Port Douglas to Fitzroy Island
Thursday and Friday was spent exploring Port Douglas on foot. lots of long walks around the area and on 4 Mile Beach. Amazing beach, so hard you dont even leave a footprint and people ride their bikes along the beach hardly even marking the beach also.
Saturday we departed from Port Douglas after 5 nights exploring the town and surrounding areas. We had a great time and will definitely be back. The town is very vibrant with great shops and eateries to while away some time with 27 degree winter days.
We left the marina at daylight and headed south to avoid the oncoming strong winds due to hit the area next week. The winds were reasonably light and sea swell quite good so planned to stop at Double Island 20 nautical miles to the south. All went well for the first half of our journey and then the winds and squally showers came through for a while until we got closer to the island. We were safely anchored by 11.00 am and felt that was quite enough excitement for the day so time to kick back and watch the footy for the afternoon.
Sunday the winds were going to pick up later in the day so we departed Double Island at 5.00 am to head towards Fitzroy Island. The wind was fairly light and seas had little swell but pitch black when we raised the mainsail and unfurled the headsail. We were having a really good sail with speeds ranging between 6-8 knots when just on daylight we heard an almighty bang and on inspection could see that the mainsail had dropped. Sure enough the mainsail halyard had failed so that was the end of sailing for the journey. By the end of our journey the seas and winds had increased considerably so it was nice to pick up a mooring at Fitzroy Island. There were plenty of people on the island enjoying the winter sunshine either walking on the beach, snorkelling our enjoying the water sports.
Luckily we had kept our old halyard just in case so Steve had the lucky job of being winched up the mast in rather strong winds and side on swells to attach the line so we can continue on. Luckily he has been nice to the skipper so he was safely winched up and brought down, and I must say he was happy to be back on deck.
By Marg
4 Mile Beach Port Douglas
4 Mile Beach Port Douglas
4 Mile Beach Port Douglas
Double Island