South to Cairns

Monday, 14 October to Saturday, 26 October 2013
We had a good trip back from Lizard to Cairns. 35nm to Cape Bedford on Monday and we were lucky to sail the whole way in a light easterly/south east breeze. As it was very overcast when we left we decided to leave our visit to the Cod Hole for our next trip.

Ship loading silica at Cape Flattery

Tuesday we sailed 81nm to windward to Low Isles arriving at 1930. Warren caught 2 good sized school mackeral on the way. We had 3 nights here and enjoyed the snorkelling and sundowners ashore with Wirraway and Nefertiti. Our stay was extended to allow Warren to replace the water pump that stopped working properly. Luckily we carry a spare for all pumps so we replaced it and got a new pressure switch in Cairns to fix the old one.

On Friday we sailed to Cairns where we anchored in Trinity Inlet. Saturday morning we moved into the marina which we had booked for the next week. We had quite a few jobs on the list including trying to fix a flutter in the luff of the mainsail. This turned out to be a snapped bolt rope that we had to replace. Not an easy job as it required loosening batten cars, and pushing the new bolt rope down the luff at about 1.5m at a time, cutting the stitching at each point as we progressed (and resewing by hand). We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

We were lucky to see the start of the Crocodile Trophy mountain bike race. This is a 9 day race over 850km which includes 15000m climbing! Not for the faint hearted especially in the heat we have had this week. 116 starters this year including a lot of internationals. http://www.crocodile-trophy.com

The recently relaunched ex racing catamaran Bagatelle was our neighbour for a few days. Bagatelle was lost on Scott Reef off Cairns in May, 2004. She was salvalaged and sold by the insurance company to Rex and Steve who have spent the last 9 years rebuilding her. Now that is a project!

We have enjoyed being in the heart of Cairns and went to aqua aerobics classes at the lagoon and walks along the esplanade. Lots of boats left during the week when some northerlies appeared.

Our eldest son Ben joined us today and he is sailing south to Townsville with us over the next week. Print this post