The Tip to Lizard

 

At the Tip we did the pilgrimage to the sign at the top of Australia, as you do.  A group of motorbikes arrived and ignored the sign “No Vehicles Beyond This Point” and parked in a neat row along the beach.

Catching the tide to get around Cape York, we decided to keep sailing to avoid the forecast SE winds and 3 days later arrived at Lizard Island, the last 8 hours were the hardest sail we have attempted: into the SE winds and through eddies and strong currents but we had to get in before the forecast 25 knots.

There are some things you just can’t capture in a photo: the full moon rising red through clouds on the horizon with sheet lightning flashing through the build-up clouds and a sunset through big towering clouds resembling a scene from Maralinga nuclear tests.

Off Bathurst Heads I saw a log in the water and was about to veer off when it turned into a pair of green turtles mating.  By the time our bow was near them they looked up, flipped over and swam away.  Hope they have another go at making baby turtles, away from passing boats.

We already knew half of the boats anchored in Watson’s Bay so it was party time again.  The Marlin (staff) Bar was open Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays so we joined the Sunday session for dinner.

On the beach was the usual silver gull, a common sandpiper, a few whimbrels, a lone beach stone-curlew and red-capped plovers. 

The walk to Cook's Look has improved with gravel on parts of the path and a few added steps in the slippery areas.  The view as always is amazing.

The kapok trees are always fascinating and we managed to see all phases at once:  from flowers to green fruit to seed pods and exploding pods sending fluffy seeds out to grow again.