Friday 14 November
Engine Hours 1357
Total Fuel 878 Litres
Total Hours 689 hours

Did usual shopping run-around ,bought 2 more 20 litre jerry cans and filled them with diesel .This now gives me another 60 litres making a total of 200 litres. Hope that’s enough. A bit buggered by afternoon so I decided to leave first thing in the morning.
The main street in Cooktown has that country town look about it
The memorial to Mrs Watson who died near Lizard Island. That’s my shopping and another jerry can of diesel in the foreground.

Thursday 13 November

Up early ,but it took an hour to pull up both anchors . Got away at 0630 hrs for a run up to Cooktown. Passed Cedar Bay on the way , it was the scene of the famous raid in the 70's by Police and Customs with the help of the Navy .25 hippies had their camp trashed and 12 were charged with drug charges. The thing that I most remember is that they all ran around naked . So when in rome do as the romans do.

Arrived at Cooktown at 1430 hrs a liberated man.

Wednesday 12 November
Did a bit of maintaince on the boat and read .Wind should drop down tomorrow.

Tuesday 11 November

No Rememberance Day Service for me today. Read a book and admired the rain in the Daintree.

Monday 10 November
Up early and spent 4 hours on the Blog and then headed off.Winds blew stronger I knew I should have done something, check the weather . Made it to Cape Tribulation and anchored, had a think and reanchored with a second anchor out behind me. Pulled them both tight , now I was sitting head on to a metre to a metre and a half swell coming through from around the headland . Not much to do but sit it out.

Sunday 9 November

Woke up at dawn and made a cup of tea and went and sat up on the roof and had a quite little memorial service for Steve Irwin ,it was here in 4 September 2006 that he was bought back from Batt Reef to meet the chopper from Cairns. Love him or hate him for a kid from the sunshine coast to achieve what he did in such a short time is proof that we can achieve what ever we want to, the only thing that stops us is ourselves .


Vale Steve


Went for a walk ashore ,the lighthose is the original one and is still in use today . Their is a research station and also a caretakers house .A little walking track winds through the island with descriptions of everything. Walked around the whole island and got a nice pic of an old stump with the old boat ramp behind it and in the distance the mountains. Before I left I had a bit of a fish feeding frenzy beside the boat . there was 4 sucker fish ,one moon fish , 2 Gt's and a 2 metre black tipped reef shark ,I was feeding them bits of mackerel , what a show.

Went over to Wonga Beach and met Lois and Bill , Lois is my mate Bruce Abbott's sister and we all grew up together.Went back to their house for a brew and lovely home made scones and pikelets . Then back to the beach armed with a bag of mangoes and limes .Talked about the old times and mutual friends ext. , under the palms while having a coldie.Great time , had to decline an offer of dinner, unfortunately ,and head off to shelter behind Snapper Island which is just off the entrance to the Daintree River.Fresh mackerel with mango topping and fresh garden salad for dinner.

Saturday 8 November

Up early and running around again ,found an amazing saturday fruit and vegie markets , so bought my resupply and headed back to the boat and then back for the grog. Found a liquor barn but could'nt buy any casks of wine as they dont sell them before 1600 hrs , a initiative of the local police to clamp down on drinking in the parks by our darker brothers. Finally ready to leave and away I went ,as I came out the harbour I was continually smashed by big tourist boats, charter boats and fishing boats all heading out or coming back at 100 miles an hour . Goodbye Cairns!!!!!!!

Motored up to Double Island and had a rest for a couple of hours and then a night run to Low Islets with the tide. I picked up a nice mackerel on the way 30 inches or 80 cms long. Arrived ,found an anchorage and processed the fish and off to bed at midnight a very exhausted chappie.

