TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

After a windy wet night we awake to find weather had improved and so with a forecast of 10/15 knots for the next few days, we thought it was time to continue on.

It was still very stormy looking on the mainland but hopefully we wouldn’t get much of it at sea. Leaving around 8.30-9.00 we passed through the channel that separated the two islands of Hope and hugged the coast near the Bloomfield River and Cedar Bay.  The landscape was stunning with lush rainforest right to the waters edge and no sign of any human existence to be seen.

The further south we went, the calmer the seas got and it turned into a very comfortable but long journey.  It took about 7 hours to travel the distance between Hope Isles and Mackay Cay.

As we made our way into the shallows around 3.30, it seemed ridiculous that we had come all this way and taken all this time to come to a little spot of sand in the middle of the ocean.  Once we were had gone ashore though it seemed all worth it as this little spot of sand was surrounded by a shallow lagoon, clusters of reef and was the perfect place to sit and watch the sun go down over the Cape Tribulation.

The boys went for an afternoon spear while Mahnie and I read and relaxed on the Cay.  Brett had a bit of maintenance to do so he stayed on board.  As the evening approached we all went back to Auspray and the boys continued to fish with their rods.  There was plenty of action with some nice sized Spangled Emperor caught.

We all had a peaceful night sleep and after one heavy downfall just after dawn, the day turned out to be a nice one.  Brett and Carl had an early morning spear with Dylan manning the tender.  Toby and Bj fished off the back of Auspray with still plenty of action going on. 

A few shouts led me to investigate only to find a commotion going on as Toby had hooked a big Golden Trevally that was putting up a fight.  With Bj’s help he was able to land it. (see video)

By midday everyone was back onboard and it was time to continue on to St Crispin Reef where we hoped to spend a few days.