Late last year we did get a sniff of an opportunity to go out for a couple of days. Fitzroy was a 4 hour motor / sail away and we had a good weather outlook for a few days plus and not always co-operating, the coffee shop was delivering consistent trade and we were soooooo keen to go out that we rushed around during the day organising and cast off the ropes and headed Fitzroy at around 2pm. We were a bit rusty on our sailing skills and what we thought was a nice weather window wasn’t so great after all. A good reminder – you don’t get flat seas with 20 knot afternoon sea breezes. We persisted and as we rounded the Cape and Fitzroy came into view we looked at each other and thought yes two nights anchored at Fitzroy, snorkelling, enjoying the sun, food and wine. Might even catch up with some friends from Cairns. Oh, yeah we were ready for this getaway. And, at that moment with no coersion from Dave and I, Anais performed a 180 degree turn and started to head back to Cairns. We had the sails up and we were being pushed in the direction the wind was taking us – which was back to Cairns. The gear box had developed a serious problem and we had no propulsion. A slow journey in the direction of Cairns. As the sun went down, so too the sea breeze dropped to dead calm. A long channel entrance and sandy shallow waters on either side of the channel and an outgoing tide meant we had to stay in the channel to avoid a grounding. As the gearbox cooled it gave us intermittent control over the vessel but it took nothing more than a well directed gust of wind to put us on a sandy mound. GROUNDED. Completely halted we had a unique perspective of Cairns. Waiting 2 hours for the tide to change and finally enough water underneath us to be on the move again. The pause had allowed the motor and gearbox to completely cool and allowed us to motor albeit very slowly to a safe anchorage.
The Adventures of the Sailing Vessel 'Anais'
