Year 2 11 July 2025 – Green Island- Cairns

I need two extra crew members from Cairns to Indonesia leaving about the 14/15 July 2025. If anyone is interested please contact me as soon as possible.

The wind got up in the night and it was expected to be 24 kts by 4.00pm. I was woken by Jules at 02.40 am as she did not realise the time!! Anyhow by 7.30 am the wind was steady about 25 kts and there were white horses and it looked quite frisky. We were swaying up and down a bit but it was ok but not flat as a pancake.

We had breakfast and a coffee and the upped anchor in a bit of a swell. The boat which had gone on to the reef which caused the mayday had gone and may have been destroyed on the reef. We motored out of the water we were in attempting to avoid the bommies and reefs. Once done we put up the main with 3 reefs and headed toward Mission Bay. We then put up the staysail and we were off. The winds were 20-29kts with about 1.5m swells. This was quite hard core and we had to put a reef in the staysail. We cracked along about 6-8kts but the wind angle was a close reach to close hauled and so we had quite a bit of water coming over the deck.

It became clear to me that the idea of anchoring in Mission Bay which was before Cairns was probably not likely to be comfortable bearing in mind the wind and the conditions so we agreed to go into the Trinity Inlet which is the river system which goes through Cairns.

We approached the channel into Cairns which is quite busy and contacted the VTS Cairns (Vessel Traffic System) to ask permission to enter, I was not sure this was necessary but I think it was even though the pilot book did not mention this. We had sailed well and hard from Green Island with 3 reefs in the main and between a reefed staysail and a full staysail. We had managed about 7-8.5 kts most of the way. There was a lot of water which came over the bows and giving a few of some splashing.

We came down the channel and entered the harbour. The Marlin Marina was on our right and there were a lot of boats anchored just outside the channel. I decided to carryon and went right along the channel and down the Trinity Inlet going some miles past the entrance. We motored for some miles probably some 7 nm or so down the inlet passing hundreds of boats moored or anchored in different states of repair or unrepair.

I followed the channel down and we begin to pass some old tugs and landing ships. It became almost an old grave shipyard. We were now in the mangroves and creeks and it was narrowing but we had time and we did not need to go ashore. We passed an old steamship on the hard which must have been great in its heyday.

We came toward the end of the boats and decided to anchor. It was a quiet area and we then had some lunch and then rested and chilled. We then had some tea and admired the scenery.

Mark cooked a great carbonara which we all enjoyed with a bit of breeze in the cockpit. We will go into the marina tomorrow a day early due to the weather which is no bad thing. We will then prepare for our next trip.

The picture of the day is us sailing to Cairns at quite an angle at 28-29 kts.

Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com