AROUND THE TOP END

10 September 2023

Escape River was wide, boring and lonely.  Unfortunately, the weather was blustery and overcast with occasional rain.  I stayed two nights and one day expecting the poor weather to pass over, it wasn’t going to happen.  From Escape River I am going around Cape Your and really wanted some nice light weather to cruise around and if possible, anchor under cape York for the night.    

Truce is once again the only boat in the anchorage and its quite a remote and dark place at night.  The second night was too much, I decided to get around Cape York in the morning no matter what the weather was doing.  Turned out the morning weather was nasty, overcast with rain and pitch dark but I was committed to move.  I weighed anchor before sunrise and headed out from the anchorage, careful to retrace my route in avoiding the extensive shoals and mud flats.  As we approached the Entrance the sky was lightening and the sun about to rise, the wind and sea picked up a bit going over the bar but soon settled down once we were clear of the shallow water and our course turned to the north again.

The run up to Albany pass was quick with a brisk wind behind us with a good tide as well.  As we approached Albany Pass the seas became confused for a while with the tidal currents, but we still made good speed, passing a big tide rip as we entered the Albany Pass.  Once inside the pass the sea became calm and the wind dropped to a gentle ten knots.  With the tide beneath us we shot through, almost too fast to take in the scenery on either side. Passing Albany Bay to starboard and Somerset to port. This area once held great potential and was a bustling port, now its quiet.

Once clear of Albany Pass we had a good wind to take us around Eborac Island which lies to the north of Cape York.  At 09:46 on the 9^th September 2023, Cape York lie to the south of us, another milestone passed.  We had completed our cruise up the east coast of Australia from Gladstone to Cape York.  For the most part the sailing has been wonderful, pushed along effortlessly by the SE trade winds.  The anchorages however have been a different matter, I have endured too many fretful and uncomfortable nights, I won’t come this way again.   

Unfortunately, once around York Island the wind picked up, gusting thirty knots and it wasn’t possible to get in close under Cape York.  I reduced sail to just the staysail and we were surging along in the gusts at nine knots, a crazy strong wind that was not present on the east side of the Cape.  We aimed for the passage between High Island and Possession Island, as we rounded Peak Point the wind had another go at us with ferocious blasts until we reached the calm waters in the lee of High Island.  The wind was quite a surprise, I had expected calmer waters in the lee of Cape York, never mind, the wind helped us on our way.

The last few miles down to Seisia were uneventful, running alongside and then through a gap in the outlaying reef to the Seisia channel.  We motored into the channel, the twenty five knot wind on the nose, gusting to thirty, it was slow going with our small engine.  As we approached Seisia the sea flattened out and the wind eased as we dropped anchor in 6m of water, I put out 50m of chain for peace of mind.  I was happy and relieved to be around Cape York and facing new adventures ahead.