We left Cairns yesterday with the hopes that things would get better away from the mainland. We sailed upwind easily to Fitzroy Island. It’s big compared to most of the islands around and afford us some protection from the wind and waves. We moored at a blue ball and Susan I went in for a snorkel. The water was a bit murky and filled with very small cone jellyfish (they don’t sting) right by the boat. The snorkeling was very interesting even though the conditions weren’t great. The coral heads were amazing and the variety of fish large. On a clear, sunny day it would have been stupendous.

As we sat at our mooring the current and wind couldn’t figure out what to do with the boat and we ended up banging up against the mooring ball. That won’t do for sleeping so we moved to anchor where we thought we’d get a bit more protection from the swell. It was a somewhat rolly night. The boat creaking loudly at times, and the anchor chain grumbling. I didn’t sleep well.

The weather forcast holds out no hope for improvement so we moved on and are currently in Half Moon Bay Marina at Yorky’s Knob, a little north of Cairns. It’s dead quiet here until the planes landing at the airport go over. There’s no hint of the wind and waves going on outside th marina.

Howard and I are abandoning Susan tomorrow and heading to Sydney. I’ve changed my flight to head back to Hawaii early too. We had a flexible schedule and Susan is fine leaving the boat up here. She’s going to hang out for another week waiting for sun and then possibly come back too. She’s confident that she can do more single handing and anxious to try. A trip out to Green Island is certainly something she can handle from here if the weather co-operates. I hope she gets the chance.

They say the same thing to tourists here that we do back in Hawaii when these weather conditions prevail: “This is unusual.” Oh well, another time.