Time to Head South - Cooktown to Yorkeys Knob 30th August - 1st September

During our week in Cooktown we had been watching the weather forecasts carefully keeping our eye out for a weather window that would allow us to travel south without too much difficulty.  It came in the form of a calm period of a few days. We were up early to ready Rene for a 7.30am departure as the tide dictated. The Hope Islands are 20nm south and that was our destination.

The Hope Isles

Poking around at the Hope Isles

On the way north we had arrived here too late to see the coral bommies properly, but not this time. Midday saw us entering the reef area surrounding the islands with good visibility into the water and no scary moments occurred on this second occasion. We hooked on to one of the courtesy moorings and after lunch took Lily ashore on the tiny island. The spring tide exposed the reef and sandbanks around the island and we were able to have a close up view of hard and soft corals, clams and other shells and all manner of strange sea creatures residing in the reef. Five boats spent a calm and peaceful night with us at the Hope Isles.

Exploring the reef at low tide on the Hope Isles

The Low Isles

With just enough light to see the reef we motored slowly away from the Hope Isles on our way to the Low Isles off Port Douglas. Light winds had us again motor/sailing our way south. At 40nm we had a longer day on the water, but the scenery on this part of the coast is stunning as the Dividing Range meets the sea.

We arrived at the Low Isles in the late afternoon and most of the tourist boats had left or were in the process of leaving. We again managed to score one of the courtesy moorings. Not long after our arrival two young German men, crewing on another yacht, motored over in the dinghy to see the fish we were attracting. I was feeding them bread and they wanted to see the sharks. There was some discussion about whether Black Tipped Reef Sharks ate people. Then they decided they wanted to swim with the sharks. In they went. After a minute or two a shark swam past and the guy who saw it gave an excited yell, spluttering into his snorkel, and that was the end of the sharks. Anyway they had their thrills!! After that we all settled down for another quiet, calm night with a beautiful bright moon.

Feeding the fish at the Low Isles

 

 

Yorkeys Knob

We left the Low Isles at 6.30am, motoring around the eastern side of the islands far enough off to avoid the fringing reef. Again we motor/sailed the whole way, some 28nm south, in almost windless conditions. Peter rang ahead and booked a berth at the marina for two nights as we needed to take on fuel, water and stores. Being Tuesday we thought we'd take advantage of the 'two for one' evening meals at the yacht club. Very pleasant!