Wind SE 5 – 10 Sunny 18 n m Forecast Temp 28°
Very warm this morning, the temperature is definitely climbing the further north we go making us feel very lethargic. We gave fishing another go but still only small colourful reef fish, yellow lipped bream and blue faced whiptails. We probably should have hopped in the dinghy and found some coral to fish off and maybe caught the elusive coral trout. After completing a few chores we pulled the anchor at 10:45 and headed north towards Cape Grafton. There was no wind to speak of so we motored all day with the lures out and the jib unfurled to give us some shade.
John slept shirtless on the trampoline in the shade of the jib but later on discovered his torso was rather pink.
No whales, no fish no dolphins and such a long way to tow a lure without a touch, it was very disappointing. Still the weather was lovely.
We arrived at Fitzroy Is at about 2:30 and picked up a 10 metre mooring buoy just off picturesque Nudey Beach. As there was minimal wind and no current we felt the buoy would hold us without any problems. A beautiful cool breeze was funnelling round the corner of the island so we decided to stay here for the night instead of going into Mission Bay where we suspected no breeze and midges or mozzies.
John cooked us a late lunch of mackerel in white sauce, very delicious then we climbed in the dinghy and went ashore in search of a paper. He hasn’t seen a paper since Magnetic Island nine days ago, so was very keen to get one. There was nowhere to pull the dinghy up on the beach as it was all coral rubble and too steep with a rolling wave. John dropped me off and waited out while I grabbed icecreams , the last Cairns post and yesterdays Courier Mail ( better than nothing). The general store was not like the ones I am used to stocked with all manner of big and little things it was very sparse with a few basics and some touristy goods. The drumsticks at $5.60 each were tasty but a little over the top.
When the crowds left Nudey beach I put the paddle board in and took Morgan across for a run. The water was so clear you could see the bottom even though it was about 10 metres deep. The beach had very liitle sand and was mostly coral rubble. It seemed very popular with visitors on Fitzroy.
After a quick chicken pasta for dinner we watched telly as we finally had reception. The anchor alarm in our cabin went off for no apparent reason even though it wasn’t turned on.The only way we could turn it off was to turn off the lights as it’s wired into the lights circuit. When we turned the lights back on the GPS wouldn’t come on so we need to have a look at it in Cairns as we don’t really want to go further north without an anchor alarm. We could put the one at the helm on but that means leaving the instruments on at night and its doubtful whether we would hear it beeping at the helm especially in windy noisy conditions.