Lizard Island

Well yes it is a while since we last added a report. Lazy? Yes, enjoying the slow pace of life here.

It is really a beautiful place with a variety of things to do. The water is so clear and the snorkeling and swimming is great. The anchorage in Watsons Bay can be a hive of activity occasionally as dive boats come in to drop off or pick up new clients and there is a steady exchange of yachts passing through. Some of the luxury Gin Palaces are amazing, especially the one off our stern at the moment! Not as close as he was as we moved further into the bay feeling a bit intimidated! We found this one on the net and with 6 state rooms we estimated it was 30,000 AUD a night!!!! But don't get the wrong impression, it is pretty quiet, no jetskis!

We walked to the top of Cooks Lookout for a fantastic view of the Island and the nearby barrier reef. A fair walk in this heat.There is a visitors book in a plastic box which must get alot of entries as it dated only back to the new year. Our friends from Mandolin Wind were noted.

There is a marine research station at the other end of the island which generously gives the yachties a free tour on Mondays, and offers mail collection, library, fax etc! The guests at the expensive $1000 a night resort in the next bay have there own tour, they try to keep us at arms length! There is a regular need for volunteers at the research station with free board and 4 hours work a day. Looks fantastic. Most of the island is a national park with a campsite that allows only 8 people at any given time and apart from the $500 airfare from Cairns its $3.80 a night each! What is great here is no flies, sandflies, mosquitos, and of course no crocs! Even the sharks are tame.

The wind dropped for a couple of days giving us the ideal opportunity to visit the reef, in particular the world famous Cod Hole. We took some new friends along, Diane and Kerry.
It was a fantastic day. The water was so clear allowing us to see the bottom easily. Also the fish and the friendly sharks! The Potato Cod fish are enormous and obviously very used to the company. We could identify the reef sharks, nurse shark, but not too sure of the other two! It was a little disconcerting to drop of the back of the boat with 2 of the unrecognised sharks just a couple of metres away circling the ladder! Not helped by me feeding the fish with bread after lunch. Still we went back in! Fortunately they stayed with the boat as we swam off to explore the reef.

There are several great beaches to explore by foot and the dingy. Thats if I remember the way the tides are going and the dingy doesn't find itself being rescued by some fellow travellers as it drifted out to sea! The lagoon looks spectacular from the hill.

Despite being so isolated there is good internet reception on the boat phone/internet. Hopefully that will help us pick the right weather window to head south.

The only downer at the moment is our long standing issue of battery capacity! Many hours over drinks on the beach with fellow yachties has exhausted the subject and much examination of the system comes to the conclusion the batteries are stuffed! So we await our visit to Cairns and the verdict of an electrician before spending a few more boat units!