ever removed the old fuel line and filter from the tender (since we got the new outboard in Airlie), so knocked off that job this morning as well.

Kristie filled up our water tanks.

I had ordered a new lifting strap for the outboard. The old one wouldn’t work for the heavier 4-stroke.
This had arrived a few days ago and was waiting at the marina office for us to collect; Kristie walked up to grab that for me.

I did some fiberglass jell patching on the tender, and glued some marine carpet on to the tender and onto the davits to stop them rubbing.

Kristie set off for another walk to Bunnings, the pharmacy and Kmart.

Once back she took up another load to the laundry.

We all enjoyed some expensive mangoes she’d managed to bring back from the markets.

With a bigger day planned tomorrow, I wanted to have the outboard off the tender and fixed on the back.
This would be the first time we’d tried with the new engine. The new strap works really well.

Kristie had booked a massage for 2pm, so left to do that while I was still getting jobs done.

Our Woolies delivery turned up, not a big one this time, just enough to replace what we’d gone through in the last week.

Our wind anemometer instrument hadn’t been working in ages. We get wind direction, but not speed.
(not a massive issue - with 30+ years of sailing experience it is easy enough to look at the water and get a good idea of wind speed!)

I figured I’d try and give it a spray and see if it worked.
Sanne came over to help with the halyards. I got up the top and gave it a good spray.

With a bit of pushing it’d start moving with the wind, but turns out it was all for naught as it didn’t keep spinning once I was down :(

Also took a few photos from the top :)

Eggs and leftovers for dinner.

With the weather forecast we were expecting a long sail; I cooked up sausages and banana muffins in preparation.

I needed to spend a bit more time tidying up ready to sail tomorrow.

Did dishes, then walked out to post the post cards and get some more from Woolies and more wine from bottle shop.

Spent a few more hours working.

Tomorrow we leave Cairns and head north… finally.

Saturday 6th September - Fitzroy Island

Heading into Cairns today. There’s a bit of wind and rain coming, and we have a bunch of jobs to get done.

With the wind already picking up, I rigged the main with #2 reef before we set off.

Dropped the mooring and motored out into the wind, already getting quite fresh!

Hoisted the main and left the headsails furled up. The wind was SSE, so more or less dead downwind from Fitzroy to the headland just to the north of us.
With the main fully out we were getting some good speed down the waves, hitting 10knts a couple of times.

Once we got around the corner the wind was more on the beam and easier.
Easier until it picked up and we were getting 20-25 with gusts closer to 30!
Dropped the main just before the shipping channel and then motored up to the marina.

We had been given our allocated mooring earlier in the day, but we called back and asked if they had a “blow on” berth, as getting in was going to be tricky in this wind!
Thankfully they could swap us.

Stuart and Sanne (Vanetta) walked down helped Shawn (Ports/marina guy) catch our lines.
With three on the dock we had a relatively stress-free time.

Shawn was very helpful and checked us in as well. The Marina office is quite a walk from where we were and not that well located for regular visits.

ROAM1 was at the end of E arm, just 3 boats down from us. Peter came over to say hi as we were pulling in.

The girls invited Teagan for a quick tour of our boat, then she invited them back to theirs (Leopard 46!).
We left them there and went to the Post office and Woolies. We had 5 packages to pick up that we’d sent to the PO ahead of us.

Did Woolies and picked up a hot chook for lunch.

Enjoyed the showers and other usual boat jobs: laundry and rubbish. We had been warned by Sanne that the bottom-right dryer doesn’t work… turns out the top-right doesn’t work either.
Had to hang up our cloths when we got back to the boat.

Filled up our water.

With the plan to leave Cairns and head away to Lizard for an extended time we needed a big shop. So time for a bit of a stocktake and put together a LARGE Woolies order
(e.g. 1 month worth of long life milk!)

Quick dinner, and then we headed out to the Cairns Festival. Teagan came over for a visit just as we were starting to get ready, so we invited her to come with us.
We had fun with the whale puppet, bubbles, and a laser/light show at the lagoon.

The Whale by the “Spare Parts Puppet Theatre” is a 15m puppet travelling around Australia.

