Our 7th year anniversary & Sailing ship Endeavour

Officers cabin
Joseph Banks the botanists, cabin
Captain James Cook cabin
Charles Green the astronomer aboard Endeavour, cabinmess hall

crew
We went to see the sailing ship Endeavour (well the exact replica). It is our anniversary today.

Had a lovely day with a visit from friends Pete & Deb from 'About time', and a beautiful meal at The Salt House. I'm off tomorrow to fly to the Sunshine Coast to see my daughters, Bruce will join us later in the week. Will post again soon.

Shhhh don't tell anyone this place is

beach in Turtle Bay
There is a small waterfall there and these tadpoles were in the small lagoon at the bottom.
There were hundreds on them.
Tree growing from the rock.
Endeavour in Cairns
We will go have a look on board over the weekend

A quiet little anchorage. We had 2 nights all by ourselves in Turtle Bay. Last night we had a boat join us. We were in 2 other anchorages with them, maybe next time we will be able to catch up and say hello. They left out this morning. We left this morning for Trinity river in Cairns as the wind has been increasing over the last day, and the swell has been picking up in the anchorage. Strong wind warning are out, and we travelled today in 30 knot gusts.

We will be quite busy in our stay here at Cairns. We pull into the marina tomorrow. It's been 4 weeks since we've been in a marina, so a scrub a dub dub is in store tomorrow!

Russell Island to Fitzroy Island & Turtle Bay

This is where we had our afternoon cuppa Fitzroy Island
These below are from Russell Island
These photos are from the lagoon you see below.
This is a octopus
Such clear water
Lovely rocks on this island & rainforest too!

Well the anchorage last night at Russell Island wasn't very good. The winds once again went to the SW (not in the forecast), and we didn't have any protection from the SW. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep in this anchorage. The only good thing about it was the wind waves were bow on so at least the movement was up and down not side to side! Yuck that would have been horrible.

We has a great sail today! Sailed in Fitzroy Island anchorage. Scarlett was there after we dropped sails we picked up a mooring but it turned out not to be our size, so we left it. We went close by Scarlett to say hello, but couldn't raise anyone. They must have been busy inside. We continued on around to the NE side of the island where there are a few moorings, and picked one up. I had to travel around coral bommies to get to it. It also turned out to be for a 9 metre vessel, with us being 12 metres that could be a problem if the winds did shift to the NE, as they said they might during the afternoon (seabreeze), that would put us on the rocks! Ouch. Well it was so pretty here we decided to at least make a cup of tea and enjoy the view for a few minutes before we continued on. Not sure of where to go as we have been in Fitzroy anchorage when the winds were more southerly and it wasn't very comfortable. I had a feeling that the winds were going to repeat what they did last night. We pick an anchorage off Cape Grafton called Turtle Bay, which can have a bit of a swell in developed SE winds. We tucked our selves right up in the bay which we can do now due to the neap tides, and we are very protected without too much swell. Tomorrow we will have an explore of the beach, and there is meant to be a waterfall here as well.

Haycock Island to Goold Island-Dunk-Stephens-Mourilyan Harbour

Cyclone damage tree growing back it leaves. These are all from Stephens Island.
amazing colours in the rocks.

This looks to have gotten washed away from the waves during cyclone Yasi
This is a lava fisure.

We had a late start as we so enjoyed the peacefulness of the Hinchinbrook channel anchorage. It was a glass out. We went from this anchorage to Goold Island. We were on our way to Missionary Bay area, but as we passed Goold Island we thought this looks good and we haven't been here yet either. Scarlett went on to Dunk Island. Goold Island anchorage was good, but during the night we had some Sw winds start up and that made for a bit of wind chop on the beam. We didn't hang around long this morning as it was quite uncomfortable, and the wind was blowing a good 12/15 kts. We thought we would have a great sail to Dunk Island as it wasn't a far sail. We had a nice sail for a while but then winds calmed. We were nearly to Dunk and saw on our AIS that Scarlett was still there. We decided to have a bit of fun and planned a pirate invasion. We put up all our colours (pirate flags), and dressed in our pirate gear. As we came up on Scarlett doing our arrrrrrrghs they were just getting ready to make way. We had a good laugh! As they weighed anchor we noticed that the winds were picking up again, and thought we would join them on their adventure. Up went the sails again and we made way for Stephens Island. Craig picked us up and we went a shore for a bit of an explore. Then back aboard we are raising the sails once again to sail onto our next anchorage in Mourilyan Harbour.

We had a very peaceful night here. Scarlett is close by and we were invited on board to watch a movie with them. It was a James Cook documentary. To keep with the theme of the day we dressed in our pirate gear. Scarlett's crew also dressed in their pirate gear. Darn we didn't get any photos of it!!

The movie was very interesting and very long! Before we knew it, it was late in the night, and we didn't even finish watching the movie before we called it a night. We both would like to see the end of it someday.

Being such a peaceful anchorage and it being Sunday morning we took our time this morning. We departed at around 11 with Scarlett. They sailed onto Fitzroy and we have stopped at Russell Island a place we haven't been. We will go a shore tomorrow and have an explore.

more on Hinchinbrook

Scarlett at Sunset
Tropical Soul & Scarlett anchored @ Ramsay Bay
Crocodile? no but it kind of looks like one doesn't it?
The very top of the waterfalls the first pool in which I swam.
This is the other end of the pool as it spills over the edge.

