Glorious tradewinds, incredible colours and wild desolation. These past few days we’ve seen a handful of ships, and only one other yacht. Other than pearl farms, and a few truly isolated communities, this coastline feels untouched, still raw.
Highlights? Incredible sailing – Ressie just lopes along with 25 knots on her quarter, not a care in the world. She is truly in her element here. Beautiful anchorages – behind little islands, snuck up mangrove lined rivers, snuck behind some of the magnificent points that punctuate the coast. The glorious Albany Passage, where GFS sailor, Geoff Lucas, owned a pearl farm for decades.
And then there is Terry – sailing San-E-T. We found him snuck into Margaret Bay. As we approached, he raced out in his dinghy to tell us where to anchor, as he slipped some clothes on. Later we learned his extraordinary story – a miner from Weipa, he build San-E-T 16 years ago, and has been sailing alone ever since. His boat is a riot of lobster traps and fishing gear, and there is nothing, it seems, he doesn’t know about this coast.
He regales us with stories, each wilder than the one before it. We keep asking about crocs, and every now and then he talks about his ‘girlfriend’. Finally we connect the dots when he tells us how his girlfriend swum up and nearly bit his butt as he was washing himself over the transom. It turns out she visits him most nights…..
Later he explains how we can find oysters if we cut across the cape by land – a 30 minute walk through the scrub. He tells us not to worry about finding the track – “I’ve marked it, see. Just follow the signs…”. It turns out that this labour of love has involved carrying tonnes of blue fishing gear down the track and dumping it along the way. Well, this is far, far, far, far north queensland….
