Flying Fish Point to Dunk Island

With all the decks scrubbed (thanks Anna), safety gear organised, enough fruit to fight off the scurvy until the next port of call, and a testing of ‘Volantes’ and ‘Joys’ carrying capacity with a celebratory boat warming ( It was great to have a visit from all the kiwis and adventure racers who were in Cairns to compete in the XPD Adventure race), We were ready for our maiden voyage the next morning.

We had a pleasant cruise down Johnstone river from our journeys starting base at Innisfail, and were then confronted by an onshore wind and outgoing tide over a sand bar that was only ever getting shallower! After a wee bit of panic with a few good waves over the bow, and our minds wondering (what are we doing!!), we got out into the blue! We had an easy 6 miles of sailing to see how she went in a nice 10-15knots of perfect trade-wind breeze. Sailing fully reefed to begin with... (we didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves just yet). After being passed by more than a few butterflies we decided to take to shake out the reefs and with huge grins on our faces found that ‘Volante’ was a dream to sail (this is what its about!!).

Heading along the coast with white beaches, a mountain-drop background and a few curious seabirds, we were able to make our first anchorage at Mourilyan Harbour. Getting up at dawn, and seeing other yachts already leaving, we got a bit jealous (severe FOMO), and quickly headed out under sail while the sun was still dawning. A perfect day of sailing ensued (thanks to Rob, Anna barely got up from her place of rest!), we sailed past our first few Islands with rainforest fringing sand spits. After a long tack offshore (to make use of a wind shift that was supposed to come, but didn’t!) we sailed into a headwind all the way down to our first island anchorage at the popular Dunk Island. Seeing a large cluster of million dollar boats and being the cautious new sailors that we were, we decided to give ourselves a bit of anchoring room (see picture below)...

We spent the next four days exploring Dunk Island, walking in the rainforest, beachcombing, turtle spotting (Rob 2, Anna 0) and a celebration of Anna’s birthday with cocktails at the resort bar.