Our time at Lizard Island has been memorable in many ways. It is often described in books and articles as the Jewel of The The Barrier Reef and certainly this is truly appropriate. The colours and clarity of the waters around the island are quite extraordinary, the sea the colour of magnificent blue sapphires or the blue of opals shimmering their reflective sparkle in the sun or equally the blues of aquamarines or turquoise. It's hard to chose between these gems as all are seen in the waters of Lizard Island. The coral reefs break through the surface twice a day but otherwise the colours of the corals and fish are equally as beautiful as the sea that creates this pristine environment. We have been truly fortunate to experience the beauty of lizard Island. The beaches are soft white sand, the sea warm and there are some fantastic walks offering superb views from the hills to the Ribbon Reefs and the drop off into the Coral Sea at the edge of the continental shelf. The magnificent Blue Lagoon on the islands southern side shimmers under the sun and the blues over white coral sand are hard to describe. A wonderful place.
Lizard Islands Watson Bay is home to visiting yachts and several of these are “Live Aboard Yachties' who spend the winter months enjoying this peaceful place. These people were incredibly welcoming and friendly and quite a community feel exists amongst the bays residents. Several nights were spent enjoying pot luck dinners where all contribute a dish and the feast shared by all. Otherwise drinks on the beach watching the sun set over the turquoise sea was the norm. A very sociable time was had and a big thank you must go to all, David and Alison, Annie (from England !) and Ronnie and not forgetting Dianne and Kerry on their cat 'Nemo'.
Towards the end of our stay a white cruising cat called A Whiter Shade of Pale, arrived in Watson's Bay. It was Roger, Allison, Barry and Faye from Royal Brighton. They had seen our pennant and off to drinks we went. We must thank them as our beers were running low and they kindly donated some to our empty fridge and also helped us change a head sail in blustery conditions the following day.
Lizard Island marks the turn around point of our sailing adventure up the East Coast of Australia. We have traveled over 2500 nautical miles from Melbourne always heading north with the wind blowing us from behind most of the way. We now have to retrace our course but stopping at different locations that we previously sailed passed on the way north, this time into the wind!
Leaving Lizard is one to remember with several people taking the trouble to farewell us from their yachts at 7am on a Sunday morning. Roger and Barry followed us down the coast to Hope Island. Two days of hard beating into blustery wet 20-30 knot winds. Not much fun! They ploughed on to Port Douglas whilst we opted for a lay day before another 2 days into similar winds to Cairns.
Well we finally arrived in Marlin Marina, Cairns last Friday.Time to relax after beating into 20-30 knots for 5 days. We have the usual long list of things to do, including repairing sails and fixing our battery problems! Cairns certainly seems to be a happening place, especially at the bar by our marina finger. - more to follow
Happy birthday Anne. Hope you have had a lovely day, but from your blog every day seems idyllic, you lucky people. have really enjoyed reading your messages, particularly about Cptn Cook. Can't really believe you are already heading south and home. All well here except england losing at headingly and newcastle started in the lower division with a draw yesterday. Femke had her graduation ceremony last month, which was very enjoyable and a proud time. take care, good sailing, love from us all.
ReplyDeleteCindy, Idse, Femke and Renske.