This morning Scorpio II rounded Cape York. Some very good and funny pictures taken on GoPro, but you will have to wait to see these!

It has been a great morning since leaving escape river, with a nice down wind run to Albany Passage where there used to be a town and a large pearling industry. Today only a couple of huts remain, but the beauty of Albany passage remains.

We took the opportunity of the flat sea and lighter winds amongst the islands to change out the Genoa from the North Sails to the more durable, and reef able tasker sail. We also lashed the tender and put its cover on.

A few electrical niggles this morning with the auto pilot tripping again at the breaker, and a diode attached to the wind generator amp meter getting so hot it melted the wire. When I tried to re wire it snapped clean off. I have now bypassed this diode as I hope it's not required as the wind generator go's through a regulator anyway. I have not had the curragh to start the wind generator yet, and hoping to get in touch with dad to discuss the purpose of the now non existent diode. We have many other ways of generating power as engine, solar and generator are all performing well so all is ok.

We are making good progress on our way around the top end and all stores are still in good supply, thigh it's almost time to bring out the bread maker.. Yum yum!

No more reception until Darwin, and I'm actually quite amazed we have glimpses of it here, just enough to send a backload if blogs, and down load some weather.

A toast to the top of Aus

We made some fantastic speed yesterday sailing with the fresh trades with two reefs and staysail, passing through another fun navigational challenge of Hicks island. Hicks was beautiful, probably one of the most stunning tropical islands we have seen on the reefs with excellent diving and kiting. The passage involves weaving our way past numerous reefs and bommies and was absolutely stunning. We celebrated with chicken wraps and a couple of beers.

Later in the day the wind and sea picked back up again and as we surfed and rolled our way through the choppy seas the auto pilot tripped at around sunset when I switched off the music system. At first I thought I had just been clumsy and accidentally turned off the breaker, but when it happened again I knew something was wrong.

We were well ahead of our schedule to meet the tides of Albany at 0730 the next morning, so we decided to pull into escape river 10 37.0'S 142 42.0E to get some rest and do some fault finding on the auto pilot. We anchored in 10 mow at the river mouth behind a small headland, aware of perl farms and not foul the boat.

We awoke later than planned, and set off immediately towards Albany Passage at 0645' clearing the river mouth at 0730, hoisted the sails and set off. We are now approaching Albany Passage. I hope we get phone reception to report in and send our blogs. If we are successful with reception this will be our last blog until arriving in Darwin on the 6th September.

Having loads of fun, fantastic sailing. Back on deck now to navigate Albany Passage

We made some fantastic speed yesterday sailing with the fresh trades with two reefs and staysail, passing through another fun navigational challenge of Hicks island. Hicks was beautiful, probably one of the most stunning tropical islands we have seen on the reefs with excellent diving and kiting. The passage involves weaving our way past numerous reefs and bommies and was absolutely stunning. We celebrated with chicken wraps and a couple of beers.

Later in the day the wind and sea picked back up again and as we surfed and rolled our way through the choppy seas the auto pilot tripped at around sunset when I switched off the music system. At first I thought I had just been clumsy and accidentally turned off the breaker, but when it happened again I knew something was wrong.

We were well ahead of our schedule to meet the tides of Albany at 0730 the next morning, so we decided to pull into escape river 10 37.0'S 142 42.0E to get some rest and do some fault finding on the auto pilot. We anchored in 10 mow at the river mouth behind a small headland, aware of perl farms and not foul the boat.

We awoke later than planned, and set off immediately towards Albany Passage at 0645' clearing the river mouth at 0730, hoisted the sails and set off. We are now approaching Albany Passage. I hope we get phone reception to report in and send our blogs. If we are successful with reception this will be our last blog until arriving in Darwin on the 6th September.

Having loads of fun, fantastic sailing. Back on deck now to navigate Albany Passage

Departing Cooks Look at Lizard Island at 4am the breeze was perfect for the fun along the coast. By mid morning Scorpio was regularly sitting on 10kts and surfing down waves at 12kts. With the wind and current behind us we were flying along.

By lunch time we were approaching some tighter navigational passages, and Scorpio was trying to tell us she was a bit over dressed for the occasion and to take down some sail. I put in two reefs (bikini mode?) and reduced from the big genoa to a stay. Scorpio was still comfortably sitting on 8.5kts, but seemed a lot happier so called a pod of small dolphins to join us.