We then moved on to the bubbles, which was a bit like a DJ set with two guys that mixed bubbles instead of tunes.

Everyone had turns interacting with the bubbles and the people making them.

They closed the Lagoon for a light show. At the end they had fish lights displayed on the water.

The main walk way up to the marina was full of lights, lasers, and smoke. And a lot of people.

Stopped back at the whale for more fun again.

Walked down the light tunnel, and back to the whale.

Kristina’s recount about the Cairns Festival

When we were in Cairns we got to go to the Cairns Festival.
Earlier in the day we motored from Fitzroy Island so we could be sheltered from the upcoming swell and wind.
We got Lazuli tied up to the Marina at about 10am and met another boat with a kid my age.
Her name is Teagan. We invited Teagan to join us for the evening.

Our first stop was at the giant whale puppet. It was the size of a real life whale, with different strings that you could pull on to make the body parts move.
We all lined up for different parts, some of them being little animals on the side.

After we had finished there we moved on to the bubbles which were just up the road.
At first not much happened but soon enough two men in creepy costumes came over to get the party started.
There were several machines producing bubbles in all shapes and sizes.
Another one was making a bit of fog which kept on floating up.
Emma, Teagan and I made our way to the front of the crowd so we could get some bubbles on our heads.

The music was loud and funky but that definitely matched the vibe.
The two men made a bubble mix that ended up being a mix between foam and suds.
After getting that dumped on our heads, we decided it was time to go clean our hands.
We got them clean, but we still don’t have the bubbles out of our hair.

Emma’s recount about the Cairns Festival

We sailed to Cairns just in time for the Cairns Festival and to meet a new friend, Teagan!
Teagan’s parents wouldn’t go, so we took Teagan with us.
Soon we were at the bubble station where some creepy looking people (in costumes) made lots of different bubbles!
There were lots of bubbles everywhere, they even put some on our heads!

After the bubbles we walked over to the lagoon for the laser light show.
Teagan had already seen a tiny bit, but she still sat with us through it all.
Each section was five minutes long with pictures and music.
We couldn’t touch the water otherwise we could get an electric shock.
It was really beautiful and long but most people left at the end.
They didn’t know about the fish lights!
Luckily Teagan knew about the fish so we stayed next to the water, waiting for the fish.
The fish were so cute!
They swam away from us and tried to act like real fish.
The fish looked just like nemo, orange, white, and bigger than my foot!
Eventually the others got bored and wanted to go to the whale puppet.

The whale puppet is basically just a life sized puppet, we could pull on some strings to make the whale move!
It was heavy though. At night the whale lit up making it look beautiful!

Sunday 7th - Fathers Day

Started the day with pressies from the girls and Kristie.
Always special.

With presents done it was time to get back in the kitchen and make us breakfast.
Bacon and French Toast with maple syrup!

We had planned to catch the Skyrail up to Kuranda today. However the day started with rain, and didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon.

We deliberated for a bit, but decided it’d be cool anyway to head up in the clouds.

Walked up to the road and booked an Uber to take us to Smithfield and the bottom of the Skyrail.

When our turn came it wasn’t raining, but it wasn’t long before we were up in the clouds and couldn’t even see the gondola in front of us!

We did the two stops. The first being the rainforest walk. We made good use of our umbrellas, and took our time reading all the signs.

The lookout was still in the clouds, so not much of a view.

Back on the Skyrail and to our next stop for the Barron Falls walk. It had stopped raining so we could actually see the waterfall.
There hadn’t been too much rain recently, so it wasn’t raging.

Back on the Skyrail for the last leg up to Kuranda.

We were lucky enough to see a couple of blue Ulysses Butterflies flying over the canopy below.

By the time we arrived in Kuranda, we were all a bit hungry, so stopped at the first place we saw to grab some lunch.

After lunch, we walked up the hill and to the butterfly house.

We all enjoyed this and spent a good amount of time inside.

The girls got given a sheet with a butterfly attracting spot.

They also both wore the butterfly cloths in the hope to attract more butterflies.

One of the rooms had a microscope and a few butterfly wings that you could examine.

