Cooktown

One might be lured into thinking that Cooktown is a haven from the tribulations of the turbulent northern seas. This is true to a point. If for instance, you have been sitting on top of a reef in one of the King's fine wooden barks (or converted coal ship to be precise), taking on water some nine months from home with no hope of assistance - then finding the Endeavour River would be fine indeed. Reading the small print, you would find that Cook grounded at the mouth and had to warp the Endeavour over the bar at the entrance to the Endeavour River - which effectively means that they had to drag the boat into the harbour using ropes. King had to do the same 50 years later when European folk next entered the estuary. Once the Endeavour had been careened and repaired, Cook had to wait some weeks for the right tide conditions and then warped back out again.

The setting sun smiles down on the deep and comfortable waters of the Endeavour River

Arjuna had no such problem though - we followed the channel marks into the mighty port of Cooktown at a lazy 6 knots. We waved at a yacht we knew tied up at the fuel wharf then watched the depth rise from 3 metres under the keel to 0 metres under the keel in the space of approximately 0 metres. We lurched round in a crazy turn looking for some water. There was nowhere apparently to go. We had been warned of the limited swing room in Cooktown. There were two deep keeled yachts anchored just off the fuel wharf as well as a 90 tonne fishing trawler. These three boats between them almost took up all the habitable water at the entrance harbour at Cooktown. We ended up dropping our anchor behind the fishing trawler and one of the yachts using some precision driving.

Welcome to Cooktown!

The fuel wharf at Cooktown couldn't fit us in - they were too busy dispensing 7000 litres or more to fishing boats and motor yachts to make room for a 100 litre fill that day. So we grabbed our trusty jerry can and started relaying diesel in 20 litre lots. On one of these return visits, it became apparent that the fishing trawler was moving very close. It turned out that it had about 100 metres of chain out in what was only about 3 metres of water meaning it was wandering all over the mooring area. To avoid certain damage, we weighed anchor and ended up relocating into virtually the main channel right inside the entrance leads.

There is more room in Cooktown - there were a lot of boats further up the river and a swing basin that can be accessed on the high tide in certain phases of Mars. We avoided this. Over the next few days we saw a lot of boats sitting up on mudflats at low tide. We ended up relocating twice more trying to fine tune our anchor position, one of these relocations was forced upon us when a particular combination of wind and tide gently swung us around and left the boat sitting on the mud as the tide receded. When they dredged Cooktown harbour they really did stop at the very edge of the swing basin.

As the afternoon progressed, several boats arrived who had also been at Lizard Island. One of them had pursued the outer reef option - the outcome: equally unpleasant. The other was a motor boat who claimed that they had had their roughest trip ever. They were made of 100% sea salt though - filling up at the fuel wharf (obviously being over some several thousand litre cutoff) then turning around and heading straight back out to sea again to continue running to Cairns and deliver their kids back to school.

The Wet Bar departs to get the kids to school

James Cook and his favourite kaleidoscope

Once you overcome the lack of water issues, Cooktown itself is well worth the stop. We dined at several pubs. The crew vote the dinner at the bowling club as particularly worth a recommendation serving cuisines from all corners of the globe all on a bed of chips. The walk along the river from the dinghy landing beach into the shops takes in a vast array of memorials, playgrounds and parks.

Near the beach where boats can land their dinghy is a memorial to the Chinese immigrants who arrived here during the gold rush. This is followed shortly after by the Queen's Steps - where Queen Liz II stepped ashore back in the 70's. We boggled at the logistics of how the Royal Yacht Brittania had managed to get this far up the river but feel certain that the Queen would have appreciated the rough blue metal concrete slab stairs as she stepped out on to solid land.
A fine statue of Cook stands at the location where the Endeavour (and later King's Mermaid) were careened. The tree that the Endeavour was tethered to has been removed to the museum to allow the mangroves more room to flourish.

Slightly further on, one comes upon the extensive defensive ramparts that protected Cooktown during the bad times. In the 1890's, the residents of Cooktown, concerned about their exposure to Russian invasion, the very peaks of the Urals visible on the horizon, requested help from the Queensland Governor. The Governor leapt into action sending, at great expense, one soldier, several muskets, one cannon and three cannon balls. With this escalation in armaments an effective deterrent was now in place and history records that Cooktown was unplagued by the threat of Russian invasion until late 2014.

Table centrepiece, Cooktown style

The sites of Cooktown continue along the river. We paused briefly at the Mary Watson memorial. Mary Watson, having escaped Lizard Island to die of thirst on the reef, now has a marble drinking fountain in her name. We sat in the Anzac park near a leopard tank and marvelled at the sheet iron buried deep in the upper boughs of the mango trees by various cyclones gone by.

Mary Watson Memorial. Nothing else to say

The James Cook Museum in Cooktown brings many facets of Cooktown history together one roof and is well worth the visit with rooms dedicated to the gold rush, Chinese and aboriginal history as well as the recovered anchor and cannon from the Endeavour. The careful reader can find the other side of the story to the Mary Watson saga on Lizard Island. Both Cook's and the local aboriginal tribe's take on the first meeting at the Endeavour River are on display. A replica of Mary Watson's beche-de-mer tub is propped up around the back. Readers should note that the Able Seamonkey managed to complete his museum checklist in record time and earned two stamps from the staff as a fitting reward - finding Mary Watson's egg cup proved particularly difficult though.

Inspecting the readiness of the town for possible invasion

We spent four days in Cooktown. On the last afternoon, we received a new passenger on board Arjuna - known by many names but most commonly as "the Rock". The Rock took the bus from Cairns via the scenic inland route. Being the only passenger on the bus, she was

Still life with mango tree and roof sheet.

able to share 9:30 am beers with the bus driver as they drove (the champagne not being cold enough at that time) meeting us at the fuel wharf for transmission to Arjuna in time to leave on the next morning's tide.