The exodus south

The Exodus south…Cairns to Orpheus Island

The day had come, after listening to numerous weather reports all talking about northerlies FURTHER SOUTH we along with our new cruising buddies Silhouette decided for the best (read this as the best of the worst) weather window to head south via Fitzroy Island, then on to Dunk for some R ‘n R, then making our way down to Hinchinbrook Island and see how it went from there.

The winds in Cairns Marina on average were at least 20 knots, but as soon as they dropped down to 15 knts we left along with silhouette and sailed to Fitzroy Island, spent the arvo there, and then carried on to Dunk Island – a mere 18 hours away beating into 30knot winds AGAIN! Finally just before midnight the wind dropped off and the seas calmed down … a little…then once again engine trouble – just what you need hanging off a group of islands in the middle of the night pitch black and no moon. But the Captain sorted it all out and off we went again finally got to Dunk Island. We spent a couple of nights at Dunk, then had an awesome sail to Hinchinbrook Island/Channel whatever you call it. The wind was going in the right direction for once, so engine off and sails up – brilliant. The ozzies rave about this place…I think us kiwis are a little spoilt on the scenery side of life. Whilst very pretty it had a few nasties hanging around (mozzies, crocs etc etc). Kate cut Brendan and Phils hair, they jumped in for a quick wash down, and about 2 hours later Phil saw a V E R Y large croc swim by…so a unanimous decision was made of no more swimming! I am sure until then Brendan had thought I was paranoid…that comment hasn’t been passed since!!!!!

Of course, now the engine was working well so something else decided to pack it in … a very important item..OUR FRIDGE! You can imagine the panic with no cold beers to be had…So we ducked into Hinchinbrook Marina to stay and buy ice, water etc well one night turned into 2 – a fabulous marina. The swimming pool was just awesome, and we spent a lot of time there…hence the extension to 2 nights. A little bit of luxury amongst the croc infested waters..in saying that the marina itself has 2 resident crocs about 4 metres long, so there was no drunken antics down the dock…very subdued not to mention careful!!!! We left the marina and made our way to the end of Hinchinbrook Island – its some 28 miles long and then the next day negotiated the Lucinda channel. The first time is scary, it’s a very very wide body of water that is very very very shallow – but doesn’t look it!! this channel in places is 60 cm (centimetres!!) deep (we draw 2 metres!!), and takes about 2 hours to get through a very twisted path constantly monitoring depths, distances and marks. We left on a rising tide in case we got stuck. Local knowledge is a great thing – they reckon that if you leave at the wrong time you can be on your side in 15 minutes flat. So with every navigation aid available, local knowledge, a dodgy depth sounder and absolutely no terse words between skipper and first mate but very long held breaths we made it out the other side – a huge sigh of relief and 1 ½ hours later were anchored in Little Pioneer Bay, Orpheus Island. Ahh bliss….