The long march

In Cooktown, we had met again with the four boats that were we us in
Hope Island, including Cognac, with Robert and Ysabella from Melbourne.
Cognac missed the right spot to anchor and spent a good many hours on
her side in front of the main wharf !
Anyway, we left from Cooktown both almost at the same time and got to
Lizard Island the same day, within an hour of each other (I won't tell
you who got there first, but you might guess . . .)
After dropping the anchor we went ashore as I was eager to identify the
track leading to the James Cook Lookout. We missed it and ended up at
Mrs Watson's house, which is basically just a small portion of a single
wall remaining. We walked back to the dinghy along the beach and at the
northern end of it, we found the beginning of the Cook'sLookout track.
That will be for tomorrow morning.
After we went back to the boat, Cognac hailed us and we went to their
boat for a drink and a chat. Back on Papy Jovial, we had dinner then a
movie (the green mile). Halfway through the movie, the anchor alarm went
off and although we had not dragged much and everything seemed OK, we
relocated to make sure we were on sandy bottom. Then we went back to the
movie.
Wednesday morning, we left the boat at 7 to climb to the top of the
hill (358 metres) where James Cook went to try and identify an exit to
the ocean. It took us a little more than an hour as the climb is
sometimes very steep over boulders and rocks. Unfortunately, the
weather was not nice, with strong wind, which is a permanent feature
since we arrived, cloudy skies and poor visibility. Cook would have
been disappointed too!
We then walked back, went back to Papy Jovial for lunch and nap. Cognac
being already there, two of the three other boats showed up in the
afternoon with the addition of a 50 foot french catamaran, probably
also part of this indonesia rallye.
Tomorrow morning, I intend to leave early and make Portland Roads the
next day in the afternoon. If there is anything there worth visiting,
we will stay one day before leaving for Cape York.