2010 Sokari on the move

A couple of weeks ago Cyclone Olga fizzled over the coast with little effect on us as we sat in our favourite cyclone hole but when we returned to our mooring the strong northerly winds gave us a bit of curry for a couple of days. Olga wandered west then reformed heading SE and sent heavy rain and galeforce winds over Cairns. We were able to check out the boats on Cairns webcam and from our home on the Tablelands it appeared really horrendous. Phone calls and text messages were flooding into us from friends on their boats, and John considered racing down to be onboard in case of problems. But when he rang Cairns Met. he was told that they didn't expect anything higher than 20-25 knots. They were wrong and reports of 38 knots were reported from boats on the piles and other very experienced yachties anchored near our mooring said they experienced up to 50 knots. Many boats dragged damaging many more but Sokari's mooring held fast. Thank goodness. But perhaps that is due to the fact that John has the mooring serviced at least twice a year. It had only just be redone a few weeks prior. John drove down the next day and found no damage except the winds had done a job on her side covers so I guess I have another job, making new ones. John had wrapped line around the main and boom cover before the cyclone and left it there for security. He had also removed the wind generator to give it a service.

We recently purchased a new Netbook, loaded a navigation program on it and with one of the USB GPS dongles that we import plugged in, he headed off a couple of days later, taking Sokari south to haul out. He enjoyed the sail, with northerlies the first day but the second day they dropped out to absolute calms with light headwinds coming in a little later. He dropped the pick on the southern side of Dunk Island where he spent the afternoon and night and pulled into Hinchinbrook Marina the following day. For the moment, there she sits. I drove down by car to spend a few days onboard but the heat was so unbearable that we decided to return to the more civilised climate on the Tablelands until it is time to pull her out of the water.

We're still in rainy Cairns

John and I had planned on sailing Sokari down to Cardwell to haul her out, clean her bottom and give her a few coats of antifoul. Unfortunately, the fates have been against us. A couple of months ago, the afternoon prior to us setting sail, bushfires threatened our home on the Tablelands burning to within 15 feet of the back wall. So, we hightailed it from the boat up the mountain, straightening out all the bends on the Gillies Highway and reaching the property in record time. Luckily, a couple of friends had spent hours there fighting the fire until firies could arrive, saving our home. Our sincerest thanks to these heroes. By the time we were able to go back to Cairns the weather had turned bad. In between trying to build a house and organising our departure date around house jobs we haven't been able to get away. It seems that when we are busy on the house the weather is calm and when we can arrange to get away it starts blowing a gale. So here we are still sitting on our mooring in Trinity Inlet. But we hope to get away soon. Our apologies to those who were wanting to inspect Sokari in Cardwell. We will get there as soon as we possibly can and will let you know.