Sea creatures - good and bad

It's hard to believe another month has flown past since my last blog update.
During this time we've been to Victoria for 10 days firstly catching up with Mog and Kal (and our first glimpse at Kal's bump!) ever so briefly as they flew out to Perth on the same afternoon we flew in, then heading up to Rochy to stay with Di and Don at our house and of course catch up with Rochy friends.
The Mawsons annual `do' at Lake Cooper was a ripper - great food, tours and people.
Leaving Royden in Rochy, I headed to Timboon for a brief visit with Jill to celebrate (early) her 70th birthday, then it was back to Melbourne to meet up with Royden again and visit Stu, Tina and the boys before flying back to Cairns last Sunday. Unfortunately the logistics didn't fit in a trip to Benalla - sorry Cris, Johnno and James.

Kitting up for a snorkel on the reef

On Tuesday, Mog and Kal joined us (direct from Perth) on the boat and we've managed to fit in a trip to Mossman Gorge as well as get a couple of days at sea and some beaut sails.
We headed out to Upolu reef with little wind and a light swell then with the afternoon sea breeze picking up to around 10 to 12 knots, we sailed back across to Trinity Inlet to anchor for the night.

Upolu Reef

 

Swimming off the boat

While swimming at the sand cay and reef was lovely, Mog got a fair few bites across his arms from either sea lice or a combination of sea lice and maybe a stinger. We doused his arms with vinegar which was immediately effective and later noticed a few jelly fish in the water so that took the edge of swimming!
It must have been the day for sea creatures because on the way out we spotted dolphins, flying fish, a sea snake and a turtle in the space of a couple of hours.
Yesterday we took advantage of another 10 to 15 knot breeze to just go sailing. Mog and Kal took turns at the helm, tweaking things to see who could get the most knots out of Sea Piper. Kal won at 7.0 knots in 12-14 knots of breeze.
We headed back into Bluewater marina in the afternoon then went swimming in the Cairns lagoon while Royden went to his chiropractor appointment to ease his sore back.
Today we're going to have a food fest around Cairns before Mog and Kal return to Melbourne tomorrow morning.
Our last visitors for the season arrive on Monday and the plan, weather willing, is to head off south to Hinchinbrook Island sometime in the next week then dropping Doug and Denise at Cardwell so they can bus it to Townsville to stay with David and Vikki for a few days.

Healthy cravings - heading into Trinity Inlet after a day on the reef.

 

This huge stick insect was pretty impressive (in the car park back at the marina).