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Saturday 10th July.

Once again during the night the wind changed and the bay we were in (White’s Bay on Middle Percy) became rougher and rougher so we decided we would head off to Curlew Island. Casana and Serenade decided they would like to try to go to West Bay on Middle Percy before heading off to Curlew so they set off but soon found that it was going to be too much swell in there for it to be comfortable so they continued on to Curlew.
We decided to have breakfast before setting sail, then put the sails up reefing the main as the winds were getting up to about 20 to 25 knots. We had the main, the staysail and the mizzen up and were travelling well getting up to about 8 knots speed. The seas were messy with two opposing swells and with the high winds it wasn’t the best on Lydia’s stomach.
We were catching up to Serenade (not that we were racing!) but watching them bounce around in the messy seas with only their head sail out. We radioed them and found that something was wrong with their gearbox. They were unable to motor and with two of three on board quite seasick, they couldn’t put up their main.
We decided to drop most of our sails and shadow Serenade just in case they had more trouble. It was a slow trip with us hoving to to slow our boat down and doing donuts when we were pulling away from Serenade, but we both sailed into the bay on Curlew.
Andrew has offered to have a look at the gearbox tomorrow.

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Another boating day in paradise. After a night of gentle rocking we awoke to a light breeze and cloudy sky. Breakfast on deck. Lydia couldn’t wait for Ross this morning. Wetsuit, fins, mask and speargun, she was off. A little while later Ross came past as we pointed to where Lydia was diving.
Andrew and Sue did a few chores then started lunch as they knew Lydia would be starving after her dive.
She did it! After many near misses, rock fish and slippery getaways; Lydia scored a Parrot fish by trapping it between rocks. Learning how to approach the fish was the key. Then a coral trout on the last dive of the day after 2.5 hours, using the current against the fish and slowing creeping forward. It will be awkward if she never catches another fish after all the showing off.
A little more practice at filleting and it will be fish for dinner. Well not quite. We got the call that Georgie was making Seafood Chowder and there was going to be a fire on the beach and as Sue had got sausages out for dinner she made Devilled Sausages to take ashore. Fish tomorrow.
We all arrived on the beach in the afternoon and started the fire. Ross had brought his bow and arrows and set up a target, so everyone could test their skills. After many more tales around the camp fire we all headed back to our boats.
As we reached the water’s edge Sue and Lydia spotted a shark fin cruising along the water’s edge. They didn’t alert the others as we all had to get our dinghies in the water over the small row of waves and then get in the dinghies. Ross’s dinghy was anchored just past the breaking waves (past where the shark had just cruised). Andrew and Lydia loaded our dinghy and dragged it off the beach into waist deep water and Sue climbed in. Lydia then went to help Ross recover his dinghy and take it to shore where Georgie loaded it and hopped in.
Once Serenade’s crew had waded into the water and got into their dinghy and Ross and Georgie were safely on their way back to their boats, Lydia climbed into the dinghy with Andrew and Sue to return to Imagine. We’ll tell the others about the shark tomorrow.

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Thursday 8th July

Overnight the wind changed to put us side on to the sea, all that was now coming around the point. With next to no sleep because of Imagine rocking so violently we hauled anchor at daybreak and headed to the next island (Middle Percy). Luckily it was only 2 hours away. The only island within two days sail that can give protection from the northerly winds that are coming the next three days.
Again as we dropped anchor Lydia was in the water to check we were secure. Seranade had followed us into the bay as they declared that was their worst night on their boat ever.
After a while Casana joined us in the bay. Andrew and Lydia went exploring the bay to find the best places to dive later. Ross came to Imagine with a Parrot fish he had caught as a thank you for the bread Andrew had baked for them yesterday, so Lydia filleted her first fish. We all had a rest and in the afternoon Ross and Lydia went diving. Ross speared a trout and Lydia has yet to come back with anything but stories.
Parrot fish for dinner …. yummy!

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Surprise! Lydia didn’t go for a swim this morning. Instead Andrew and Lydia decided to go for a hike up the hill to see if they could get any internet to check the weather. Shortly before they were due to go we heard a call over the radio from Serenade to see if Casana were heading ashore as Waty (Steve’s wife) was keen to go for a walk. Andrew radioed Serenade to say he and Lydia were going ashore if they wanted to join us walking over the island. Waty and Stephanie (one of their daughters) were keen to go so Andrew and Lydia picked them up on the way to the beach.
Off we went up the side of the hill across the ridge and down the other side stopping part way down. Waty and Andrew stopped half way down. Lydia had seen there was a hill jutting out from the coast. It didn’t have a pile of rocks on top of it like all the hills on the island. Looking at the steep rocky sides to the hill you could understand why no one had put a pyramid of rocks on it. And Lydia was off. We watched as she went down the hill through the scrub, clambered across the rocks and scaled the cliff face. Making it to the top she gathered up rocks and made a pyramid, declaring it to be Mount Lydia.
As we came down the hill we could see Steve and Georgia (their other daughter) were on the beach along with Ross and Georgia from Casana. On the way back we discovered that Waty had never skinnydipped but had wanted to. So we convinced her there is no time like the present. Reaching the beach Lydia dropped her backpack and peeled off her clothes as she ran down the beach and dived into the water naked. Andrew was right behind her. With everyone else on the beach Waty got cold feet and and went swiming in bra and pants.
Most of the others headed off for a walk up the end of the beach. It was lunchtime so Andrew and Lydia got in the dinghy to head back to Imagine. As they did they saw Steve had convinced Waty to go for it. And she did. She stripped off and was in the water right behind us. Good on her.

