The date was set, end of May, then moved back a little, then a little again, now the day had dawned Between 11pm and midnight on June the 4th was the hour of departure. The reason for this? Good question.... Mackay harbour is rather exposed, in fact, VERY exposed and has the swell coming straight in so we had it all worked out for slack high tide, and also the nasty 20-30knt winds we experienced most days USUALLY died at night, and thankfully this time they did too. We were on our way, with a teary farewell from Bernie and Peter, Bill, and Bernie II, they roared around the breakwater to the entrance of the harbour to wave good bye as we rolled our way out through the swell, then they roared up to the slade point lookout to flash their lights at us. We think we saw them..anyway, we were off, finally, after 4 months in Mackay, where we were spoilt rotten, both worked, kids went to school...and they loved it!
Anyway...here we were, about to sail to Darwin and then off to south east asia in the Darwin to Kupang Rally - so the murphys were on a mission! We went straight through to the Low Isles off Port Douglas which took 3 nights and days, great trip all in all. Calm most of the way, in fact we had to motor sail for most of it, nice reasonably smooth seas, and a lovely gentle breeze. After 4 months of being in a marina, we were a little anxious to get back into it, and get to darwin as soon as possible. We thought it would take us about 5-6 weeks. After 2 nights at the Low Isles, catching up with Pete, Drew and Digby from Inndyanna (our old port douglas neighbours), and catching up with Enzwell (we last saw them in Cairns in October) we headed up to Hope Islet. Yes and "hope" was a great name for it, reef strewn entrance into it, howling wind all through the night, then a reef strewn exit - all we could do was HOPE we got out ok! We then headed to Cooktown where the annual Captain Cook celebrations were taking place. Made it over the bar with 0.3m under our keel, 30knt winds and the sails still up - to say it was a little traumatic was the understatement of the year. We basically slewed in sideways! Made it in safely and anchored in very shallow water. Thats all there is there VERY shallow or the jetty where the navy ship was tied up so that wasnt an option. A couple of weeks prior a yacht spent several hours on her side waiting for the tide to come back in - thankfully we were not there during spring tides! We stayed in Cooktown for the celebrations and then headed off to Lizard island, along with several other yachts, it was a bit of a mass exodus really. Had a not so pleasant trip to Lizard, rough, sloppy seas and rain, and one could say it was even chilly! Spent several days at Lizard due to the weather (yuck - one would almost think it was winter!), then headed up slowly towards Cape York. We day hopped as the further up the coast you go the closer the reef comes in, and even though you are in the shipping channel, it can get very narrow and there are very few places to go to avoid the monsters that bear down on you in the night..so day hopping it was for which I for one was very thankful!
The trip up the coast had many magical moments and some downright uncomfortable ones! The sea state was sloppy most of the time but we were making great progress on a daily basis. When we were anchored we saw another both with children on but never managed to meet them so as we were sailing along after leaving Lizard I managed to contact them via the radio, had a great chat, turns out Kiwi Mum, Scottish Dad and Australian Kids so a very mulitnational family!! We decided to meet up together at a place called Portland Roads, what a beautiful anchorage, stunning. A while after we dropped anchor "glayva" pulled in and we finally got to meet them, Rachel, Mark, Namara and Arran! Had a wonderful time, and little did we know that they would be one of those remarkable families that you just know will be friends for life.
We left Portland Roads and made our way north, we needed to keep going as we had lost time due to bad weather when at Lizard Island. We finally made it to the top of Oz!!! What an achievement, the next dilemma was do we go to Thursday Island or do we go around the top and down to Bamuga, we decided to go around and down to Bamuga as it sounded like a cool little spot, so made it through the Albany channel just before dusk and anchored in a stunning bay at the TOP OF AUSTRALIA!! Up the next morning and off to get right around the top and down to Bamuga, we had current with us and as we got around the point to head down had a wonderful wind..we actually ended up sailing at over 9 knts..the grin on brendans face said it all..yehaa!
Made it into Sesia (Bamuga) and had a wonderful few days waiting for a weather window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Carpentaria!!! If you are ever travelling around australia whether by land or sea, this place is a rather special place, there isnt much there, but it has a camping ground, a super market and just lovely lovely people. It is one of those places you will always remember.
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