Queensland

 We - having swapped Danny for Kate in Airlie Beach- are anchored in the lee of Cape Upstart. And I have been very impressed with the Queensland coast so far. 

The actual sailing has not been a problem -pretty much downwind in 15 to 25 knots of breeze. But the weather in this ‘Sunshine State’ has let us down- there’s barely been a day without rain ( close all the hatches!) and the solar radiation that the boat relies on for electricity has been in short supply. To make matters worse, on the northwesterly course that we’re on the sails manage to shade all the solar panels when the sun appears between the squalls. 

First- the boat, I think I have chalked up the seven problems predicted. The monkey is off my back. The leaking watermaker and the blocked toilet were a day’s work, the leaking boiler has a replacement waiting for us in Cairns and the power generating issue in will hopefully be mitigated with a free-roaming 200W panel to be placed wherever the sun shines on the boat.

Percy island was great- a cruisers’s museum of memorabilia on the beach and we hiked up to the homestead to meet Don, we had sunset drinks on the beach: tick,tick, tick. Airlie- a night in the marina, dinner ashore, a courtesy car to get the spares for the leaks and blockages. Then to Hook Island to snorkel and potter. On to Glaucester passage , and visited the resort and the seafood banquet there. 

Back to the impressive bit- there is a river or headland or island to anchor behind every 10 or 20 miles and we have not spent the night in a plain or bland one yet- they’re all speccy in their own way. And we detoured a bit through Hinchinbrook channel. The mountaintops hidden by clouds, rainforest to the water's edge and we caught a glimpse of a decent waterfall too.

Thus we sailed Northwest for many days, some days covering barely 40 miles but we've also done nearly double that. A three-night stopover in Cairns for some to dive the Barrier reef and to fix and install stuff. Kate was swapped for brother Harry and supplies for a month or so were stowed aboard. A lively city, a beautiful waterfront with pubs, restaurants, a pool and a Ferris wheel. The tropical trees were lit from below and live music was heard on the boat at night.

I write this anchored off Lizard Island. The crew have gone off to climb the mountain, just like Joseph Banks ( the naturalist aboard the Endeavour) did in 1770, and from where he spied the gap in the Barrier Reef that now bears Cook's name.. It is a beautiful anchorage- clear water and a white beach, a lovely reef to snorkel on a stonethrow away. We have decided to spend an extra night here.  It is a bit sobering to realise that there's no supplies for the next 700 miles and no help for problems with boat or crew either. And all those fine anchorages and sheltered spots also seem to be in short supply for the next leg of the passage.

I remained behind to do some medical work which I have been procrastinating on and write this little update to delay the dreary task some more. I wish everyone well!

Underway

 As Bruce just said on an unrelated matter- it is coming together. We have set sail with Danny, Bruce, Mimi and I aboard from Gladstone. Mindful that a boat is at the mercy of winds and waters I hope to go westward eventually. But with Austrialia in the way we headed North, through the scenic Narrows which oddly reminded me of sailing through Friesland.

Mimi is in OCD heaven with supplies for a month or two all packed in new containers, and with everything logged on an app which - I have been ecstatically told a few times- tracks expiry dates, logs usage and can even suggest meals. But it doesn’t cook, so we’ve been taking turns at that.  And yesterday, at Great Keppel Island we woke up to a grey, windy, rainy day. We set sail nonetheless and under genoa alone still made 7 knots or more in the 20+ gusty wind to Pearl Bay.  It was an impressive anchorage in this blustery weather, a bay guarded by islands of dark and jagged rock.

Back to that coming together- after 5 hectic days in Gladstone of repairing this, and buying that, and stowing many, many different things I can now sometimes locate an item on the boat. It looks like everyone is getting the hang of things and we anchored twice without first having to call a committee meeting and haven’t required post- anchor debriefing sessions either. So far, so good. We’re aiming for the Percies for today and Danny is trying to catch a fish.

I would love to embellish this brief post with some images, but Blogspot’s new owner, Blogger, which is Google has thwarted all my efforts to achieve this simple task.