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A new morning and we headed ashore to do some exploring. At the other end of the beach there was a track leading inland, taking us to a valley of colourful rocks and sand.
As we walked back along the beach we were greeted by other boaties that had come ashore. It was while talking to Steve the skipper of Serenade (another Roberts designed ketch) that Lydia exclaimed she was jumping ship. They have dive tanks, a compressor and a speargun on Serenade.
Ross, the skipper of Casana said he would go diving the reef with Lydia and show her how to spearfish. Lydia organised to borrow Steve’s speargun and went off with Ross promising to return with a fish for dinner. We had spring rolls for dinner. We got the story that there were lots of fish and she did shoot one but it got away before breaking the tip of the speargun. Now we’ll have to wait for Airlie to get a speargun of her own.
Late afternoon we headed over to Casana (an large catamaran owned by Ross and Georgie) for sundowners. The crew from Serenade were also there. Lydia listened to all the tales of mishaps and adventures we were all telling and enjoyed raving away to Georgie’s music.

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Monday 5th July

We set off at 6am for a full day’s sail and all night arriving at South Percy about 7am. As soon as we dropped the anchor Lydia was in the water, using the excuse of checking the anchor. Then it was scouting around checking the bommies just in case they were too close. One of them was a little close if we swing that way during the night so we lifted anchor and re-anchored a few metres further along.
We all had breakfast, then went to sleep for a couple of hours. The afternoon was just chilling out and of course Lydia back in the water.
By evening we were still getting over the sailing so we didn’t go ashore to meet the other boaties that had congregated on the beach around a fire.

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Today started out raining but cleared after lunch. Lydia had to get in the water. We had told her about how we swung off the halyard and into the water on our old boat. She was eager to be the first to do it on Imagine.

It wasn’t the most graceful thing. Ending in a belly flop. But it was amusing.

We have got Imagine ready for our sail to the next islands, South Percy and Middle Percy. We will set off about 6am to catch the wind and tide.

This will probably be the last blog for a week or so as we will not have reception until we get to Goldsmith Island.

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Today was an S&S day. That meant swimming and snorkelling. After yesterday and the kayak we decided that we fit better in the dinghy.

We went across to the the reef and anchored the dinghy while we snorkelled around finding some turtles stingrays and a shark.

Tonight Lydia made a yummy stir-fry for dinner.

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Yesterday we moved to Monkey bay to get more shelter. Surprisingly we had the bay to ourselves. As the day went on the wind died down. That meant Lydia had to go check out the reef. Lydia took the dinghy to the edge of the reef where she was going to swim.

It was the first time she had taken the dinghy on her own. It took a few goes to point it in the right direction but eventually made it to the reef. A couple of big turtles were chilling right near the dinghy. No wetsuit, we thought she would be back in a few minutes as the water temperature was 18 degrees. But no, she was out there for about 1 and a 1/2 hours.

When she did get back she was frozen so she rugged up while having something to eat.

Today was a good day. Andrew spent all morning working on the watermaker and it’s now working! We can make 2ltrs a minute.

After lunch some silly person (Andrew) decided we should go kayaking across the bay. So we all fell / piled into the one 2.5 person kayak. We went around in a few circles while we seemed to drift in the general direction of the reef. Once at the reef Lydia had the bright idea that she would go for a swim.

Now we were all wet. Sue and Andrew still managed to stay in the kayak. Lydia swam the reef while Sue and Andrew were tempted to head back to Imagine and leave her behind. But we needed someone to call “stroke” so we could paddle in the same direction, so we waited for her. Getting Lydia back in the kayak was just as drenching as she very lady-like and gracefully struggled to get in the kayak.

As you can tell, we did manage to get back to Imagine somehow.

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Another two days of high winds although the rain has stopped. As the wind got quite high yesterday, we saw several boats drag anchor and then move to a different part of the bay. A relief to us.
This morning Andrew and Lydia went ashore to go Geo-caching since she likes finding treasure so much. They returned to Imagine for a swim then lunch. We all had an afternoon siesta, before Lydia started coding the website to improve the map locations.
This evening we will be dining on Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic croutons.
Tomorrow the wind will turn easterly and come into this bay so we hope to move to Monkey bay. There is only a small place in the bay deep enough for us, so we have to beat everyone around there in the morning.