The Low Isles

Arriving late afternoon early evening we anchored and found swimming up to the boat a batfish. Much to our amusement we decided to feed it and what else would a batfish eat but Ryvita and pumpkin. Soon we had 2 batfish and what looked like a shark which also had a buddy. It was remarkable how tame the batfish appeared as they waited for more food and gobbled up all the Ryvita we feed them.

A picture postcard setting one of the islands, here you can see thatched huts in the distance.

Hinchinbrook Channel to Cairns

Here we are heading along the Hinchinbrook islands. More stunning scenery of mountain ranges of treed wilderness.

We stopped at Haven ISland for a bush walk and after leaving the tender in the sloppy mud and walking to the beach I noticed the warning sign for crocodiles. Geez crocodiles !

Lucky for us we never saw any and we enjoyed a short walk and bathe in the creek. It was refreshing and cool just what we needed for a hot day.

Cairns Harbour


Arriving at Cairns we were surprised at the boating activity here, lots of it. Big charter cats taking people out to the reef, dive boats, little yachts racing around channel markers, super luxury yachts and powerboats the size of what looked like a small city.  The yacht in the picture below passed the back of our boat wildly, it then hit the bottom and the crew managed to get it off again and on they went. The angle that they came at us i thought they were going to hit us it was exhilarating watching and scarey.

The daily pilgrimmage of boats going out to the reef each morning and coming home was great entertainment for us as the parade passed us each day. They disappeared over the horizon and returned again engines roaring.

There were sea planes that landed close by and the international airport was close also.

Cairns is very much a tourist town with plenty of asian tourists. I was amused looking through marketing material to see that i've already been to many of the great tourist sites one can only access on a boat and there's going to be plenty more to come heading north.

After more endless shopping for food supplies we decided at the last minute to haul the boat out of the water and repaint the antifoul. This protects the boat from barnacle growth and enables us to move through the water quicker. Since we had beached the boat not so long ago and cleaned it there was only slim build up to remove.

We also had an alternator problem that seemed to mystify us and our marine electricians until finally it was solved and we had our alternator replaced and our engine alarms restored to normal function. Much relief we gained !

Huge machinery lifts the boat out of the water it really is spectacular to see. At the time the boat was being hauled out of the water we were still in it ! It was a very smooth operation and was like going up on a ferris wheel including a little bit of swinging, which the guys put a stop to quickly.

Here the boat is being water blasted to give a really good clean. It certainly did the job, got all the really big barnacles off the bottom no problem, more action to watch !

Here's the boat on the move.

The boat is being parked onto blocks so we can work on the underside to prepare for the painting.

Here we are parked on the ground safely. After 2 days on the ground having anti fouled and cleaned the dust that seemed to get all over the boat inside and out we were back in the water to get our new signage put on the boat to fulfil our Australian ship registration. 

OUr next destination leaving Cairns was The Low Isles.

Magnetic island here we come

Originally we planned to stop at Airlie beach to re stock with fuel and food, we decided to instead head to Cardwell nearing Cardwell we decided to bypass it and head to Townsville. As we drew nearer to Townsville we much preferfed the option of heading to Magnetic Island.

The islands are a much preferred option over heading to town and we still had enough supplies to keep us going, heading into town would take up valuable time out of our schedule. Lucky for us we did small shop at Magnetic island to keep us going til we reached Cairns.

Enjoying the local art murals.

Here we are on another gorgeous bush walk to Radical BAy.

Whitsunday Magic

What a thrill to arrive at the Whitsunday Islands, we had a great sail to get there. Arriving in the late afternoon with what's known as bullet winds, winds the come out of no where at fast speed they raced us through the channels as we headed for our anchorage at Whitsunday Island.

We anchored beside an enormous yet spectacular rock wall and soon found numerous other yachts were coming in to anchor for the night.  This was my first experience of being around the charter yachts.

The next day we did the big climb up to the Whitsunday peak in the National Park, a good 4 hour hike up the mountain. It was truly spectacular at the top the views were stunning. The forest hike was a pleasant change from the daily sea voyages we'd made to get there. Being on land surrounded by forest was yummy.

AT the peak.

We stayed 3 nights on the islands and enjoyed the bullet winds as we took off and hit great speeds. It was exhilarating as we raced along with the wind picking up in our sails and propelling us along. The anchorages were all beautiful and we had time to enjoy our surroundings.

I was sad leaving the islands i could definitely spend more time there and no doubt we shall in the future.  For now we had a rough plan to be in Darwin by July so we had to keep moving.

The Island passages begin

Well it hadn't been for sailing i would never have visited or really even known about the beautiful islands that exist off the Queensland coast and there is no shortage of them.

Great Keppel Island










Instead of stopping at camping destinations we now stop at anchorages at islands. Sailing really is a whole new way of travelling that enables you to access remote destinations.

There are plenty of beautiful mountain ranges that have great anchorages for cruising yachties to stay. Surrounded by natural beauty i couldn't think of a better way to live.

The sunsets each evening and the stars at night are spectacular. Life is simple and the simple things are really full of life.

















Here's an early morning sail the sun has just started rising.

Here's Richard's first experience of fishing on our trip. He was surprised to find these unusual creatures on the end of line, they eventually unhooked themselves. We have no idea what they were.

Three days flying the kite

Recently we had our first spinnaker setting lesson from our friends Kerry and Diane who are travelling in their cat "Nemo". Since our lesson we've used it 3 days in a row and it has helped moved us about 150nm (280km). Its a beautiful looking sail !


The idea of putting it up seemed daunting at first, i knew it was a big sail and it required both of us to get it up but it really is simple to use and doesn't require half as much effort as i thought it might. 


Setting the spinnaker has been another great achievement for us on Ultimate Dream.