Travelling down the east coast, we anticipated easy anchorages where we have been to before. Its always less stressful coming in to a known place. What we hadn’t considered was that most of those anchorages were for conditions with SE winds. This time we have mostly NE winds, so have to chose different anchorages. All part of the adventure. South of Cairns we ducked in to Mourilyan Harbour. A very narrow entry but the bay widens out once inside. Surrounded by hills, its a superbly sheltered bay. Inside, there is a large jetty where ships load up on sugar and molasses. Pushing south, we finally caught a fish!! A nice mackerel. Chuffed, but then we hooked up to something huge. A marlin (Rough estimate around 400lbs). Lucky for us, it leaped out of the water and shook off the lure. There was no way we could have brought that on board. After a stop in lovely Fantome Island - Juno Bay, we made our way to Townsville. This is one of our favourite places with good friends to catch up with here. A couple of fabulous evenings with cruising friends Jenni, Milton, Di and Russel, swapping news and stories about all our adventures over the last 8 years since we last sailed together. Our journey south got another hiccup. Cyclone Jasper. Deciding this was the safest place for us to be during a cyclone, we opted to stay in this marina in Townsville. Lots of speculation as to where it would make land fall and how strong it would be. Everyone was prepping their boats. After all the build up, it crossed above Cairns, but we still got wind and rain for days.
Escaping at last (2 weeks later) but heading into SE winds yet again, we headed for the lovely Whitsundays Islands. This place was familiar with many known anchorages. Christmas had snuck up on us. We were joined for Christmas lunch by good friends Naomi, Stewart, Tim, and Mel from S/V Mad Fish and Julie and Mark from S/V Jansz plus Sparky their dog. Wonderful food and great company with video calls from the kids, made for a great day. For New Years Eve, we went in to Port of Airlie Marina to re provision and watch the fireworks. While here, we were visited by my nephew, Leigh, his wife Jess and their family. As we left the marina we took them out for a sail in the sea in front of Airlie Beach. Their 3 boys, Connor, Liam and Teddy had a ball. They were so excited being allowed to helm for a while and even have a dingy ride back to shore. Lots of fun.
Our next highlight was our son David arriving at Hamilton Island, to sail with us for 2 weeks. Coping with the intense heat and humidity was difficult, but he became a comfortable snorkeller. We went out to Bait Reef for a few days where sadly we found the reef there to have sustained enormous storm damage over the last 8 years. So sad to see this. Hopefully it will recover in time. From there we island hopped southwards away from all the charter boats and tourists to quieter islands like Shaw, Thomas, Goldsmith and Brampton. Davids stay ended with us at Mackay where we sadly farewelled him as he returned to Melbourne.
In Mackay, of course we had to reunite with our old friends Patty and Peter. I think we first met in Sri Lanka in 1982 while returning from our back packing in Europe. What adventures we’ve all had since then, but we’re still good friends. OH NO!! Another cyclone developing!!!! We can’t win. Once more prepping for another cyclone. This one called Cyclone Kirrily. Waiting, waiting for it to arrive. This time it landed in Townsville, once again north of us but providing lots of wind for 3 days before it landed and then messy seas as it passed. No more, Please!
Another 2 weeks sitting in one place. We got away again on the 28 January. Down to Hunter Island in The Dukes, then Port Clinton and Rosslyn Bay.
The last day of January was an interesting one for us. From Rosslyn Bay, we went to Gladstone travelling via The Narrows. Its always been a route we had hoped to do. The Narrows is a channel between Curtis island and the mainland. Its about 27nm long and the middle 6nm are extremely shallow and narrow. At low tide, cattle are herded across the channel to the island or back to the mainland. So to get a boat through you have to time your passage at high tide and follow channel markers to avoid running aground. It was quite challenging, with Ian hand steering while I directed. Fun though. With 2 other yachts following, we were glad we didn’t run aground. The shallowest depths under our keel that we saw was 2.6m. Exiting the channel you are suddenly immersed in Gladstones Harbour, which is full of numerous jetties with continuous huge ships coming and going. Here they fill up with Coal. Bauxite, Chemicals and Gas. In the middle of all this you sneak in to a side canal and into Gladstone Marina and township. A great marina with excellent amenities and a really nice little town.
