Greetings from Horn Island in the Torres Strait, with Thursday Island just over the way to the west.   Quite a trip to get here as we had decided to push north faster than planned due to spending more time in the Kimberly …. well…. that WAS the plan.  On the trip north we have made some changes to our schedule, but more on that later.

 

The steady push north came with some great trade wind sailing with only a few bad days of high winds and a few longer overnight passages.  Having stopped at Undine Reef and the Sandy Cay overnight after the Low Isles we pushed onto Lizard Island making good time arriving the next day around 0430 the morning of Friday the 11^th July.  Here we waited out a strong 3 day southerly with a collection of other yachties doing the same.

 

Lizard Island was a great stop.  Excellent anchorage, beautiful walks and white sandy beaches.   Matt also managed a kitesurf in the southern lagoon taking advantage of the wind.  We also met some lovely yachties also heading north and had a few good sundowners with them sharing experiences and discussing plans.  Yes… plans within plans….. more on that later 😉

 

On 15 July we left Lizard Island early for a long day’s sail to the Finders Island Group National Park. What a beautiful set of islands! We stopped for a few days due to a lack of wind and a good excuse to do some housekeeping and catch up on a few jobs. Stanley Island (Yindayin) also has a fantastic walk, with beautiful caves containing Aboriginal artwork. This was also where we spotted our first wild crocs of the trip. A baby and a monster sunbathing on the beach when we anchored.  Due to failing light, we decided not to get any closer until tomorrow with the tender.  Sadly, they had gone by the time we were up.   It really hit home we are now in Cape York proper… and croc country.

 

We left 18 July, day hopping with stops at Morris Island, Portland Road, Escape River and then to here in the Torris Strait.   All long days but we stayed 2 nights at Portland Road.  What a magic stop it turned out to be! We met Steve and his daughter (2 of the 8 residence) who asked us for some assistance moving a catamaran on the beach to a mooring. We enjoyed beers on their fishing boat and fead their scraps to a group of tawny nurse sharks. They took us up the hill to the Temple Resort, owned by Katie and Greg for sunset drinks. Friendly and welcoming - typical of the locals in this area. We also met a couple of cray fishermen in Escape River who gave us 3 delicious crays as they had a few extra – we may change our opinion on Queenslanders 😉

Overall great cruising (many staements from Lia... "this is champagne sailing"), fishing (one big Wayoo that gave us 6 meals... delish) and magestic coastine.  I did not think I would see soo much crystal white sand this far north.... shame you cant swim, on the coast anyway.  Too many snapping hanbdbags 😉

 

We came through Albany Passage (beatiful) and over the top of mainland Australia - Cape York, around mid-day on 23 July. A big milestone for us and felt great.   Now we have a few days in the Torres Strait Islands getting the old girl ready for the next leg and waiting for Nigel to arrive on 29 July. We will head south to Weipa, then to Groote Island, Gove, The Wessel's and then to Darwin by the end of August.  

 

From Darwin we have decided to change our plans for the next 12 months. We’ve left it a bit late to really enjoy the Kimberly, and face unfavourable winds and currents to head south to Perth. So we made the very difficult decision to head to  Indonesia for the summer. We’ll check in at Kupang, head to Rote, Flores, Komodo and to Raja Ampart – out of the monsoon from November. We’ll head back to Darwin in May and then explore the Kimberly in the best months of June and July, before heading south down to Monkey Mia and Perth.

Big changes but feeling realy motivated and happy about these choices.

Whatch this space...... and photos to follow.