Yithuwarra Rock Art - Flinders Group

Until 80 years ago, Flinders Island Group was a thriving community. It was home to the Yithuwarra people for thousands of years. More recently in the late 19th and 20th centuries there was a trader station on the Aapia Spit which was the base for the pearling, fishing and beche de mer fleets. Now it is empty and deserted, visited by a handful of yachts heading to Darwin and the occasional fishing trawler for the secure anchorage afforded in the Owen Channel.



Yindayin rock art

Cape Melville

Tuesday 16th September saw us raise anchor at dawn and set off northwest from Watson's Bay towards Cape Melville. We had initially planned to overnight at Howick or Ingram Island but a brisk 20 knot wind steadily built behind us and we passed Howick shortly before lunch. So we decided to push on for Cape Melville.



 

Cape Melville - a lizard on every termite mound.

Here is Arjuna

In April 2014, while Arjuna sat down at Sheridan Flats in the Great Sandy Straits thinking we were having strong winds, Cyclone Ita sat over Lizard Island for around eleven hours and ripped the place to shreds. However, not having seen the place before, the clear surrounding waters were obvious even from a distance although the island itself looked barren. When the southeaster blows, which it does often, 400-450 days a year on average in fact, Watson's Bay on the northern side is the place to drop your plow. There were about ten boats in the bay when we arrived which we understand is on the empty side. Being a marine park A area we saw the obligatory batfish wander up at our arrival. A few reef sharks also swam over to check the newcomer out. The water was the clearest we had seen since Lady Musgrave Island so the bottom was clearly visible through the depths. In fact, it was the first time on the trip we could swim along the anchor chain and see our trusty hunk of iron embedded in the sand.

This be a  fine island

Where is Arjuna?

Well we are back in Cairns after 6 weeks of adventures in the north.  We got as far as Stokes Bay, Stanley Island in the Flinders Group before turning the bow southwards again.

Now everyone is busily catching up on schoolwork, boat work, paid work and paper work while the blog remains sadly neglected.

There are many crazy tales waiting to be told:

of monster fish caught . . .

The Journey to Lizard

It's the island on everyone's lips in these parts: Lizard. The nominal turning point for the multiple vice commodores of the Shaggers, the grey navy and the general cruisers as well as long term home for some yachties. We left the channel markers out of Cairns and turned our bows towards the north to make our push to these fabled, fantastical bays of Lizard Island. However, Lizard is not just down the road - its a triple digit nautical mile trip from Cairns requiring some degree of planning and the odd course correction that wrinkled the brow of even one of history's greatest navigators. This area of the coast bristles with the ghosts of Cook, Flinders, King and others. The water coursed with the descendents of the Endeavour's barnacles - and in fact several great grandchildren had taken up residence in our speed sensor rendering it completely inoperable.

An interesting camera angle makes the Low Isles lighthouse seem taller than it is. Eagle perched on railing