Entering Torres Strait

Lex and I sailed out of Darwin on 8 October, arriving at the Torres Strait islands after a non-stop seven day passage. The biggest discovery about the Straits was the wind! Rarely stops blowing, and had a lot of yachts hemmed in for a while. After exploring Thursday and Horn islands, we set off for Cairns on the 19th October…

31 October – Hooray, Cairns! We motored quietly into the marina yesterday morning just after daybreak, at the end of a 24 hour sail from Lizard Island. It’s been a long haul from Horn Island. Rounding the tip of Cape York was exciting enough in the middle of the night, but I could have done without the 30 to 35 knot winds that battered us after that. They hammered us head-on until we slid into Escape River at daylight, and anchored as far up the creek as possible to get out of the wind.

Sailing is full of surprises, and we we amazed to find that the other yacht also sheltering here was a boat we’d sailed with in Indonesia in 2008. Steve is now a solo sailor in his 70s, after the loss of his wife of 50 years, and was deciding whether or not to complete a second solo circumnavigation of Australia. I decided to stop complaining about the wind…

Escape River is home to Rusty and Bron, at the Escape River Pearl Farm. They invited us all to lunch next day, so we crept back up the river and anchored near the dock, a doubtful looking construction that leads to the homestead. Lucky we were all used to a rolling deck, so the rolling dock felt quite normal. The north is famous for interesting characters and Escape River kept the faith. Rusty entertained us for hours with stories about his 20+ years at Thursday Island, and his and Bron’s efforts to rebuild the dilapidated pearl farm with just the two of them. A trip to get the groceries entails a 4 hour voyage in an open dinghy around to Thursday Island, or else a winding, eerie passage by boat across the Cape, through the narrow, mangrove-lined salt water channels to Bamaga. Lots of crocodiles…  But the Escape River pearls are beautiful!

We revisited Morris Island, a tiny islet we’d anchored at years ago in Malaika, identified by its single coconut palm. It’s now two palms, a new one having grown up since 2007. In the late 1800s the British Admiralty planted a lot of these tiny specks of land with coconuts and sisal, presumably so that stranded sailors could survive on the coconuts, and while away the time making ropes from the sisal. Morris is densely covered in spiky impenetrable sisal plants, but the coconuts clearly prefer a bit more fresh water. There’s also the lonely grave of a pearl diver, probably from the 1900s, and decorated with old nautilus shells and empty rum bottles by passing sailors ever since.

Owen Channel in the Flinders Group gave us a calm and peaceful night’s sleep. From the boat, the little bay looked like someone had stuck two different photos together: the bottom half a tropical lagoon, and the top half from somewhere in Arizona. (see photo!) The uninhabited islands, principally Flinders, Stanley, Denham and Blackwood, hang off the easternmost edge of Princess Charlotte Bay, and provide a comfortable shelter from the south east trades, and some spectacular scenery.

Lizard Island, and the peak climbed by Cook in 1770

The next stop was Lizard Island, where Captain Cook climbed its highest peak hoping to spot a way through the reef to the mainland. This was just before he made a very rare error and hit the reef south of Cooktown. We patted our electronic, GPS-directed chart plotter in appreciation of modern technology (and felt very wussy compared to our sailing forebears). But if Cook had access to a GPS and a chart plotter, he wouldn’t have left home without one!  Lizard is famous for its clam gardens as well. We dragged out the snorkelling gear and spent a couple of hours drifting over giant clams big enough to swallow a leg, and coral gardens packed with smaller clams. The babies snapped shut as soon as we approached, unlike the giant clams who just sat there, muttering “make my day, sucker…” I’m not sure if they can close very quickly, but wasn’t about to test the idea.

It’s a beautiful part of remote Australia, this far north coast. There’s nothing much between Cairns and the Cape, a distance of almost 1000 km. It’s hard-looking arid land, but with a grandeur all its own, such as the ranges made of giant granite boulders lining Cape Melville. Once Cooktown’s in sight, the landscape becomes greener and higher, with mountainous tropical rainforest stretching down to the sea as you get closer to Cairns.

We’ll be here in Cairns for two or three days of R&R (rest and repairs, not recreation!) and then head off for Airlie Beach, our next stop.

Blue water sailing