It was a short sail up to Lizard Island, a place Ali and I had been 19 years earlier, to the day. Unfortunately, she was back in the States helping Grammy, instead of slogging up the hill with me again. Spot the cuttlefish, because I sure didn’t. Only saw it … Read More
Cooktown Goodbye
Cooktown harbour is a pleasant place. A well protected river surrounded by low hills, with a nice clean waterfront park, and a short walk to town. The grocery store is well stocked, and the gas station has slushy machines, so we were pretty well taken care of here. Power on … Read More
Cooktown Teen
With a birthday on the way, and a dwindling fresh food supply, we set out to meet our friends in Cooktown. Whales, whales, everywhere. We anchored in the Endeavour River, near where Cook beached his boat for repairs after running up on Endeavour Reef. These were both named after the … Read More
Northbound with the Whales
Twenty years ago when Ali and I sailed north from Sydney up along the coast of Australia every single person we talked to told us how perfect the winds blow when you’re sailing north. So, no surprise, it felt as if we never had good winds. All I remember of … Read More
Michaelmas Reef
Michaelmas Reef is just a short trip off the coast from Cairns. It’s a National Park and bird sanctuary, and it’s clear the birds appreciate it. There’s a couple of park mooring balls, and a bunch of private ones for the tour boats that come out each day. But early … Read More
So Long Cairns
We spent a couple of weeks total in Cairns. We spent a lot of time hanging out with friends, and even when we weren’t hanging out together we’d constantly run into each other around town. It’s that kind of place. The waterfront esplanade area was right along the way to … Read More
Cans, Caaaans
We’re in Cairns (pronounced Cans, but with a drawn-out a) and are a pretty happy lot right now. Two boats full of friends are here as well, so the kids have a pack to run around town with. They spend their days wandering off to the mall, down the esplanade, … Read More
Australian Barbie
Australian winter weather seems to be hit-or-miss. It’s definitely not all blue skies and sun like we envision it to be. Most mornings have looked like this, and the ten day forecast is pretty gray as well. Every afternoon seems to give us at least some sun, though. All along … Read More
The Coral Sea
We left Vanuatu with a ten-day passage in front of us, about five of which looked good on the forecast. After a few days of nice downwind running we’d get smacked across the face by a front coming at us from the southwest. We hoped it might die down a … Read More
Vanuatu Goodbye
We spent a couple of days anchored out front of Luganville again, but strong winds made it pretty ugly, and since we didn’t really need anything in town at the time we decided to move back down to our little private island resort anchorage again. There we’d be out of … Read More
Million Dollar Point
When the US military left Vanuatu after the end of World War II, they left behind a lot of stuff. Airstrips, buildings, and roads they couldn’t do much about. Can’t take a runway with you, after all. But they also had tons and tons of stuff like Jeeps, tanks, building … Read More
SS President Coolidge
As mentioned in the last post, the SS President Coolidge hit a couple of “friendly” mines as it came into port here on Santo, and the captain then ran it up onto the reef along the beach. When it sank, it slid backwards on the steep slope, settling with the … Read More