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Our son, Tom, and our younger daughter, Catherine, were our crew from Vanuatu to Cairns. Here Tom handsteers.
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Catherine takes a much more straightforward approach – she lets “Otto” the autopilot steer (my choice too Catherine!). Yes, we wore foul weather gear (and fleeces) as the nights were very cold, despite 75 degree water and a latitude of only 16 (South). For some reason the air was about 57 degrees F. at night.
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The trip from Vanuatu to Cairns was about 1300 miles (about two Bermuda Races), so it was the first over-1000 mile passage for both Tom and Catherine. Here Leslie cuts the cake at the 1000-mile party.
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Having crossed the Great Barrier Reef via Grafton Passage at night, we had this landfall at dawn just a few miles south of Cairns, Australia, our entry port. We didn’t know what to expect, but the mountains in this part of Queensland are beautiful. The mainland beaches are empty because of the danger of crocodiles, but the beaches on the reef islands are swimable (this far south).
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Okay, so sometimes bad things happen… We have a few pictures of our trip to Sydney with Tom and Catherine, and later with Peter and Carol Willauer, but we lost most when the hard drive on the laptop had a physical failure in Darwin. Anyway, here is a snap of the famous Sydney Opera House from one of the Sydney ferries. We saw a good play in their theater one night – “Lovers at Versailles”.
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Sydney was a wonderful city, almost as beautiful and marine oriented as San Francisco, clean and with polite, friendly people. Here is the city center, were we stayed. Not only was it near the “Circular Quay”, where all the ferries terminated, but also near “The Rocks” section, with Greenwich Village charm.
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The Sydney Harbour Bridge was built in the 1920’s, and is a solid piece of work. They now have organized climbs (versus the sneaky ones Sydneysiders used to do). Dick and Catherine hiked up to the top, near the flags you see, and then crossed from one arch to the other before climbing down. If you look really hard at the arch on the right, just above the right-hand most vertical in this photo, you will see about fifteen tiny people in a climbing group going down the bridge arch.
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We were fortunate to have our cruising friends Peter and Carol Willauer join us for the trip north from Cairns inside the Great Barrier Reef, and over the top to Darwin, Australia. Peter and Carol own the J/42L EIGHT BELLS, and live aboard most of the time, between Maine and the Caribbean. Peter got right into the swing of things, buying this classic Australian hat. Don’t worry Peter, I will tell your friends you did not join the NRA, even though you look like an Australian rancher!
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Jane Fonda was seen competing in our local “Carol Willauer Look-Alike” contest! (Or did that come out backward?)
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Cruising north inside the Great Barrier Reef was done in day hops up the coast. Sometimes we anchored near small islands like these at Low Islets. Because of the extensive shipping inside the reef, the Australians have done a wonderful job of putting in lights and other navaids, making the trip somewhat easier than the normal navigation through coral reefs. Too bad the lights were not here when Captain Cook first sailed here – we sailed right by Endeavour Reef, where he grounded his ship, and later by Cooktown, where he rescued the ENDEAVOUR. Thanks to the Willauers for this and some of the next snaps, as we lost most of our shots when the hard drive crashed.
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One “must see” stop on the way up the Barrier Reef was Lizard Island, a quiet place mostly National Park, but with one exclusive resort. This is the lagoon on the south side of the island, reached by walking about 45 minutes from the anchorage. Not shown is the large hill Captain Cook (and we) climbed, from which Cook was able to identify a pass to the outside of the Barrier Reef. Of course, he had to come back inside a few days later, to go west, but the man had tenacity!
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ARAGORN sailed in company behind the reef with the rally boat NADEMIA, Alistair and Carolyn Roberts. In the protected waters behind the reef, we could fly chutes. NADEMIA, a Warrior 38, struts her stuff here.
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Having NADEMIA along meant that we had more brainpower trying to figure out how to get through the Cape York/Torres Strait area at the NE corner of Australia, known for strong and unpredictable tidal streams. During sundowners on ARAGORN, Dick and Carolyn Roberts (who does the navigation on NADEMIA) consult cruising guides, tide tables and electronic charts to try to make some sense. It actually worked!
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As we sailed farther north inside the Great Barrier Reef, swimming became just a dream, due to the water snakes, sharks and saltwater crocodiles (“Salties”). While on a brief visit on the mainland at Portland Roads, Peter Willauer shot this sign with Carolyn posing ... but what is Dick running from in the background?
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Many of our anchorages up the Great Barrier Reef were also used by the shrimpers during the day (they work at night). In Portland Roads, we received two large bags of local lobsters and five kilos of shrimp in trade for a 750 ml bottle of quality gold rum … for which we had paid only US$4.00 in Panama. As usual with good bartering, both parties felt they had come out ahead.
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After twelve days of sailing up the Great Barrier Reef, we rounded Cape York, at the NE corner of Australia, and started steering west, “over the top” to Darwin. Here are the Yorks at Cape York (slightly hidden behind York and Eborac Islands), the northernmost point of the mainland of Australia. It is not every day you get to round a cape signifying the end of a continent!
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Of course, Peter and Carol rounded the end of the continent too. Next we sailed for five days to Darwin, with good winds (15 to 30 kts, broad reaching) for most of the trip.
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We stopped briefly at Port Essington, about 20 hours east of Darwin, to wait for the right tides through Van Diemen’s Gulf. Leslie took the opportunity to bake celebratory cookies. The tricky tides meant we raced through narrow passages between coral reefs and islands in pitch black (new moon) conditions, but at 11 knots over the bottom with the fast current favoring us. Leslie called the turns from the route on the computer. … But the hard drive on the navigational computer died only three days later. Moral of story … always duplicate your route on your GPS in case one system dies when you need it most. We do carry paper charts too.
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Several boats joined the Rally in Australia, bound for the Mediterranean. Australian Peter Gregory and Brit Jane Duckworth are on ISHTAR. He has sailed a lot, including on those over-canvassed Sydney dinghies! While Jane had no offshore experience, her positive attitude and sense of humor have helped her get into this voyaging thing we do. We caught them on their deck the afternoon we sailed through Van Diemen’s Gulf.

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