A Slow Day Sailing to Cape Grenville

The Setting Sun Cape Grenville

Wednesday 10^th October 2012
A Slow Day Sailing to Cape Grenville
11’57.386S – 143’12.532E

Sunrise at Portland Roads

MrJ and I were both away and out of bed at 0430hrs trying to catch up on our blog writing and photo editing before deciding whether to leave or stay. This all depended on the weather report for the next couple of days. Blogs and photos done it we ate our light breakfast of rolled oats, fruit and yoghurt and had a second cup of tea. By now it was time for the SICYC radio sched that we were still keeping with Andy on PAWS at 0700 EST on HF CH 8161 and then at 0730hrs the weather for the Top End, the Gulf and the Cape came through from Charleville on HF CH 16546kh for this area.

Do we go or do we stay? We decided to go as the weather will turn by late Friday/Saturday with the winds picking up to 25/30knt at times and we did want to be around the top before it all get to bad.

MrJ rang his mum; to be able to do this he had to install his phone sim card in the old phone and connect the old phone to the external antenna before he could make the call. Once away from the shoreline I did get a text message out on my phone, to family and friends of our where abouts and our planed   passage and then we got a call in from Ange and was able to chat to her without the phone dropping out. All because of the radio tower over the hill at the Lockhart River settlement, but no service at Portland Roads.
It was 0830 before we did get away, a late start for us; we pulled both sails out and headed north once more.  It was a slow sail all the way with us passing five cargo ships in the shipping channel, us going north and then going south. We have seen a few yachts and motor boats all heading south too. Maybe we are the only ones still heading north.

There are quite a lot of small islands and sand cays scattered throughout the hidden reefs in this whole area which make for a spectacular scenic sight with colours from blue/blue to turquoise blue to aqua blue to various shades of green up against the mixture of blues to white in the sky especially when the tide is low.

There is also a misty haze about, all along the coastline which is typical in the Cape region and can worsen with the strong trade winds blowing the salt air across the land.

we saw five ship go past in this region, most heading south

th Islet Reef light with resident eagle

On the approach Cape Grenville there are a group of islands named the Home Islands with a channel through that we take, Paluma Passage. You just have to watch out for a couple of small reefs in the middle of the passage. The largest island Hicks Island, which we pass to STB, has several building and a small boat moored out front. The Lucas book says that Hick’s is under private lease and has a resort on its SW corner; this is what we did see.

Kay Islet National Park

Moddy Reef

Leaving the Paluma Passage pass Cape Grenville to our port side and Perry Island to port, behind that I did see Harvey Island as well. Next point on the mainland is Spencer Hill and then there is Watch Dog Bay just before the anchorage in Margaret Bay. Out from Margaret there are two trawlers anchored off Sunday Island.



Paluma Passage

Sunday Island is where Captain Bligh of the famed Bounty mutiny, was threatened by a second mutiny. During his open boat voyage from the Bounty munity, Bligh and his fellows stopped on Sunday Island hoping to get a little rest away from the risks of unfriendly natives. While ashore one of the crew challenged Bligh, quoted as having said – I am as good a man as you are – to which Bligh’s answer was to throw the man a sword and saying – let us see who the master is here – the thread was quelled.

trawlers anchored off Sunday Island

AR sits quietly at anchor in Margaret Bay; MrJ and I go about our end of passage chores, coiling the lines dropping the covers, putting the charts and things away, checking other things  and opening hatches before we sat down to enjoy a beer and to watch the sun going down over the land and sea. Magic time of the day!

sunset at Cape Grenville