Denham Island

'Penned' 14 October

We are waiting in the Flinders Group until a suitable ‘weather window’ presents itself for going south. Each new high pressure system creates a ridge on the Queensland coast and brings strong south-easterlies. The wait gave us time to visit Denham Island. The morning was beautiful with just a gentle breeze so getting there involved a pleasant sail. Our friends showed us a large cave with numerous paintings, mainly of ships. Were these all Aboriginal? Some appeared old and fading, but others might have been more recent. Perhaps some of the many Bêche de Mer fishermen wrecked in the 1899 cyclone Mahina ended up here? 

Apart from the paintings the rock formations on Denham Island were striking. The return trip was a little more exciting than on the way across. Ebb Tide was rolling in the swell, and launching the dinghy to return to her was challenging. We managed to break a paddle (we were already using one of the spares) and getting from the dinghy onto Ebb Tide was also challenging in the swell. Retrieving the anchor proved worrisome as it turned out we had anchored too close to a coral bommie that had been invisible at high tide when we arrived, and then getting the sail up proved dramatic. Firstly the halyard went half-way up the mast without sail attached! Eventually it was retrieved and the sail was raised while the swell was rolling, the wind was blowing at 25 knots and with all this going on Matey tried to keep Ebb Tide’s nose into the wind for mainsail hoisting with — as it turned out — a broken rudder cable!

Fortunately catamarans have two steering cables and as the port cable had broken before, we knew it was possible to rig the steering up with octy straps. Of course, we also didn’t have spare rudder cables so this is another reason to return to ‘civilisation’ rather than further away from it. Now we wait safely back in our anchorage at Flinders Island, for the northerlies to blow …

Matey the hunter?

It appears that Matey’s reluctance to kill is inversely proportional to the amount of food available. She managed to skewer a crab through the brain (as demonstrated by a fisherman friend) to save it from a more unpleasant death, and then, back at Flinders Island, with food stores declining she had her first deliberate fishing expedition in a long time — with success! Matey and Captain each caught a schooling sweetlips and these provided enough lunch for the four of us. This is the progress Matey was hoping for. She can do it when required ...