Departed Cooktown
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1500 Position: 15 22.8 S 145 18.8
E Having spent five days in Cooktown I was once again feeling restless. With food lockers and water tanks full, I decided it was time to get under way again. To this end, I made a final trip ashore in the dinghy this morning to top up the fresh food, using the ebb tide to help me row against the fresh breeze, then the beginning of the flood to return, with the ESE breeze providing a bit of an assist. Sylph needed a meter of tide to cross the shallow sand flat that stood between the deeper pool in which we were anchored and the channel leading to open water. This in turn meant we could not depart until 1330, which is when we got underway. Once the anchor was home, we motored slowly across the shallows and into the deeper channel then, once clear of the channel, set the jib and bore away to the NNE putting the fresh breeze on our starboard beam. North or south is still playing on my mind and I have not yet made up my mind but for now we will continue north to Lizard Island. As to whether we continue north from there or return south I will decide in the next day or so. The main attraction of continuing north is to fill in a blank spot on Sylph's voyage chart, an opportunity I am unlikely to have again as once I am back south I very much doubt whether I will want to come this way again - three times is enough. Also I have sailed the SE of Australia some twenty plus times now in Sylph, so the northerly route will make for a nice change of scenery, including the opportunity to explore the Kimberley and WA coast. The down side is that I reckon I would need to spend some five months loitering in Darwin to wait the cyclone season out, my research to date indicating that this would be the safest place to hole up in for that period. Also, getting down the west coast is likely to involve lots of headwinds no matter what time of year I negotiate this long stretch of tough coastline, with very scarce shelter along its length. If I want to continue north then I will need to continue on our way within a few days so as to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria and get past Arnhem Land before the easterly winds start to give way to the NW monsoons. On the other hand, if I find myself loitering in Lizard Island for more than a few days, it means I will have allowed doubt and procrastination to turn Sylph's bows back south once there is a break in the trade winds, which I figure is okay as well. We now have 43 miles to go to Lizard Island and at our current speed we should arrive around midnight. The approach to the anchorage area on the island's NW side is relatively straight forward, though no doubt there will be quite a few boats there ahead of us, so we may have to anchor out a ways from the beach on arrival. Hopefully there will still be room enough so that we won't have to anchor too far out. All is well. |