With a short stop in Bundaberg to say hi to friends Helen and Bob, we pushed on to Hervey bay. We’d hoped to continue, but once again we had strong SE winds forecast so we stopped in Urangan for a week. Helen and Bob drove down for a longer visit. Otherwise it was the eternal boat jobs and food shopping with a little sight seeing. From here, we navigated down the Great Sandy Straits in the rain, ending the day with an overnight stop at Gary’s Anchorage. Next day to Inskip Point where we began planning our crossing of the Wide Bay Bar between K’Gari (Fraser)Island and Inskip Point. This can be very rough and dangerous if not timed right with prevailing winds, tides and ever changing waypoints (sandbars shift continuously).
For us, we had to wait till late morning for the high tide. The crossing was challenging with 2 m waves breaking alongside us on either side of the channel and at the ocean side exit point. We were passed by 5 fishing boats and followed by 2 other yachts, all completing the bar crossing successfully.
From here, we decided to continue for the next 14 hours into Moreton Bay. Entering the bay via the shipping channel guaranteed safe depths but meant dodging big ships travelling in both directions in the dark. Our chosen anchorage was into an open bay away from the wash from the big ships down near the southern end of Moreton Island. Wearily we crashed at 2.30am. Hopefully this will have been our last ever night sail!!!.
In the morning we crossed Moreton bay and entered the Brisbane River. It took 2 hours to travel up river, through the harbour, past many anchored yachts, through residential areas until we reached the city of Brisbane. We have a marina booking for 2 weeks at Dockside, which is right beside Story Bridge in the middle of Brisbane. Here we will catch up with friends, order boat items and do some sightseeing before our final push to the Gold Coast where we will haul out and begin a long list of jobs to get Songbird looking and functioning perfectly, ready for Sale.

Entering Watsons Bay anchorage on Lizard Island at 4am, we were confronted by 30 other boats!! What a culture shock after so long in remote areas!! Its quite an arid, rocky, scrubby island with quite high hills. Ian hiked up to the highest spot called Cooks Lookout (yes Captain Cook climbed it too, to sight a passage out of the Great Barrier Reef). A flatter, shorter walk took us to the south side of the island to the Blue Lagoon. A stunning vista of reefs surrounding shallow areas, although this side of the island takes the brunt of the strong SE trade winds that are blowing hard at the moment(and apparently has a resident croc at the moment). Along the walk is the ruins of the Watsons house built in 1879. Watson harvested Trepang (sea slugs) and while away, aboriginals attacked. Mary Watson escapes in a metal tub but died of dehydration 4 days later on Howick Island.
Watsons Bay on the west side gets the wind but the waters are sheltered and calm. There is an exclusive Resort close by, but they allow us yachties to come to their staff Bar twice a week and on special occasions. While we were there we celebrated Halloween and Melbourne Cup Day with the other yachties and staff. With so many boats, there was always gatherings on the beach for 5pm sundowners to meet or reunite with old and new friends. On the island is a famous Research Station where we did a really interesting tour. They accomodate scientists from all over the world since it opened in 1985. The reef here is some of the most well researched in the whole world!
For our next leg to Port Douglas, we decided to follow the Ribbon Reefs (the edge of the Great Barrier Reef) which protected us from sea swell coming in from the Coral Sea, most of the way down. After being guided in to a public mooring by 6 boisterous dolphins, we stopped one night at Ribbon Reef 3 where we did some lovely snorkelling off the back of our boat. During a calm night there, we were lulled to sleep by the sound of waves breaking on the outer edge of the reef. Next day we sailed down to Mackay Reef. A small sand spit with reef extending to each side. Being close to Port Douglas now, many day boats also arrived here to snorkel and stand(to be photographed) on the sand spit(hilarious). So remote for most people. Crowded for us. At dusk, chairs were lined up on the spit for the cruise boat guests to come to watch the sunset! Next morning we woke to find 2 sets of turtle tracks and filled in nests on the sand spit.
