Leaving Cairns
13 May 2011 | Cairns
michael and jackie
We finally got our repairs done and said a sad goodbye to Cairns. The generator now produces AC once again. The radar sees in the dark and the watermaker after Michael changed the membrane is working amazingly efficiently. We have really enjoyed Cairns even though we spent far more time there than we intended.
We set sail for the Low Islets. We picked up a buoy and quickly found ourselves surrounded by sharks; grey sharks, black tipped reef sharks and lots of juvenile sharks. We also saw a leopard shark en route. Giant spade fish swam up and down by the stern of the boat. We were not to sure about going for a swim!
However, we steeled ourselves and went for a pleasant snorkel although the visibility was not great. We had obviously become spoilt.
The island itself is delightful. There is an ancient lighthouse made of riveted cast iron which is now used as a small research station, beautiful sandy beaches and a large expanse of mangrove lagoons which are exposed at low tide. Unsurprisingly the island is popular with tour boats but by 4pm they had all gone leaving us the island, the fishes and sharks.