We were sailing from one historic landmark to another, made famous by two different explorers for separate reasons. Lizard island made famous by Cooks desperate attempt to exit the reef, and Bligh's passage, and Restoration island made famous by the Mutiny of the Bounty and Captain Bligh's monuments voyage and attempts to enter the reef and reach civilisation. Rob Mundle writes a good story about the Bounty which is well worth the read.

On entering the reef Bligh came to rest on an island he named Restoration Island where he and his crew rested, collected fish and provisions and fixed their long boat. The crew of Scorpio also deserved a rest, and we planned to anchor off Restoration, but with only three boats in the bay, one being a shipwreck, and the other being washed up on the beach, in 30kts of wind we decided to find a safer, more sheltered anchorage for the night in Portland Roads with plans to visit the island the following day. As the anchor took up in the mud off the mangroves, Scorpio's log read a days run of 195nm - that's what I call cruising!

The SE trades here are the strongest and longest lasting in the world, and the next morning they trades were still around 30kts, making for a very uncomfortable passage back upwind to restoration island. After half an hour motoring and making less than 1nm, and noting the reputation of the anchorage we decided to go with the wind and head to the passage between Hick Is and the mainland.

The run up the coast from Cairns was majestic as expected, with the trades building to 20kts by mid morning. We were making a cracking pase past Cape Tribulation, and Cooktown. The days sail was marked with history as anybody familiar with Australian history would know.

While charting the Australian coastline Captain Cook found the Great Barrier Reef by accident when his soundings went from 17 fathoms to 0 and he hit Endeavour reef. An amazing feat of seamanship the crew of the Endeavour limped to the mainland and made cook town their home for the refit.

While the carpenters were busy, cook sent a longboat out to chart the reef and search for an exit to the Pacific Ocean. Cook and a small crew took a second longboat and sailed to Lizard island where he climbed to the peak of the island to search for an exit from the reef.

Scorpio II sailed in the path of the Endeavour (minus the reef incident) and in the afternoon if 27th August we anchored in a windy Watsons bay. After making sure Scorpio was holding anchor we set off in the newly modified zodiac dinghy (Jumz and Dad will be happy to know I have found a solution to stop water entering the self drainer, and it involves a tennis ball) and climbed the peak for sunset. Due to lack of light I ran ahead, bringing back memories of our crew run up Mt Streslicki on Flinders Is.

By the time we returned to the beach it was dark. I made a mission to the resort in search of a beer and flash card while Emilie stayed on the beach. Mission unsuccessfull, we returned to Scorpio for Thai curry and glass of red and remained at anchor until morning.

For the next few days navigating the reef under sail is a bit tricky, so to avoid the same fate as Cook, we will navigate the confined parts of the reef in daylight. Currently we are sailing past the reef at 8kts, with Scorpio's top speed this morning a record 12.1kts!

This morning we arrived in Cairns on a beautiful southerly breeze to find the usual stream of charter yachts, dive boats and island ferries streaming their way out of port. Super yacht big fish was slipping into her dock as we entered the marina, it felt great to be in boar dies and a shaggy t shirt rather than the super yacht baige pants and pressed polo shirt.

We had breakfast an re filled with about 500l of fresh water and then went to refuel. We were lucky to get fuel as the dock pump is out of service so they are using a truck. It was nice to find that since picking up dad and jump a week ago we had only consumed 35L even after running the engine for 10 hours. The wind generator and new solar panels are doing their job well!

Another day in port running around picking up spares and gadgets, and re storing the boat for the next two weeks running up to Cape York and across to Darwin. For us Cairns is the last big port, only tropical islands, Coral atolls, and secluded bays for the next two weeks.

Sadly Dad and Gina aka Jumz, disembarked to head to Townsville for the kite boarding event, but it's great they were able to stay on an extra couple of days to Cairns for some magnificent sailing and island hopping. Dad has been awesome inboard tending to electronics and deck gear and Gina has also been a big help and excellent breakfast chef. The deck is certainly looking empty without Gina's car load of kite gear. I will have to do something about that and get more toys!

Great to see Cairns looking so good, such great facilities and a professionally run port and marina. Glad we managed to escape the welcoming arms of Gilligan's!