Nature's showtime

Our dismay with the behaviour of a few specimens of humanity was soon cast aside by flat-calm weather and perfect visibility for much of the next few days. We next visited Russell Island in the Franklands Group, Sudbury Reef and then Fitzroy Island.

To our delight, we saw not just one but numerous giant clams: black lips with aqua-marine flecks, purple-blue to aqua ones, large and half grown ones. To date, even seeing one giant clam has been a rare treat. Seeing so many was a cause for celebration!

As we hauled ourselves back into the dinghy after snorkeling, Captain spied fins in the shallows. We quietly paddled over to investigate and discovered five small black-tipped reef sharks circling who knew what. We watched them, entranced.  

Back on the mother-ship, there was a commotion in the water beside us, not three metres away. We looked over to see three large and graceful manta rays circling each other in a dance. Their fins were like wings as they rose out of the water, the top black, the underside pure white. Such exquisite creatures! Enchanted, Matey eventually reached for her phone for a photo, but too soon they danced away …

Russell Island consists of two islands joined by a sand-bank, almost submerged at high tide. We climbed the rocks to the top for the sunset view. We explored as much as we could access on each small island. In a crevasse we observed three giant trevally circling a school of small fish. That night even the whiff of sea-birds as the breeze changed direction couldn’t dampen our spirits.

Mt Bellenden Ker, Qld's second highest peak

View at top of Russell Island

Sand cay at Sudbury Reef

Looking towards Cairns from summit of Fitzroy Island

 

From Fitzroy's summit we saw a whale, and unfortunately, two boats chase after it. 

Sudbury Cay is just visible

Worth reading.

Stop the boats!

'Stop the boats!' was the shrill cry heard this morning.

Having spent the night in the Johnstone River, just inside the entrance so we could make an early start in the morning, we were delighted to be woken by a succession of motor-boats, all revved up for the Innisfail fishing competition. Almost all of 15 or so boats screamed past at about 20 knots, completely ignoring the standard courtesy that you slow to 6 knots to pass a moored or anchored boat (to reduce the wash effect), especially in channels. So much for courtesy and respect. Not-so-fond memories of the Brisbane River returned where every few minutes we lurched and rocked as a ferry sped past.

We were also delighted by the low-flying helicopter filming the manly exploits in the channel. We upped anchor and were off, as sitting there rocking and rolling wasn’t particularly pleasant, and yet more boats screamed past. Out to the reef to see who can catch the biggest fish! Once out of the channel, we put the sails up and slowly ambled on our way, happily, in a different direction from the testosterone-pumped competitors.

While Captain was sufficiently angered to yell and gesticulate to slow down, Matey contemplated the value system of such kindly souls. She found herself absently wondering who they might have voted for ...

Meanwhile, it’s flat calm and while we managed to sail for a while the early morning breeze from the land died and the engine is now slowly pushing us north. It’s always preferable not to have the motor on but there is definitely something to be said for a calm and smooth sea.

We haven’t encountered Customs on the water before but a small plane just swooped past overhead. Not long after, they were on the radio checking us out. ‘Maybe we should have claimed asylum’, said the Captain. If only we could seek asylum for the environment from the regime of our illustrious government-elect ...

Innisfail definitely has the coolest water tower we have yet encountered 

Yum!

Views at this morning's anchorage. The veil of mist enveloped the river during the night.

Jelly wrestling

Finally, the wind eased off and we were able to exit Mourilyan Harbour. High tide being too early in the morning and Matey’s caffeine intake being insufficient, it was near disaster again getting off the piles as someone let go of a rope too soon! Ah well, close calls keep the poor old Captain’s heart beating …

Just a short distance to the north of Mourilyan Harbour lies the entrance to the Johnstone River, and Innisfail beyond. A bar and narrow channel means entering should only be attempted at high tide and in calm conditions. A swell would have been treacherous as the channel in part is beam-on to the swell. Fortunately we had calm conditions and made our way inland along this superb river towards Innisfail. Anchoring beside the centre of town could not have been more convenient. Matey was pleased to discover a 50 m (unheated) lap pool, but mildly shocked to find only cold showers, having so eagerly anticipated a hot post-swim hairwash. Brrr.

She finally thawed, however, and the temperature is rising. Hallelujah! Restocked and with some boat jobs attended to, soon we’ll be on our way towards Cairns.

Matey was interested to hear about a new book about jellyfish, reviewed by the wonderful Tim Flannery. With the impending decommissioning of the Climate Commission, long may he continue to speak out. (As we all know, if you don’t like the facts, applying a gag will fix the problem.) Blooms of jellyfish are on the rise, which is not good news, and not just for those of us on or around the water.

