Mike Mate

Lizard Island is the first (the most northerly) of the Barrier Reef resorts, but it 368 meter high point is smudged out in grey steaks of lashing rain. Rainbow Warrior heels over to one side driven by the gale force southeaster. Our radio and satellite receivers started beeping yesterday with weather warnings: 800 miles ahead of us, an intense low pressure flexes its muscles - I plot its position on the routeing chart. Emergency services in Queensland are evacuating Fraser Island. But there’s more. In the Gulf of Carpentaria (which we crossed two days ago) another low threatens to develop into a cyclone, its predicted path is over the top of us and its moving faster than us. The two lows may join together to form a super-low pressure system and we may need to shelter within the reef system before heading out across the Tasman Sea. Oceanic reports of the Tasman are not inviting - grim times lie ahead. Tasman is reputed to be the most terrible sea in the world and we have to cross it to reach New Zealand.