31st August - 7th September 2022 Cairns to Cooktown
Blue Hound
Phil Marks & Rosy Jensen
Wed 7 Sep 2022 08:30
There is a long narrow dredged entry channel to Cairns (with our draft we joined it 4nm out), which opens out to a wide river in the harbour and several tributaries & creeks. Cairns is a tropical city (pop 155,00) and a popular tourist destination. There was a visiting Cruise Liner which overshadowed the harbour area as we entered. We anchored further up the river, & enjoyed a good simple lunch at the Cairns Cruising Yacht Squadron before a taxi tour of the local Chandlers for spares...
Although September is still officially the dry season we will remember our visit as 'wet', Cairns has a very high rate of rainfall, and the surrounding vegetation is lush, possibly caused by the close vicinity of the mountain range compared to the neighbouring town of Townsville (350 km south) which locally in Cairns is known as Brownsville because it’s so dry.
Saturday 3rd September anchored at Low Isles
After a few days in Cairns we headed out and anchored two nights at the Low Isles due to strong winds, along with several other cruising boats. The islands are typical of the area with mangrove forest, a reef, and vegetated sandy cay. The lighthouse was built in 1878 and some of the old keepers cottages are used today by the Marine Parks staff. The first serious study of coral was made here in 1928 by British Scientists. The two islands are a popular tourist destination, so not a tranquil stop with high speed ferries etc.
4th September Cooktown and the Endeavour River
European involvement in Australian history arguably started here when Captain Cook's Endeavour was beached here for repairs in 1770, after damage on a reef (guess the name of the reef). The crew dumped the cannons and 50 tons of ballast to refloat the ship which they towed (with rowing boats) to what became Cooktown. During this time the first true contact was made with the Aboriginal people and kangaroos were sighted and subsequently named. One hundred years later Cooktown became an outlet for the gold mining industry.
The entrance to Cooktown Harbour and the Endeavour river is very shallow for us with 2.9m draft. The chartered depths are 2m or less but as it was neaps, plus we needed fuel and supplies we went in. Also the town is synonymous with Capt. James Cook we felt it was a must. Just inside the river entrance there is a sandbank in the middle which is steep to, which was a problem for us. There were no other anchoring possibilities except off this sandbank by the channel buoys. With contrary strong winds and tides Phil kept watch most of the night to make sure we didn't ground on the falling tide as Blue Hound veered around in the wind and tide.
Next morning we re-fuelled and re-anchored further out, & Rosy went ashore, walking to the main town for stores. Once back aboard Rosy took over and took the zombied Phil to Cape Bedford!
Photos: Approach to Cairns, Lighthouse & old keeper's cottage on Low Isles, Cook Memorial, Mainstreet Cooktown, Welcome to Cook's Landing, Lowtide at Cooktown, The steps built for Queen Elizabeth 11 to use to get ashore on her visit to Cooktown.
