May 2010 - Cooktown to Cape York and Seisia

We had two attempts at leaving Cooktown.  Our companions on ‘Sunray II’ left around half an hour earlier than us and just as we started our engine and prepared to lift the anchor, they radioed that they were coming back in as the conditions were awful.  The wind had increased and the waves and swell made sailing miserable.  So, off with ‘Henry’ (our engine is a Ford) and instead we decided to explore the Capt. James Cook Museum in the town centre.  A beautiful building built from bricks brought in from Brisbane.  But you know museums?  A little bit of a good thing lasts for ages.  A bit of shopping, a drink at the corner pub, a stroll through the park on way back to boat – and that’s about the extent of our Cooktown tour.  Except, having hoisted our dinghy and lashed it to the davits, the skipper discovered the absence of his mobile phone.  After ringing it a few times, it was answered with, ‘Hi, Tim at the Top Pub’.  Release and lower the dinghy, motor ashore for another walk, return and hoist the dinghy again, third time in a day.

Morning at Cooktown

 Cook's Museum

An early start next morning gave us encouragement that we may have a head start on the nasty wind, but we were wrong.  Although slightly better than the previous morning (don’t think I believe that) the conditions were again, awful.  Thankfully once we rounded Cape Bedford a slightly better sea was encountered but we did still maintain a speedy 8 knots all day and made record time to Lizard Island.  Lizard Island is where Capt Cook climbed to the highest peak (358mtrs) to view a safe passage through the outer Barrier reef after having to repair his ship in Cooktown.  You can climb the peak – CLIMB being the key word here.  Three brave souls (skipper, crew and Joanne from ‘Sunray II’) took on the trek the next morning.  We made it to the top for the spectacular views, wrote in the visitor’s book, took a breather and descended (although the crew would have summoned a helicopter for the return trip if she had the power) and it only took us four hours!  Panadol works wonders.

Rough trip for Sunray II (obviously we were out there too!)
 

Lizard Island climb. Worth the effort? Absolutely.

There are three in our little convoy now as a lone sailor, who hasn’t ever sailed before, sold up the farm, bought a yacht, sailed out of the Gold Coast and turned left.  Brave fellow.  We met ‘Mirage III’ at Hope Island and he has been with us (give or take a day) to now.  He is also on the Rally and thus makes up our sailing trio. 

So, we depart Lizard Island and head for Ninian Bay on a beautiful sunny morning, good breeze, sea behaving itself, nice!  Do you hear a plane?  Heck that was low!  Customs swoop out over the yachts making their way north from Lizard Island, swooping low enough to see our registration and names and then call us on the radio to ask all the relevant questions (much to the annoyance of the skipper).  Big brother is watching

Ninian Bay is picturesque and totally isolated and we anchor here only as an overnight stop en-route to Flinders Island north of Bathurst Bay.  I know I keep saying how lovely the anchorages are, but really, they are.  This end of the country is really worth seeing and the islands are something you would expect to see in movies. 

Next stop is the Flinders Island group.  This group of islands is approached after crossing Bathurst Bay, in itself spectacular for the mountains of boulders lining one side of Cape Melville.  These boulders are piled on top of one another and reach several hundred metres high.  The Flinders island group warrants more investigation and we are a bit disappointed that we have only one night here.  Skipper and crew go over to have a closer look at some dolphins swimming through the channel at Flinders Island before meeting other cruisers on the beach for a chat.

Boulders at Cape Melville

 Rocky outcrop off the Cape

Dolphins up close.

The next anchorage is Morris Island.  Here is one of your typical ‘movie-type’ island anchorages and 7 of us drop the anchor here this night.  The island has a large reef off the southern tip and we all crowd around the northern end beach for some cover from the waves overnight.  Very pleasant.  Crew had to take a trip up the mast as the skipper inadvertently let go of a halyard and it went right to the top of the mast (as they have a habit of doing when not tied off)!  Good view up here – pity I didn’t want to let go of the mast to get some good photos.  Aargh!

