2009 August | Heretic Sailing

Australia, Part Three August 1

Heretic is now in Darwin, Australia, soon to depart for the Indian Ocean. While we’ve enjoyed our time in Australia, we are excited to be heading west to Africa.

Since we left Port Douglas in late May, we explored the Queensland coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Cooktown and Lizard Island were two of our favorite places along the way. Cooktown is a low key settlement with excellent museums describing the town’s history from 1770, when James Cook careened Endeavour there, through the gold rush of the 1870s, its use as a airstrip and hospital during the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, up to its present day tourist industry. Cooktown also has a number of beautiful hikes ringing the town. Over our four days there we hiked all of these, taking in the views down the coast and out to the reef from Mt Cook, two bays enclosed by rocky headlands, and the recently restored nineteenth century botanic gardens.

Lizard Island was also a favorite for its hikes, which varied from mangrove boardwalks to panoramic views. The island is fringed with coral reef which made for excellent snorkeling; we saw everything from tiny anemone fish to enormous parrot fish and coral trout. We especially enjoyed hearing a talk given by the head scientist at the coral reef ecology research station, describing the research they do there, some of which dealt with increased water temperatures and acidification due to climate change. At Lizard Island we met up with many old friends whom we had met in the Pacific, including Reflections, Fast Forward, Papillon, Barbara Ann, Promessa, and Cheshire Cat, and made a number of new friends, including Sea Life, Helly, Cookie Cutter, Morning Star, and Thyme. The biggest highlight of our time at Lizard Island was our trip to Cod Hole, one of the renowned dive sites of the Great Barrier Reef. Seth, myself, and Eric and Ivonne off Morning Star joined Simon and Amanda on Thyme for the sail out there. The outer reef was an incredible sight with enormous coral bommies, several Napoleon wrasses and reef sharks, and best of all the potato cod, very friendly and very large (330 lbs) grouper who are so curious that they swim right up to scuba divers, so close you can pet them.

From Lizard Island, we had a rather fast passage up to Cape York, the northernmost tip of Australia, stopping only once at the impressive red rock islands of the Flinders Group. From Seisia, a Torres Strait islander town on the west side of Cape York, we intended to make the passage to Darwin direct, but ended up stopping at the rather windswept Wessel Islands since we tore our no. 2 jib in the very choppy seas across the Gulf of Carpentaria. Once past the Wessels, the steep chop died down and we had a pleasant passage to Darwin, timing the tidal currents into the city well.

Our time in Darwin has unfortunately been spent entirely in the boat yard. We hauled out the morning after we arrived, June 25, and spent close to five weeks on the hard. What we thought would be a quick haul-out for new bottom paint turned into a much bigger project when we found that the gel coat covering the fiberglass was blistering. Stripping the paint and preparing the surface was of course the big part; once it came to applying the paint, things went much faster. Consequently, what we have seen of the Northern Territory has not been the beautiful national parks for which it is known, but instead the industrial sections and strip malls of Darwin.

We hope to depart in the early part of this coming week for our passage to Cocos Keeling, a coral atoll 2000 miles west of here.

Cheers,

Ellen and Seth

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Australia, Part Three August 1