Arrived Cairns
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Position: 16 56.83 S 145 47.12
E We arrived off Firzroy Island (not Franklin Island as mentioned in yesterday's log entry) at 1900. We rounded its eastern point, handed sail in the island's lee and motored into the anchorage. We were lucky to find one mooring free, and I was grateful to a catamaran sailor for guiding us in by shining a spotlight onto the mooring buoy, which we picked up at 1915. From there Sylph's crew enjoyed a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep. Well refreshed, we got under way again at 0638 this morning. Once clear of the wind shadow of Fitzroy Island, we enjoyed a fresh breeze up to Cape Grafton where, when we altered course to the west towards Cairns, the winds once again became fluky in the wind shadow of the mountainous terrain behind. We were ahead of schedule so we continued to sail in the variable winds up to the channel leading into Trinity Inlet. However, the course into the channel brought us head to wind, so we handed all sail and motored the remaining three and a half miles to the mooring which was being loaned to us for our stay here (thank you Erica and Ken). We arrived at the mooring early and had to kill an hour motoring around exploring some of the creeks while we waited for Ken to move his boat, Aya, from the mooring to the Cairns Yacht Club. So it wasn't until 1115 that we came to rest. Now we await contact with someone named Mick, with whom we are supposed to be sharing a dinghy so that we can get ashore, Sylph's tender being too small and difficult to row the 1.8 km from here to the yacht club, particularly with the fresh breeze and at times strong tidal stream. Hopefully we will hear from him shortly. All is well. |