Fitzroy Island to the Whitsundays - A little leap down the coast...

At 2030 on the 12th of October we departed Fitzroy Island for somewhere further south. The conditions had improved, but we still had to motorsail all night into southeasterly winds. By the sunrise we were approximately 15 nautical miles east of Dunk Island with light easterly winds.

We decided to continue down the edge of the reef and see if we could make it to the Whitsundays before the predicted strong southeasterly winds arrived. If the wind looked like it was about to kick in early we had the option of stopping on the outer reef or pulling into Magnetic Island before nightfall.

The conditions remained perfect for the day and we landed several fish, however, we only kept the Spanish Mackerel. Eric and Ryan supervised the fish filleting operation and helped clean up after the task was complete.

The wind picked up a little overnight as it started to swing back to the southeast, but by dawn we were off Gloucester Island. We pushed on to Langford Island and picked up a mooring around 1030 on the 14th of October before hitting the water for an early snorkel.

The 260 nautical mile trip down was fast and we missed some of the coast we had wanted to explore, but we made up sufficient time to allow family to visit us in the Whitsundays. Life is about trade-offs and everyone was happy to be moving again!

Cairns - Time to move onward...

The southeast winds eventually eased and a small favourable weather window appeared to open so we departed Cairns at 0500 on the 12th of October.

The grey overcast conditions gave way to a blue sky around Fitzory Island, but with the blue sky came 15-20 knots of wind from the southeast - the direction we wanted to travel.

With a confused and uncomfortable sea state we decided to stop and explore. Fitzory Island was a great place to spend a day with a number of nice walks and even a little coral.

After an early dinner we headed to bed in preparation for the journey ahead...

Kuranda - Our return to the Kuranda Candy Kitchen...

Ryan, Eric and I (Emily) have decided that the Kuranda Candy Kitchen is EPIC...

We spent an afternoon watching the Kuranda Candy Kitchen owners (Mel and Chris) making fresh candy and Mum noticed that they also made personalised candy to order!

After ages and ages of discussion Mum and Dad decided to place a special order for 4 kg of Lucey Blue lemonade candy. But when we went to place the order the owners said they could not fit in all the letters required to write Lucey Blue in less than a 10 kg lump of candy!  

After much consideration Dad s-l-o-w-l-y agreed to our pleas and we placed an order for the largest lump of candy ever seen by the crew of Lucey Blue. Unfortunately they could not make our candy straight away so we had to come back a few days later - the hardships we have to endure.

The process of making handmade candy is super complicated and I was glad that the professionals were in charge! First you have to melt heaps of sugar, add in colours to form the individual components and then stress the candy mix by pulling it on a hook.

Then you need to assemble the components in the correct three-dimensional form before they cool down too much and get too hard to work with. I don't know how they knew where to put all the bits! It was so confusing, but luckily they knew where everything went.

(This black and white piano like piece says "Lucey")

Finally you have to roll out the candy so it can be pulled into long strips and broken up ready to eat. Our candy was kind of hard to roll (as you can see from below) because the bits used to make up the boat and the words had to be hardened so they would not get squished up.

The last job was to eat it!!! That was the best and the easiest job ever! We got to try a piece of the candy before they finished and it was great! After they had packaged all 10 kg (which took a while) we had the best candy EVER!!!!

We definitely will have enough to share with all our guests aboard Lucey Blue! Mum says that next time we eat a piece we should think about all the work that has gone into making it!!!!!!!!! :-)

Cairns - Hanging around for the wind...

After the reef we headed back to Cairns to prepare for our southward journey. The plan was a quick stop to complete a few last minute things, but as always things got complicated and we were delayed first by an appointment and then by unusually persistent southeast trade winds.

We hung around with the wilder side of the local population at the marina and filled the first week with odd jobs around Lucey Blue - including polishing our topsides - and trips to the markets.

During the second week we hired a car and went exploring around Cairns. The tropical rainforest along the coast was spectacular and we all enjoyed a number of walks even if the humidity was rather high...

Each night we checked the weather forecast and snuggled up tight ready to leave when the time was right...