It's a Tough Life

20 March 2009 | Esk Island - near Palm Island, 35 nm NW of Townsville
19 March 2009 | Hinchinbrook Channel
17 March 2009 | Beaver Cay
16 March 2009 | Farquharson Reef
15 March 2009 | Michaelmas Cay
12 January 2009 | Tokyo
10 January 2009 | Cairns!!
09 January 2009 | Low Isles (34 nm NW of Cairns)
08 January 2009 | Cooktown (92 nm NW of Cairns)
07 January 2009 | Lizard Island (135 nm NNW of Cairns)
06 January 2009 | Bathurst Bay (180 nm NNW of Cairns)
05 January 2009 | Fife Island (225 nm NNW of Cairns)
04 January 2009 | Piper Reef (315 nm NNW of Cairns)
03 January 2009 | Piper Reef (315 nm NNW of Cairns)
03 January 2009 | Magra Islet (335 nm NNW of Cairns)
02 January 2009 | Turtle Head Island (400 nm NNW of Cairns)
01 January 2009 | Thursday Island (425 nm NW of Cairns)
31 December 2008 | Thursday Island (425 nm NW of Cairns)
31 December 2008 | Thursday Island !
30 December 2008 | Wednesday Island (6 nm North-East of Thursday Island)

Last night at sea.

20 March 2009 | Esk Island - near Palm Island, 35 nm NW of Townsville
Nev
Left Hinchinbrook Channel at 05:15 am this morning. Phallin was looking forward with great excitement to us bringing back 2 pots with a learge mud-crab in each (but not excited enough to actually get out of bed and come with us). Alas, when we motored up the creek at high tide the floats were nowhere to be seen. Seems a design fault in the manufacture resulted in the rope tether being too short at high tide! Needless to say, Phallin was devastated.

We were almost overwhelmed by insects last night in the channel, but tonight we're sheltered behind Esk Island in the Palm group so we're looking forward to an insect-free night.. We got the big 10 million candlepower spotlight out last night and spotted 2 or 3 crocodiles in the mangroves. Their eyes stood out clearly and we watched them swimming slowly along the edge of the mangroves. Phallin spent an hour honing her cast-net throwing skills from the swim platform on which we'd mounted a big floodlight to see what we could attract. Joe held her by the waist as she cast - just in case she fell off the platform into the croc filled channel. She managed a quarter of a bucket of small bait fish - which she's using to fish with as I write . We caught a couple of blue-fin tuna today, some of which we polished off sashimi style with wasabi, and some of which we're having tonight with Mackerel.

We arrived at the channel out of lucinda just after dawn and just after the high tide, but it was quite a high tide so we decided to risk it. As it turned out, we didn't see less than about 3.5 metres under the props, so that was quite a relief. We motored down the eastern side of the Palm Island group, had lunch in a quiet little bay on Phantome Island than headed over to where we are now. Beryl's cooking dinner and Phallin's fishing. She's proved to be the keenest firsherman on this trip - usually getting a line in the water within 10 minutes of us dropping anchor.

Although there is a strong wind warning for this area, we never saw more than 15 kts - actually mostly about 10 kts throughout the day. Of course tomorrow (Sat 21st) may be different.

It'll be a short 35 mile run over to Townsville tomorrow. We'll be in the Breakwater Marina tomorrow night (Sat 21st).

Nev.

a quiet night

19 March 2009 | Hinchinbrook Channel
Nev
We had a quiet day today, sleeping in this morning and then did a leisurely 1 hour trip to Port Hinchinbrook Marina. It's not very old and quite expensive looking so we expected a hefty charge to tie up there. We only needed to go there to try to find someone with local knowledge about the channel at the southern end of the Hinchinbrook Channel. When I went to the marina office to pay the charge, I was pleasantly surprised when the girl in charge said they had no rate for only a few hours, so there would be no charge. She also phoned a tour operator located at Lucinda - the small town at the channel entrance, who was able to reassure me that we should have no trouble navigating the channel in our boat.

We're presently anchored at a small island about 7 miles from Lucinda, with mangroves all around. We took a couple of crab pots up one of the creeks this afternoon, but when we checked tonight we were disappointed to find both empty. But we didn't come home empty handed. The water in the creeks is teeming with life and an unlucky prawn leapt into the dinghy at Phallin's feet. Doug was about to throw it back but Phallin's protests put paid to that. When we got back to the boat I suggested to Phallin that as it was such an unlucky prawn she should change it's luck and throw it back in, but as I was speaking she was already dipping the peeled remains in soy sauce and wasabe.