Emma and Kristina also had their colourful loom bands that they thought would also help attract butterflies.

We had thought of getting a bus down (cheapest option), but discovered that the timetable had changed last week and they no longer ran a bus service up here on Sundays :|
The Shuttle bus was also booked out!
Girls played on the playground while we tried to find a way home.

I ended up being able to book the last 4 tickets on the train back.

At some point between the Butterfly house and booking the train we manged to loose one of our Bunnings umbrellas :(

Walked down to the station via the shops for some good window shopping.

These carriages were old. Very old.

Got on the train, one stop to get out and see Barron falls.

Emma didn’t like the noise nor the smell. The family sitting across from us all fell asleep for most of the journey down
(which was better than their young kid kicking everywhere)

1.5hrs later we were off the train and ready to be back on the boat.

I had suggested dinner on the boat, but Emma countered with a “sushi” request.
So Sushi train at the shopping center on the way home. Lots of tasty dishes were devoured.

We walk past this every time we go to the boat. Still haven’t been on there yet.

Kristina’s recount about Fathers Day

Three days ago we celebrated Fathers Day by taking the Skyrail up to Kuranda.
It wasn’t the best day to do it because at the start we got rained on, although later on in the day we got a sunny, blue sky.

The Skyrail was expensive but at the end we decided it was definitely worth it!
My favourite thing was when we got to open the window while the carriage was inside the clouds.
Emma and I both took turns getting mouthfuls of air and then trying to think of what it tasted like.

After we had passed the clouds, we got off at our first stop. It was a mini walk to a small lookout.
Mum said it was special that we got to do it in the rain, but I say it was kind of annoying trying to not hit the trees with the umbrellas.
The walk itself was only about 100m but that didn’t stop the view from bring great.
When we walked back we got into the Skyrail and made our way to the next stop.

After about 20 more minutes of enjoying the Skyrail view, we arrived at our next destination.
Barron Falls.
Again it was a short walk to a walkthrough lookout. The view of the massive waterfall was astonishing and we understood why we had to pay so much by now.

We walked back over again then we did the final little bit of the Skyrail, taking us all the way to Kuranda.
By the time we had done all of that, me and Emma were starving!
So, mum and dad spent even more money buying us lunch at Kuranda Hotel.

The meals were absolutely massive! For example I got the kids burger, but when it arrived, it was about half a centimeter smaller than dads!
I had nearly all my chips but I could only finish half of my cheeseburger.
We’ve noticed that the kids meals were more our size down in NSW but they have just been getting bigger and bigger the more we got up north!

After we had finished eating, we started the slow walk over to the butterfly house.
One of the facts we learnt as we went in was that butterflies like very vibrant colours and floral patterns.
They handed us a slip of paper with a neon target on it.
Apparently the butterflies would land on it!
When we got into the greenhouse I immediately saw butterflies everywhere.

We spent approximately 2 whole hours in there, waiting to get photos with all the butterflies.
There were only 2 we missed by the end.
Although that doesn’t mean we didn’t get photos of them on us!
I hope dad puts those in the blog!
It was a big day and one that will definitely stay in our memories.
Overall… it was awesome!

Emma’s recount about Fathers Day

On Fathers day we took and Uber to Smithfield for the Skyrail.
We got our tickets and hopped on our gondola.
Sometimes we stopped at different stations to do mini walks.

On the first walk we learnt about how plants survive in the battle for light.
We got back on the gondola for Barron Falls.
When we stopped we did the small walk to the lookout overlooking Barron Falls.

We hopped on our gondola aging for our trip to the tablelands in the cloudy sky!
Eventually we reached Kuranda, got off and started to walk to the butterfly house.

Kristina let me borrow one of her loom bands so the butterflies would land on me, it worked!
So many butterflies landed on me!

We got the train home and had sushi for dinner.

Monday 8th

Work and school.

Kent (Stitch Trim) came and took the infill so he could replace that.

Girls and Kristie walked to the Post Office, Kmart, and reject shop.

Kristie dropped the girls back off to Lazuli, and then took off by herself to Woolies and for some other appointments.

