Thursday, 23 June
At Stonehaven we were waiting for the sun to shine. Just after 11am we got a hint of blue sky so Andrew took Liz, Toni and Jack across in the dinghy to the reef area for some snorkeling.
After seeing some colorful coral and a few different fish they came back to the boat. The “easterly” swell was coming in from the Southwest and had increased in size so it was decided we would try around the top of Hook Island. It was all hands on deck to get the boat ready for the short trip through ‘The Narrows around the point past Butterfly Bay to Maureen’s Cove where we are on a mooring for the night, scoffing down lunch on the way.
There are still some wind gusts but only a small swell at the moment. It didn’t take long before Liz and Toni were in the water for a short snorkel.
Friday 24 June
We had a lovely night at Maureen’s Cove. This morning we snorkeled around some more of the reef in this bay before heading over to Butterfly Bay West. We all jumped in for a snorkel before lunch then again after lunch. There was colourful coral and colourful fish and the water temperature was pretty good when you weren’t in the cool breeze.
Toni and Jack carried on to shore, finding it strange to be walking on land again as it’s the first time since leaving Airlie Beach that their feet have been on terra firma!
Liz, Andrew and Sue returned to Imagine and found it interesting to watch the fights for moorings. One boat came over and grabbed a mooring that was undersized for their craft, soon to be told off by one of the charter boats so he moved to a larger mooring. Another put his foot down to grab the mooring first, nearly taking another boat out that had been headed that way first (the biggest motor won). Another, after nearly clipping the reef, then took at least 20 minutes to manoeuvre onto a mooring and he had stern and bow thrusters and twin engines but still had difficulties.
At Stonehaven we were waiting for the sun to shine. Just after 11am we got a hint of blue sky so Andrew took Liz, Toni and Jack across in the dinghy to the reef area for some snorkeling.
After seeing some colorful coral and a few different fish they came back to the boat. The “easterly” swell was coming in from the Southwest and had increased in size so it was decided we would try around the top of Hook Island. It was all hands on deck to get the boat ready for the short trip through ‘The Narrows around the point past Butterfly Bay to Maureen’s Cove where we are on a mooring for the night, scoffing down lunch on the way.
There are still some wind gusts but only a small swell at the moment. It didn’t take long before Liz and Toni were in the water for a short snorkel.
Friday 24 June
We had a lovely night at Maureen’s Cove. This morning we snorkeled around some more of the reef in this bay before heading over to Butterfly Bay West. We all jumped in for a snorkel before lunch then again after lunch. There was colourful coral and colourful fish and the water temperature was pretty good when you weren’t in the cool breeze.
Toni and Jack carried on to shore, finding it strange to be walking on land again as it’s the first time since leaving Airlie Beach that their feet have been on terra firma!
Liz, Andrew and Sue returned to Imagine and found it interesting to watch the fights for moorings. One boat came over and grabbed a mooring that was undersized for their craft, soon to be told off by one of the charter boats so he moved to a larger mooring. Another put his foot down to grab the mooring first, nearly taking another boat out that had been headed that way first (the biggest motor won). Another, after nearly clipping the reef, then took at least 20 minutes to manoeuvre onto a mooring and he had stern and bow thrusters and twin engines but still had difficulties.
