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Issue 8 - 11/09/2001 Cape York

After a leisurely motor sail from T.I. we dropped anchor at the Northern most tip of Australia. The wind was shrieking through the rigging as the South Easterlies were being squeezed and intensified around the Cape itself. I didn't think much of the place to start with as it seemed really exposed, if the anchor dragged we would have found ourselves on the sand bars West of the Cape. After a couple of days though the wind dropped enough for us to lower the dinghy and have a proper look at the Tip, and have a scout at the 'facilities' onshore.

We learned from the Aussies aboard that it was traditional to take a stone up to the Tip where other's have done the same; eerie pyramids of stones and pebbles litter the approach to the headland.....On the leeward (West) side of the headland is the beautiful sweeping bay of light sand where we were anchored. On the Eastern windward side dramatic cliffs rise out of the turquoise water. The whole place is dramatic and as it is so remote it is as yet unspoiled.

After visiting the the Tip we decided to have a look around. We found the campsite at the end of a nature trail, where I treated myself to a dodgy sausage roll, no doubt it had been there for weeks as supplies rarely come by this part of the world, was tasty though, kind of 'mature'.

Anyway, We'd heard rumours of a swimming pool at a luxury resort nearby so Me Tracy and Lydia decided to hunt it out. After a 10 minute walk there it was - an empty Croc free swimming pool. A quick word with the girl on reception and we were in! Croc free swimming for a couple of days!

Unfortunately in our haste to get ashore we didn't take into account the extent of the tidal range, it's not much - only a metre or so but this extends for about three hundred metres..... The dinghy was high and dry. I'll rephrase that, the heavy fibreglass dinghy was three hundred meters high and dry. Tracy came up with the idea of rolling it under logs, though there were no logs to be found that would do the job. Luckily I found some discarded pipes that did and so we rolled the thing down to the waters edge! A valuable lesson was learned on this day, and it seemed to galvanise the crew at last, we had a rare laugh about it later that evening.

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