By the time Kristie had returned, it had started to rain, so I made Kristie a bit of a hovel with a tarp and umbrella or two.

Tuesday 9th

Kristie picked up a Year 1 day supply teaching.

Girls and I did school and work.

After early lunch I took the girls out for a walk:

• doctors for me
• shopping center (swapped some board shorts and got some presents for Kristie’s imminent birthday)
• OfficeWorks for some card making materials
• Bunnings - there’s always something to get at Bunnings!

Got back to Lazuli to find Kristie waiting to get in as her school finished at 2:30pm.

Wednesday 10th

Kristie picked up another day, this time supporting the swimming at Freshwater primary school.
She packed her togs for day in the pool.

I had work and daddy-daughter school.

Kent returned the infill. It looks great, but now it makes the dodger and bimini look worse!

After Kristie got back (from being in the pool), we took the girls and Teagan to the lagoon for a swim.

Ice cream on the way back.

Movie night on the boat, Kristina picked “Over the moon”.
We had dinner up top watching the movie on my laptop, and then popcorn once dinner was done.

Thursday 11th

Kristie had been booked to go back to Freshwater to do PE for the year 1-3 classes.

Another morning of work and daddy-daughter school.

We had decided that we’d also get Kent to replace the dodger while we were around Cairns.
I called up the Marina to extend our stay (we had been booked in until Saturday morning) so we’d have time for him to do it.

We couldn’t stay in our current spot beyond Saturday as another boat was coming in. They had space right next door though.

I finished my morning meetings and the two guys from the marina turned up to help me move the boat (better today than on Saturday when there was going to be more wind!)
Just the girls and I onboard, but they did well throwing the ropes.

Kent returned and took the dodger so he could make up the new one.
That left us very exposed for the rainy week we had a head.

Teagans dad Peter gave me a lift to Anaconda to fill up our gas bottle, and then next door to Bunnings to grab a cheap 7mx5m tarp.
Much nicer getting a lift rather than having to walk the 2km each way with a gas bottle!
(The marina is convenient for shops and cafes but not much in the way of services you need for a cruiser).

Once back, I set up the big tarp - it could do from the mast all the way back to the end of the boom and under the bimini.
Teagan came for a play and spent all afternoon onboard.

The deputy from Freshwater called up while Kristie was up showering, and asked if Kristie wanted to work tomorrow.
I suggest it was most likely she would, but I couldn’t (in good conscious) make that decision for her :)

Went all went to the night markets for dinner in the food court, and then walked through all the shops.

We all ended up getting a massage from there as well. The girls just got a quick 10min massage, 25min for Kristie and I.

I was in with Emma, and Kristie in with Kristina.

Kristina also picked out a temporary tattoo and got that for $5. We enjoyed watching the glass blowing that was in progress.

Friday 12th

Kristie was back to Freshwater again to teach Year 1.

The previous afternoon our marina cards stopped working. They’d open the laundry, but that was it.

I had work and daddy-daughter school.

While I was doing meetings, the girls set up a cubby up top. They lasted an hour or so until their iPads ran out of battery.

I had a quick walk to the Marina office to get our cards reactivated.

Walked to Woolies to get some sourdough for Kristie.

We had booked a hire car for the weekend, intending to do Mossman Gorge on Saturday, and Hartleys Crocodile Adventures on Sunday.
However, with a bike race and road closures taking place on Sunday we wouldn’t be able to get to Hartleys.
So we changed the booking to Sunday/Monday.

Saturday 13th

Heavy rain throughout the night meant Lots of water pooling in the sail bag ended up downstairs. I had left the companionway hatch open not realising it would come through :(

It was raining when the alarm went off for Parkrun.

Kristina had been up since 3:30am and decided it was too wet for her, and I let Emma keep sleeping.
I set off in a break in the rain and did the 3km walk to the start, then 5km run, and then the 3km walk back.
It only really rained a little bit on the walk home.

Teagan came over at 11am.

Rained all day, but girls were more than ok on their devices.

Kristie had a bit of an arvo nap, and was starting to get sick.

