15-20 knots SE partly cloudy w occaisonal shower
20/05/2012

We decided to leave Low Islets this morning and head to Hope Islets so we would break up the longer trip to Lizard island. Also the wind is suppose to pick up to 30 knots on Tuesday and last for at least a couple of days so we want to be tucked in somewhere. We planned to spend a few days at lizard island cause it is supposed to be fantastic on land and sea So it seems to work out well.
We left at 5:35am today in lighter winds and motor sailed for the first hour. The winds then picked up so we shut the motor off and had a nice sail from there. It was a bit choppy , but nothing that we haven't already experienced. We pulled into Hope Islets around 2pm. We were a bit nervous coming in because there are lots of coral bommies around , but we came in slow and all is well. As at low Islets, it is quite a bouncy and windy anchorage. We didn't go to shore cause the wind was picking up and we would have be saturated in the dinghy.
In addition , we are planning on leaving at 1 am to do the 67 nm to lizard. It should take us about 14 hrs.
Kelly , the Canadian crew seems to be catching on quick. Grant and her spent most of the day at the helm and we let her do it alone for a while so grant could have a play with Ameliana while I nursed Elora ( who had a very " hungry" day today !)
I am trying to get into the groove of not helping with the sailing. I am trying to plan arts and crafts the night before a sail so I don't have to dig out the materials while under way. We always have books ,toys and playdough as staples and we have a daily sing song session for Elora and Amelianas dolls, which is very popular. As we travel I hope to establish a more structured day for Ameliana when we are under sail especially since she is almost 3 and wants that. For desperate times we can start the generator and put on a kids show for 30min-1hr , but I feel guilty doing that now that we have crew and I'm on FT mom & galley wench duties !besides , we discovered that too much wiggles or in the night garden makes for a cranky kid !
Must be off to bed as I am sure someone will be wanting the milk bar to open soon and we have a long day ahead

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Cloudy scattered showers 15-20
19/05/2012, Low islets

We left the marina at 6.45 motored out the long channel and hung a left. Was a nice sail the winds were a bit variable but ok. Kelly our new crew member seemed to go ok, see how she goes tonight, the anchorage is a little rolly. At the mo we are planning to go to hope islands which is about 42 nm the other option is go straight through to Lizard island, which is around 107nm from here. We'll see what happens with the weather. We went to shore this afternoon so Ameliana could run around like a lunatic for a while. A fun time was had by all.

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15-20 SE wind, clear and sunny
16/05/2012, marlin marina

Well once again, us entering a marina berth was cause for stress and anxiety. Wind was right up our russell, we were given a berth that was "blow on" for ease, as we are restricted in our manuverability and first pen from the end for the same reason. Unfortunately we didn't get the bow into the pen before we had blown past. EXTREMELY luckily there was no vessels in the pen next to ours, which resulted in us being in the wrong berth for the night. Hopefully the winds will be low enough for us to move around into the real berth tomorrow, to make it easy for our departure on saturday or sunday. The sail across from fitzroy was very nice, a sort of quartering downwind sort of thing. Once we got round the headland a bit the winds started gusting and dying off so we motored for the last 1.5hrs. We couldn't be bothered working the winds when we were both antsy about the marina. The girls were very good, and nicole swears that elora started to crawl today once we were in marina. I wasn't there for the 2 shuffles and elora would not do it again today. We did however make the day a complete success by having some terrific gelati at "vanilla" the shop at the marina. Alls good now (sugar calms the beast!!). Our new crewmember Kelly arrives at 6 am tomorrow. We've emptied out a few drawers in the back cabin and we are moved back into the front cabin with the girls. Ameliana is very excited that we are going to be there when she wakes up at 4.45am every single damn day. We have very busy next few days geting last stuff organised and provisioned. I'm off at6.30 in morn for a bike trip with trailer in tow to bunnings, locksmith(for engine key which got broken by accident), chandlery, post office, petrol station, Nicole and the girls are off to grocery shops, park for littlies, etc, etc, etc

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15-20 SE wind, clear and sunny
15/05/2012, fitzroy

