Cooktown to Cape Flattery

We left Cooktown around 9 a.m. this morning. By 9:10 we were under sail with 10/15 kts shifting from ESE to East and then finally to a light ENE.
It was a very relaxing sail as we weren't in any hurry, as we didn't need to be here by a certain time for safe anchoring. We arrived at the Cape around 3 and were anchored by 3:30. After getting the boat back
in order and having a cuppa we put the dingy in for a walk along the beach. It is such beautiful sand here!

 our footprints in the sand

 sunset

White silica sand which is what they mine from here and send all over the world. The land is Aborginal land, but the guides say it is okay to walk the beaches.
Weather is shaping up to be reef weather for the next week. Tomorrow we head out to Ribbon reef #9.
Not sure about our internet coverage from there, so I will update when we can.

Cooktown

A busy day in Cooktown, but I'm glad it was! We decided to get done what we needed to do today, refuel, water, bottle shop, groceries, pharmacy. The funny thing is the bottle shop couldn't sell us the port we wanted to buy because it is a fortified wine, and they are not allowed to sell cask wine or fortified wine before 6 p.m. They could sell us any bottle of spirits, or beer. Go figure the logic on that one.  With that in mind we finished all other chores and decided to take a walk for an hour or so to bring us to the 6pm selling time. It is a good time of the day to walk. We walked to the top of Grassy Hill to the lookout/lighthouse. It was a good walk that got your heart pumping. A primer for us to getting us ready for the Cooks look walk at Lizard Island!
Anyway Looking at the weather situation and the reefs we want to visit we need to leave here tomorrow. It is about a 10 hour run to ribbon reef 9 doing 5 kts, which would get us there to late. It is good to get to the reef before 3 p.m. We thought we would move on tomorrow as there will be wind enough to sail to Cape Flattery. From Cape Flattery we will then go on Friday to Ribbon reef 9, which is then only 20 nm from the Cape. Looks like we will have 3 days of calm weather! YES!!!

I'm not sure what the internet signal will be like so will post again when we can. Until then enjoy these photos taken today from the top of Grassy Hill.

Hope Isles to Cooktown

Sunset at Cooktown

We left this morning after 10 a.m. for Cooktown. We had to wait till after 10 o'clock so we could time ourselves to enter the river in Cooktown on a rising tide. We had another lovely sail today! Saw a few dolphins riding the swells on our way here. Also listening to the vhf radio which was very exciting as the Lizard Island Black Marlin Fishing Tournament is in full action with quite a few hook ups today! We arrived Cooktown around 2 o'clock this afternoon. After making sure she was good and anchored we ventured a shore with Trish & Lance. Stopped for a coffee and walked up to the shops. We have some really fantastic reef weather coming again! I'm SO excited!! Tomorrow we will be busy doing some slight restocking. Putting on some more fuel, doing laundry, shop at chemist, and groceries. As we are not sure how long we will be a way it is always good to get these things while you can!

Cape Tribulation to Hope Isles

We once again had a lovely sail from Cape Tribulation to the Hope Isles. Lucky for us there were 2 mooring there and they were both available! It was nice and calm behind the island! We had some friends from Tic Tac anchor behind us. We all went a shore for a few hours for a chat. Tic Tac is slowly making there way back south, so we won't be seeing them again for a while. I had a GREAT nights sleep in calm waters and on a mooring!

Reef to rainforest

On Sunday we had a great sail from St. Crispin reef to Cape Tribulation. It was written that Cape Trib can be a rolly anchorage in developed SE winds. We decided to give it a go since the winds had only started to blow on Sunday after 2 days of glass outs. When we first arrived the anchorage was good enough. We anchored and went a shore for a walk down the beach. We are still in company of Trish & lance from Euphoria. By the time we got back to our boats late in the afternoon we had quite a swell coming in. Once the tide changed it brought us side on to the swell and the results were quite uncomfortable. I wasn't feeling so well, so went to lie down early, but really didn't sleep much most of the night.

We planned on an early departure and I was quite happy to be leaving this anchorage!

 more clear water on St. Crispin reef

 reef magic

sunrise

sunset

Reef photos

 Check out these colors!

 Feather Starfish

 clear still water

 Euphoria anchored in our reef swimming pool

 beautiful colors

We have been so blessed with this time on the reef! We moved in today to this patch of sandy bottom and it is just beautiful! we had a swim in our reef swimming pool. earlier we had a lovely snorkel on a beautiful coral bommie that took us nearly 1 1/2 hours to explore! Our time s up tomorrow, but we may get in one more snorkel before we go!