Kristie had booked to go out to Thai dinner with Stuart and Sanne.
The dinner was amazing. We followed it up with some ice cream.

During all of this we had left the girls onboard with Teagan.
(yes we did feed them before we went)

Sunday 14th

I walked down by myself to collect the hire car. Had booked a Toyota Corrola hybrid, but ended up with a KIA Sportage.
Met the others back at the marina, and we set off to Mossman Gorge. Got 20min north and discovered the road closed the whole way due to a bike race.
The same bike race that made us change our booking originally :|
Turned around, and went to Mossman via Kuranda and Mareeba! Just a quick 90min detour :(

Up on the tablelands we saw lots of ant nests; Kristina wanted to know if they were “rock farms”.

Kristina didn’t enjoy the windy road that much either… she gets boat sick and car sick

Got to Mossman Gorge carpark and lunch at the back of the car.

Paid the money and jumped on the shuttle bus to take us to the walk.

We had packed our togs and towels with the intention of having a swim once the walk was done.

We enjoyed the walk through the forests, and spent time exploring the creeks along the way.

Got changed and we all had a swim and explored the rocks.

Back to the car, and took off towards Port Douglass with the intention to have dinner somewhere there.
Went up to the lookout; it was very windy - gusting to 30knts.

Kristie figured we’d make the most of having a car and stock up on some cider for her.
It’s not the most common drink of choice up here so we had a to visit a few places before we had enough!

Parked at the end of the main street, and walked back to find somewhere for dinner.
Ended up at the pub, listening to the first of the NRL finals between Brisbane and Canberra.

Drove home along the coast road that we couldn’t see too much of; also lots of roadworks on that section at the moment.

I did a late night round of washing and drying all our wet cloths/togs.

Monday 15th

We still had the hire car and parked it overnight at the marina park.
We left at 7:30am to Hartleys Croc adventure, just 50min up the road.
Nice views on the coast road that we didn’t get to see much of in the dark coming home last night.

It was a great day out, and can highly recommend stopping there if you’re in the area!

Rough overview of our day out:

• Bird / raptor avery - owls and frogmouths
• Hand fed a Cassowary some fruit (I also chose to pick up and feed it a dead baby chicken - protein++)
• 20min boat ride in their man made lagoon - houses 30+ croc!
• Snake show
• Lunch at Cafe
• Croc feeding show
• Freshwater crocs
• Gallery of living art (reptiles/amphibians)
• Gondwana - feeding wallabies and kangaroos
• Croc farm tour (it’s a farm with a zoo on the side really).

As we were coming in one of the staff was unloading a Tawny Frogmouth to stand guard at the entrance.

First up was the raptor avery. A few cool owls (and the frogmouth) that you could get up close to.

The curlew wasn’t that impressed with a camera in its face, but it didn’t move.

The first actual show we went to was handfeeding the Cassowaries. We had two there, a male and female.

They had a bucket of fruit each that we could to feed them.

It was then time for the boat cruise. A 20min ride around their man made lagoon, full of crocodiles.

We did a snake show, grabbed lunch and made it to the croc feeding show before it started.

Good entertainment, glad it’s not me in there with them.

They keep the freshwater water crocs separate from the salties. This island looked a bit insane!

A few other enclosures for the crocs that need to be kept by themselves.

Gallery of living art had some cool exhibits.

The Gondwana section had a few feeding troughs for the kangaroos. The girls grabbed a few handfuls to feed a few of the animals.

The final attraction at the adventure zoo.

We had to have the hire car back by 3pm.

The rain stayed away while we were at the zoo, but as soon as we were back in Cairns and at Lazuli the rain came down.

I took the car back to Hertz and walked back via Woolies.

Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up on a bit of work.

Kristina’s recount about Hartleys Croc Adventures

Yesterday we got a hire car and drove to Hartleys Crocodile Adventure.
Although after we saw the whole area it looked like an amazing zoo!

There was so many animals to see and shows to attend to but first of all we went to the predatory bird avery which had so many cute owls.
It looked like a small greenhouse that had a winding path through it, lots of both cool and cute birds, and double doors so the cheeky little owls wouldn’t escape.