Cute little friend enjoying the damp at Mourilyan Harbour

If only we liked paw paws

The cold and wet continued at Innisfail

Hmmm ... we fit right in here

View from our parking spot once the weather cleared (and following)

Sunrise

Dark days

(ahead)

Today, bunkered down in Mourilyan Harbour, hiding from nature’s fury, we are still clinging to the naïve hope that by some miracle, tomorrow Tony Abbott will not be given a mandate to trash the environment. Here’s hoping that at least the Senate will have the power to curtail some of the COALition’s extreme anti-environmental policies. Australia is almost unique in that we still have large areas that are relatively pristine, but not for much longer it seems. Without a healthy environment, nothing else can prosper, including us. We are so dependent on the natural world for our well-being, yet we seem to forget this so easily. Everything, particularly a thriving economy, depends on a healthy environment. But Rupert, Tony, Gina, Clive and co. (not to mention Kev and buddies) seem to be succeeding in the suppression of this fairly self-evident truth.

While we’ve been here hiding from the squalls we’ve had a small taste of what it might be like to be caught up in a cyclone. Of course the conditions would be many times more ferocious, but we’ve been reminded of the power of the natural world, and what will come as the climate warms. And almost every local we meet tells us how much the weather has changed over the last couple of years …

Mourilyan Harbour is a sugar port and there’s not much else here. Despite the ferocious weather a massive ship from Bangkok (up to 40 000 tonnes) came in to dock on Wednesday night at high tide. We were surprised such a monster would come through the narrow channel in those conditions, but we heard the whole show over the radio and the pilot sounded invariably calm. There’s not a lot to do here and even getting ashore has proved quite challenging in these conditions, so watching a large ship arrive, be turned in a small space, be loaded up and then sent off on it’s way has provided us with some entertainment and distraction from the fury of the wind.

Docked

Exiting in slightly calmer conditions with just one tugboat

Almost out

In a brief visit ashore we discovered rainforest

Blood on the deck!

Dunk Island seemed the perfect location to read EJ Banfield, (thanks to Ron for first recommending this!) but before we’d finished, awareness dawned that we’d have to evacuate due to strengthening winds and an increasingly uncomfortable anchorage as the swell swirled around the sand spit.

With gusts of up to 35 knots firing down the slopes, Captain, as anchor wench, had an altercation with our trusty friend the Rocna's winch: wet hands slipped and the cold, steel handle flew from the winch and gashed his forehead only centimetres from left eye! Oh dear. Captain saw red as the blood flowed. Steristrips to the rescue! This will be another of Captain’s many battle scars but Matey is greatly relieved that it was forehead and not eye: she shudders to think what might have been …

Wounds were calmly attended to (by the historically squeamish Matey — though amazingly [and thankfully!] there was no sign of squeamishness on this occasion when it actually mattered) and then the raising of the anchor continued. The God of Wind chose to be merciful as we completed the task and hoisted the mainsail.

Away towards the safety of Mourilyan Harbour in winds of up to 30 knots so it was a fast trip of about 3 hours, but with a beam-wards swell of 3 metres (Captain claims it was 4) it was not the most comfortable and definitely too exciting for the Matey. The sight of frolicking whales, though, not far from our destination, cheered the Matey considerably. We sailed in as it was too rough to take the mainsail down. Just as we reached the narrow entrance, with rocks lurking on each side, the water converged creating a massive swell and we effectively surfed in. Time for a quick burst of engine power to get us through — then inside to the calm flat waters (comparatively speaking anyway).

We anchored behind the one large hill that offered some small amount of protection from the ferocious gusts, and at the end of pile moorings, where a few other boats had congregated. Safety at last, or so we thought. Sadly though, we were in the path of some serious tidal current, which created an opposing force to the wind and together they conspired to create a challenge for even the trusty Rocna. Still, we got through the night unscathed despite being woken by rain squalls, and were still in the same location in the morning.

With the ferocious wind expected to continue until the weekend, a few days sheltering at Mouriliyan Harbour seemed inevitable. We decided a bike ride to Mourilyan or Innisfail would be today’s major activity, and Captain could perhaps have his wound attended to by a real doctor. So, ashore we went for the morning shower (a hot shower is kindly provided by our good friends, VMR). A boat ramp and dinghy dock is also available, but it was so rough we couldn’t leave the dinghy tied up or it would have been shredded in minutes, so we hauled it up the ramp. 

