Day 17: Sunday 10 May - Dunk Island to Fitzroy Island
We left Dunk Island at 6.50am - it was overcast and raining and thoroughly miserable. Went through all the Family Group of islands which are just beautiful but it was not a nice day. On days like these sailing is really a slow way to travel!!! Had sardines on toast and a nice bottle of wine for mothers day!
Miles: 65 Total 875nm
Day 18: Monday 11 May - Fitzroy Island to Yorkeys Knob (Cairns)
Left Fitzroy at 7.45 and arrived at the fuel dock at Yorkeys at 11 am. We were fuelled and berthed by 12. Peter hired a car and raced around trying to get a part to repair the wet exhaust hose for the engine. The elbow we had had rusted through. Peter finally found someone who could make another one by 8am the next morning! We spoiled ourselves and had dinner at the yacht club. A bit rainy.
Miles: 20 Total 895nm
Day 19: Tuesday 12 May - Yorkeys Knob Marina
Peter collected his part and got a prepaid modem (no external aerial however). Took him most of the day to fix the exhaust and after all that he bypassed using the new part so I guess we have a spare for future use!! I did the final shop before our push north and we again shouted ourselves dinner at the yacht club.
Day 20: Wednesday 13 May - Yorkeys to port Douglas to the Low Isles
We left Yorkeys at 5.45 in the dark. A rigger in Port Douglas could change our quartz halogen anchor light to LED if we could be in port Douglas around 10ish. (LEDs use a lot less power than quartz). We made it by 10.30 and were instructed to head for the red boat up the river and we would have to reverse in!! Our boat doesn't reverse all that well and Peter had never reversed it into anywhere before. We were heading for the wrong red boat and almost went past when we saw the rigger waving and we really blanched when we saw where we had to go. It was a tiny little inlet with boats tied on both sides of it and double parked on the side we had to go into. We had a go and got in there - I threw the line and missed and threw it again and landed it all over the rigger. We got our back in and then I had to throw the front line and he pulled the front in. It was the sort of dock you had to climb a ladder to get up. It took a couple of hours for the rigger and his sparky mate to change it all over. I popped up the street - we really like Port Douglas. We thought later we should have taken a photo because we couldn't believe we were in there. At 1.30 it was quick we have to get out of here as the tide is going out. Our depth sounder was showing that we were sitting on the bottom but we seemed to be still floating! Luckily the double parked boat left 5 minutes earlier so I pushed off with a long stick and we headed out. Our keel pushed through about 200mm of mud but we finally got back into the main river and headed for the Low Isles. Arrived about 2.55pm. There are three buoys for boats at the Low and we were the fourth boat to arrive! It was a beautiful day and a great sail.
Miles: 38 Total 933nm
Day 21: Thursday 14 May - Low Isles to Hope Isles
We left the Low at 6.45 and motored for an hour and then put the jenneker (spinnaker - the big pretty sail!) out and had a great sail. But we always realise too late that the wind is getting a bit much for the jenneker - it always feels so good racing along at a great rate of knots!! Had a terrible time getting it in. I thought either Peter would get dragged off the deck or we would blow a hole in it!! After much manouvering we finally got it in and had a great sail with just the headsail out. We had experimented with the mainsail up earlier in the day but found it went heaps better with just the headsail. Arrived at the Hope Isles at 2.30. There are two buoys at the Hope and we were the third yacht to arrive!!!
Miles: 47 Total 980nm
Day 22: Friday 15 May - Hope Isles to Lizard island
Weather windy 15 - 20 knots then 20 - 25 a lovely sunny day. Left at 6.20am - the wind howled all night. Had a great run up - put Mr Fleming our wind vane (which does all the steering) on and away we went. 
Two pilot whales travelled with us for a while - magic. Did 7 - 8 knots - got a couple of knocks where the back of the boat slews around before it rights itself. We came around the corner and there in the bay were our friends Tookawhile. We had to do the go around anchor thing again as the anchor wouldn't go down (when its rough weather the chain gets knocked around and gets a bit knotted up). Anchored besides Tookawhile and Cheryl was so excited. It was so good to see them again and talked till late!!! A great reunion!
Miles: 68 Total 1048
Miss you all, fair winds
Dell and Peter
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