The following day was off to a slow start but a couple of us went snorkelling near the island but unfortunately the water was quite turbid and the visibility low. We still managed to see a turtle and some beautiful giant clams.

At 11am we met at the yacht to prepare for our return journey. Belinda and her regular crew Smiley and Norma, were quickly into it and within 15 minutes we were hauling up anchor, with the sails set, all of the loose items stowed, and everyone necessarily hydrated and in position.

It was already warm, and as we sailed from the island, tacking port and starboard, the wind started to pick up and fill the mainsail, lifting her a little out of the water and propelling us along at a nice pace, faster than yesterday.


We settled into a nice pace and took up our leisurely positions to enjoy the trip back. As we passed the nearby headland to look at the home stretch to Cairns, the leg that had taken four hours yesterday, the wind gusted to over 20 knots – very window in our unsailor terms – and La Quilta came to life!!


She lifted higher out of the water and accelerated ahead, the sails now taught and the ropes groaning. We were soaring ahead and the sea was picking up with whitecaps all around us and metre high waves to crash through. Faster and faster we went as Belinda barked orders at the crew. The smaller boats we left Fitzroy with were now falling behind and the two that had been ahead of us, well they were overtaken in minutes and quickly disappeared in our wake. These are the conditions that La Quilta was built for. All was going well.

Tighten the port winch, Belinda yelled towards Norma, with some urgency in her voice.
The winch isn’t working, she replied

Norma was pushing the button to bring on the winch but there was nothing. I jumped into the cabin to look at the powerboard and lights were on for a moment, then off. All the switches were in the correct place but there appeared to be a fault.

There appears to be an electrical fault, I yelled at the skipper over the sound of howling wind and slapping waves.

Smiley get down there and have a look, she replied.

Smiley came and confirmed that there was a problem that couldn’t be identified or fixed at the moment. We went into manual mode. I teamed with Norma at the portside winch and we started making the adjustments manually. The winch handles were put in place and now we were sailing manually. The skipper’s data screen was flashing on and off with the electrical fault, so we were sailing blind.

Belinda is a very experienced racing skipper and before long we were tearing up the waves, tacking port and starboard, we all settled into our new roles and enjoyed the speed of the yacht, as Cairns loomed ever closer.

One hour forty five minutes after leaving Fitzroy Island, we were pulling into the marina in Cairns, a journey that had taken over five hours the day before. It was a great sail but sad to be over so soon.



We said goodbye to new friends and headed back to Ross’s place. I spent the next couple of days in Cairns taking time to shop for any interesting travel gear, catching up with a few other friends, and finally getting this blog onto HU!

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