Friday 7 November
Up early , Grant my loving eldest son rang for a chat at 0600 hrs .Put washing on and had a look at the internet. Noticed that I have used my monthly allowance off 200 megabytes so looked at the change plans bit and changed up to 1 gig for the same money ,so tomorrow I’ll have an extra 450 megabytes to play with , 2 wins in 24 hrs , not bad.
Good run down to Cairns and then a mad run around to Sea Swift to organise fuel on trip ,chandlery to get another automatic switch for the bilge pump,doctors appointment , perscriptions filled ,weighed at chemist and have now lost 28 kilos ,5 block walk to get compression stockings for leg,Beer at Cairns RSL very nice and cold .back to boat buggered.

Thursday 6 November
Engine Hours 1314
Total Fuel 740 Litres
Total Hours 646 hours
Green Island to Yorkeys Knob good run but against the tide. Fuelled up and got a berth ,nice clubhouse they had advertised that they run a bus to a shopping centre but they have cut that down to 3 times a week and guess what today isn’t one of those days. Walked to an IGA only a kilometre away and brought some groceries . Ended up winning 2 meat trays that evening at the clubhouse so they went straight into the freezer.

Wednesday 5 November

Spent the day working on the blog site, chatting to the boys ,meeting the visitors .What a great little business Toody has ,have to laugh at Sid ,he just loves mucking around with the japs ,he's always bowing and waving at them ,well only the groups of pretty ,young .bikini clad ones who always respond .

Met George ,the boys grandfather what a legend ,he spent 16 years chashing big crocs up in the fly river in New Guinea .He invited me back to their house and met his wife Shirley their house is just fillled with carvings ,masks ext from New Guinea ,George is regared as somewhat of an expert on them .We had a wonderfull yarn , I really enjoyed my time with him,. Its not often you met a living legend. Relucently I left them and headed back to the boat .On the way I met Sid with the guests from the hotel having drinks on the beach , a bottle of champagne later and with on to go I wandered back to Holly.

Tuesday 4 November
Off to Green Island and meeting up with Sams friend ,Billy's brother who has the beach consession on the island .

Arrived and found an anchorage opposite the beach . Went ashore and met Toody and Sid ,Billy's brothers who made me feel very welcome .

With 3 minutes to spare we rushed around and watched the melbourne cup , it didnt cause much of a stir amongst the jap tourists however.

Sid took me over to his grandparents croc display and I had a wander around ,boy they have got some monsters there , and then I remembered that were I'm heading ,right in the middle of their homes , I looked at them in new light then.

Went and watched Sid do his thing as activies officer for the resort at the fish feeding on the jetty ,he puts on a good show, then off to bed.

Monday 3 November

Ran over to Fitzroy Island ,on the way put the lure out ,no luck. I went up to the eastern edge of the island where there is rocks and reef off the end ,thought i'd have a fish. Motored as close to the rocks as I could , left the engine running and raced out the back and dropped a line over the back.

The engine jumped into reverse and my line wrapped around the prop.

OH DEAR .

Cut the engine and watched to make sure that I didn't drift into the rocks , on with the face mask and with a knife , over the back. Sometimes it pays not to think , just act. With the back of the boat slamming up and down I was over the side ,big dive and came up under the prop,quick cut and then some swift strokes to get away from the slamming boat . Back onboard and a badly needed cold beer as I contemplated what I'd done . Well the sharks,stingers and crocks didn't get me and how I got away with the slamming boat was just good luck ,but the last thing I wanted was another $3,500.00 repair for a new gearbox.

On to the resort and a few cold beers ashore with Dee the barmaid wonderwoman.

The resort is being done up and is nearly finished it will be good to call in on my way back to see the result.

Stayed the night.

Sunday 2 November
Left Innisfail and travelled over to Normandy Island ,it is a protected island and had a tourist boat their. Went for a walk around the island , very beautifull . The beach was solid broken coral.

The rocks are all made from old coral and are spectacular

A really nice spot , sad to leave it . The wind could be a bit of a worry so I went over to High Island for the night.

Saturday 1 November
Stayed in Insnisfail another night as the wind was still a bit strong .