We woke early this morning... 2am in conjunction with Elora's feed, and we were on our way by 2:45am. It was 47nm from Kent Island to Fitzroy and we wanted to allow for some beach time after nap time.
Ameliana woke and we put her in our aft cabin so she could go back to sleep while the Engine was on and Nicole laid out the anchor chain ( meaning while we are pulling up the anchor with the hydraulic winch, Grant is on deck hosing the mud off and Nicole is in the anchor locker laying it out nicely as it feeds in so it doesn't get tangled in a heap while we sail) which is in the bow in the girls cabin (Elora didn't wake at all). So we got under way, sails up and turned off the engine. It was much less than the 15-20 knots of wind forecast, but we were still averaging about 4.5 knots for the 1st hour. Nicole went back to sleep until the girls woke at 5:15- they have an uncanny ability to wake at the same time even when they aren't in the same cabin! The second hour we avaeraged 5 knots and this kept increasing until we were averaging 6.5 knots by the time we arrived at 11.30am! So we had a very pleasant sail.
Everyone is adapting to the boat movement, although Ameliana has told the boat to " stop rocking" a few times if she is trying to move around with her hands full and nothing to hold on to. We try to fit in some arts and craft time and do ALOT of reading and singing in the cockpit!
Grant is getting a bit of a sore back , likely from sitting/ standing at the helm , pulling up the sails etc, instead of just sitting in a car driving all day, which his job in Mackay consisted of....too bad he doesn't know a good massage therapist.. ( FYI Nicole IS a massage therapist.. grant is just a soft whiner who " doesn't want any more pain"... wimp!
Fitzory Island is a nice little spot, it has a "affordable" type resort, nice sandy coral beach. it also has a general store that sells ice cream, but has sort of "flexible" operating hours and we got there when they were locking up at 3;55pm. and when we asked the woman what the opening hours were she told us 9;30-4:30pm on weekdays???? it's TUESDAY! must be island time! thank god we have a rather agreeable toddler cause we had to tell her that she wasn't getting any ice cream today instead she got rice cakes and vegemite on the beach. We promised ice cream tomorrow in Cairns for sure! I think Grant is far more concerned than Ameliana about the availability of ice cream though!
We are planning on taking a quick trip to the beach in the morning before we leave for some rock climbing for Ameliana and a quick snorkel for us.
Its about 16nm to Cairns. We are going into a Marina which always puts us on edge but apparently we have a berth that is "easy" to get into and someone is also supposed to be around to help us get in. oh for the days of so so helpful hamilton island marina staff ( except we did pay more than double the cost for a night there!)

Comments [2]

15-20 25 gusts isolated showers partially cloudy
14/05/2012, kent island

Left hinchinbrook at 7 motored for 45mins til wind picked up then averaged 5kts til 12ish when dropped right off so motored last 12miles. Then once anchored, in our slightly rolly anchorage, the wind started blowing 20 odd. Typical. kent is quite nice, very green and tropical. the beach is very corally, not much sand at all, but the girls loved going to shore for the first time in a few days. Must be the impact of watching something on the TV, because Ame watched an episode of dora, then was a complete whiner for rest of afternoon til beachtime. Elora was good as usual apart from missing poopy time and filling a nappy with brown glue! damn that was hard to get off.

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15-20 25 gusts scattered showers cloudy
12/05/2012, kirkland hills

so here we are. we did 173.9 nautical miles(1.8k to the nm) in 34hours and 10minutes. it went really quite well. we left at 2am friday morning with the intention of sailing to orpheous island, but after playing around with the sails we had up, hanking on the larger headsail, furling the inner staysail and reefing the main, we ended up averaging about 5.5kts instead of our guesstimated 4. that meant we would've arrived at the anchorage at around 3.30am , which is still dark! we definately do not want to anchor near coral or rocks in the dark, so we decided to keep going north. the sail was very nice though the seas were a little sloppy, ameliana woke up around 9pm last night shouting 'too rolly daddy, too rolly!" so she slept the rest of the night in our cabin. elora was fantastic of course, we think the boats movement actually kept her amused while in her chair. Ameliana had some issues yesterday afternoon most likely because we decided to let her watch the entire dvd of "in the night garden" before lunch and then the wiggles dvd after her nap! bad idea daddy, bad, especially for a kid who doesn't watch tv, unless she sees it on land. on the subject of repairs the fridge started running continuously yesterday morning. it has done this before and it turned out to be a loose connection but not this time so i spent a very awkward hour rewiring the fridge, works perfectly now. i also realised that the temporary anchor light doesn;t actually HAVE a fault....when i had it working yesterday during daylight, it was cause i had my finger over the light sensor...duhhhh stupid technologically advanced light!
And don't let anyone ever tell you that you can't lose things in small living spaces, nicole has "lost" a huge container of dried chickpeas and i can't for the life of me remember where i " safely" hid Nicole's mothers day gift AND her anniversary gift....

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