Having stayed for longer than we had planned at the coral cay of Hope Island we sailed northwards again this time bound for Cooktown. Having read his biography during the earlier part of our own small journey it has been interesting to follow his route up the East Coast. Cooktown plays an enormous part in the fortunes of Cook and his men. I guess Australian history could have taken another course had he failed to extricate the Endeavour from her reef grounding and the safety of the Endeavour River had not been so close.
The coastline is punctuated along it's entirety by extensive reef structures and shoaling sands so that even with our modern navigation aids such as electronic chart plotters we are always on the lookout for isolated coral bomies. Quite what it must have been like for Cook on his first encounter with no charts leaves one marveling that he had not gone aground previously.
The day was a perfect sail having left hoping to arrive on a rising tide. The wind was so favourable that we attempted to slow our selves down by flying a mere postage stamp of a head sail. We still managed 5 to 6 knots and were destined to get there ahead of our planned time. A call to the local coast guard and some negotiating with the harbour master saw us drop anchor between 2 moored fishing boats at the head of the Endeavour River opposite the public jetty with every one fishing. It seems that anchoring a yacht is a new spectator sport! We now had to await the rising tide in order to cross the inner sand banks which dry in places at low tide! At 5.45pm just before sunset at 6pm we calculated we would have enough depth. Proceeding with minimal way we edged closer to our final location. We draw 2.1 meters under the keel. I was either on the bow anxiously staring into the green water looking for the bottom or monitoring our position on the chart plotter whilst Roger helmed. We scrapped across the bar with a depth sounding of 2.1 for an instance before it rose to 2.2 and 2.3 before hitting the patch of deeper water! Relief! A beer was definitely called for!
We spent the night calculating whether we would maintain an adequate depth under our keel as the tide fell but all was well thank goodness.
The next day saw us take the tender into the river banks and visit Cooktown. Having pulled the tender onto the bank and tied it to a mangrove tree we walked to the top of the boating ramp. At the top a large warning about the presence of crocs and recent sittings in the vicinity and warnings about cleaning fish and being to close to the edge! Well they didn't get us that time but from then on we were pretty cautious.
Cooktown was an enjoyable visit being dominated by the history of Cook and his voyage. The information was all well presented and the town was attractive with old elegant buildings and open park land by the river. The view across the river to the green rainforest mountains was beautiful and very peaceful. We climbed up Grassy Hill from where Cook surveyed the the extensive Barrier Reef and almost despaired of ever being able to find a route out to commence his homeward voyage. This was also the first location where Europeans sited the Kangaroo. A hot climb up an unsealed road but the views were majestic. The Captain Cook museum is located in a beautiful old building which originally was a monastery. It is owned by the National Trust being restored in 1973 it was opened by the Queen on her 1 hour visit to Cooktown! The original anchor which was discarded by Cook in his attempt to lighten the Endeavours load is on display. It was a great museum as was the local historical museum which highlighted the highs and lows of the towns history.
We treked again to the local botanical gardens which were excellent with a detailed information centre showing some of the tropical plants that had been catalogued on the original Cook voyage by Joseph Banks. From here it was a relatively short stroll to a local beach called Finch Bay. We were tempted to go for a swim but with a fair few mangroves fringing the beach one was left wondering what might be watching!
From Dreamweaver we took the tender to the opposite river banks and walked on the sand exposed at low tide. It seemed along way from the safety of our boat and Roger was pretty anxious about the possibility of being eaten by a croc! He stood armed with an oar as we walked along the edge trying to get a better view up the river. None about although we learned that they are plentiful in the river.
We spent 2 full days exploring and left early next morning on a raising tide. Crossing over the sand bar with a little more water underneath the keel than the first bound for Lizard Island. This will be our final northward stop before turning south!
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