Practical aid for Barrier Beef sailors

Most cruising yachtsmen who sail through the Pacific Islands hope to explore part or all of Queensland’s massive Great Barrier Reef, which stretches for 1,500 miles and as much as 60 miles out to sea off Queensland. In all, some 80,000 square miles of reef waters and nearly 600 islands await enthusiastic sailors.

A book on this area for yachtsmen is overdue, and now cruising yachtsman Alan Lucas, of the 31 ft masthead ketch Rendezvous has filled the gap with the illustrated easy-to-read, layman’s 182-page, Cruising the Coral Coast.

Lucas, who incidentally has appeared in PlM’s Cruising Yacht columns with his attractive wife, Nina, has obviously put a lot of research into his book, which includes Spring tides charts, detailed maps of anchorage points on many of the major islands, such as Lindeman, Brampton and Hayman, and the bigger ports, such as Mackay, Cook town and Cairns. Thursday Island is also covered.

In addition we get some unexpected information, such as descriptions of the deadly stone-fish, how to skin a crocodile, catch a goat, fix trailing fishing gear. He has also thrown in some history and a couple of yarns, but the main purpose of the book is to make available some practical information for yachtsmen or mere tourists. A general index unfortunately is missing, but at 5i.25 (from Horwitz Publications) this is a handy paperback.— KMcG.