It’s All Hallows’ Eve and we are anchor, in a very light breeze at a beautiful little island called Hope Island. This is where we hope there will be wind tomorrow and we hope we can make it to Darwin without any more challenges! The birds on the island are making a weird, ghostly sound, […]

So unhappily, we made it as far as Palm Cove, before our trusty water maker blew a high pressure hose. Obviously we had not performed all our checks adequately, so we turned around and headed back to Cairns, as we did not have a spare on board. We anchored in the river this time, just […]

The installation of Sadie (as she has come to be known), the new sail drive, went as smoothly as we could have hoped, with the guys from McLeod engineering doing a great job. They were able to have us ready for a lift back into the water by Friday lunchtime, and ran a sea trial […]

  After spending most of the day getting used to being high and dry at a somewhat jaunty angle, we headed in to town for dinner. Whilst we could still cook aboard, washing up had to be taken down the ladder into the laundry/kitchen, so made cooking less attractive. We decided to find the Spicy […]

Fran and I got up early on the Wednesday and headed off up the big hill to the Atherton Tablelands. Our first stop was the Cathedral Fig, which was spectacular in a different way from the Curtain Fig, having way more ecosystems growing in its crown. These figs are quite something else, with a huge […]

We have now been in Cairns for nearly two weeks, and are beginning to get to know the place pretty well! We arrived on Sunday 1 October, had a cracking crab fest dinner at the Raw Prawn, then waved goodbye to Fran and Choppa temporarily on the Monday. With no trades available over the weekend, […]

On waking the next morning, neither Choppa nor I felt so lucky. Poor Choppa had had a sleepless night, finding his arms covered in itchy bites which had kept him awake all night. I had a few, but had managed to sleep most of the night, so handed over the stingoes for Choppa to see […]

Britomart Reef. Sounds like the type of place you might pick up discounted electrical appliances, and cheap flat pack furniture. But no, this is a pristine reef, about 20 miles east of Hinchinbrook Island, and the place we would spend my birthday. Being at sea makes it difficult for stuff like receiving birthday cards, gifts […]

From Orpheus, we motor sailed the 15 miles north to Zoe Bay on the eastern coast of Hinchinbrook Island. I had wanted to try the Hinchinbrook Channel, but we now knew that we simply couldnt enter the Lucinda side of the channel, as it was too shallow. Everyone had said we should visit Zoe Bay, […]

After the exchange of lures and beers, we headed back to sea on a glorious sunshine day with a sea breeze starting to come in. By midday we were cracking on under heady and full main, reaching comfortably at 8 knots. We all settled into a comfortable spot to watch the blue, sparkling seas slip […]