Thursday 25th March (Lini’s Journal)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Mon 29 Mar 2010 17:25
that the river which cuts through the butterfly’s body of the island
is only 1.8metre deep and Brindabella draws 2 metres. It not only
would have been really interesting to go through the lifting bridge
which only opens at 5am then up through the mangroves, but also it
would have saved us a day’s sail round half of the island. And so it
was at 10am we left marina life and set off in perfect winds on the
beam and two fishing lines off the stern. Of course as we turned into
the west coast the winds became fluky and it wasn’t long before we
were motor sailing, but this coincided with the biggest shoal of huge
leaping fish I have ever seen. With great excitement I asked Si to
double back and motor slowly through them and while fish leapt all
around us I was busy mentally locating the sushi rice and deciding
what marinade to use at suppertime. How, How, How could we not catch a
fish here? As we returned to our course I was reminded that even
Shovell had caught a fish.
Just before sundown we decided to stop for the night by the Cousteau
Nation Park but with fluky winds and mooring buoys very close to the
island we took the safer option of the anchorage off the beach.
Settled with a G&T and clear view of the horizon, tonight I saw my
second green flash as the sun disappeared with screams of delight from
an English guy on a boat not too far away who had obviously just seen
his first. With an early start we were in bed not long after our
barbecue but it was an eventful night. The anchor alarm went off
frequently not only due to the boat swinging in the fluky winds but
also as the GPS had a senior moment and put us half way to Pigeon
Island. I was convinced Simon got no sleep at all but I suppose that’s
normal for him anyway: The slug felt most sleep deprived.