Today was a day for moving at last. The wind had abated slightly and we had decided to move on. We’d all had enough of Hinchinbrook.

The washing was hung out, toad in the hole for breaky and a few emails dealt with, and the anchor was up at 10 am. Nyeki and Beach Bum headed off before us as John was still struggling with Wordle while I was tidying up emails. Low cloud hung over Mt Bowen on Hinchinbrook as we motored along the channel however the further north up the channel, we went the more sun we saw.

Around Paluma Ck we turned off the motors and hauled up the screecher cruising at 6.6 knts. I was scanning the muddy mangrove lined banks for crocodiles in the hope of seeing at least one, but it must have been too cold for them to come out of hiding. A white heron waded along the muddy shore looking for fish.

We are heading for Cardwell, we cant be bothered to stay in another sandfly ridden creek and not catch anything. They say the barra tend to emerge once the weather heats up and the wind dies down. Who knows, we are not waiting around to see.

We glided up the Hinchinbrook channel towards Cardwell behind the other two boats.

To anchor off Cardwell you need to stay out a fair way as its shallow for a long way to the shore. Ovive and Beach Bum anchored in 3 metres of silt laden waters. Deb and Wayne anchored closer to the beach however we didn’t want to get stuck on an outgoing tide and they had been there before and had a shallower draft. Not that the tidal range is very much at the moment.

The Ovive crew climbed in the dinghy and took a swelly ride to the concrete boat ramp where we beached our dinghy’s beside it. Black mud bordered the sandy beach so a tide any lower would make for a sticky landing.

The trip to the IGA was a short 5 min walk from the boat ramp. We bought a few items, bread, butter, chocolate and John grabbed a couple of bottles of red from the bottle shop across the road.

Debra borrowed a supermarket trolley to get her grocies and beer back to the dinghy.

John waiting on the bathtub seat outside the supermarket.

The dinghy trip back to Ovive was wet and uncomfortable as we slamed into the swell and wind, we were all soaked by the time we arrived back, Morgan was not impressed.

After stowing the supplies, we hoisted the main and the jib and sailed across to Gould Island where we anchored in the lee in 3 metres of water. The crossing was punctuated by schools of flying fish skipping across the water.

John Morgan and I sat on the transom and fished until dusk enjoying the sun that we hadn’t seen for a few days. Nothing hopped into the pan though.