In my mind Cape York is a magical milestone and for decades I’ve been fascinated by its wide open spaces, isolation and the stories and colourful characters that have added to the mystique.
While trying to find the story behind the name, which is difficult without the internet, I did find that in 1848 Edmund Kennedy lead an expedition from Rockingham Bay, south of Cairns and where we bypassed the Hinchinbrook channel, and it was a total disaster. He lost men, animals and equipment until only he and his faithful friend and guide, Jacky Jacky were left. At that time there were 2 aboriginal tribes in the area, south of the river a cruel and warlike tribe, and from the northern bank to the tip of Australia, a friendly, kindly tribe.
Kennedy came so close to escaping the clutches of the bad guys and into welcoming territory, but he was speared to death on the bank, just about where we’re anchored right now. Jacky Jacky escaped through the marshy headland of the river and eventually met a ship in the Albany passage where we’ll be riding the flood tide today. He was the only survivor. Maybe his escape across the river is behind the name.
During that ill-fated sailing expedition I mentioned in an earlier post we came across stories of a hippy commune left over from the heady days of the 1960s. In fact we saw some women and children on a beach north of the Daintree River but they quickly disappeared into the bush as we sailed by. They were the real thing. A self supporting, earthy community that lived peacefully as one big incestuous family. The children were everybody’s with defined mothers and a variety of possible fathers, as was their way. From time to time they’d get raided and lose their marijuana plantation, get a fine they’d never pay and life would go on.
We also heard of a hermit who’d decided a WW2 concrete gun emplacement that had never got to the point of having a gun, would make a fine home. He sailed his boat around to the Weipa mining community in the Gulf of Carpentaria where he loaded up worn out conveyor belting, cut it into shingles and made a roof. By all accounts it was a comfortably, bullet proof home.
In the 1970s there was a farming family in Queensland somewhere who decided to go into the cattle business. They managed to buy a large ‘cattle station’ that had been deserted for decades quite cheaply. It had no fences and the old homestead was more suited to tractors or a milking shed than human habitation. They were real barefoot bushies but weren’t afraid of hard work and got stuck right in. While some built fences others set about rounding up any cattle wandering the bush. These animals were wild and not easily herded. Most had never seen a human being. In the final count they had more than enough to sell that they paid off the property and still had a herd to carry on with.
And so the stories flow.
We entered the river just on sunset after a 72 mile, reef dodging sail from Portland Roads. The anchorage area is a couple of miles upstream and we knew that there is a pearl industry with pearl rafts along the banks in a few places. But our information is over a decade old and we found many places where clusters of black floats appeared with no kind of beacon or warning. It became a race against the fading light to find a spot to get the anchor down in reasonable depth. While I navigated through banks and shallows Sandy was on black buoy watch. (And totally PC!)
It was just as well because she spotted a chain of them seeming to cross the entire river. As we got closer we found we could in fact pick our way around the northern edge, which we did, and a short time later decided we were too short of light to continue and set the anchor in 9 metres of water. It’s been a comfortable anchorage.
Our reason for needing shallow water is that we have every chance of having to get the anchor up by hand. It weighs 50 kg, plus the weight of however much chain from the boat to the bottom.
For some time I’ve found that we can get the anchor up but with the chain jumping out of the gypsy lugs. The gypsy is the shaped ‘wheel’ that grabs the chain links and winds it up and into the chain locker. It’s old and worn and I’ve had to add pressure to the guide to keep the chain engaged, but it’s worked. I’ve had to do this as long as we’ve had the boat, but in the last week I noticed it getting worse.
Three days ago at Morris Island in howling wind, the gypsy would not get the chain up. Fortunately we had plenty of room to drift and deep water behind us, so Sandy could leave the wheel and come to the bow where she activated the switch to take up slack chain as I manually pulled it up. Eventually we had the anchor up and stowed, and I was wishing we were a lot younger!
We can’t get a new gypsy sent to us until we get to Thursday Island and it would take longer to get it there than to Darwin. Once we leave Thursday Island we won’t need the anchor again on the 6 day sail to Darwin anyway so it makes sense to send it there. Thanks to Sailmail and Russ (my b.i.l.) it’s all happening, even without a phone or internet.
After the Morris Island experience we decided to anchor in as shallow water as we dared so anchor retrieval would be manageable and it’s worked. At Portland Roads with my waiving and Sandy’s helm and engine action we could keep enough slack on the chain that the gypsy reeled it in and all I had to lift was the last 5 meters plus the anchor. At Cape Grenville it was even better and I only had to lift the anchor the last metre or so.
Here in Escape river we’ve anchored in 9 metres so there is a lot more chain out. In the next hour we’ll know if we have a fight on our hands or not. The wind is picking up and that makes the manoeuvring more critical.
Never has sailing with the tide been more relevant. After leaving Escape River we’ll be heading for either Albany, or Adolphus passages. The Torres Straits is a relatively narrow strip of water between Papua New Guinea and Australia and the Pacific Ocean on the east of Australia and the Indian Ocean on the west put a lot of pressure on the water through here as tides rise and fall. Add to that the SE trades we’re experiencing and getting it right means wind and flooding tide smoothing the water and pushing us along, or ebb tide pulling back against the strong wind. Not only does it put the current against us but the wind against tide pushes up a rough sea we’d have to punch into. We’ll be sailing with the tide!
Until next time...