We got to spend about 10 or so minutes there before we got to move onto the Cassowary feeding show.
The lady there talked about different types of Cassowary, what they did to survive, then about the ones they had at the zoo.
When she finished talking, we were able to pick up some of the fruit pieces and hand feed two of the massive birds.
Mum got a couple of photos of us doing so then we speedily walked over to the boat tour.

We waited in line for about 5 minutes before everyone started piling onto the 9:30am croc tour boat.
It didn’t cost any extra money (which is good as Cairns is already making us poor!).
We saw lots of crocodiles lounging on the bank of Hartleys lagoon.
Some of them had opened their mouths to cool down, while others were in the water waiting for the tour boats to dangle the chicken over the side.
After the crocs felt the vibration of him splashing the chicken, they crept through the water and leapt up to get their mid morning snack.

We did a coule of other things before visiting the komodo dragon. It was bigger than me, which would explain it’s massive enclosure and the bull skull sitting in one of the corners.
There was only one of the black and yellow beasts because komodo dragons are very territorial.

After we had finished up at that enclosure, we moved onto the last enclosure.
Out of the whole zoo this one was my favourite, containing the animal which in my opinion is the cutest, the Tamarin Monkey!
Their enclosure was full of small trees and little tubs containing fruit.

I loved the whole zoo and was sad when we had to go home. Hopefully we can go there again some day.

Emma’s recount about Hartleys Croc Adventures

At Cairns, dad got our hire car and drove us to Hartleys Crocodile Adventures.
Dad parked the car, we hopped out, got our tickets and then walked inside.
The first thing we looked at was the avery to spot all the birds and owls.
It took us a bit to find all the birds but we did find them all.
My favourite bird was the chubby curlew next to the path!
At night 9:30 we hopped on the boat for a tour of the tiny river to see crocodiles.
The man driving the boat made lots of jokes.
He dangled a piece of chicken over the edge the boat so we could watch the crocodiles jump.
After the 20min boat tour we walked over to the snake show.
They lady there showed us her snakes and told us lots about them and told some jokes too.
We saw a King Brown snake and learnt that they eat the worlds most toxic snake for breakfast!
In the afternoon we visited the Gallery of Living Art.
Like it’s name it had lots of beautiful reptiles and amphibious creatures.
There was a cool looking Skink standing on a small rock, looking at us looking through the glass.
We walked over to our next place, Gondawana. We grabbed some kangaroo pellets from the trough and slowly walked in.
When we walked in there were two kangaroos on our left so we spent time with them.
After a bit, me and mum went for a walk on the path looking for more.
We found a wallaby with other people so we gave them some food to feed it!
We had lots of fun and I want to go back!

Tuesday 16th

Rained. Still just a tarp up. Many of the eyelets have already pulled out, but it was a cheap tarp.

Work and school.

Heavy rain meant the girls did school down with me.

Kristie went to doctors and got antibiotics.
Woolies on the way back.

Hot chook for lunch.

Kristie back out for a remedial massage. (not one where she could pay for “Extra happy ending” that she was offered by another thai massage place up here!)

I got all hot and sweaty changing the engine oil.

Wednesday 17th

Heavy rain meant work and school downstairs again.

Kent turned up with the dodger and installed that back for us. It looks so good; we can finally see out the front clearly.

I tidied up downstairs to get ready to leave the marina tomorrow morning.

Kristie filled water and cleaned upstairs, including removing the remains of the last spanish mackerel (Thanks!)

Whilst hosing the boat, the hose nozzle popped off our dodgy hose and is now at the bottom of the marina.

Our Woolies delivery turned up; not a big shop this time as we had done our big shop earlier.

I went to Bunnings and Anaconda, I had to get some carpet to try and stop the tender rubbing on the davits, and some extra camping toilet paper for our heads.

Kristie did a load of laundry, thankfully the dryers on the left were free.

Another movie night, this time: Sea Beast.

Tomorrow we leave, heading to Fitzroy Island for two nights until we get the “reef weather” on the weekend. We’ll head out to the reefs on Saturday.

Booked into Cairns again next week when the weather turns for the worse again.