Mustang Sally in FFNQ - Far Far North Queensland (19th September)

As planned Mustang Sally and crew departed from the Crystalbrooke Marina in Port Douglas on the 6th September for the final push north to Lizard Island.

A very calm Mackay Reef
With the super light conditions forecast for at least three days we took the opportunity to head straight back out the Mackay Reef for three nights until the wind was to build again.  This time we had two yachts as company and as they had taken the two moorings we decided to go an drop anchor further in behind the island in the shallow crystal clear water.  So clear that we could watch the fish and turtles swimming past the boat.  We actually ended up moving anchorage a few times due to the light and changeable winds and stuck it out so long that we actually secured a mooring for the last night of our visit which was nice as the wind started to build to around 10-15kts overnight.

On the 9th we departed Mackay for a short 20NM hop up to East Hope Island.  We spent quite a bit of time at East Hope on our way south on our last trip up the coast waiting out some wind so were looking forward to going back.  The forecast is for about 1 week of solid trade winds so we were also hoping to get in a few kiting sessions as we had only heard good reports from our kiting friends. 


Nightly guests at East Hope
The anchorage was empty when we arrived so we picked out what we thought would be the best moorning with the best protection for our stop.  A quick bite of lunch and we were off to check out for suitable kite boarding locations and were so excited made a quick dash back to the boat and were out for our first East Hope Kite that afternoon.  The kiting was great with flat water and plenty of wind.  It was so windy that on one day we had decided that kiting was off and on the others day were either out on our much abused 9mt kite and the little 7mt kite got a run on several occassions.  We had a ball and hoping that we may get stopped here again on our way south to sit out some weather  East Hope is also a great spot for bird watching with many many birds roosting there of an evening.  Most nights we would have several terns wanting to land and take shelter either on big of little Sally.


After our road trip to Cooktown we both felt a bit more comfortable about heading in there on Mustang Sally with the aim to pick up some water and top up our supplies of fresh fruit and veg.  Luckily we were able to get a spot rafted up next to Anawai on Toms wharf and did all our chores including some laundy and even had a meal off the boat.  We were lucky enough to be in port when the Painted Cray fishing boats were in.  We didnt realise just how lucrative the painted cray market was.  There were also a couple of Coral Trout boats in so Cooktown was definitley humming that night...








Mustang Sally on Toms Wharf

Fishing Fleet at Cooktown
On the 17th we departed from our very comfy spot on Toms Wharf up to Cape Flattery which is the site of one of the largest silica sand mines so it is very white... Yesterday (18th September) we sailed the last leg of our trip up north with a quick pit stop into Eagle Island on the way for lunch and a snorkel and are now anchored up in Watsons Bay parked right behind our sister ship Annacol.

We had a great trip up from PD and sailed virtually all the way so the diesel tank is still pretty much full.  The wind generator and solar panels have been doing an awesome job and we have only run the genset once and that was mainly to check to see how the batteries were travelling but each day we are ending up with full batteries which is great. 

Our mate Leapy Lynda is arriving tomorow for a week with us at Lizard Island.  Hopefully we get some nice calmish weather to go back over to Eagle Island for a bit as is a lovely spot with some excellent coral.  We may also go over there when the wind us up for a bit of kiting spot as well as the lagoon on the other side of LI.     Last time we were at LI was just after cyclone Ida so the place was pretty smashed up and the resort was shut so it is definitley looking a lot better and we are very much looking forward to checking out the Marlin Bar (which yachties can visit three nights a week) as well as plenty of socialising at the nightly meeting of minds on the beach at sunset.


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