Brisbane / Darwin - Cruising Tropical Australia (2/2)

With the 6am sunrise after a clear starry night’s sail and little shipping to dodge, the peak of Magnetic Island appeared on the horizon like an upturned ice cream cone. As the strengthening springtime sun warmed Horseshoe Bay, we anchored on clear sand before dinghying ashore to the small strip of shops for refreshments. On past visits I’d wandered along the wild nature trails, encountering spiky echidna’s, startled rock wallabies and luxuriated alone among secluded sandy coves. Our few hours ashore and swim in wa- ters of 25°C (77°F) was lovely, safe from the deadly jelly fish that are summer visitors only. After another night sail, daybreak revealed Hinchinbrook Island’s jungle-clad mountains, with no sign of human habitation except for a big sign on the beach warning of the presence of saltwater crocodiles. The ‘salties’ are one of our deadliest predators being amphibious (with land speeds of about 20mph) and having torpedo like underwater prowess; and humans are a favorite prey. I’ve also seen them jump several meters in the air. Later that afternoon we sailed northeast for a snorkel on the inner Great Barrier Reef, weaving our way slowly among the tall coral heads, or ‘bommies’ as they are known, before anchoring. I finned for an hour among the brain and stag corals, encountering colorful clown fish, parrot fish and majestic rays. Then, wanting to take advantage of the strengthening afternoon breeze we sped north for the 70nm overnight run to Fitzroy Island followed by a short hop to the Great Barrier Reef town of Cairns, the most northerly city on the east coast.

Dodging the armadas of backpacker boats blasting out pulsating beats at Cairns, we steered north to clear horizons. The 20-knot winds caused us to put one reef in the fully battened mainsail as we sped off at nearly 10 knots for the 170nm leg to one of the few places where Captain Cook came ashore during his 1770 voyage, Lizard Island. As night fell, only a few lights twinkled in Cooktown, the small hamlet where Cook beached HMS Endeavour after his near fatal collision with the Reef. At this latitude, the coral edges towards the coast, so good navigation is critical. Unlike Cook, who had to rely on a sextant and a version of the John Harrison’s famous clock for longitude, we used waypoints on the chartplotter, skirting the edges of the inner reef as we snaked our way north in the narrowing channel. Surprisingly, large vessels use these passages, so my night watches for the following days occasionally included dodging ore carrying cargo boats and prawn trawlers. Reaching Lizard Island the following day, we passed its beautiful Blue Lagoon that glistened in the late afternoon sun. Lizard is a popular anchorage for east coast cruisers and had 17 other yachts anchored. Cook came here in the same month in 1770 and was unhappy, having just spent months repairing the Endeavour and was keen to find a way out of this “infernal reef”, so he spent the afternoon climbing the 1,178-foot (359m) peak to what has been named Cooks Look. His reward, like ours, after the two-hour climb through dense bush and rock, was a vista north of coral reef as far as the eye could see. To the east beyond a sandbar islet lay yet more pale blue sea, signifying coral; but there were some dark blue gaps. It was here – Cook Passage - that he escaped to the Coral Sea. We would not be following him, as the inshore route was the quickest for our course around the most northerly point of Australia: the slender landmass of Cape York that takes sailors just 70 miles south of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Shark Attack 

In the dawn of yet another clear morning we skirted along a chain of sandbar islands seeking a sheltered anchorage for some snorkeling and chose the imaginatively name Sandbar No.8 National Park Island, a coral strewn mass of scant vegetation and pristine beaches. Walking around the edges to avoid disturbing the birds we watched the acrobatics of boobys and terns. But our swimming was spoiled by the sudden appearance of large tiger shark that chased my crewmate into the shallow coral. Seeing the danger, I rescued him in the dinghy, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. Back out at sea with all limbs intact, we were on the final leg of our east coast part of the voyage before our westerly turn. We threaded our way through the inside channel of the Torres Strait at Endeavour Strait on a fast-moving tide towards the low-lying Cape York, skirting past palm fringed coves and a solitary hamlet, before anchoring on sand just beyond the Cape. Ashore we met exhausted off-road drivers who’d made the 1,000km (620 mi) pilgrimage to Australia’s most northerly point. Our final run ashore in the region would be the nearby Horne and Thursday Islands before the three-day crossing of the Gulf of Carpentaria. At Horne we wandered among the aboriginal community and walked the dusty main street to the hotel for a bar meal of fresh Barramundi fish and ice-cold beers. The beer garden had a six-foot steel mesh fence to prevent the crocodiles from eating the guests, so we relaxed with some extra beers.