We are just leaving on our spring 2016 cruise to the Milne Province of PNG which is about 1000km northeast of Cairns Australia. We will be soon immersed in a very different culture visiting many small villages scattered among the hundreds of small coral islands of the Louisiade Archipelago. Our boat is chock full…

Magdelaine Cays are a pristine, untouched wilderness. We soaked it all up during 12 days of sensational exploring. Magdelaine North turtle graveyard. We arrived early December 2013 and carefully picked our way thru shallow coral heads to a well-protected anchorage about 300m behind a strip of smooth sand. It looked peaceful, but on landing, a…

   Was Daru and PNG’s Western Province a basket case? The area was often described as lawless, poverty-stricken and disease-ridden, where corruption was both normal and pretty much essential. In 2012 major flooding had destroyed many of the coastal villages food supplies. There was no better time for us to both help out and to see the…

       Willis Islets — South Willis Island weather station We dropped anchor behind a small coral islet with a strange looking building perched on the top of its six-metre high peak. I thought it would feel weird seeing civilisation out here, but every map of the coral sea shows the Willis Island manned weather station,…

Coringa Islets are comprised of Chillcott and South West Islets and are part of the large nature reserve(green zone) that also take in the  Heralds and Magdelaine Cays. They are  50nm east from the Heralds Cays, 70nm west from the Diamonds islets, 45 nm south from Willis and the Magdelaine Cays. It feels like nowhere…

I recently gave my partner Syl an Aussie knick name after she banged on the side of a boat at our marina for 5 minutes in an attempt to rouse it’s occupant and tell them. “  Your music is too loud …my baby can’t sleep (that was me).” When nobody presented themselves, next step was…

                         Herald Cays The Herald Cays are a 200nm cruise eastward into the Coral Sea from both Townsville and Cairns and are a nature paradise. Traveling at eight knots from Townsville we reached them with nightly stopovers at Myrmidon and Flinders Reefs. No need…

We enjoy visiting Lockhart River, a coastal Aboriginal community on the eastern coast of Cape York Peninsula. It is an important supply stopover for us when cruising to the top and back, or when we are just poking around diving and exploring the northeast fringes. Lockhart River is also the name of a river located…

                         Nothing beats being on our own little sand patch in the middle of the ocean. And there is no better place to experience these beautiful natural places than the area between Cape Melville and Lockhart River. -A veritable smorgasbord of sand cays, sand…

                  An occasional solo trip gave me the taste for alone time in the middle of nowhere. But as I stood on the back step of Flash Dancer kitted up with scuba gear and stared out at the stormy sky and the black deserted ocean I wondered…

Our 2015 spring cruise second leg was a 100nm night cruise from Bougainville Reef to Osprey Reef. Dive charters have put Osprey Reef in the spotlight, especially the North Horn dive site with its famous shark-feeding spectacle. We were more interested in the large lagoon, though, and planned to make it our home base for…

On our 2015 spring cruise from Cairns to Cape York, we took in a slight detour to several nearby Coral Sea atolls, beginning at Bougainville Reef. We waited for a good- weather window before heading 215km north- east of Cairns to a  speck on our chart. Bougainville Reef is a 4km-long, oval atoll formed thousands…