Lizard Island and Moving North

We spent 2 days in the Lagoon at Lizard Island since we had north winds. The winds normally blow from the southeast, so this anchorage on the south of the island is rarely used. We arrived just ahead of the pack of about 20 boats that were coming around from the other (main) anchorage. Near this lagoon anchorage is a marine research facility and we went ashore to enjoy their weekly tour and orientation. They explained that they support reef and fish research and host scientists from around the world. We saw a short film and saw some of their laboratories.

We did some snorkeling on reefs around the lagoon that are rarely dived and the water clarity, reef health and fish life were all really good. We took advantage of the calm conditions and we all went SCUBA diving on one reef here.

The wind veered back to southeast and we moved around to the main anchorage. Here there was an exclusive resort that filled our SCUBA tanks and had a restaurant/bar on the beach. Apparently, this is a $2000 per night place and Oprah had her retirement vacation/party here recently. Emily met another kid boat, but did not find them as friendly as most cruising kids.

We took the big boat 12 miles out on the outer reef to the Cod Hole for another family SCUBA dive. Here we dropped to about 40 feet and swam with cod and grouper the size of small cars. We saw a few sharks too and the water was very clear. We moved north two reefs and spent the night at anchor right behind the Great Barrier Reef. It seemed weird to be anchored in 20 feet of water over white sand in calm water and 2000 feet away, the continental shelf drops off several thousand feet deep and ocean waves crash against the reef.

We stayed at Lizard Island for almost a week before starting the trip north to the Torres Straight and west to Darwin. We were really surprised at how desolate this country and coast are. We bought a cell phone thinking we could use it to access the internet as we moved around. How wrong we were. We never saw any WiFi Internet or cell phone coverage anywhere. Many of the "third world" countries we visited had a better communication infrastructure than Australia! We continued to send in our position reports using the Single Side Band radio, but saw few boats as we headed north. We stopped at Flinders Island, Morris Island, Margaret Bay and the Escape River and did a few overnight trips because there was little to see or do. Salt water alligators inhabit these waters and act as another incentive to keep moving. Some of the trips we had 30-35 knots of wind (on the aft starboard quarter) but little swell due to the protection of the barrier reef. 35 knots of wind in the open ocean would have created 5 meter seas that would not have been pleasant.

We will continue to move toward Darwin as we need to complete our Indonesian permits and provisioning there and leave Australia before late November.

Tom