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Perfect weather in Cairns for 8 months straight with only a day or two of rain.
A short but big thunderstorm came over this afternoon and set the scene for the wet season just as 3000 tourists arrived on this big ship, Welcome to Cairns, Its only liquid sunshine!
The sailing has been awasome here for so long that i might even stay this year instead of sailing south as usual
If you haven't sailed south by now you have fairly much missed the boat haven't you?? (pardon the pun)
Are you on the piles or the pick up there? Looks like the pick. I worked a charter yacht from the piles doing three, 2 day-1 night trips per week for two years up there.
I only went onto the marina to pick up and set down passengers and take on provisions each trip. Then it was back over to the piles to tie up fore and aft mostly by myself.
The boat was a 42 foot Peterson and I never did once fall in the drink but I did rip the snout right out of my Zodiac once when I had it tied up too short. Managed to rescue it and the motor as only one chamber deflated and did get the Zodiac repaired quite satisfactorily.
That was in the early 90s and I never did see a croc in the inlet, even right up the creek. Do you see them often nowadays?
Mate tells me the marina is the pits these days. He says there are no security gates and completely open to the public and if you come back to your boat after a trip up town, you are likely to have a bunch of Japanese on your boat taking photos of them selves and if you leave your boat open people will just come onboard and make themselves at home.
He only goes to Yorkeys Knob marina these days.
A location I had on my marine park permit was Thetford Reef, 20 odd miles out from Fitzroy Island. Really top spot in reasonable weather where there are some moorings as well that are not used by charter operators every day. Worth a visit.
Sounds like you are having fun so keep us posted. Cheers Cisco.
Hi Cisco
The Marina is not too bad, They dont have the gates locked during the day but that doesnt bother anyone, Theyre locked at 6pm.
The Port Authority run it and theyre not too bad.
The Crocs? yep Trinity Inlet is infested with them! Hills ck opposite the marina has a 4 meter monster living in it and he has 2 2meter girlfriends that live on the eastern bank, As its now mating season he's been swimming around being territorial and fighting all the small crocs that have set up camp nearby in the last 12 months. He bailed up a 1.5m small guy right next to my boat 3 weeks ago and got outsmarted as the little croc went into the roots of the mangroves where the big guy couldnt fit!
Theyre going to relocate the poles to make way for a cruise ship turning point, That will be sad for all the visiting cruising yachties who will probably get forced to go into the marina and pay or go miles up the inlet and mix it up with the Croc's.
I usualy sail south for the wet but couldnt be bothered this year, Trinity inlet is a good cyclone bolt hole and there is an endless suply of pretty girls to smile at when i go ashore.....
In the last two months i sailed to Lizard Island stopping at Port Douglass, Hope Island, Cooktown, GBR. Got to fly my hangglider off the windward side of Lizard and also Indian Head north of Cooktown, The place is too good to leave! Oh found a secret surf break on the outer reef the other day........... So cool!
Maybe more correctly called groper than cod.
Local camera shop here has HD GoPros for $399 with a choice of mounts.
Hi Cisco
Sorry for the late reply but my spacebar died on my Laptop and i havent been able to type anything that does'ntlooklikethis!
Firstly i have got a go pro camera and ive got heaps of footage. Mounted on the prodder pole looking backwards while sailing is my favorite shot, there is footage of me climbing the front face of Lizard with my hang glider on my shoulder then setting up and launching, flying over blue lagoon and also flying over Indian Head and up to Cape Bedford just north of Cooktown, There is Kitesurfing footage where i strapped it to the centre strut of the kite looking down on the rider and came up with some very nice video. I also mounted it on the mast pointing forward then popped the spinnaker.
Im going to put it all together in a 10 minute video of Sailing, Kitesurfing and Hang gliding, It'll be called passing wind. ..... Just gotta buy an editing program and stick it all together.