Well, high tide at Lucinda is 06:15 am so we'll be up and underway in the dark at 5 am. I understand the forecast is for 20 - 30 kts tomorrow and a strong wind warning has been issued. The run across from Hinchinbrook to Pelorus Island is about an hours but it will be directly into the SE wind and the last part will be somewhat protected by the island so hopefully it won't be to hard on the crew. Once in the Palm Island group we'll be protected all the way down to Great Palm Island so friday night should be comfortable.

The plan at the moment is to arrive at Townsville around Saturday afternoon March 21st.

Nev.

Yesterday's blog (17th)

17 March 2009 | Beaver Cay
Nev
Wednesday: We are currently at Beaver Reef Cay. We had an uneventfull trip yesterday. Allan's lures worked acording to specifications. Five minutes after deplolying them as we exited a "Green Zone," we hooked a nice 4kg Spannish Mackeral which Phalline reeled in with some effort. She seemed happy after though, and was pleased to have her photo taken with it. We caught a second one soon after and pulled the lines in after that.

Phallin was not so pleased with the episode of the coral trout though. She decided she wanted to take one back to Cambodia when she returns next week. So we stopped off at a likely reef for a spot of bottom fishing. We caught the usual "throw backs" and finally Phallin pulled up a very handsomely coloured trout which she thought would be perfect. Nev measured it and declared it too small. Phallin was a bit miffed at having to throw it back. However she was surprisingly calm and stoical when Nev later said he made a mistake with the measurement and in fact it was well over the minimum length. We never caught another one after that.

The mackerel made a very nice meal last night. As soon as it had stopped flapping Phallin put its cutlets in her patented chili sauce where it lay marinating half the day. It went very well with a salad.

Last night was a perfect evening. We all sat or lay up on the fly bridge looking at the stars. The clarity and brilliance is startling compared to the view from the average suburban back yard with all its light pollution. The glow of Townsville and the other coastal towns was clearly evident on the horizon. We waited till the moon came up and then retired suitably tired.

Not much sleep last night though as it was a bit "rolly." There was a storm this morning at day break which produced a bit of commotion on the surface of the water and a bit of wind, but no lightening. A few loose items we neglected to put away last night fell off various benches with a clatter but no one seemed interested in getting up to investigate at the time. The rain washed the deck quite well though.

The plan today is to do a bit of fishing to see if we can finally get Phallin's Trout, perhaps a bit of snorkeling and move a bit closer to Hinchinbrook. The rudder sensor for the auto pilot worked for a while yesterday but seems dead today - more hand steering.

We plan to be at Cardwell (Port Hinchinbrook) by early afternoon on Thu March 19 unless Barry is going to be there earlier.

On the way to Cardwell we're hoping to spend a little time on Gould Island - an island with many memories from when we were children in one of Dad's many boats.

Doug.

Sudbury Reef

16 March 2009 | Farquharson Reef
Nev
We spent the afternoon and evening of Monday on Sudbury Reef just south of Cairns. Nev and I had a snorkel for an hour or so. The coral is very nice but mostly soft. Not much hard branching coral at all. We say a hump headed wrasse about half a metre long and a white tip reef shark of similar length but no other fish over about 20cm. That probably explained why we didn't catch any while line fishing.

We went ashore on the Cay to watch the sun go down. It was about 200m long and 30m wide (at low tide. At high tide it shrunk to only 30 metres long.) There were a few sea birds resting there but no nests as it completely submerges at higher tides. We were treated to a display by a frigate bird on how to get food the easy way. We watched for 10 minutes or so as he targeted smaller terns as they returned to the cay for a rest after a days hunting. It would intercept them just as they approached the cay. After a bit of aerial gymnastics the tern duly coughed up lunch for the frigate bird who then either retrieved it mid air or got it off the surface of the water. Phallin thought it was not fair and yelled and clapped her hands to chase him away (he was keeping station effortlessly 20m above us riding the ridge of air as the wind blew up over the cay.) It took no notice.

We were boarded by the fisheries patrol yesterday afternoon. They had about a 40 foot power catamaran and launched a 15 foot inflatable, which they used to board us. Meanwhile the big cat continued along towards another boat that was a few miles away from us. It would have been a huge cost, but no problem for the good old police state. (The two guys were actually very civil and courteous, giving us maps of the no-fishing zones that I couldn't find on my computer.

