Wind   NE 10 – 15  Overcast early then Sunny

12 nm     Fathers day

 

Sandra and Doug were up early and walked the esplanade to the end and back before we all went to breakfast at Wharf One.

The Cairns yacht club had a racing day to Double island off Palm Cove and were all milling around the start line just off the cafe. Excellent breakfast entertainment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After grabbing the essentials, beer and milk, we departed the marina about 11:00 and sailed on a course of 320 ° heading towards Arlington reef.  The sky was overcast for some of the day but that didn’t stop the fish jumping on the line. We pulled in an 8 lb spotted mackerel before we got to Green island which John and Sandra filleted then saved the scraps for bait.

We sailed on the main and jib at 7 knots past Upulo Cay and a little further out to Vlassof Cay where we tied up to a mooring buoy.  We all hopped in the dinghy and went to the small deserted sand cay which we had to ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cay was pure white sand with shells scattered around its perimeter.  Morgan ran through the shallows hoping to catch fish.  I was glad the large stingray she chased was a lot faster than her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on O’vive fishing began with earnest.  Sandra was first to catch a small stripey  followed with John catching a variety of small fish including tusk and parrot.

We all had a very large fish on but all of a sudden lost it and hauled in mangled small fish.  There must have been a large cod lurking below that kept taking our fish then when we got him halfway up to the surface he spat out the smaller fish.  We ended up with several fish for bait as a result of the cod.

None of us could seem to catch anything big enough to keep which didn’t matter as we had plenty of mackeral to eat.

Freshly caught mackerel, lightly fried with chat potatoes and salad ended the day, followed by a game of Black bitch and nominations.