Fai Tira blog Monday 20th September

Lizard Island 14:39.62S 144:28.07E

Four BWR boats and an independent boat from Falmouth left Cook Town for Lizard Island at first light on the 17^th September. The BWR boats were Enchantress, Chisel, Lucy Alice and Fai Tira.  It was a broad reach all the way and with 20 to 25 knot winds, the miles quickly diminished as we travelled at an average of seven knots.  What a great sail we were having, arriving about two hours before the expected ETA.  As we turned into Mrs Watsons Bay we were surprised to see about twenty boats at anchor.  Apparently most of them were waiting for favourable winds to push them south for the summer months so they would miss the cyclone season. We had supplies on board for a yacht called Kalida with David, Alison, and their children Natasha and Matthew on board. When we had finished dropping the anchor we called them up on the radio and David came across and had a beer with us.  He told us that the family had been travelling for about seven years and had been staying at Lizard for the last six weeks hence the lack of supplies. He was a mine of information about the Queensland coast having cruised it for so long.  He supplied us with a CD containing information to help our passage making all the way to Durban.  All the boat crews were invited onto the beach at 17.00 for a get together and sun downers. We had a great time meeting other likeminded people swapping stories of our adventures (not holidays).

The next morning the BWR boats had arranged to go snorkelling on the reef.  Eight of us took to the water and were all astonished at the size of the numerous giant clams scattered amongst the corals.  The colours of both the soft and hard corals were wonderful and although there wasn’t an abundance of fish life the ones we saw were very nice.  I saw a large cuttle fish whose colours blended into its coral background. (photos to follow).  This was to be the last chance to swim in Australia due to the prevalence of crocodiles from here to Darwin.  (They eat people you know).

A bit of history of Lizard Island:  Captain Cook used the island as a vantage point to find a safe passage through the barrier reef for his recently repaired ship Endeavour.  Whilst climbing to the highest point he encountered large lizards (hence the name).  The Lizards are known as Gould’s monitor lizards and are from the same family as Indonesia’s Komodo dragon. 

Later on in the day we set off to what’s now known as Cooks Lookout.  The path although well defined was quite steep and as it was very hot it caused us to rest for drinks quite often.  We arrived at the “lookout” and were treated to stunning views of the island and its reefs.  Unfortunately there was a haze so the views of the outer reef were not to be had.  The summit was marked by a large carne and stored at the bottom in a plastic box obliviously left by Cook himself was a visitor’s book.  We all signed it and started our decent.  On the way down we were startled by a Gould’s Lizard crossing out path.  He was about a metre long and was not fazed by us at all. The journey down was a lot quicker than the ascent and gave us time to have a beer on board Fai Tira before heading to the beach for sundowners and a pot luck supper.  We said our goodbyes and headed to bed early as we were due to leave at 05.30 the next morning for the Flinders Group of Islands about 75 miles north.