VIEW OF CAIRNS FROM THE DECK

With "Kinetic Energy" arriving in Cairns the day after us, we were in company again with Brian & Maxine but were still awaiting the arrival of "Bach & Byte", a Fastback 43, with Jim & his two crew members onboard. Apparently, after making a very quick dash up the coast to catch up with us, they were only 24 hours behind us when we left Townsville, so we expected them within no time.

We'd had a few problems of our own along the way, but Jim had many & needed time in Cairns to get everything ship shape again. He'd torn his spinnaker along the way but after having that repaired at Airlie Beach, he was still left with a GPS that didn't work properly, an anchor winch that had given up & electrical problems with his whole system. Luckily for Jim, with Brian being an electrician, most of his problems were sorted out the day after his arrival. It was great catching up with Jim, Fiona the doctor, & Malcom the carpenter, as we all plan to sail to Darwin together. Now we'll have 3 boats going in the same direction so I can imagine that we'll have lots of fun races along the way & many hours socializing together.

We've had amazingly beautiful weather since being in Cairns & with the next two days being forecast at 5-10 knots, we're all heading out toward the reef. Actually, as I write this, we're underway with the spinnaker flying & a lure dragging behind us, although with our luck of fishing lately, I won't hold my breath about snagging a mackerel on the lure! We've dragged two lures from Airlie Beach to Cairns & haven't got a touch so we'll have to rely on Rees to spear us some nice coral trout once we arrive at the reef. None of us have had fish to eat for weeks so we're really looking forward to that, as well as a few crays if that can be arranged! I'll have to report back on that one!

At this stage, we're not planning to go into Port Douglas or Cooktown, so this will be the last opportunity to update the blog for quite some time. Besides stopping at islands & reefs along the way, our next major destination will be Lizard Island where we'll probably stop for at least a week before heading up to "The Top" & over to Seisa. This is where our journey becomes really exciting as we'll be sailing into unknown territory, having never been further north than Lizard Island before. Crocodiles & isolation will be focal points of my stories from there on, I guess, so stay tuned.