Great Barrier Reef

We left Cairns and sailed out to Green Island which is part of The Great Barrier Reef. It is known for having great snorkeling but being a treacherous place to approach to anchor. We had the proper charts of the island but every single coral head is not charted therefore we planned to arrive when the sun would be high in the sky and directly behind us (3:00 pm) so that there would be no reflection off the water. Stephen climbed up the mast 20 feet so that he could see down into the water with Polarized sun glasses. He yelled directions at me this way and that to navigate our way slowly through the coral heads to safe anchorage. It was worth it. When we went snorkeling, we saw 4’ long giant clams. Our reef book said they would be close to 550 lbs. More impressive than their size was their bright florescent colored undulating lips.
Our next stop was Michaelmas Cay which is mostly just coral reef with a little bit of sand on one end which is a protected bird sanctuary. The visibility snorkeling was fabulous and the highlight was seeing a lionfish which is quite dangerous. It is only about 12" long but it has large dorsal and pectoral fins with hollow spines attached to a venom gland. The puncture wounds alone are painful but they are also poisonous. The lionfish only attacks when threatened so I didn’t provoke the little guy.
Our next stop on the reef was Low Islets. It is part of the inner reef and only 5 miles from the mainland. We had been told that we need to be at least 10 miles from the mainland to be safe from Crocodiles but when we arrived at Low Islets, we saw several dive and snorkel boats with swimmers in the water. We approached one of the dive instructors in our dinghy and mentioned we were concerned about crocodiles. She laughed her head off and shared the joke with the other dive instructors. Then she said, "There hasn’t been a crocodile here since last year". (Steve and I looked at each other as if to say that is recent enough for us). Since it is a major dive location, the government removes the crocodiles (one 5 years ago also) and releases them elsewhere. Steve decided to take a quick snorkel anyway to see the green turtles rumored to be in the area and he was not disappointed. He saw several frolicking together at close range.
Our next stop was Hope Islet for a day and then on to Cooktown. We anchored in the Endeavour River which is where Captain Cook spent over a month repairing his ship Endeavour after hitting a reef just off the coast. Where we landed our dinghy ashore, there was a sign that said: "Caution, recent crocodile sighting." We asked the guy who ran the fish and chip shop next door if that was really true. He said: "Ya, but personally I would worry more about the bull sharks". Needless to say, when we went to shore, we got out of our dinghy REALLY fast and away from the water’s edge. Other than that, Cooktown’s claim to fame is that it is the last town for 400 miles until we reach the tip of Cape York at the top of Australia so we stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables (and pop and chips) before heading back out to the reef again.
We anchored 4 nights at Lizard Island which is a National Park. It wasn‘t a very big island but it had lots of great hiking trails including one very steep hike to the top where Captain Cook himself had climbed to get a good look out over the reef so he could plot his course out through the reef. Lizard Island also had fabulous snorkeling in very clear water. Steve was on a quest to get some good photos of Clown Anemonefish which have been made famous by Nemo. We wanted to get our fill of snorkeling because this was the last place we could go swimming safe from crocodiles before we reach Indonesia in 2 months.
Our next stop was Ingram Island. Another cruiser had somehow found out that there was a turtle research station set up temporarily for 3 weeks so we set off to see what they were up to. When we arrived, we found that the "station" was in fact a couple of tents, one paid researcher and 6 volunteers. They would go out to the reef on small boats, jump on a turtles back and bring it back to shore to do some tests before they let them loose again in the sea. That morning, they had caught 7 turtles and had them all lined up on the beach upside down, each waiting their turn to be weighed and measured.
There was a very small island a couple of miles away so we decided to take a dinghy ride out to it. It wasn’t in our cruising guide because it was surrounded in reef and no good for anchoring but in the middle of this little island the size of a football field lay a secret treasure. We were walking along the beach when 4 pelicans flew in and landed in the centre of the island and out of sight. We walked up the steep grade from the water to the ground cover and as we approached the top of the hill we heard the strangest sound. It was like the murmur of a large crowd talking in hushed angry voices. As we crested the hill, we were amazed to see a pelican nesting sight. There were hundreds of adult pelicans and hundreds of baby pelicans in various stages of development. As we approached, the adult pelicans and the babies that could walk, started to move away from us and the smaller babies were left to fend for themselves. We didn’t want the babies to get cold or lonely so we quickly retreated so that the parent pelicans would return. I was not impressed with their parenting skills but who am I to judge!?
