Sailing a Unique Trimaran in Queensland Tropics
by Nan Bailey, Water Gardeners International on 15 Jan 2008
Iceni at anchor Nan Bailey
Our yacht Iceni is a 9 meter Farrier trimaran, which has folding floats so it can go on a trailer. It took my husband David five years to build the yacht and the trailer to fit it. He launched her in late June of 2005. In between trips, she lives in the shed. In December 2005, we embarked on a several weeks sail up and down Queensland Australias east coast. Dave calls us 'Grey Nomads of the Sea'.
We were moored off the beach at Fitzroy Island, near Cairns, on Christmas day. It is a beautiful, mountainous island with coral sand beaches on the protected western side. There are some very nice fringing coral bommies where you can snorkel and look at the coral and reef fish, but they aren't as beautiful as the outer reefs. It was a lovely peaceful Christmas day.
We headed north to Port Douglas and Low Isles, which are very pretty islands just east of Port Douglas. There are thousands of the white and black Torres Straight Pigeons living on the long low island. Each morning they fly off to the mainland to feed, and when they are nesting, they fly back and forth several times a day. I find it incredible the huge distances these pigeons fly.
The light house on the larger island is unmanned now, but when we sailed up here for the first time in 1979, it was a manned light and we were shown through by the keeper. Most of the Barrier Reef is now National Park, so you can't fish, but you can snorkel in most areas.
There is a four foot Turrum living there, the biggest I have ever seen. They are deep bodied fish that are not too wide, with high domed heads, fast and good sport to catch on a line. It came swimming around our boat after the tourist boats went back to Port Douglas.
The Jabiru is Australias only stork. It has a black and white body, dark heavy beak and bright red legs. They are usually solitary and not seen frequently. He got upset when the kite tried fishing round his spot. The Brahminy Kite has large russet wings and body with a white head. They are common in this environment. This is looking north towards Cape Tribulation, with Port Douglas on the point behind us. There is a creek where they have now built a fancy marina.
We spent New Year's Day in Port Douglas. This Chinese junk is now used for taking tourists out to Low Isles, but when we cruised in the Pacific in 1981, we met the couple who owned it in Honiara, Solomons. The lady used to run a ham radio base from it. She maintained a watch for traveling yachties, gave weather forecasts, and kept schedules for boats in passage.
This is the Quicksilver fast cat, which travels from Cairns to Port Douglas and out to the outer barrier Reef. Port Douglas is in the background.
Then we headed back south, making a day trip to Upollo Cay. On the way, near Yorkeys Knob, we sailed right around a huge ocean liner from Hamilton called Diamond Princess. It looked very new and state of the art, and made our boat look like a gnat beside an elephant.
We sailed past Green Island, a very popular tourist destination within easy reach of Cairns. Upollo Cay is northeast of Cairns and it really tickled my fancy seeing the umbrellas on such a tiny island. This is a very popular spot for snorkeling and diving. As you can imagine, there isn't anything left at high tide.
After Upollo Cay we went farther south. We were going to stop at the Frankland Islands, our old stamping grounds, but seeing it was so calm, we went right down to the bottom southeast corner of Hinchinbrook Island to Zoe Bay.
Hinchinbrook Island is a large very mountainous island and Zoe bay is only accessible in really good weather as it is exposed to the southeast trade winds. It reminded me of the mountains in the 'Lord of the Rings' movie. There is a loooong sandy beach edged with trees, with these magnificent craggy mountains ringed around. We got there in the late afternoon so I photographed Mt. Bowen with the evening light behind it.
Next morning we went ashore and walked the beach to the southern creek. You couldn't swim at the beach as there were huge jellyfish there, and a salt water crocodile had been sighted around the mouth of the southern creek. There is a big swimming hole and waterfall about a kilometer in from the beach.
On the way, you pass through a small patch of palm and rain forest, then through schlerophyl forest. The walk is over a kilometer long.
The waterfall was almost dry due to the prolonged dry weather, but would be a raging torrent in the wet season. It was lovely, cool and refreshing. There were ropes to swing from and lots of fish.
The wind had picked up quite strongly by afternoon so we left before it got worse. It was a lumpy trip south around the bottom of Hinchinbrook Island. We surfed in to Lucinda with its super long jetty and shallow water, going in the protected waters between the island and the mainland. There were storms in the night, but we were safely anchored in a well protected place.
Our next stop was Port Hinchinbrook Marina, on the mainland near Cardwell at the top end of the Island. Here we were able to do some washing, shopping, get ice and have a nice hot shower.
The next morning we toodled around to the fuel jetty to top up our diesel, as we had done a bit of motoring. This incident was a highlight in our trip, as the poor fellow rushed out, grabbed the hose for the fuel, but when David said, 'I would like 15 litres please', he nearly fell off the jetty. He stared at us and said,
'YOU'VE GOT TO BE JOKING. This pump puts out 100 litres a minute !!!!' I had to keep a straight face in case he got really cross with us. Anyway, he directed us to the fuel bowser out the front. He was used to the big fancy cruisers coming in with big hungry engines, not little yachts with 6 horse power diesels. We had actually only used 10 litres in the 2 weeks, but we bought an extra 5 as backup.
Then we headed for Bedarra Island and Dunk Island. We stopped at Dunk, and went ashore so I could post mail and we met up with some other cruising sailors there. That was a very rough night. We had anchored for the northerly winds, but in the evening when it was too dark to move a nasty southeast squall blew in. We were up all night with the motor running as we were on a lee shore then. The anchor dragged a bit, but it all ended well. The rain was so heavy we couldn't see 50 feet around us. We are very pleased with how our yacht and little diesel handled in the very rough seas.
The sea birds fish for the small bait fish, and so do the Mackerel and Tuna. We saw lots of flocks of terns fishing in the area north of Dunk Island.
Next morning we headed north. The monsoonal trough was heading south and it was time to head for home, before the northerlies got strong and the cyclone season arrived. On the way, we put the trolling lure out and caught a four foot Spanish Mackerel. They are great eating, but such a big one was a concern. We had to stop for ice at Mourilyan Harbour, which is a sugar terminal.
The harbour has a good area for boats to safely anchor in all weather because of the mountains and narrow entrance. Large sugar ships fill up here with cane sugar processed at the Mourliyan and Innisfail sugar mills.
After a good night in this really protected harbour, we once again headed north. By this time the wind was very light, and kept shifting direction, so it kept David busy, trimming the sails to get the best out of it. We reached the leads in to Cairns by about 4:30 pm, but had to go a little further north as we wante
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/40920