Spending a weekend in Port douglas was an indulgence where we ate out at restaurants with our friends Naomi and Stewart and visited the Sunday craft market for some Christmas shopping. Luckily for us, we had been given a contact who owned a berth at Bluewater Marina, north of Cairns which he rented to us for 2 weeks. It was the same berth we had spent 3 months in 10 years ago. There is now a large pub on the edge of the marina where we had many a good meal this time. More boat repairs and maintenance ensued broken up by visits with friends inside and outside of the marina. Time passes so quickly while busy, but the wet season has started and the heat with humidity is quite intense at the moment, sapping our energy. At least from here on as we travel south, the winds should finally be coming from behind us, easing our journey and allowing us to do more actual sailing and less motoring.

Our stay at Seisia on the west side of Cape York lasted four weeks. Other boats came and went allowing us to make more friends as always. Best part of this lifestyle. One local, let us borrow his car, allowing us to go to Bamaga town to go to the bigger supermarket. He also suggested we drive up to the tip of Cape York, which we happily did. The drive was along the red dusty corrugated roads, through arid scrubby bushland studded with the huge termite mounds, then into rainforest, passing through only one shallow water crossing until we arrived on the north coast. From there, it was still a 20 minute walk to the exact most northern tip of our country where we posed for the obligatory photos. A little west of there is a small place called Punsand Bay which has a camping ground, a souvenir shop and a bar/pizza/food spot. Very cute and had great burgers for lunch. Our friends, Naomi and Stewart on S/V Mad Fish who we had spent time with at Darwin, finally caught up with us in Seisia. Lucky for us, they stopped in Weipa also and picked up our ignition switch from the post office which had taken 3 weeks to arrive, instead of the promised 4 days!!
On October 22nd, we moved Songbird up to anchor exactly alongside the tip of Cape York on its west side, ready to make the leap over the top and finally head southwards down the east coast of Australia. We were joined by “S/V Mad Fish” and a lovely family on “S/V Family Circus” for this leg of our journey. While we had a reasonable weather window, we travelled all day and overnight, then through the next day, anchoring at last at tiny Morris Island. This cute sandy cay, was planted out with coconut trees and sisal bushes many decades ago. The coconuts were for passing sailors to eat, and the sisal bushes provided long sticks to knock the coconuts down with. The sisal thrived, but only a few coconut trees remain. Many bird species are appreciative of their presence though. Lots of reef sharks, stingrays, and turtles proliferate as there is a sheltered area with surrounding reefs.
Next day we did a shorter day to the Flinders Group, anchoring in Stokes Bay in Stanley Island. The following morning, we followed a signed pathway to a viewing area of some great aboriginal artwork in the caves on the north of the island. In the afternoon, we again enjoyed good weather, allowing us to do an overnighter around Cape Melville and across to Lizard Island.

Finally completing our most needed boat works, we departed Darwin on 29/7/23. We knew we would be travelling into the winds at this time of the season, so we were prepared for a slow trip. It took us 23 days of day hopping, predominantly using our motors, to get to Gove. During that time we stopped to explore Port Essington and the historical ruins of an early European attempt to settle the north coast at Victoria Settlement which was abandoned after 11 gruelling years in 1838. Stops at other anchorages lasted 2-3 days as we waited for calmish conditions to proceed, not always achieving that. Had some rough and some very rough sections along the way! Another nice stop was in the Wessel Islands which are totally remote, quite barren, but very picturesque. During our last couple of days before reaching Gove, we anchored in Elizabeth Bay which is mostly filled with Pearl Farm, but not along the edges of the bay. In the evenings we were visited off the back of our boat by very friendly Lemon Sharks. Probably looking for food, they were cheeky enough to let us pat them on their nose from our back steps. So special to get these lovely interactions with nature.
