I only have two jobs left to do from the Townsville list, so it was a very productive week spent there. I even got to fly down to Coolangatta for a couple of days and catch up with my parents and my sister Jane, which was wonderful. Kelsey had a friend of hers from Melbourne, Doug, up visiting for the weekend so we also had a great evening out in Townsville before we left for Cairns on Monday. It took a couple of days to get up to Cairns, but we had a bit of wind towards the end which saved some diesel.
We spent 24 hours in Cairns to provision and catch up with friends (thanks again for a great night David & Caroline) before setting off up North yesterday morning. We also topped up the fuel and water, but after a full day without wind yesterday we have made a dent in our diesel supply. We made it 53 miles up to Cape Tribulation, and we are now moored in the bay beneath Mount Sorrow - sounds a miserable place but it's really very beautiful. It's quite remote, but I saw people on the beach yesterday evening and more this morning at 7am, so I guess there must be some accommodation around here somewhere.
Another fish was caught about half an hour before we reached the anchorage here, so dinner last night was BBQ fresh fish fillets and a nice Greek salad. Not sure what type of fish it was, but our UK fish guide (the only one we have aboard) seems to imply it might have been a mackerel. Whatever it was it was delicious - I'm not much of a fish eater, but this one was amazing. It's a little pathetic, but it took me an hour or so to get over the act of having to kill the poor little guy. Too much empathy is my problem...
Heather is still in the UK, where she celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. She shares a birthday with Caroline from Peat Smoke so she was sorry to have missed the big party in Cairns. Heather is having a great time at home with her family though, and we should have her back aboard matilda early next week in Thursday Island. Kelsey has been aboard for about a week now and it is working well - having good sailing experience and making good company is perfect for the passage North.
We plan to do a day/night/day sail today and stay somewhere overnight tomorrow night. Not sure how far North that will get us, but we may need to do another day/night/day after we get a good night's rest tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to seeing Heather again after a couple of weeks apart, so roll on Thursday Island!