Day 10: Cooktown, Australia
October 1, 2005

We arrived in Cooktown in the afternoon, after leaving Hope Island this morning. It was a short sail, and the approach was a wonderful view of high mountain bluffs and sand dunes surrounding a small river mouth. We set anchor in the small harbor of this little river town, which was founded by Captain Cook over 200 years ago when his ship ran into a reef nearby. There's not too much happening in Cooktown. About 100 people live here. There's a few shrimp boats, some fishing tourism, and lots of crocodiles. Signs everywhere say DO NOT SWIM IN THE RIVER: CROCODILES!!! Naturally, I had decided to go to shore at 11pm to make a phone call home. I really needed to hear my boys' voices and I knew I would catch them before they headed out to school. So I took the inflatable kayak, and I paddled as fast as I could across the river from where we were anchored. The salt-water crocodiles here reach 20 feet. It was the first time I really spooked myself with my own judgment calls.

Earlier in the day, Amie, Tonia, Todd and I walked through town to find the local internet connection, but didn't have too much luck, and so we had to walk a few extra kilometers to a trailer park that we heard had 2 computers online. Along the way, we witnessed a wedding - Cooktown Style.