Lizard Island

We left the marina at 0625 on 30th. April; Kiella again headed north, see you Cairns hopefully in October. The last 2 days we had a hire car to share; this made the last minute shopping for fresh bits and pieces so much easier. Charles Crockford who taught with Ian at the Technical School was running the car hire place, small world! Unfortunatlly Ian was preoccupied with servicing the boat and missed catching up with him this time.
I had the chance to drive north to check out a fishing shop so that I could troll. I found myself doing the scenic drive in the wrong direction and fortunately came across some road works that allowed me to do a u turn and finally found the highway.
Our plan for the first stop was a wee atoll, but around 1100 FA radioed and expressed their concern to the wind shift which had more south in it. This would make the anchorage not real comfortable. After some quick re jigging of the course Lizard Island was agreed as our evening anchorage. Full diesel tanks and those lovely oranges bladders again in the rear cockpit we moved up a notch and achieved some great speeds. The fuel consumption went up, up, so down came the revs and with the computer telling us that we would make our destination by 1700. We enjoyed this new part of the coast and many islands as Port Douglas was furthest north we had sailed to.
At 1425 we received a call from a passing Custom boat wanting our details, again. This will become more frequent as we head north.
Lizard Island appeared and at 1700 we steered around the bommies to drop anchor in 3 meters of water. Gee those computers are cleaver little things. The wind has not eased and bullets are the norm here. Today we did the must have which is to climb up to “Cooks Lookout”. The story goes that in 1770 young James Cook climbed this 358 meter mountain to check out the passage north. Here he found away between the reefs thus the name. Quiet a good climb and a good nights rest should be had by all.
Well not really as some bullets that came through last night, Bob reckoned they had to be close to 50kts. Opps, I should have introduced Bob to you all. He hails from Raby Bay and is a close friend of Bill and Sandy’s. The opportunity to travel to Darwin was too good, as he and his wife Gil have down many sea miles, but not this far north. He has a reputation as a super fisherman; as yet we have not seen any evidence to that.
Today we went to look around the beach area and the remains maybe of Mrs. Watson’s home, scare some pesky seagulls off the boat and throw over the caterpillars that are coming from my tomato plants. They had to have a little dusting three days ago as I could see all my good work being eaten away.
Tomorrow we are heading to Princess Charlotte Bay, then onto Lockhart River where we will refuel. I have made arrangements through Sea swift in Cairns, and have been told that a barge will be there, fingers crossed.
The satellite phone will come in very handy over the next months as Telstra is lacking towers up here. The weather pattern is still 20 /25 kts. SE and a strong wind warning is current for today. This we learnt from Taz who is SMS the updates to the sat/ phone.
Crabs and oysters are going to be eaten over the next week so think of us all.