Finally arrived in Gove on 21st August. The Gove anchorage is in a sheltered bay. Windy but flat waters. Heaven! Gove itself consists of a large Bauxite mine, a decommissioned Aluminium Refinery and the Boat Club with a caravan park. We had access to the parks laundry and showers and the restaurant at the Boat Club which served huge, fantastic meals. The closest town is Nhulumby, 15km away. The only way we could get there was by taxi or a fellow resident boater(Harold). In town we could reprovision at the supermarket and Harold helped us fill our jerry cans with fuel using his ute. All along the coast of the NT we continue to see purposely lit fires which cover the boat in ash. Now being close to the mine, we are being covered with red dust!
After 10 days in Gove, despite our nerves about crossing the notorious Gulf of Carpentaria, we lucked out, getting a 2 day calm weather window, which allowed us a pleasant motor/motor sail of 48 hours to get across the gulf to Weipa. Anchoring offshore, we experienced strong winds and lumpy seas, making dingy trips ashore difficult. After about 10 days, we moved over to the floating public pontoon where the waters were flat. With easy shore access we did taxi trips to the supermarket and even got our fold up bicycles out and did a few lovely rides. We befriended a local commercial Mackerel fisherman(Brett and son BJ) who gave us some grey mackerel fillets, then syphoned fuel from his tanks to our jerry cans(3 loads of 10 cans) saving us lugging them to the local petrol station, then invited us to dinner for fresh chilli mud crabs plus advise on the trip ahead of us. Amazingly kind people we meet along our travels! During our 18 day stay here, we ordered a new ignition kit to be sent from Melbourne by express post(expected 4 day delivery). A week later, no one knew where it was. Unbelievable! Thought we had left these sort of issues behind in Asia! When it arrives, we will have to get it redirected to somewhere else.
The trip up the coast to our next stop of Seisia, took 2 days of pleasant conditions. Actually sailing a lot of the way at last. We arrived at Seisia on the 22nd September where we now await calm conditions again to go over the Cape and start heading south. Seisia itself is underwhelming. Most locals live in Bamaga or new Mapoon, some kms away. Here, there is a caravan park (with laundry and shower access), a supermarket which gets restocked biweekly by barge, a petrol station a Boat Club and a busy boat ramp, plus the occasional wild horse roaming around. 5 other boats arrived during the next few days, making it a lovely social place with dinners and sundowners frequently on all boats. It was an incredibly windy stay for the first 10 days although the waters are calm thankfully. Our water maker is not working, so daily trips ashore for showers, food or shopping. We even got to watch the AFL Grand final on a big screen at the Boat Club. Thrilling very close match. With 4 others, Maz caught a ferry over to Thursday Island and then did a bus tour to see the sights. We visited the museum at Green Hill and the historical Cemetery plus a full circumnavigation(5kms). Lunch in a cafe, then a visit to the Cultural Center before returning on the ferry again. Interesting Military and Pearling History. Most of our friends have moved on either east or westwards, but we are being patient, waiting for that favourable weather window again offering more comfortable passage, seeing as we don't have a definite timeline to be anywhere in particular.

So much work to do on our beloved Songbird. We found a great mechanic to overhaul our engines, replace the seals on our sail drives and to set up a new breather system to prevent issues from recurring there. To do this, we had to haul out of the water at “Spot On” boatyard. Not a pleasant place, but only stayed there 2 days. Back to our lovely Cullen Bay Marina berth. We had electricians go over the boat to solve many issues that have developed over the years away. We contacted Raymarine to discuss our repeated chart plotter failures and they offered a good discount on yet another new improved model. We repaired curtains, polished hulls, replaced furler lines and many, many more small - medium jobs. Maz had to return to Melbourne to see a hip specialist (needs a hip replacement in the near future), so she spent 2 weeks there with family, while Ian continued boat works in Darwin.
