Our hopes of moving on to Low Island today were laid aside this morning when Peter Grieg, the rigger here in Port Douglas conducted his inspection. After a detailed inspection of all of our rigging, the mast, the spreaders and even our antenna housing and the housing for our radar reflector, he suggested that we consider replacing both the cap shrouds and the lower shrouds. He showed me the repeating pattern of rust discoloration that was spiraling up the port lower shroud. He said that this is an indication that one of the interior metal wires that make up the shroud had failed. He said it was obvious from looking at our rigging that most of the winds during our 4.5 years of cruising have been coming from the port side, which is correct.

He also showed me the base of the mast and pointed out that the Lagoon folks screwed in four screws through the mast and into the pedestal on which the mast fits tightly over. He said that all of the Lagoons that he has seen have this and that these large screws do more damage than good. Since the mast is designed to bend and give a bit as conditions change, the base will rock very slightly around the pedestal that sits inside it. However, with the screws through the base of the mast and into the pedestal, the base cannot give and so what happens is that small cracks form around where the screws are. He pointed out one such crack that has formed and is in the process of growing. It is still small and insignificant but he recommended that I remove the screws if I can get them out. They may have been distorted a bit and therefore, may be very difficult to remove.

Peter said that he could replace the lower shrouds with new hardware today but that he would have to order the larger shroud and that could take a few days to arrive. Instead, he recommended that we continue up to Darwin and use the rigger there to replace the cap shrouds. He said that he does not see any obvious signs of failure with them but since they are 6 years old, they are nearing the end of their life expectancy for a blue water cruiser. He could call the rigger and make sure that when we arrive, he would have set time aside for us. There will be well over a hundred or so cruisers in Darwin waiting for the rally to start when we arrive and the rigger there will be swamped. However, with a call from Peter and with an explanation of what needs to be done and with the dimensions, the rigger can have everything made up for us when we arrive.

During his inspection, he also noticed that the radar cover was missing two screws. Apparently, the battens had hit the radar housing a number of times and the screws were stripped and tossed out. He used some of my silicon sealant and sealed the housing for me, making the housing watertight. We were lucky that water had not gotten into the radar unit and killed the unit.

Everything was completed by early afternoon so we are ready to leave Port Douglas first thing tomorrow morning. We have decided to by-pass Low Island and just go straight to Hope Island. It is about 50 nm north of Port Douglas and a bit shy of Cooktown. We had wanted to go to Cooktown to see the museum there but the river entrance and anchorage is best to enter during higher tides. It would be dead low tide when we would arrive so we will be by-passing it.

Cooktown is where Captain Cook put in to make repairs to the HMS Endeavour in 1770 after the ship had run aground on what is now called Endeavour Reef. They ran aground in the middle of the night and had to jettison a few of their anchors and all of their cannons to refloat the ship off of the reef. There was major damage to the hull and Cook was able to limp into what is now called Endeavour River to beach the ship and make repairs. The repairs took six weeks to complete.

The museum in Cooktown houses one of the cannons that was recovered in the late 1960s and gives a lot of historical information about Cook, his efforts to restore his ship, the history of the recovery of the cannons and anchors, etc.

Oh well, we now have a reason to come back...