WE FINALLY MADE IT TO CAPE YORK

After having made our way from Lizard Island over the past 6 days, we finally arrived at the most northerly tip of Australia---Cape York! We'd left Portland Roads at 3.00am, sailed all day under spinnaker & rounded the tip of Australia at 3.00pm, having covered just over 90 miles throughout the day. It was such a feeling of achievement to be at this point in our trip & we couldn't wait to celebrate!

Adding to the excitement of our arrival was the fact that Rees & I had led the flotilla of 7 yachts, all day & were anchored for 3/4 of an hour before "Kinetic Energy" finally rounded the "Tip" to join us. Our destination for the day had been the Escape River, 14 miles south of Cape York, but when we were abeam of there with plenty of daylight hours ahead of us, we'd radioed to say that we were heading on. We had everything going for us with a 15-20 knot SE breeze, time on our side as well as a favourable tide. The tide was important too, because it raced through Albany Pass at 5 knots & thankfully it flooded north just as we approached the passage.

All the other yachts decided to follow, so throughout the afternoon, with them arriving in staggered times, we waited to see who wanted to help us celebrate as both Maxine & I had champagne on ice just for the occasion. Needless to say, not everyone was interested in celebrating because it had been a very long day & after such an early start, most people were just too tired.

As I write this, another day has passed but with a walk to the "Tip" this morning for the photo shoot & a brief trip ashore at Seisia for supplies, we are ready once again for some long legs of sailing. We are leaving here tomorrow morning for a two day, non stop trip across the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Wessle Islands & although I'm not really looking forward to it, it'll be good to know that we will have mowed down another 350 miles of our trip to Darwin, leaving a mere 1,000 miles to go!!!!