Arriving in Darwin at the same time as us were Natalie and Ralph on “S/V Miss Venus”. We have travelled with them before in Asia, so it was wonderful to get to spend time with them again. During our sojourn in Darwin, we of course made new cruising friends, some from Australia(Naomi, Stewart, Tibby, Rusty, William, Gai and daughter Sarah) and some from OS(Gail and Tony from the USA) and many more. This made our stay much more fun. We frequented Mindle market(especially their food stalls), went twice to the Outdoor Cinema, enjoyed an Italian Festival, visited the Maritime Museum, travelled by free(for Seniors) bus all over town, checked out a few of the local restaurants, and had a pizza night on board with friends in the marina. Even had some Melbourne friends show up for catch ups during their holidays or work. Jenni Taylor, from work, Heather, Rod (Sailing friends now travelling Aus by road)and Katrina, and Eileen, my oldest best friend from Melbourne. Mostly it was a lovely stay although expensive, with marina fees, and the boat work undertaken, plus getting used to Australian prices again(much more expensive to live than Asia). So nice to be in well stocked familiar shops and chandleries. Surprisingly, although Darwin has similar temperatures daily as we had in Davao, its feels so much cooler as its the dry season now with hardly any humidity and nice breezes. Had to dig around and find our bed doona’s which we haven’t seen for 8 years! We did get frequently covered in ash due to the purposely lit fires around the outskirts of Darwin. The ash in the sky made for nightly spectacular sunsets. Songbird needed a good wash by the time we left.

Work on our engines continued. We rinsed the fresh water cooling systems with Muriatic acid, then Baking soda and then 2 water rinses. Repeating this twice on the port side and 5 times on the starboard side before we were satisfied that there was no longer rust or calcium in either. Our windlass controls we order early in November have still not arrived and we can no longer wait for them or we will lose the weather season we need to return to Australia. We managed to get our old wired controller repaired instead. So we were once again ready to depart with more confidence.
On the 6th of February we made our farewells once again and set off on a short leg just to the bottom of Samal Island. No problems this time thank goodness. What a relief! Heading south, we finally left the beautiful Philippines behind us and entered Indonesia.
We had forgotten that Indonesia is covered in volcanoes, many of which are active. We even anchored one night at Pulau Ruang, right beside a lava flow from only a year ago. Awesome! On the 13th Feb, we arrived at the north of Sulawesi, at Bitung, where we officially “Cleared In” to Indonesia. Not much of a city, but we were anchored in front of a dive resort where the German managers befriended us and their staff, welcomed and assisted us during our one week stay. They made fantastic Nasi Goreng, which we haven’t tasted for years.
Leaving Bitung, we planned to head towards Morotai, north of Halmahera, but once out at sea (35nm) with wind and seas building, the furling line on our huge Screecher sail snapped and one end promptly wrapped around our propellor. It took us an hour to get the sail back onto the deck and tied down safely. Being far closer, we limped back to Bitung travelling into strong head winds and a storm on one engine only, taking 10 hours.
Unable to find replacement rope, we spliced together 2 ropes to replace the broken line before heading off again. This time we travelled south of Halmahera, island hopping day to day, finding some beautiful anchorages along the way. We were determined to reach Raja Ampat after 5 years of trying to get there.
With a few sail drive oil issues and leaking exhaust elbow, we decided to go to Sorong first before heading into the many islands of Raja Ampat. Sorong is a pretty uninspiring town, but a safe spot to sort out boat issues and to restock.
Our first day out of Sorong and travelling only 30nm, we saw manta rays and whales, making us excited for what else we were to experience in this magical part of the world. Many anchorages in these islands are very deep, but we managed to find lots that we were comfortable with. We anchored at Pulau Kawe, which is exactly on the equator, plus has some lovely reef for snorkelling and some friendly manta rays feeding close to Songbird. On the 18th March, we finally arrived in Wayag, which has long been a dream of ours. So many fellow sailors have been here and raved about its beauty. Its actually a collection of islands and sheer walled Karst Islets, some you can climb, to get amazing views of the area. There is reef to snorkel on, an area to swim with many black tipped sharks, beach to walk along and clear water to kayak on and swim in. We stayed here for a week, soaking it all up, taking too many photos and just relaxing. It did not disappoint! So beautiful. We keep looking at each other and remarking on how lucky we are to be here.
