wind 15 – 20 knts 22nm
The last leg of our journey northwards. We were going to head further north to Lizard Island but due to the current weather patterns and commitments with visitors further south we have decided to make Cooktown our most northerly destination on this trip. Cooktown is the last town on the Qld coast before Thursday Island at the cape.
The lovely sunny morning started with a tasty breakfast of fish cooked in white sauce. We took our time enjoying the picturesque surroundings so we didn’t leave until 10:30.
The wind was not very strong , once again not the forecast 15 – 20 more like 10 – 15 . We pulled out the screecher and the jib and goose winged them sailing along averaging 6 knts. We put one lure out but didn’t really need any fish as we still had plenty. John had something big take the lure for 5 minutes but he got off. Probably just as well as we would have to slow down to get the big bloke in.
At one stage a large bulk carrier heading south came within .3 of a nautical mile of us, we radioed him to make sure he could see us and he altered course slightly to avoid us. Its a fairly scary feeling when they are bearing down on you and you don’t know if they have seen you.
A squall overtook us as we neared Cooktown and visibility went to very poor. The yacht that had been travelling behind us disappeared in the rain and the mainland all but vanished. The boat received a good wash and we scooted along on just the jib getting up to 10 knots at times.
Close on 2:00 we followed the channel markers and entered the dredged channel up the Endeavour River to Cooktown . The inlet was fairly crowded with anchored boats and very shallow with exposed sandbars at low tide. It was a struggle to find a spot to anchor as two other boats were also trying to anchor. We touched bottom once but finally anchored out the back towards the north bank of the river, not far from Karinya .
We dingied ashore and caught up with Sue and David and their daughter Sarah who was visiting her parents for the weekend. (Sarah was Megan’s best mate in high school). John, Morgan and I explored the area around the wharf and caught up with Mick and Lauren from Cosmos.
The Karinya and O’vive crew and enjoyed a meal at the Cooktown bowling club before retiring for a well earned sleep.