Drag queen
As we emerged from showers some violent gusts came through.

Captain gazed over lovingly at TC, and uttered,‘Quick, TC is dragging!’  

Sure, sure, thought the Matey. The wind will have changed direction and it just looks like TC’s on the move — it’s happened before.

But sure enough, TC was now halfway alongside the pile moorings. The (now perhaps not so?) trusty Rocna had indeed dragged! In horror we ran to the dinghy, but more rain squalls pushed us back. So strong was the wind that Matey turned her back to it and leaned against it and remained upright. In those gusts we couldn’t launch the dinghy down the ramp and into the wind so we waited a few anxious moments while they passed, but thankfully TC appeared to have stopped dragging and was in the same position beside the pile moorings. Soon enough we were racing towards TC as fast as we could go. We needn’t have bothered with the first shower ...

The closer we got to TC the more worried we became as we realised she was now positioned directly beside another boat moored on the piles and they were becoming very well acquainted. So close were they, they were almost touching, so getting the fenders on was the first job as she was moving only slowly if at all. The God of Wind again proved merciful as the gusts briefly calmed and allowed us to work. The obvious thing to do at this point was to ease TC into the thankfully empty pile mooring space behind her new friend. Some kind soul had left large mooring ropes attached to the piles. Captain grabbed the rope and Matey slowly let the anchor chain and rope out and we eased TC into position. Front rope was secure. Fortunately the wind was blowing in just the right direction so we could easily secure the rear ropes too. Another rope on the front and all’s well that ends well. This is one way to get into a pile mooring but we probably wouldn’t recommend it. 

Retrieving the Rocna

Again the gods had been kind in the combination of wind and tide directions. Not only had TC dragged alongside the pile moorings rather than crashing into them and the boats moored there, but the chain was laid out beside them, so we were able to pull it up by hand and into the dinghy easily enough. The last few hauls just weren’t bringing the anchor in though, even with a burst of dinghy motor. The Rocna was clearly caught. Investigation revealed it was caught on not one chain, but two — one over the roll-bar and one underneath with the mud. Did these chains perhaps save TC? Possibly they slowed her progress once she was on the move, but did they cause her to drag in the first place? And if so why not sooner? No doubt this will be the subject of much cogitation. The Rocna wouldn’t have set again with the chains there anyway — that’s asking too much of a good friend. This illustrates the danger of anchoring near piles and in places frequented by many boats. Who knows what has been dumped on the bottom, and chain is bad news ...

Crises averted

We’re counting our blessings for the extraordinary good fortune we seem to have had in the last 24 hours, as several things that could have resulted in disaster, didn’t. Fingers are crossed our luck will continue.

Some reasons to be grateful things happened exactly as they did follow.

1  Captain’s eye was not the casualty.

2  The wind eased while we sorted out Captain’s head-wound (with the anchor no longer holding us — though we did need to use the motor to maintain position) and then finished winching the anchor in and hoisted the mainsail, in a small anchorage with other boats nearby and rocks and an islet ready to take us out with one false move.

3  We dragged when we did rather than during the night.

4  The wind blew at the angle it did and the tide pulled TC in the direction it did. One or two more degrees to port (the left) and it would have been onto the piles and into other boats ... and all over.

5  It happened while we went ashore to shower, rather than while we rode into Mourilyan as planned for a little later in the day, and just as Captain happened to glance across (lovingly) at TC. 

6  The owners of TC's new close friend have just arrived, and found her front rope has worn down and was just holding on to the pile by two strands. Had the rope broken ...
7  We can learn from this and the three of us (TC, Captain and Matey) and nearby boats are still safe.

Votive offerings
Thank you, gods of the wind, tide, sea, anchors and eyes, for your bounty, yet again! Offerings of thanks will be made at sunset in the form of Mojitos!

Poor old Captain!

Entrance to Mourilyan Harbour

What happens when you drag onto rocks. Rainbow's End met her end. We had just been squeamishly admiring her wounds when TC dragged.

Moments before the mighty Rocna dragged, TC at centre 

Dunk Island

Sadly, the resort at Dunk Island is closed due to damage during Cyclone Yasi. But boat people and campers can still go ashore and walk through rainforest. It really is very pretty. Amazingly, hot water showers are provided for campers and boaties  Matey was very pleased to be able to wash hair! Apart from a few other boats, campers and day visitors, we almost had the island to ourselves.

This grasshopper was at least 10 cm long

Looking towards the mainland