Three day sprint to Port Douglas

We had a great time with Cristy and Johnno on board, helped by fantastic August weather, but I'm glad they didn't stay on board for the trip up to Port Douglas where we're due to pull the boat our of the water on Monday. I don't know if Cristy's tummy could have coped with the past three days.
Even though the winds have only been up to 15 knots, the swell has been pretty uncomfortable and mostly coming in at a different angle to the wind and waves (strangely) making it difficult to get sails full of wind and a reasonable ride.
Anyway we managed to make good time despite our late start on Tuesday when we had to wait for enough water to flow into the Cardwell pondage. For some reason there was a glitch in the tide table and on Tuesday morning it was two hours out, which admittedly had us bamboozled as to ``Why is it so?''
Dunk Island was our first overnighter after a very choppy crossing from Cardwell.
We lifted anchor just after 6am Wednesday and, with initially unsettled conditions which then settled nicely for us, we dropped anchor a little after 5pm at Fitzroy Island just south of Cairns.
A nice size mackerel happened to jump on the hook as we travelled solving the problem of dinner.
An early start again this morning was rewarded with swell, waves and wind going with us and a quick and comfy trip up to Port Douglas where we have just dropped anchor in the creek.
We initially dropped anchor closer to the township but were roundly abused by the fellow in the boat behind. We thanked him for his `good advice' and set off further upstream. As we passed another boat, the man there called out that he'd suffered the same abuse when he tried to anchor upstream of this fellow. An aberration in the yachting world thank goodness.
Tomorrow and Sunday we've booked into the marina (for a treat) and on Monday morning's high tide Sea Piper comes out of the water for her hull clean and repaint, and a few other jobs.
Looking at the forward forecast, it's a great window to not be on the water with winds and wave heights beginning to rise tomorrow and soaring for the next week (hence our quick trip).
Hopefully that will be gone by the time we re-float Sea Piper and take off with our anti-fouling helpers Leigh and Rob to places yet unexplored.