From Wayag, we headed south again and in order to avoid some bad weather, went into Kabui bay. This is a large area with many places to anchor. We found Hideaway bay that friends of ours (Sherry and Dave) had explored by dingy to lay tracks for others such as us to follow, allowing us to meander through narrow channels between islets into a sheltered haven of peace. In one corner of Kabui Bay is a passage between islands, that only a few brave sailors take their yachts through, dodging shallow spots and strong currents. We took our dingy and enjoyed a very pretty ride down and then back through the channel.
Another huge highlight of our stay in Raja Ampat was snorkelling with Manta Rays. We hired a local guide to take us to the best spot and were so lucky to find a group of about 8 huge rays. This spot is a cleaning station where they come to get parasites etc removed. Anyway, they were unafraid of us and glided around and underneath us within touching distance for 1 1/2 hours. An unbelievable experience we will never forget!
After 2 wonderful weeks of exploring, we returned to Sorong as our visa’s were running out. We refuelled Songbird and topped up our food provisions, then went through the formalities of Clearing Out. Our last stop in Raja Ampat is a little to the south east of Sorong, an Island called Misool. On its east side there is also a group of Karst Islets, where again we could slowly enter and meander into the middle with our boat. These islets had sheer cliff faces but still covered in jungle vegetation. Stunning scenery. We found a wooden walkway mostly of steps up one of these islets taking us to Harfat Peak, from where we had magnificent 360 degree views of the surrounds, including Songbird anchored below us. Just as beautiful as Wayag views.
Now it was time to head south towards Darwin. During some of our nightly stops we were visited by many locals, curious about us and our boat. They were always polite and respectful and often very exuberant. The amount of selfies, group photos with and without us, and of each other was staggering. We were able to give them our remaining fishing gear, school supplies, hats and even bags of mixed groceries that we can’t take back into Australia. Songbird was now much lighter, emptier and everyone was happy. Such lovely friendly curious people, who have made our travels so exciting and fulfilling. In the Tanimbar Island Group, we spent 4 days at a little island called Wotap, sheltered in an uninhabited bay, waiting for bad weather to pass. Here again we had lots of local visitors come by in their canoes, often whole families. We had lots of fun interacting with them and again giving away excess groceries and fishing gear. Our last stop in Asia was at Saumlaki. We anchored off the town close enough to hear the Muslim Call to Prayer each day and see the many large Christian churches. Having already Cleared Out of the country, we didn’t go ashore sadly. After a few squally rainy days, we found a calmer weather window to finally start our last leg towards Australia. It was with very mixed feelings that we left SE Asia. We have had so many wonderful experiences in our years travelling around, yet we were really looking forward to getting home. As we passed the last Island, a large whale breeched, lifted a fin, waved to us and disappeared. What a magnificent farewell.
The trip took 2 days and one night to reach the SW corner of Bathurst Island, where we stopped for an overnight rest. Only 70nm to Darwin, we were eager to get this last section over and done with, so we set off, only to get hammered for most of the way by strong winds and big messy seas. One engine stopped, leaving us fighting the seas with only one engine and after a while even the autopilot gave up. During a brief lull in the weather, Ian managed to change the fuel filter and we had both engines again. Our 10 hour trip took us 15 hours, but we finally anchored off Darwin at 11pm. So glad and relieved to be back in Australia! It took 2 days to officially complete the Clearing In procedures before we could enter Cullen Bay Marina tie up and settle in. We will be here until the start of July doing various maintenance before starting our journey east and south towards our final destination in the Gold Coast, Qld some time later this year.