This is a brief of our trip from Cairns to Horn/Thursday Island – all
passage planning is worked on 5nm per hour. In total we will travelled 587.6
nautical miles (nm) in 10 days and only motored 16 of those miles. Sailing in behind the reef was a dream. Over
the course of the 10 days we had one lay day, so it’s pretty full on and felt tired
by the end of it. The weather/wind was brilliant with one day of low winds. We
really didn’t want to run the engine using precious diesel as its very
expensive to buy at either Horn or Thursday Islands, but topped up the little
we had used in readiness for the 700 nm’s to Tual – Indonesia. All the
anchorages below where excellent and no rolling!
July 3, Sunday: Cairns to Low Isles. 32nm over 8hrs. Anchored at:
16.22.79S & 145.33.66E. Magnificent place with a very cool lighthouse on
it. The Isle is a very popular day stop with the tourist boats from Cairns to
snorkel etc.
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| Low Isles lighthouse |
July 4, Monday: Low Isles to Cape Bedford. 76nm over 15hrs. Anchored
at: 15.13.75S & 145.18.69E. Nothing special here, but a huge body of water.
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| Friends leaving at sunrise from Cape Bedford |
July 5, Tuesday Cape Bedford to Cape Melville (Bathurst Bay). 102nm
over 17hrs. Anchored at: 14.12.24S & 144.27.55E. Again, nothing special just a massive bay.
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| Amazing rock formations at Cape Melville |
July 6, Wednesday: Cape Melville to Flinders Island. 12nm over 3 hours
with a deviation. Anchored at: 14.10.48S & 144.13.76E. As we went to leave
in the morning to potter over to Flinders Island, Reef VTS (Vessel Tracking
System) reported over the radio that a vessel had set off their epirb and where
in distress. It just so happened we were in the immediate area but El Gato got
their first so we left them rescue to the vessel. A little bit of excitement
for us! Those on board the distressed vessel where fishermen whose engine has
given up and they were drifting, so El Gato towed them to shore. Flinders was
lovely and we got to go ashore here with our new friends and had a few
sundowners enjoying the chit chat.
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| Flinders Island |
July 7, Thursday: Flinders Island to Morris Island. 62nm over 10hrs. Anchored
at: 13.29.50S & 143.43.24E. A very cool place (Google it) a little island
out in the middle of nowhere with a sand spit that extends for a couple of
miles. As much as we wanted to get off Matilda and go for a walk the lonely
island is the home of a well-known 5 meter male crocodile – so no walking for
us. On the way up we had an escort – a black tip reef shark stayed by our side
for over 6 hours swimming close, going under our keel to the other side and
back – it was wonderful watching him – we had never seen that before. Bruce
thinks the shark thought we were a trawler and was waiting for scraps. (Loads
of trawlers up this way). On the trip we also caught a spotty mackerel. We had
a 3
rd of it for dinner with Bruce chips,,,,yummo.
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| Black tip reef shark |
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| Morris Island |
July 8, Friday: Morris Island to Cape Grenville (Shelburne Bay). 116 nm
over 18hrs. Anchored at: 11.54.29S & 143.04.73E. Huge bay with the whitest
of sand we have ever seen. Again we can’t go ashore – crocodile country. But
the sand is pristine white – Bruce said they sand mind here for the sand as its
silica sand. On the trip up today we had 2 pods of dolphins on our bow swimming
in our wake. They are magic to watch, I love every second of watching them.
July 9: Saturday: Lay day. Need a break from sailing to catch our
breath. Got a few things to attend to and need an afternoon nap. Going to cook
Chicken A’la King for tomorrows night’s dinner as it’s a big day tomorrow and
tonight we are doing a lamb roast with loads of vegies.
July 10: Shelburne Bay to Escape River (Sharp Point). 69 nm over 11.5
hours. Anchored at: 10.58.75S & 142.39.82E. Interesting history here, and
full of pearl farmers. It took us 1 hour to motor in to the anchorage – very
calm inside. Stay in the middle of the channel.
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| Friends at anchor in the Escape River |
July 11: Escape River to Cape York (THE TIP OF AUSTRALIA). 27.4nm over
5.15 hours. Anchored at: 10.41.25S & 142.31.45E. We anchored just west of
the Cape York Island and walked up to the sign which says: ‘You are standing on
the most Northern tip of Australia’ for a photo. We took 4 attempts at getting
in past the sand bar which we kept hitting. You must go very hard to the island
and turn hard to starboard as you approach the sand spit. Look out for the
resident crocodile on the rock there.
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| Horn Island has loads of dogs. |
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| High tide at Horn Island |
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| Low tide at Horn Island |
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| Quite a few of the fleet's tenders. |
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| Customs House - Thursday Island. All checked out. |
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| The S2I fleet, waiting for departure. |
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