A dream realised

Saturday 24 July, Townsville to Orpheus Island
We had a good run up to Orpheus Island in a 15 to 20 knot ESE breeze arriving there at 5pm where we picked up a mooring. We passed a number of islands including Rattlesnake Island where the RAAF practise their bombing. We had made sure there was nothing happening today before we left.

We also passed Fantome Island which was the site of a leprosarium. One of our friends and neighbour, Peter Ludlow, has written a very interesting book on the history of Peel Island that mentions the aboriginal patients being transferred to Fantome. A fire destroyed much of what was left on the island.

Sunday 25 July, Orpheus Island to Hinchinbrook Island

We have been looking forward to getting to Hinchinbrook after hearing of the spectacular beauty of the passage. Unfortunately it was raining as we entered the channel and we could see very little.

We sailed up to Haycock Island were we spent 3 nights in the worst weather of the trip (lots of rain). Good reading and a couple of DVDs helped pass the time. A highlight was catching up with Jackie and Steve off Free Spirit who were also here. Steve related the story of getting a fish hook in his foot on the way up. Unfortunately the hook was still attached to a 4 foot mackeral at the time (Ouch!!!). They ended up getting medical assistance at Palm Island to remove the hook and he is recovering well.

Wednesday 28 July, Haycock Island to Dunk Island

We decided to head further north today in the hope of escaping the rain. We motored initially to charge the batteries and so we could check out Gayundah Creek. We saw another Seawind here from Townsville (Boom 'n Bust) who said they had seen a croc swim by.

Once out of the channel we raised sails and by 1330 the spinnaker was up and the sun was out. We carried it all the way to Dunk where we anchored in Brammo Bay.
While we were waiting for our boat to be built, we had a few days at Dunk Island after one of our bike trips. We loved it and in 5 days put on the weight we had lost riding 550 kms in the previous week! While dining at the resort we would look out over the yachts moored in Brammo Bay and say that will be us one day. Well today was the day!

We spent 3 nights at Dunk. We hiked up Mt Kootooloo (280m) and had planned other bush walks until Warren nearly stepped on a rather large snake that crossed our path.




We got our exercise kayaking the next day. Hot showers on shore courtesy of National Parks were a treat. Print this post