One of the first songs that came up on our shuffled music was Richard Clapton’s Capricorn Dancer (lead me onto the tropical zone) Most appropriate as today we are headed to Cape Capricorn, named by Captain Cook as he crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.
Many ships at anchor around our course today, we counted 23. Guessing the LNG ship “Clean Force” has a crew that has also given up smoking cigars. I have been off them for 6 days so far.
We are surrounded by hundreds of butterflies, quite amazing really as we are 5 miles off shore. The wonders of Google allowed us amateur entomologists to identify them as Blue Tiger Butterflies, apparently thriving in Queensland because of our prolonged wet season.
Less than 5 kts of breeze till lunch so we were motor sailing. Absolutely clear sky. Cape Capricorn was not lookng good as an anchorage as the wind filled in more from the N than forecast so we went the extra 20 miles to Great Keppel Island.
balakera.com 
Wow – amazing images and wish we could have seen the butterflies. Isn’t life wonderful! Can’t imagine you not having your afternoon gaspers Derek – was it a conscious decision to give up permanently, or just for the voyage. It’s lovely receiving your updates – we look forward to seeing if anything has come through from Baly each night. Take care, Fi x
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