Treasure island.
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Tue 4 Feb 2014 13:30
Saturday 1st February
The weather was not promising as we left Soper's Hole, as it was raining and the wind was gusty. This did mean a good sail was on the cards, tacking across the channel towards the destination for our evening anchorage: The Bight, Norman Island. This channel is known locally as 'Freebooters Gangway', or Sir Francis Drake Channel. So ones imagination is charged up with stories and history as you sail along looking at the chart to identify islands and bays with definite pirate story names; Privateer Bay, Roger's Point, Treasure Point and Dead Chest Island. It is no wonder that the area is full of folklore stories of buried treasure.
We left Soper's Hole with one reef in the main and a few turns on the furler for the genoa and were making around 6-7 knots beating into 15-20 knots of wind. We just needed a couple of tacks to see us into our lunchtime stop, but had to furl some more genoa in during a rather impressive rain shower. (We do keep getting rain, but it never lasts for long and at least it's warm rain!)
Our lunchtime stop was at Pelican Island and the Indians. We were lucky to pick up a buoy close in. A quick lunch and then into the water to snorkel around the Indians, which are large red rocks poking up through the water with sheer sides producing a great spot for diving and snorkelling as there were a huge number of new fish and coral for us to wonder at. Each new spot is better than the last. Our guests keep coming up trumps with their prior knowledge of the area.
After this really enjoyable snorkel we motored the very short distance to The Bight and picked up a National Park mooring in a small bay called Kelly's Bay. This has four buoys for overnight mooring but all were occupied when we arrived so we went for another snorkel. Although not generally described as a good bay for snorkelling we were really impressed with the variety of underwater scenery, fishes and different types of coral that we saw here. Not long after we finished our swim and under the "fluence" being put on them by Sarah, one of the boats on the overnight moorings left and we quickly moved onto it which was great as this bay looked as though it was going to be much more quiet than the larger bay just round the corner which was full of yachts by late afternoon.
Nothing ashore here, (and not fancying a wet dinghy ride around to the Bight) so no beach bars, wifi or restaurants so it was a meal on board and an early night after all our swimming.
Sunday 2nd February,
After a quick discussion it was decided to stay where we were. The snorkelling was good and we had the prospect of a dinghy ride around Treasure Point to explore the caves. It meant we could have a swim before breakfast and in the late afternoon without any difficulties. We were disturbed by the arrival of a large motor cruiser, that anchored in the cove and took a stern line to a rock. So they were positioned very close to the shore, making swimming to the far end a bit more difficult. They were a bit of distraction as they got all their toys out to play with, so we headed off after lunch in the dinghy across the bay.
The caves at Treasure Point made for an interesting swim, but it was quite busy. The coral and the fish were not as good as our bay but we saw a barracuda. Yes, we were swimming off the dinghy. It gave the other dinghies some entertainment to watch Sarah trying to get back on board. So much so that one man swam over with his dinghy ladder to give aid, which was rejected as Sarah was having too much fun proving how stubborn she can be. But all of us managed to get back in the dinghy without help.
The first barbecue of the year and dinner in the cockpit, not bad for February!