As we sailed the next day, I decided to drop my new fishing lure overboard. We hadn’t really tried to fish since our lack of success in the Caribbean. I had bought a new lure in Cooktown after talking to other cruisers who had had a lot of success trolling off their boats. The hook on it was massive. The line was 150 lb test. I was afraid of how big a fish might find such a thing appetizing. After four hours, I hooked myself a 40" mackerel. Steve did a great job of cleaning it up while still sailing. It’s a good thing that there was lots of room available in the freezer because we got 18 gorgeous steaks out of it. We won’t have to drop the lure overboard for another couple of weeks.
A couple days later, we anchored at Flinder’s Island where we were entertained by dolphins and dugongs swimming and diving about 100 feet from our boat. We took a dinghy ride to shore and walked a trail to some aboriginal rockart. It was particularly interesting to see their depictions of the sailboats that had first come to visit them back in the days of Captain Cook.
On shore, we ran into our mate Terry who has cruised this area for 8 years so he is a wealth of knowledge about crocodiles, crabs, fishing and more. He caught a bunch of mud crabs one day and gave us a couple. They sold for $45/kilo back in Bundaberg so we had never tried them before. They were delicious.
We On Morris Island, the rocks that were exposed at low tide were covered in the purple colored oysters that I had seen in many places. I decided I would try to pry a few off for Happy Hour Snacks. Wow. What a lot of work. Although the shells looked big enough, the oysters inside were quite small and it took a LOT of shucked oysters to barely cover the bottom of the little dish I had brought to shore. I probably should have asked an Australian what the trick was to shucking these oysters but for once, we were alone in the anchorage so I just had to figure it out by myself. The process did get progressively easier after an hour but I am sure I am still missing "the secret" to getting the oysters off quickly and in one piece. Luckily, Steve thought it was best if only one of us ate the oysters in case they were poisonous or something. I happily ate them all myself. They were yummy.
A couple days later we stopped at Portland Roads. It is an "outpost" of only 7 houses. When we took our dinghy to shore, we were immediately met by a local man who asked us to come back to his place to say "Good Day". Allen and his wife Liz and their 9 year old daughter Nina live in a very small two bedroom cottage. There is no power or water in Portland Roads so everything in the house ran off 12 volt batteries charged by solar power and a wind generator. The water was collected off the roof when it rained. The next closest settlement to them is an aboriginal community 5 hours away by car so they order their food once a week from a fishing supply ship that services the smaller fishing vessels on the North Queensland coast. They own a sailboat and hope to one day soon go cruising so we had lots to talk about over a cup of tea.
After a two day stop at Cape Grenville, we proceeded to Cape York at the most northern tip of mainland Australia. This was the only part of the trip along the Great Barrier Reef that had to be partially sailed at night because there were no safe anchorages for over 77 miles. Since we average around 6 knots when we sail, that meant at least a 13 hour trip. We left at 1:30 in the morning so that we would not arrive at the other end in the dark if the wind dropped. The first hour was tricky because there were 5 fishing boats dragging long nets just outside of the anchorage which we had to weave our way through using their lights as a guide. Since they don’t go very fast either, it took forever to pass them. After that, we relied on our GPS, radar and computer charts to navigate through the reefs and islands that lined the way. The rest of the night went smoothly and by mid-afternoon, we said goodbye to the Great Barrier Reef, rounded Cape York and dropped anchor at the tip of Australia. The landscape was rugged and untouched by development. Sand and rock and mangroves. Beautiful. Looking north, we could see the Torres Strait Islands that lie between Australia and Papua New Guinea.
After a couple days at anchor, we continued down the west side of Cape York to Seisia which is the coastal port for the Aboriginal settlement of Bamaga. Although Seisa offered very few services, we did find an internet service so we were finally able to update the blog.