Cape York paradise at Portland Roads
Rainbow at Portland Roads
Very cold today – had to put a long-sleeved shirt on when it got down to 25 degrees! Also rained most of the day and when it didn’t we had a beautiful rainbow.
I had 3 young men from Weipa staying (trying to fish but unable to stay out long in their boat because of the wind and waves)
They came back disappointed, and sat in the warm water of the bay, drinking and looking out at the rain
Boys from Weipa sitting in the rain
Alan and I decided to take the dory out for a crabbing and fishing trip.
We had the carcase of a Coral Trout Alan had caught a few days previously to use for bait.
As we started out, it commenced raining, then pouring, then really storming so hard the rain was hurting my eyes and I could hardly see. We had headed south(ish).
Alan was rather vaguely giving directions “Over there” and he would point around here and there. We ended up going up quite a small creek, dropping crab-pots off as we went. We kept driving (or whatever one does in boats) til a tree blocked out path – I had a little panic attack, but managed to do a 17 point turn without offending any dangerous under-water creek monsters. Left the crab-pots there and went into another creek. This was left past a sandbar and then a sharp right to miss a big rock, then up the creek. It was in the mangroves and mangrove creeks on an incoming tide, when the water is pretty clear, are very beautiful things. I didn’t bring a camera – but I will next time.
Alan put his line out for barra and I practised driving the boat. Alan got a couple of bites but no fish, so we went back to check the crab-pots.
The third pot had a nice sized one in it – very yummy looking.
Then headed back over the big wide ocean again -this time the waves had come up pretty big. Alan said that other than being as slow as a wet weekend I was quite good. The waves were fairly big and I wasn’t how easy it was to tip over the boat – pretty hard it seems.
A good day – and delicious crab for dinner!