June 7, 2012 Our plan was to travel from Shallow Bay up to Horn Island in the Torres Straight. From Horn we could take a ferry over to Thursday Island which has quite an interesting history. But, as we talked with many other cruisers (most heading to Darwin to join the Indonesia rally like us), we were concerned about the strict quarantine rules at the TS Islands. The Torres Straight Islands are a 'special quarantine area' for Australia. If you visit the TS Islands you must have a quarantine inspection when you return to the mainland. Your dairy, eggs, meat, chicken, fuits, veggies, and grains may be confiscated--even if you had bought them on the mainland! It is at the discretion of the Q officer what gets taken and what doesn't get taken. So, even though we had set course for Horn Island--we changed heading and sailed to the small village of Seisia on the mainland.
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This is Cape York--the top right corner of OZ.
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This is Shallow bay and we had it all to ourselves.
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The white sand dunes look like snow banks they are so white. You really feel isolated up here in the Queensland hinterlands.
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Sea Eagle II
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June 3, 2012 The next few days were pleasant but tedious. The wind and waves did die down and we enjoyed some nice days sailing. But we only stayed one night at each anchorage--taking advantage of our good weather window. After Flinders Island, we stopped at Morris Island--nice but the waves came over the reef at the night high tide. We anchored next to the family on Wandoo, whom we had met on Lizard Island. They had gone ashore on Morris for a walk on the nice white sand beach--until they saw croc tracks (not the plastic kind). The anchorages passed in a blur--up at 6am underway by 6:30, anchored by 4pm, dinner, bed. The next anchorage after Morris was Portland Roads. Portland Roads was protected behind Cape Weymouth and we had a good night. Then came Shelbourne Bay where the guide book and our chartplotter had wrong depths listed. We had to anchor over a mile from shore--again! We shared the bay with Sea Eagle II and actually it calmed down for a nice night. We elected to skip the next anchorage called Escape River. We do not like anchoring up the rivers here in Australia. There are shifting sand bars at the entrances and the wind, sea currents, and river currents can make for a challenging night. Add in the pearl farms and it just gets too interesting. We continued on through Albany Passage to Shallow Bay. The Albany Passage is best transited at slack water as the tidal flow can be considerable. We made it to Shallow Bay which is protected and calm--another nice night. The next morning we motor sailed over Cape York--the north east corner of Australia---Yeah!
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