Photos of our stay at Hinchinbrook Island

Hinchinbrook Island
Coming into Ramsay Bay and the view up to the mountains
This is mangroves and a lagoon from the shores of Ramsay Bay. We are now in croc country, so it is possible to have crocs in these waters.
Some of the rain forest on the walk to the waterfall. Most of the big trees along this walk close to the shore were destroyed in the cyclone earlier this year.
Grass tree

Zoe Bay YAY

I wet in the pool at the very top of the waterfall. It was SO cold, but after a few minutes it was quite nice!
It's hard to catch heights in photos, but if you look where Bruce is then you can see we are near the top of a mountain top.
The water was so clear!
First waterfall pool so clear!
This was one of the first little waterfalls we saw on our walk to the main waterfall.

We had a calm night in behind Hinchinbrook Island in Ramsay Bay, and during the night the winds swung around more to the SW. Beauty we can now go to Zoe Bay and do the walk. After some morning activities, yoga & meditation for me, we weighed anchor and with Scarlett we went to Zoe bay to do the waterfall walk. We couldn't have asked for any better weather. It was outstanding sunny, cool, light breeze. We did the walk all the way to the top, and I will be posting heaps of photos soon. Our time was a bit limited as we wanted to make way to come into Hinchinbrook Channel southern end before the tide got too low. We made it only just at one point we read .06 metres under the keels. Lucky for us we had such calm conditions. Not anything like our last time coming in there when we had 25 + knots of wind against an out going tide. YUCK! We have anchored in behind Haycock Island, and it is so peaceful here. Scarlett is anchored behind us we are the only boats in here! We are both on our computers now catching up as it has been a few days since we've had any phone or internet. Going to sign off now and listen to the stillness as the sun sets. Will post some photos soon.

Chow

From Palm Island to Hinchinbrook Island

We had a lovely sail to Hinchinbrook Island, although at times we nearly came to a stand still in the doldrums. We could see wind all around us but we were sitting in a pocket of no wind! We took advantage of the calm and had some breakfast. Being patient the wind did finally came our way. We could see it moving towards us across the water. Not long after we left Scarlett raised sails to join us on our journey to Zoe Bay. As we came clear of Pelorus Island we got some good wind. We had a bit of a doldrum there as well. I was making some lunch when Bruce spotted something in the water. We called me on deck to see what we were seeing, he thought it was a whale. It turned out to be a huge log like a telephone poll about 50 ft. long bobbing along in the water with just a bit of it here and there sticking out. We called Craig on the radio to tell him to watch out for it, and then radioed into to Townsville Coast Guard with a position report. Shortly after the radio call we came into another patch of debris of timber in the water, which we radioed in the watch for. We figure with the extra big spring tides debris from the shores may have been washing into the sea. This is the area where our big Cyclone hit earlier this year. We continued on course for Zoe Bay, but once there figured it was too rough for an overnight anchorage as the winds shifted more to the SE. We moved north to the next bay Ramsay Bay where we anchored for the night. As we were calling Craig on the radio to tell him we were going to stay here he could see us on his AIS and plotter and he said you are heading for a submerged rock. I was at the helm and straight away turned the boat and we did circles for a few loops before we decided we should move away from this spot. When I later looked at the plotter it was too close for comfort. I knew it was there, but I wasn't watching on the plotter. Yikes makes my stomach drop thinking about it. Thanks to you Craig forgiving us the heads up!!!!! Once anchored we went to shore for a walk on the beach. Then it was to Scarletts for sundowners! What a great way to end a good day with some friends!

Tuesday to Thursday some beautiful travels!

This is a dolphin swimming on his back flapping its tail on the surface of the water.
Another pod of smaller dolphins came by.
Looking west to Hinchinbrook Island where we will head the following day.
Great Palm Island
Nearly full moon rising over island. This full moon will be a full lunar eclipse.

We left Maggie on Tuesday and headed to Great Palm Island to check out an anchorage we haven't been to. The NE bay as we were having SW winds. It is one of the clearest water anchorages we've been. We sailed for a while and when the wind dropped away to nothing we motored into the anchorage. We had a glass out! Dolphins greeted us into the anchorage with one swimming on his back flapping its tail on the surface of the water. After we were anchored we admired the crystal clear water. I was so tempted to get in, but it was a bit late in the day, and I'm nursing a slight ear infection. From the cabin top we had a good look all around and could see something on the surface of the water just in front of the boat. We watched for quite sometime and with the binoculars at times. We were watching a shark on the surface of the water. It was quite large! We got out our fish book and identified the shark as a Black Whaler. What a must lovely night we had. As the sunset set behind the island the nearly full rose over the eastern side of the island. Scarlett later joined us as they had a day walking and exploring Maggie Island before they came across.

last day at Maggie

rafted up with Scarlett
Military flying over

A spring tide, which falls at the new & full moons. It means higher high tides and lower low tides. This is at the lowest tide.