wind 15 – 20

Woke up to another windy morning, seems like it was blowing more than the forecast 15  to 20. Sue and David have been waiting here for a week to be able to go anywhere. Does it ever stop blowing in Cooktown?

We dinghied ashore to have breaky  in town and met up with Sue, David and Sarah at the french bakery. The display case was full of freshly baked  pastries of which we chose a few and ate them on the verandah overlooking the Endeavour river.

John and I continued on to explore the town but as it was Sunday a lot of places were closed.

The town seemed dry and  deserted other than a few people outside the local fish and chip shop and the pub.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend is the annual Cooktown Hog hunt with the weigh at the Cooktown Hotel, supposedly the roughest pub in town. Categories included biggest boar, most pigs and ugliest dog. Morgan looked somewhat out of place ( in fact the girl organising the weigh in suggested we might be careful of Morgan with pig dogs around. The hunters 4wds were loaded up with dead hogs and caged pig dogs with multiple breast plates hanging of the back of the cages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued up the road to the James Cook museum a stunning 19th century convent building, considered one of Queensland’s best museums, showcasing the fascinating history of this remote town and the best we have seen so far.

The museum follows the story of Captain James Cook’s enforced seven week stay at the Endeavour River, during which the first meaningful contact between Europeans and Indigenous people took place. Then on to the days of the Palmer River gold rush, as well as personal stories and items from Cooktown’s early residents. 

While sailing along the Eastern Australian coast on the 10th of June 1770, Cooks ship the Endeavour struck an outcrop of the Great Barrier Reef and stuck fast.  Nowadays the reef is named Endeavour reef and is just south of the Hope isles.

The ship was severely damaged and it took the crew 23 hours before they could haul her off at high tide. Everything that was heavy was thrown overboard – the six guns and their carriages, iron and stone ballast, casks, decayed stores and a general miscellaneous items of 50 tons or more. 

It would be another week before the Endeavour could find a safe haven to be repaired. After offloading most of the stores and ballast, she was beached on the shore further up the Endeavour River, near Bicentennial Park. The repairs of the ship were quickly completed but the wind and tides made it difficult to refloat her, delaying her departure further.

She finally departed on the 4^th August finding a passage through the reef north east of Lizard island through what is now called Cooks passage.

The anchor and cannons have since been found on out on the reef and have been restored and housed in the museum.

 

All that information made us hungry so we sat at the local fish and chip shop and enjoyed an excellent lunch of very well cooked fish and chips. Not the usual overcooked, dried out fish you get most other places.

Back to Ovive we prepared her for tomorrows trip of heading south into 20 knot south easterlies. Something we weren’t looking forward to. The weather for the next week is the same and we need to be in Cairns to pick up John’s brother Mick and his wife Ros for a couple of days.

Happy hour on Karinya then back to Ovive for steak and vegies.