Almost miraculously, the long-term forecasts that the southeast trade-winds would ease by the weekend of 17th October did not change. We wanted to spend a few days on the north side of Fitzroy Island (16 nm southeast of us), so we planned to leave Cairns on Friday knowing that, after we left the shelter of Cape Grafton, we would have to motor into the wind for the last 6 nm. This departure date, however, assumed that we could receive and resend our US ballots before Friday.

These precious ballots had arrived at our mail service in Florida in early October and we had them forwarded on the 5th by FedEx to Hillary and Glen's house in Sydney. We had done this in case we had to leave Cairns before they arrived in Australia, having heard that the mail had generally been running slowly between countries since the start of the pandemic. To try to overcome this, we had spent US$118 for the Express International FedEx service. Impressively this did deliver the ballots to Sydney by the 9th October. Glen kindly took them to the Post Office that afternoon and sent them by express mail to the Marlin Marina in Cairns. Although we were no longer staying there, and they usually do not accept mail for cruisers, they made an exception for ballots...we were apparently not the only Americans here from a state without online voting.

As the expected ballot arrival date of Tuesday was moved back, I started to get a little anxious, but we were finally notified that they were being delivered on Thursday. After no word from the marina office, I called them and Sarah, most sympathetically, said she would check with their head office. Once she collected them for us, we cycled over to get them (in grateful exchange for some raspberry oatmeal slices), then went to the attractive city library to complete the various ballots, with a plethora of State and local issues in addition to the presidential election. We then cycled out to the DLH Shipping office to send the ballots back to Florida at a cost of A$95.

We almost had a set-back when told that we needed two forms of picture ID to make an international shipment and I had forgotten to bring our passports. Luckily Randall's University of Florida Gator One card with his Florida driver's license counted and saved me a rapid ride back to the boat! The DHL staff took the assignment very seriously, marking the package not to be opened for inspection as this might invalidate the ballot. The supervisor also read us the DHL caution that not all election offices will accept shipped ballots without a date-frank. Seeing this warning on their website, we had called Alachua County Office of Elections to check that they would accept them, and the date of mailing was not an issue unless it arrived on or after Election Day. With great relief, we bade the ballots farewell the same day that we had received them, the 15th October. We were notified that they were delivered in Florida on the 22nd. Within a couple of days, we could see online that they had been received at Alachua County Elections Office and we could relax...phew! We celebrated the departure of the ballots with an ice-cream and the following morning we motored out of Trinity Inlet and waved a fond farewell to Cairns.

On arriving at Fitzroy Island, we initially hooked-up to a public mooring but the stiff southeast wind and strong opposing current caused us to swing differently from a large power-boat on the neighboring mooring. We also noticed that in these conditions, some of the other sailboats had the mooring floats bashing along hull. So we decided to anchor outside the mooring field and were pleased to find that the anchor set very well in the sand bottom.



Boats on moorings at Fitzroy Island: the resort is hidden in the trees on the left half of the visible shoreline

Fitzroy Island is about 1.5 nm long, lying on a northeast to southwest axis, and about half that distance in width. Part of the ancestral home of the Gunggandji Aboriginal people, most of this continental island is now within the Fitzroy National Park and is surrounded by a fringing reef that is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Although cloudy water extends off the mainland, the water around the island is relatively clear, making this one of the closest sites to Cairns where swimming is comfortable and snorkeling is worthwhile.



The narrow beach with clear water on the north side of Fitzroy Island: the resort buildings are hidden to the right

The part of the Island excluded from the National Park is a resort with campground on the northern coast of the Island, off which we were anchored. A pier at the resort accommodates the many ferry- and tour-boats from Cairns that deliver campers, resort guests, and day-trippers. There are a couple of beaches, various trails, a café, bar, and other amenities for the visitors. Slightly surprisingly, the data-coverage for our phone was not very good, so we had to hoist our new phone up the mast (in a bag) to be able to use the internet.



Part of the resort accommodation on Fitzroy Island

On Saturday morning, after I had talked to the Concierge in the resort, we tied the dinghy under the pier and started walking up the steep and rough Lighthouse Road. Randall was doing bird surveys to submit on e-bird as it was a Big Weekend, when they try to collect as many surveys as possible. Hearing many calls in the dense woods, we spent quite a bit of time looking for the sources but rarely with any success. We really wished that Carol was with us to identify the calls. As a result we did not see many species but we did find one that was new to us, the dollarbird, named for a dollar-sized pale window in the open wings.



An adult dollarbird with red bill and bright blue throat-patch

Dollarbirds are in the family of Rollers, which are similar to kingfishers but with short broad bills. Exactly as described in our bird book, this one was sitting in the open on a tall dead tree occasionally flying to catch large insects out of the air.



