Three Weeks at Lizard Island (11th October)

Lizard Island definitley lived up to its reputation of being windy.  We ended up spending 3 weeks in at Watsons Bay and had good winds for the entire duration which did mean we got to get in lots of Kiting in the Blue Lagoon.  There are no complaints here as it is a pretty special part of the world to spend some quality time.  Our furthest north position for the season was 14 39;366S 145 26.830E

Miss Lynda arrived right on time on the 20th and stayed with us for a week and we managed to fit in all the tourist actities available.  We walked to Cooks Look to check out the passage that James Cook identified back in 1770 as the best option to escape from the Great Barrier Reef.  We visited the Research Centre which was very informative and also a good long walk.  We visited the Marlin Bar where we enjoyed some great meals and plenty of company from the other boats.  We had several evening socialising with the many crews on the beach and spent a lot of time snorkelling at the various reefs.




Lynda arriving at LI



Research Centre



View of Watson's Bay from Cook's Look




Watsons Bay

After a fab time with Lynda she unfortunately had to catch her flight on the 27th so it was back to two on board again.  The wind was still up so we made the most of the next two weeks by walking the 4K treck to Blue Lagoon return every day for a couple of hours of kiting.  The winds were even a bit too much for Di on a couple of days but she made up for it when she was able to kite.  Both of us have made good progress over the last few weeks and are now able to go toe side comfortably.  Mark has perfected his carve turns and is working on jumping & popping.  Di has finally worked out how to leave the water and is now getting a bit of air although some of the landings are not quite so pretty.
Luckily we have had some friends taking some shots of out kiting action to show that it is not just a myth.  It was really nice as we had a numbers of kiters in the anchorage with us, so often had company which was lots of fun and we must thank Paul off Pacific Jewel for helping us out with plenty of kiting tips.

Last time we were at Lizard back in 2014 was just after Cyclone Ita which was very destructive and made an absolute mess of the Lizard Island resort, the general surroundings and also the reef. The reef up here has undergone a pretty tough time of late as they had another cyclone through in 2015 which was then followed by two bleaching events however, it is definitley on the come back trail and we were thrilled to see plenty of very healty and vibrant corals especially in the clam garden and the reefs in front of the resort.  The clams seemed to have enjoyed the last few years and appear to be thriving and even the team at the research centre are feeling some what optimistic about the future of the reef.

The whole island is looking so much nicer this time around as last visit there was only a few scrappy trees left standing and the resort was decimated.  Have below some before and after shots that tell the tale.



Lizard Island Resort Post TC Ita - 2014



Lizard Island Resort 2019 - Looking Great!

With the strong winds there were plenty of boats in at Watsons Bay.  We didnt acutally do a head count but would guess that we had at least 25-30 boats in there at times waiting for the weather to abate.  Luckily it has done so and we have a great weather window to get in some good miles south.

We departed LI on Wednesday 9th October with a stopover that night at Cape Bedford.  Last night we were in at East Hope with 11 other  boats - dont think it is often that busy at this little island anchorage and we are now enroute to Low Isles just off Port Douglas. 
The plan is to head off early tomorrow morning and do an overnight passage into Townsville arriving late on Sunday afternoon and will see where to from there although may be able to make another dash down to the Whitsundays before the weather turns.