To Fitzroy Island
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To Fitzroy Island – Our Final
Stop Before Cairns
 We got up this morning to fine rain
alternating with heavy, we waited half an hour to see, but no, no let up.
Yesterday, as I always do, I delete the waypoints of the journey just done and
plot the next course, even if it looks as though I
have had a canary fit and taken us overland – same way in, same way out. Well,
at half six I switched on my trusty chartplotter to find Beez parked in the right place. Mmmm.
 I moved the waypoints to new positions
and things looked quite normal.
 Passing our busy-looking fishing
friend the rain was clear to see.
 Another monochrome
day, the sky thick with wet stuff. How day to day things change and so
quickly.
 Not long after we had left, another
yacht at anchor called Maloo popped up on the AIS (we would later
anchor beside them by Fitzroy). The morning carried on alternating between fine little raindrops and heavy rain with the odd squall
thrown in to break the monotony. Visibility ranged from a few hundred metres to
a few miles.
   Shades of
blue, after yesterdays glorious sunshine. South
Passage was the only pretty thing to be seen.
  By half past two we had what looked
like two islands to our left, that is Cape Grafton
(on the mainland) that we have to go round on the morrow to Cairns – Yeeha. To
our right Fitzroy Island.
The island separated from the mainland about 8000 years
ago, at the end of the last ice age. There were Aboriginal visits, mainly for
visiting hunting trips and recreation. Lieutenant James
Cook named the
island in 1770. The island was
used for a considerable time as a significant Chinese quarantine station for the
Queensland goldfields. Subsequently it was used as a mission
school and during World War Two, as a coast watch
station.
The island has also been important as a significant lighthouse base, with the last permanent lighthouse structures on the main island still being an important community attraction. Since its closure the marine community has been serviced with an automatic lighthouse based on the adjacent Little Fitzroy Island. There has been both a giant clam farm at Welcome Bay and now a tourist resort sleeping one hundred and day visitor centre.
Settled at anchor next to the resort, still pouring hard, we toasted being in our final spot before many jobs and rally preparations. For once the Millards are where they said they would be according to the calendar.......Amazing. The Ovni in front of us had a familiar name.
Reskebil, on the rally.
ALL IN ALL SAD BRODIE ISN’T HERE BUT VERY PLEASED TO BE HERE WET, SQUALLY BUT GOOD WINDS AND NOT UNPLEASANT |