Yellow-spotted monitor lizard hurrying off the Lighthouse Road

While making our slow ascent, we did see a good-sized yellow-spotted monitor lizard scuttling out of the roadway. We expected the lizard to hide in a cave under a large rock but it kept going up the bank. Eventually it stopped to watch our progress so, after a good look at each other, we moved on.



The yellow-spotted monitor lizard and I appraise each other from a distance

We followed the road past some uninhabited buildings that were fenced-off with warning signs about the presence of asbestos. Just beyond them was the lighthouse from 1973 which was made from a steel frame and ceramic tiles, like the light on Point Cartwright in Mooloolaba. The exhibition room on the ground floor was closed and the light itself had been replaced by a new tower, just below us, on Little Fitzroy Island



The old lighthouse to the left of Fitzroy Island summit with the new light on Little Fitzroy Island in the foreground

After back-tracking a short distance, we turned onto the Summit Track which, predictably, goes to the top of the Island, at 269 m (882 feet). This was not a paved trail but it looked as though a great effort had been made to provide natural-rock steps on the east side. On the steeper west side, there were cement steps and then long flights of stairs.



Looking back east from the Summit Trail with the abandoned Lighthouse beyond

As on Magnetic Island, there were many huge granite boulders scattered all over the Island. Mostly the trail weaved around these unmovable obstructions but occasionally steps had been laboriously carved out of the granite.



Randall climbs up the trail carved between two granite boulders

As at Mount Whitfield, the summit of Fitzroy Island is not particularly high, but the steep climb seems like quite an effort in the tropical heat. Fortunately, there was a pleasant breeze at the top and, while appreciating the beautiful views, we enjoyed a nice chat with three people from Cairns who were already resting on the park bench.



Looking southwest towards the mainland from the summit of Fitzroy Island

We were making steady progress on the descent from the summit until we had a view of the pier. Looking through the binoculars, I could see that the tide and gone out and there was no slack in the painter between the pier and the dinghy. So I scurried down the last part of the trail while Randall continued at a more sedate pace. The bow of the dinghy was suspended from the pier on the short line but, luckily, the transom and motor were not underwater. Knowing that we would be stopping to have lunch while the tide was still falling, I paid-out plenty more line.

We, indeed, had a tasty lunch at Foxy's Bar. Afterwards, I chatted with Caitlin, the marine biologist from the resort, who leads snorkeling tours around the Island. She recommended that we visit the reef on the east side and told us exactly when her next group of snorkelers would be finished and the mooring would be available. It was kind of her to be so helpful when we were obviously not going to pay for a tour.

So after returning to Tregoning, we took the dinghy out to look at Little Fitzroy Island. We then returned to the mooring which Caitlin's tour-boat had just left and jumped in the water. It was rather milky but being fairly shallow we could see the nice coral gardens that she had recommended. I completed a fish survey (72 species in 54 minutes) including four species that were new to us: yellow-mask angelfish, bigeye snapper, azure-spot damsel and, hanging along the mooring line, deceiver blennies.



Yellow-mask angelfish (to 38 cm or 15 inches)

The following morning, we went ashore again, this time to take the short "Secret Garden" track into the rainforest. Randall completed another bird survey for the Big Weekend but we still did not see as many species as we heard. The platform in the forest's shade at the end of the trail was very peaceful and we chatted with a few of the people that came and left while we looked for birds. We may not have seen many birds but we did see many skinks scampering across the rocks along the trail.



A pair of small skinks along the trail

A sign at the start of the trail had illustrated a large skink called Major's skink. These live in complex underground burrows among boulders. We were not sure if these smaller skinks were immature ones or a different species. We soon heard a rustling in the leaf-litter and found a large specimen that was undoubtedly a Major's skink.



Major's skink (to 42 cm total length or 16 inches)

On returning to the beach, we ran into Deb and Gregg from SV Kalliope. They had arrived the previous evening and were anchored on other side of bay from us. It was good to hear about Deb's diving adventures which had included someone having a non-lethal heart-attack on the first day! We relayed the information that I had learned from Caitlin about snorkeling on the east side of Fitzroy Island and then bid them farewell, knowing that we would likely cross paths again on the way south.

That afternoon, we took the dinghy around the west side of the Island, past Nudey Beach, which is described as ' "Nudey by name, not by nature", so keep your clothes on.' We snorkeled where Caitlin had said there were good plate corals and, again, the water was rather milky. It did seem that perhaps the water was clearing a bit as the winds eased and, as described, there were some large plate corals. My fish survey netted 85 species in 57 minutes and although none were new to us, it was very pleasant.



A six-banded angelfish with particularly bright blue spots on the tail

On our way back to Tregoning, we stopped to greet Sue and Larry on SV Serengeti who had just arrived. They were tired from spending a late-night celebrating Larry's birthday and they had planned an early start the next day for the long passage south to Dunk Island. With our own plans to leave the next morning, we did not arrange to get together for the evening, but we wished them well and hope to see them again in Bundaberg or before.