Received an email from Pete off Trompeta yesterday. He's decided to leave the yacht and is returning back to the UK in the next week or so. Will try and catch up when he returns.

Decided to leave the yacht on Sunday.

Have been thinking of it for a while and the last straw was when the skipper blew his top on Sunday morning. He apologised later on and said that he'd been bottling things up for some time but I'd already decided at that time that I wasn't going to continue.

As for the next bit... have extended my visa and am gonna go and do some touring!

Finally moored up in Darwin after Fisheries have been on board and have treated all the sea-cocks with the various chemicals to stop bugs getting in.

Had a few beers with John and Chris off of Sea Mist last night and have been invited for a few tonight on their catamaran.

Erica joined us today and is really excited about the trip. She hasn't done any sailing before so it should be a fun experience for us all.

More to follow in a few days no doubt...

Anchored in Fannie Bay, Darwin today and are awaiting clearance from customs and the quarantine guys before we can moor alongside in Cullen Bay marina.

Repaired the dinghy and went ashore to the supermarket to victual.

Mark, Lori and Mick turned up in Last Penny to do some repairs to electrics and we left Seisia at 1230 for Darwin, 700 miles across the Gulf of Carpentari

Left Escape River and had a fast sail to Albany Pass. Through the pass with 6 knots of tide pushing us and we were around the northernmost tip of the Australian mainland.

Options for re-supply are to head for Thursday Island or to go around the coast to Seisia, a coastal port for an aboriginal town called Bamaga. We head for Seisia and anchor there about 1700.

Can not take the dinghy ashore as the fuel cock on the dinghy is broken.

Caught a 30lb Spanish Mackerel today, absolutely huge (well I think so).

Got to Escape Island and cooked baked mackerel with cinnamon rice, little bit too much salt on the mackerel but otherwise very nice.

Left Lizard Island after strong winds for three days and headed North for Escape River.

On port tack most of the way and with no lee cloth it meant I was l sliding all over the shop when trying to sleep, not good!

Left Cooktown and headed for Lizard Island. People have told us that the island is beautiful and the diving and snorkelling superb.

An overcast day with some rain and we got to Lizard at around 615.
Got the dinghy out and went over to the resort dive center only to be told that diving was for resort members ony! No diving for me then.

Spoke to some other people off of yachts anchored in the bay that the resort is quite exclusive ($1,000 Aus per night) and they do not tolerate non-resort personnel!

Left Port Douglas at 0500 and headed for Cooktown.
Beautiful sunrise this morning:

Arrived at 1630 hours: fairly uneventful sail apart from a near broach on the gybe!

Not to know it but this was the last time we would have a mobile phone signal till Darwin

Annie left today to go and see some friends in Darwin before she returns to the UK on the 18th.

Looks like we may have a new crew member joining us in Darwin: Erica from North Carolina. Sent an email to her father Bill from an extortionately priced Internet cafe reference concerns about her joining us.

Went to the Courthouse Hotel for a few drinks and got talking to a Kiwi couple, Mike and Maxine who had just got married.

Had a few drinks with them and then watched the Bledisloe Cup game between Australia and New Zealand, New Zealand won.

Funniest bit of the night was when Pete got asked to leave the bar for being a little, lets say, tired.

Tom and Liedeke have finally made it to Port Douglas, their half-way mark! They've finally made it and it's a real milestone for them, congratulations!

Met Tom and Liedeke (from Montana) in Cairns. They have given up their respective careers, bought a motor cruiser 'Looking Glass', in Sydney and are cruising up the East Coast to Port Douglas, their half-way point. Good luck guys.

First real catch today.

Caught two Queensland Mackerel this afternoon south of the Frankland Islands. Both weighed in around 12 pounds.

Pete gutted and filleted them and Annie cooked them for dinner with saute potatoes and peas - luvverly!

Arrived in Cairns at last light.

Oh yes, doesn't matter where you go (photo on Dunk Island).

Sailed up to the Family Islands today and anchored mid-afternoon at Dunk Island. Annie, Pete and myself took the dinghy ashore and had a few beers - a very nice way to spend the afternoon.

As they say, "If you're not learning, you're not living" :-)

Photo on the way from the Hinchinbrook Channel to Dunk Island.

Sailing about 5 miles NE of Gloucester Island we were joined by about a dozen dolphins riding our bow wave again, absolutely fantastic. I took a two and a half minute video of them but won't try and post it as in it's current format it's 199 MB in size :-)

Now heading towards Townsville.

Finally sailed from Gladstone today. Am certainly not sorry to see the back of the place. One person said it's like a town outside of a town. Unfortunately, without transport we were a bit limited to where we could go and what we could do.

Anyway, on our way now and quite a pleasant sail once we'd got clear of Facing Island and the southern edge of Curtis Island.

Sailed all the way up to Capricorn Bay and dropped anchor for the night.

Woke up the next morning and found I had caught my first fish of the trip. Well, sort of, it was just kinda like lying on the deck still counts doesnt it? :-)

Now been on the yacht two weeks and we're getting very close to sailing now. The third crew member, Annie, joined us today and it's nice to see her.

Pete and myself have been busying ourselves over the last few days with things like installing the gas alarm system, new jib sheet furling line, servicing the windlass, various varnishing jobs, tidying up and generally working through the [long] list of jobs that need doing: thankfully we're nearly there and most of the remaining jobs can be done when we're on the way.

The Ashes starts tomorrow. Spoken to a few Aussies in the bar and the universal consensus is that, "...the Poms'll get there arses kicked..."

"Mmmmm," we shall see!

Been with the yacht nearly a week now and we're spending most of everyday preparing to sail.

This afternoon we did a rig check. By that I mean Pete did the rig check and I supervised (well, I operated the winch and safety line at the base of the mast and Pete climbed it). A bit unfair I know but I'm 6'1" and Pete's a tadge smaller than me and it makes more sense for him to do the climbing (well it does to me :-).

The next few days will see us putting more strongpoints in the cockpit, winch servicing, installing a new battery charger, re-varnishing, putting the mainsail back up, sorting out the deck and many more jobs... can't wait to get sailing!

Had a few days in Sydney with Tony, Gez and Amelia and flyng up tomorrow morning to join John and Pete on the yacht.

Flying with Qantas (cheap they are!!!n't), I'm leaving Sydney at 0800 and get up to Gladstone at 1310.

Tony & Gez tell me it's the 'State of Origin' game tomorrow night between New South Wales and Queensland and should be a great atmosphere (it's best out of 3 games, 1 all at the moment and everything to play for). Hopefully, I'll get to see it.

Well, myself and one of the guys off the Ocean Grad course (Pete) have got a job bringing a Halberg-rassy 42 back from Australia.

This is due to start in a couple of weeks and will hopefully be a fantastic trip.

More on this in the near future.