Anchors down for the day

Dawn sees all 7 yachts up-anchor and head for Portland Roads – most of these day trips take – well - most of the day and because we like to be in and anchored before tea time we tend to leave early to ensure a daylight anchorage at the west end of the day and so we all arrive around the same time in pretty Portland Roads.  Portland Roads is an outpost of civilisation east of Iron Range.  The only convenience here is a public pay phone and the road into Iron Range.  However, Portland Roads is another idyllic location and many fishing trawlers take refuge during the day to sleep in the quiet bay. 

 

Isolated Portland Roads

 

The next day we depart with a few other yachts and make our way to Margaret Bay around Cape Grenville.  On the way we pass some very expansive reefs, the colours amazing during low tide and thankfully well noted on our charts.  The shipping channel in this area is quite narrow if you are a 600ft container ship and we are asked to move over a bit to allow the ship room to manoeuvre around the channel and reefs.  All very polite and we all oblige – none of us want to be run over.

Passing Moody Reef

Margaret Bay has a crocodile infested creek emptying into it and the three boys decide that fish are to be caught (and crocodiles if they are not careful).  The 2 girls on the other hand, sit quietly in the shade on the beach discussing important issues awaiting the great white hunters’ return – empty handed.  Sausages for tea then?  Oh well they had a good day.  The next day we make the walk across the cape through the scrub, muddy sand, rocks and mangroves (what was that movement in the mud!?) to the other side that we have been told of by previous cruisers.  “Follow the blue path” we’re told.  OK, so that’s what that blue fender was doing hanging in the tree – and the blue thong. uh huh.  Finding bits of blue debris hung and strewn in Hansel and Gretel-style we trek for around an hour to the other side of the cape and into Indian Bay.  (Looks a bit like the side we just came from really) and back again.  We feel a bit like the Leyland Brothers – no we don’t, we’re hot and sweating and wiping off ants and bugs and if anyone mentions leeches again I’ll scream.  We love bush walks.  

This ‘blue’ ice-cream container with snoopy in it has been commandeered by an anthill. 

Another marker - cannibals?

Last minute fishing attempts trolling in the dinghy result in the skipper losing his entire rig – trace, lure, hook, sinker.  There is something BIG down there.  Suddenly our large, stable dinghy is very small.  Back to the mother ship thanks.  Here news reaches us of the arrival of a new granddaughter – welcome Shayla Indiana Smith, congratulations Mum and Dad, gotta be happy with 2 boys and a girl. 

We cross Margaret Bay to round the next cape into Shelburne Bay for the night and to make the following day’s trek to Cape York a little bit easier cutting off a couple of hours sail.  At 4:30 am next morning we are all underway to the top of Australia and have light to moderate winds most of the day only easing late in the afternoon requiring the ‘iron sail’ (Henry the engine) to be used as we approach Cape York around 5:30pm. 

Yahoo, we made it, the top of Australia!  Well done captain and crew.  This place trumps all the islands, it’s just the most spectacular part of the mainland and our camera just doesn’t do it justice.

 Here we are, the Northern-most tip of mainland Australia

 Bluestone, Mirage III & Sunray II at Cape York

Of course, we all go ashore and walk to the edge of the “northern most part of mainland Australia” to place our stone on the cairn and have our photos taken.  Skipper and I also take our dinghy and cruise around the tip – just to say we cruised right past the tip – the passage being a tad shallow and narrow for Bluestone to navigate in close (skipper is paranoid).  Here’s a strange thing, we are at the end of the mainland, totally isolated from civilisation and there are more people here than on the main street of Cooktown.  3 or 4, 4wd vehicles have made the trek and camp on the beach and the tour guide from Seisia Tourist Park at Bamaga is here with a bus-load of passengers.  The most people we have seen in one spot since leaving Port Douglas two weeks ago! 

Bluestone spends a couple of days just rocking gently in the bay and taking in the beautiful surrounds.  We can see Thursday Island group on the horizon and many large ships traverse the channel between Cape York and Mt Adolphus Island on their way further north.  We will now turn left and navigate the Gulf of Carpentaria departing from Seisia.  Seisia is the town that supports the Bamaga Aboriginal community and is a small port for transporting goods to Thursday Island.  It consists of a supermarket, petrol station and caravan park but the streets and parks are very nicely kept and the supermarket quite well stocked.

How to advertise your supermarket

Seisia anchorage