10.49S 141.04E

JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Wed 17 Sep 2008 11:32
Hi everyone
 
Our journey continues northwards on route eventually to Darwin. We've had a great journey up the east coast, up to and around Cape York. Fast sailing with strong south easterly trade winds blew us briskly up to the cape, logging 482 miles in 72 hrs. and a new best 24 hr run of 169 miles.
An interesting journey sailing up inside the Great Barrier Reef where there is quite a busy shipping lane. This shipping lane twists and turns from south of  Mackay all the way up to Cape York, its path dictated by the many individual reefs.   We have to share this shipping lane which, In a few places can be as much as 4 miles wide, but otherwise only 2 miles wide, the narrows usually accompanied by a dog leg turn as well. No guesses as to where we meet any ships!
The ships in the main are either large tankers, or crude ore carriers - coal destined or China!. It can be quite stressful approaching a corner with one coming up behind and one coming down - in daylight it looks tight but at night........  luckily we can, and do, cautiously stray out of the main shipping channel to let them pass us by. 
 
On reaching the Cape we decided to anchor over night in the Thursday Island group north of the cape. We anchored in the Lee of Horn Island, the wind still blowing 20-25 knots, and found a snug anchorage, a nice spot but bless the day we  bought our larger anchor - the tidal current whips through at over 4 knots, as we found on our approach, the boat moving sideways as we motored up to anchor.
 
We used the local ferry - an ex Sydney Harbour packet, to cross to Thursday Island, had a VB each in the most Northern pub of Australia - very "outback-ish" but no Crocodile Dundee!  We could use him here - the waters are beautiful and clear, turquoise, deserted white beaches -- but nobody ever swims here - too many Estuarine Crocodiles - warning notices everywhere 5-7 metres - no thanks - but such a shame.
 
A mediocre meal in the mis-named "Grand Hotel" gave us just enough time to catch the late ferry back to Horn Island, and a good nights sleep.
 
We later wondered why Thursday Island was so named - we could see also Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday Islands on the charts, but no Saturday, Sunday or Monday Islands!  We surmised that it must have been a heavy weekend when they discovered these islands - there seems very little else to do except drink here!!!  Imagination naming places does not seem to be an Aussie strong point!!!
 
We've now left and are on our way towards Gove Harbour, the Gulf of Carpentaria 400 mile wide to cross- but never more than 60 metres deep.  We have chatted to other rally boats close by, which was a surprise as we thought we were miles behind them all but it seems no.  We will enjoy meeting up with them all again in Darwin - seems ages since we last met.
 
That's all for now.
 
Alan