17th June 2017 - Blue Water marina to High Island

Saturday 17^th June 2017

17 degrees 09.185S

146 degrees 00.239E

High Island - Frankland Island group

7.7m – mooring buoy

No problems to report today.  The new anchor chain is gleaming on its winch; we left Blue Water marina in Cairns easily, and glided down the coast in bright sunshine with very little wind and obligingly small waves; all is well!

We thought we would stop at Fitzroy Island, but that is a discouragingly small distance from Cairns – 8 nautical miles.  Not much of a start to a fairly long trip to Hamilton Island.  We consulted our guru, Alan Lucas (Cruising the Coral Coast) and he said it MIGHT just be possible to shelter at one of the Frankland Islands, with a bit of luck and not much wind.  So we continued and arrived at High Island at the very civilised hour of 4.30pm. 

High Island

And it is just beautiful!  And - even better – there is a mooring buoy, so the shiny new chain can stay pristine on its winch.

Tomorrow we will leave at a decent hour and should arrive in Mission Beach in the late afternoon.

On our last night in Blue Water marina a few months ago we met a very nice man called Ken, with his off-sider Scott.  Scott’s name is Scott Cam, and he is just as charismatic a character as his very famous (in Australia…) cousin Scott Cam the TV builder/renovator.  Our Scott says he gets very preferential treatment in restaurants, and in airport queues.  Until they see him…he doesn’t look like the TV Scott Cam.  But we were very charmed by him, and enjoyed his stories and his cheeriness very much.  I took a photo of him telling us about the crocodile which lives close by – he and his wife and kiddiewinks have a house in the Daintree.  He swears it is THIS big – six metres!! (AAGGHHHH!!)