20090609 – 20090612 (Flinders Group)

An early morning to depart Lizard island a 5am wakeup call to pull up the anchor and then back to bed while Daryl had the first shift. It was amazing heading up the coast was a part of Australia not often seen by land in particular some amazing rock formations look like a pile of pebbles on the coast but some of the pebbles were 20m in diameter.

On the voyage we put a lure out and caught a Spanish Mackeral, big bloody fish but good eating. Lunch and Dinner and a freezer full for later. Last time Daryl caught one he put the lure back out while cleaning and gutting the first one and got a massive sword fish, he said it look him best part of an hour to clean.

I was on watch between 11 am and 2 pm spinnaker was up with about 12 ~ 31 knot from behind. Made for some nice sailing and nothing un-manageable, Flinders group is a small set of islands which some aboriginal significance, it’s a shame you can’t swim here because of crocs.

The weather forecast for our next anchorage is rubbish so we spent a couple of extra days at the Flinders group. I spent a morning polishing the gel coat on the decking of half the boat while these little bloody flys try to suck the blood / life out of me (perhaps i should get a hat with caulks, not bloody likely. After a small walk on the island I have come to the conclusion that Australia really is horrible, everything either wants to suck your blood, bite you or eat you. Not good at all.

Found my niche card game uka, have managed to win a couple of games and am slowly making my way back up the gaming ladder on the boat.

We found out from some people who have been here before and passed on through generations of yachties some aboriginal caves have been found. So off we went in the mother ship across to an island called Denham and walked along the coast to Howard bluff. The rock formations and the overhangs where amazing. There was a slit cave about 4m up which had aboriginal paintings in them. One looked like a submarine, we wondered if that was drawn around the time of World War 2.

I walked back along the coast while Daryl and Laurel went across in the dinghy. Ended up walking through mud flats, groves, spider webs and ant nests where the ants have green bodies Refer to previous mention of bittey things.

On another island called Stanley island there is a loop track around Castle Peaks which also has several aboriginal drawings in the caves and caverns around the island, there are no ferrys and the only people which visit these islands are cruisers and as such they are relatively untouched although slightly more trodden than Denham island with signs, steps and board walks.

Apparently all the islands are named after the people who surveyed them, oh and almost did a Steve Irwin and stepped on a string ray while walking the dinghy out after the tide went out. Too soon? perhaps not.

We depart Flinders group of islands at 7am at the tail of 6 other boats, by the end of my watch at 9 we are level with the first boat. Perfect spinnaker weather with 10 ~ 18 knots and a top speed of 9.9 knots, other watches will be 1pm – 3pm and 7pm 8pm as we make our way to Portland Road.

A catamaran has pulled into the bay with 4 young people on it and almost all the boats here are on the rally (Darwin – Indonesia – Singapore and Singapore - Thailand). Would be a choice thing to do with mates, buy a boat and sail around it could be done relatively cheaply once the boat is bought. Anyone, anyone? I hear a good way to do it is buy ex Charter boats from Florida sail them back to NZ and sell them for 2/3 more again which would pay for a sailing holiday. Convinced yet?

Oh and apparently the reason a lot of boats are on the rally is because if you are to head through Indonesia not on the rally the government wants 40% of the boat in cash when you enter and then when you clear out at the other end you get it back. This is waived for the Rally participants. Word on the street is that 30~40% boats will enter with the rally and then make their own way through indo and not follow the route just to waive the 40%. Fair enough.

Oh and my beard watch has been reset, time to start a fresh. Too hot and my mask wasn’t sealing properly.