When we arrived at Sudbury Cay we found a huge mooring buoy(about the size of a 200 litre drum) with a mooring rope about 75 mm thick, so we grabbed it hoping to have another worry-free night on a secure mooring. We drifted back waiting for the rope to come tight but we were surprised to see the rope break away from the buoy before it even had a chance to come tight. The fisheries guys told it it had been installed during the "cleanup" time after a large vessel went aground on the reef. Apparently there is a turn in the channel but the vessel didn't turn, thus going aground. In order to protect the reef, teams of divers came out and hand-picked and vacuumed the tiny pieces of anti-fouling off the reef (thank goodness for the government!). They then had to dispose of the dangerous poisonous anti-fouling pieces, so they moved a mile off the reef and dumped it into the water! (all this was related to us by the fisheries guys).

We all had a poor nights sleep on Monday night due to the motion of the boat so the 6 am start on Tuesday was not a chore. We are bound for Farquharson Reef today with an ETA of about lunch time. We will probably do a bit of fishing and snorkeling etc again.

Present plan is to be in Cardwell by the afternoon of Thursday March 19th to meet up with the Raymarine agent from Townsville, who will be bringing a new rudder position sensor for us. He also offered to bring a depth sounder module to loan to us for the shallow passage down through the channel between Hinchinbrook Island and the coast.

Doug & Nev

Day 1 fom Cairns

15 March 2009 | Michaelmas Cay
Nev
Nev:

Well, here we are on the "second" leg of our trip from Tokyo to Brisbane. We spent 2 days fixing things that have died since we left "Tough Life" in Cairns. We bought 75 metres of brand- new shiny anchor chain and got it all on board. We also renewed the bow roller that had bent and siezed, so we're pretty comfortable with our only connection to the land now.

On the other hand, we still have lots of Raymarine gear on board. When I switched on the autopilot after arriving from Tokyo, I found that the rudder position sensor that failed once not long after we left Tokyo, had failed again. When Doug arrived later, he was able to move the wire going into the rudder position unit and it started working again. Unfortunately, it failed again shortly after we left the marina. We'll try removing the arm from the rudder arm and exercising it, which is what got it working again last time. But I fear we'll be hand steering all the way to Townsville.

On the good side, the new version of Raytech Navigtor seems to have fixed the problem with the computer locking up when the Australian charts were inserted. It worked all day today without locking up the computer or re-booting the plotter, both of which plagued us all the way to Cairns. ++++++++++++++++++

Doug :

We left Cairns this moring, but not quie as early as we had anicipated due to an absense of alarm clocks - nevermind - it's a good omen. The 20kts wind is not such a good thing but in boat almost 60ft it is no big deal.

We inteded to go back today to the islands of our childhood, Upolu Cay and Michaelmas Cay. They were both teaming with birds in those days. The first thing we noticed was that Upolu Cay nolonger exists. There is a small area where the waves break on a submerged sand bank but nothing else. We were a bit confused, probably like the bird were when it first happened.

Michaelmas Cay was a bit of a shock too. It has a large white sign saying entry is prohibited any where except in a small roped off area extending for a bout 30 metres along the beach and about 5 metres above high water mark. And entry is only permitted between 9am and 3pm. Apart from this it seemd much the same as it did wen we last visited in the 1960's. Countless birds and a deafening din. We are tied up on a public mooring rated for 26m boats in wind utp 35kts. So no need to worry about the anchor draging tonight.

We went for a snorkle today at Michaelmas. The coral is much better than what we saw in PNG but the visibility was not so good due to the wind. There are a lot of Giant Clams here, some about a metre wide, the biggest I have ever seen. I can't remember them beeing so big when I was a child. Maybe my memory is not as good as I had imagined or maybe Global Warming has strlck. May be they are the Canaries of the Reef. Mabe thats why Upolu Cay has gone too.

On-line photos

12 January 2009 | Tokyo
Nev
I've uploaded some photos (and a few videos) to the following site :

http://picasaweb.google.com/angkoroasis/TheVoyageOfTheMotorYachtToughLifeFromJapanToAustraliaNov2008Jan2009Album1#
Vessel Name: Tough Life
Vessel Make/Model: Hyundai 54
Hailing Port: Tokyo
Crew: Nev
About: Doug and Wayne
Home Page: http://users.bigpond.net.au/dougturner/
Tough Life's Photos - Main
A selection of pictures from the trip
3 Photos
Created 28 December 2008