Lizard was different this time around, A lot of people had spent a bit too long in Watsons bay (a couple of months) A "suburban" mentality had blossomed where people would actively gossip with ill intent about others while they were out of earshot then best of freinds while sitting around the beach tables, There were two large ladies having a "domestic" on the beach that continued with insults acros the bay when they returned to thier boats. Some Yachties spent days grumbling about the backpackers they had bought to the Island not wanting to spend time on the boat ?? the young girls wanted to spend their time hanging around the young deckhands of the charter fishing boats for some strange reason??? Bloody Backpackers .... No respect I say , No Respect!
There were more Bogan incidents but i wont go on.
Went to the Cod hole and its the same as when i went there 10 years ago which is good as there a Lot of operators going there daily with no apparent impact (good).
Coconuts beach on the windward side is still a great beach for beachcombing with an unbelievable amount of floating junk turning up here, Yes thongs are the main offenders, 1000's of them. No glass bouys.There were Large turtle tracks leading up the beach to lay thier eggs. Very rare to see people on this side of Lizard with so many visitors to the island arriving by private yacht, Plane, Charter boat or even tinnie all looking for their piece of paradise but only ever hanging around the resort bar or the beach tables.
Caught lots of fish on the lure on the way up, Had a hang gliding buddy join me for the trip up and he got a workout on the overhead reel winding in Spanish Mackeral, Trevaly and bluefin tuna.
On the way back another flying friend, Kiero joined me and although the sailing wasnt much fun (bashing into headwinds) he pulled in a meter long Spanish Mackeral which was a highlight as the biggest fish he had ever caught.
I often find soccer and basket balls floating and i always get whoever is on the boat with me at the time to draw with a texta their contact details and a short story then kick the ball into the water (kinda like a modern message in a bottle) Noone has ever been contacted except for one i threw overboard off Broughton island NSW 7 years ago, It had been found at Forster (against the current) a year later, The guy rang me and we had a bit of a laugh. He was from the Blue mountains.
Staying up here for the wet season and its been a fairly dry one so far, funny thing though i went down to the Victorian alps for a hang gliding competition 2 weeks ago and it snowed while i was down there and i caught Whooping cough which knocked me flat and i had to come home and not compete, Takes 100 days to get over this so im sitting back and relaxing for a while.
What adventures have you had lately?
Hey Hang,
Had a lap top with a keyboard problem once and all it wanted to do was rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I thought it was trying to take off.
I think some of these All In One computers with normal keyboards and mice are getting to the point of good portability without the hassles of batteries and other laptop issues and may be a better option for onboard computing.
From what you are saying about the anchorage at Lizard it may be more appropriately named "Bogan's Bay". Strewth, they must be well provisioned to stay for two months or is it possible to buy supplies from the resort???
Re editing pic and vids you might like to try Irfan Viewer, downloadable from www.irfanview.com and get "all plugins" too. I have heard "The Gimp" (a Linux program with a version for windows I believe) is good too.
You certainly cannot beat the price. (Free) Another handy little program is "Convert" from Joshua F. Maddison. (converts weights and measures etc)
With Irfan View you can put together self executing slide shows. Don't think you could upload one of those files to Seabreeze though.
Everyone I know with yachts have given up on taking freeloading backpackers aboard. I do believe the standard of backpackers has dropped considerably over the years.This one seems to have the right sort of qualities.
Re my own adventures; my best one of late is my son going to Nudgee College on a rowing scholarship where he has worked his way into the First Quad for year ten. He is doing well academicaly too particularly with Auto Cad and Graphics.
Yesterday at the rowing training camp all the boys had to row 48 kilometeres and today they were taken to Mount Pomona to do the climb and descent. I think they are working them harder than if they were in the S.A.S.
My real estate is causing me some problems of late which is preventing any progress on my yacht but I will get there eventually. I would rather be rid of most of it and have the money in the bank but the market is flat and I will not "give" it away.
So reading about your adventures and the "Life of Riley" you lead keeps me motivated and heading in the right direction.
The new Go Pro sounds good and you will no doubt flood us with pics and vids very soon.
Cheers Cisco.
