Day 144 Lowe Isles - Hope Island

We moved onto Hope Island with a very nice sail SE/E 10- 15 knots. We were fortunate to be able to take on the Barrier Reef mooring and settled down for the night. In the afternoon we dinghied (is there such a word? lol) around the island and there was plenty of bird and sea life. You could work around the island in about 10 minutes.

Well, the wind blew up that night and we were at the island for the next four days. We met some interesting people during the stay. Family who had been sialing for the past twenty years with three of the children being born on the boat. They had been to Japan and back and were now headed to Thursday Island. Another interesting couple inlcuded Ben Cropp who is well known to Australian divers, particlarly those of my vintage who had the pleasure of knowing him in the 1970s and 80s, and seeing his films on the dive congress circuit. He is a passionate diver, rsearcher, author and film-maker. Very interesting discussions were had on avoiding crocodiles and sharks.

Interesting we could get TV reception and managed to watch Cronulla and Warriors beaten in the NRL finals!

Day 143 Cairns to Lowe Isles

The Lowe Isles consists of a series of small uninhabited islands. This protected environment is home to white sandy beaches, spectacular corals, birds and giant sea turtles. The reef around Low Isles comprises of 150 species of hard corals and is dominated by 15 species of soft corals. Living amongst the corals in the blue lagoon are a large variety of reef fish including angelfish, damselfish, anemones, giant trevally, sweetlip, fusiliers and many green turtles are sighted daily. Everyone we meet loved this spot but we were not impressed. Too may tourists and the beach was not as impressive as we were led to believe. Perhaps we have raised the standard from all of the other beautiful islands we have been too!

Day 140 - 142 Cairns

Came into Cairns after being blown away at Green Island. We fortunate enough to be in Cairns when the Cairns Yacht Club had its last night. (Saturday Night and they are moving to a new place) Great night and we shared this with Terry and Kim off Easy Rider (they have a beautiful boat built by Terry) We have been travelling with them and they are from Moloolooba. We watched the finals at the Casino and were disappointed when Brisbane were defeated!!

Day 139 - 140 Green Island

Green Island is a very unique island. It is one of 300 sand cays on the Great Barrier Reef, but it is the only one with a rainforest. A true coral cay, Green Island is around 6000 years old and was formed by a build up of sand sediments, animal and coral deposits to above sea level. It is 15 hectares (approx 37 acres) in size and takes around 45 minutes to walk around. It was very commercial and over 300,000 people visit every year. The wind blew and blew so we only stayed for one night.

Day 137 - 138 Fitzroy Island

Fitzroy Island is located approx. 35 kilometres (18 nautical miles) south east of Cairns. Fitzroy Island is one of 600 Continental or High islands on the Great Barrier Reef. It is located on the inner barrier of the central region of the Great Barrier Reef, and is part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The views from the Lighthouse are not to be missed nor are the views from the Summit which provide a panoramic 360 degree outlook of the island, its amazing rainforest and reef lapping at it's doorstep. We did all the walks and there was some great dives of a trampoline in the middle of the bay. Click here to watch some video footage.

Day 136 High Island

We left early in the morning and there was virtually no wind and we had about 50 miles to cover. We ended up getting a mooring at High Island, a memebr of the Familty group of islands.

Day 134 - 135 Dunk Island

Finally Jim and Maxie were well enough for us to press on to Dunk Island. A great sail and we stopped off at Wheeler Island, beautiful Island and spectacular day. We finally made it to Dunk late that afternoon. This is the third time we have been Dunk so we very excited about getting there.

This is an arial view from the top of the mountain and the three tiered pool we swam inafter climbing to the top! How exhausting, but great to relax in the pool.