The Trip to Lizard Island 1st - 3rd August

Panic

Rene motored out of Yorkey's Knob Marina lower in the water than ever before. We were full of fuel, water, food and gas. In fact we even bought another bottle of gas in case we got stuck at Lizard Island by the SE Trades, which blow incessantly at this time of the year. A mere mile or so out of the channel into the marina and just as we were settling down to a days motor sailing, me reading and Peter just come below to check the chart plotter, there was an almighty thump/bang below the water against Rene's hull. The boat shuddered with the impact. We both shot out of the companionway, (more like pellets out of a shotgun than rats out of a drainpipe!!) eyes on stalks and hearts pounding. Peter checked the depth sounder, nothing wrong there. I thought maybe we'd hit a whale. Then as I looked behind I noticed a black, pointy thing surface slowly. It was a large waterlogged tree trunk, floating just below the surface. It bobbed up a few times and then settled back into it's camouflaged position just below the surface ready to catch the next unsuspecting boatie.  Peter radioed the Yorkeys Yacht  Club to inform them. Hopefully it didn't connect with anyone else before finding a final resting place on a beach somewhere.

Peter donned the snorkel and goggles at Lizard Island later and went to check the damage. There were long scratches down the hull and a scrape down the front and below the keel, but no real damage. It must have come with branches attached!

The Low Isles - Beauty

We arrived at the Low Isles, off Port Douglas, mid afternoon. After the tourist boats and day trippers had left we scored one of the courtesy moorings and spent a quiet, restful night with our friendly little lighthouse flashing in the darkness. The night was clear and being away from the city lights we had a wonderful view of the night sky. Ric and Val anchored Arkaydes nearby and we decided to make an early start in the morning for Cooktown.

Cape Bedford - Calm

Sunset at Cape Bedford

The day began with a light breeze and later died down so we motor sailed for a while. We made good progress and as the weather forecast was for good sailing for a couple of days we decided to go the extra 20nm to Cape Bedford for the night and then make the final jump to Lizard Island to be settled there in Mrs Watsons Bay for the next bout of strong winds. We would call in at Cooktown on the way south. The Cape Bedford anchorage was perfectly calm and Rene sat there comfortably all night. Delightful peace!

An Early Start for Lizard Island - Excitement

As the faint morning light began to appear over the Cape Peter pulled the anchor and we hauled up the sail and set a course for Lizard Island. The course passes between two reefs and islands in the bay and close to the sand mine jetty off Cape Flattery. As we approached Cape Flattery it was clear that a ship was ready to leave the jetty and as it was journeying north we watched with interest from a safe distance off. Another ship was steaming down the shipping channel from the north so we kept an eye on that too. From Cape Flattery to Lizard Island much of the journey is spent traversing the shipping channel and keeping an eye on movements of ships and the chart plotter, to see where they're going, is essential.

The black boat is us, the triangles are other vessels. Not Sydney Harbour I grant you, but an interesting situation

All of a sudden it dawned on us that the ship approaching from the north was making it's way to the sand mining jetty in front of us. The pilot boat and tugs took up their positions to bring in the ship and then we found ourselves directly in the path of a huge, menacing vessel. Peter radioed the pilot and he informed us to maintain our course as the ship had to pause to take on the pilot and we would not be in the way. In the end we had a wonderful view of the berthing procedure of an enormous ship at an open roadstead jetty right in front of us.

Impressive!

Arrival At Mrs Watsons Bay - Alarm!!

By now the wind was blowing above 20kns and the sea was boisterous, but we made fast progress on the 16nm towards Lizard, our destination. After rounding Palfrey Island we rolled in the jib and started the motor for the final approach. Peter instructed me to put it in gear and begin motoring. Nothing - it appeared to be jammed! After several tries, and Peter did mutter something like, 'for goodness sake just put it in gear!' it would not respond. Still jammed and Peter now believing, dived below to try and sort out the problem. 'It will be OK,' I thought. 'Peter is very good at fixing mechanical problems.'  Meanwhile we are still sailing at reasonable speed towards our destination and it became clear that we did not have much time to fix this. I am left on deck steering Rene while Peter is in the bowels of the boat having little luck in sorting out the problem. By now we are quite close to the anchorage and my mouth feels like I have swallowed a fluffy cat, it is so dry, and I am trying not to totally panic. I realise that will not help, but it is very hard. (A four wheel drive and a caravan is looking good!!)

Finally realising that the motor was not going to be of any assistance we sailed into Mrs Watsons Bay and dropped the anchor far enough out the back so as not to collide with anyone. The wind was blowing hard and we sat there in silence while we recovered some composure (well I did anyway). Peter was very good throughout the whole episode and he had to give me a quick reprimand to stop me going into a blind panic.

It took several hours of reading and re-reading the manual for the Volvo engine before he found out what the problem was. Apparently the gear selector had locked within the cockpit control unit and became unusable. Because the translation to English in the manual was confusing it took a while to work out what had happened and how to fix it. I sat on deck and held my end of the selector and Peter applied pressure from his end, inside and the lever slipped into place. Hopefully that will be the last we have of that problem. Cleaned and oiled it should be OK from now on.

It was late in the afternoon by now so we decided to spend the night out the back and find ourselves a better anchorage, closer to the shore in the morning.

Anchored safely out the back. Now for the repair job.