Position: 16 45.0 S 145 48.8 E
Course: W Speed: 6 knots
Wind: SE , F4-moderate breeze
Sea: slight Swell: SSE 1 m
Weather: partly cloudy, occasional showers, warm

Our visit to Cairns was a happy success. Ada got to catch up with some of her relatives, one of which lent us his new ute for the day yesterday which we made good use of purchasing supplies variously from the hardware store, a chandlery, and the supermarket. Thank you Gerry. Yesterday evening was my friend Erica's 60^th birthday party which was also very successful, though Ada and I left relatively early as we wanted to be in good shape to be able to get under way this morning.

Accordingly, after returning the dinghy that Erica and her partner, Ken, had loaned us, we slipped the mooring at 1010 and motored out of Trinity Inlet in a near calm. As we cleared the shallows surrounding the channel the breeze started to pick up. We set sail and shut down the motor with Green Island in mind as our destination for the night. There are three public moorings available off the island so we had hoped to be able to find one of them free on our arrival.

The wind freshened towards late forenoon and we made good time. We rolled up the jib and started the engine on our approach to the channel leading to the jetty off the island. My intention was to motor slowly into what I thought was a bit of a lagoon to the north of the island then hand the main and motor carefully to one of the moorings, however the plan did not unfold as intended. As we approached the jetty we, or more accurately I, managed to run Sylph aground. Ada promptly dropped the main and I put the engine in reverse to back off the shallow bit of reef. It took several minutes before we were able to work our way clear after which, feeling very sheepish, I decided to abandon picking up a mooring via the marked channel.

We then worked our way around the outside of the reef looking for a way in to the moorings from a different approach but soon came to the conclusion that there were too many coral heads about to make it worth the risk, so we abandoned our attempt to spend the night off Green Island. It would seem more local knowledge is required then I possess in order to safely use the moorings.

After some head scratching as to what to do next, we have decided to head for Double Island, sixteen miles to the WNW of Green Island, which looks like it should afford reasonable protection from the weather and is a destination we can get to before dark. The chart shows the approach to the north side of the island is clear of any dangers so hopefully the rest of the day will turn out better then the first part.

All is well.