Where have we been hiding?

Since our last post we have been island hopping north, and have lots of photos of great weather, new friends, lovely beaches and beautiful anchorages. I have a very hefty draft blog which I dont intend to completely bore you with, so I will do a photopost with some explanatory comment for now. We can do detail later!

We went back to Keppel from Northwest, but had such a terrible rolly night there, we went into Rosslyn Bay in despair! Our coffee from the UK still hadnt arrived, so we did a major provision, arranged to redirect the coffee and headed up to Port Clinton. We sat out 2 days of 20-25 knots very comfortably in a very quiet Port Clinton, then headed out to the islands, making Hexham our first stop. Utterly gorgeous, perfect conditions, and new friends as well as a speck of internet access at the top of the hill!

From Hexham we decided to go to Middle Percy, as we have never been there in Wine-Dark Sea and we wanted to leave something at the A Frame. We ended up staying for 3 nights, as conditions were superb – no swell, so comfortable even in West Bay! Again, we made new friends, met up with some we had met in earlier locations, and got to know the locals! We even had goat curry, from an island goat, freshly slaughtered for the purpose.

Leaving Percy in zero wind, we spent a night a Curlew, before putting Noel Patrick’s Curtis Coast away, and getting out 100 Magic Miles as we enter the Whitsundays via Scawfell. We had intended to head to Keswick and St Bees and pick up a mooring in Egremont Passage, but on calling the Island, we have been told that all the moorings got washed away during Cyclone Debbie. As the anchorages arent great there, plus it being spring tides with a full moon tonight, we have decided for forego the visit to Keswick.

Following is a selection of photos covering the above anchorages, walks, sunsets and islands, from Port Clinton to Curlew.

Port Clinton:

20+ knots sitting comfortably at Port Clinton

watching the wind speed – the graph on the right

cooking day – pea and ham soup

stormy sunset

From Port Clinton, we did an island tour of Cheviot and High Peak, in case they were good for anchoring. Cheviot was too rocky, and we had a run in with a coral bommie at High Peak, so had to floor it to get to Hexham before dark:

Decided to,check out Cheviot Island and High Peak Island before deciding on Hexham

the rock faces of Cheviot

No we arent staying here!

High tailing it from High Peak, after nearly coming a cropper on a coral bommie

Arriving at Hexham, to find it filled with cats!

Beautiful Hexham:

looking down on the anchorage from mobile reception and grass trees!

Yay! we got FB again!

Pete making work calls in todays excuse for an office!

WDS looking peaceful at Hexham

Cathedral Rocks – we snorkelled behind these

Middle Percy, stopping at Dolphin Bay for a nudie swim, seeing a whale taking a power nap and finally, delightful West Bay anchorage:

Dolphin Bay

Post Dolphin Bay swim

Whale, apparently power napping! He stayed like this for about 15 minutes

After leaving our Wine-Dark Sea mug in the A Frame

West Bay from the Hilton

West Bay sunset

Boat Harbour with the tide in

Looking out to the anchorage from the Boat harbour

painted coconut path markers heading up to the Homestead

Homestead

Heritage goat paddock from the Homestead verandah

Islands in the sky

ABPS

Sundowner time with new friends and old

And Curlew, where we say farewell to Noel Patricks Curtis Coast:

On a Wine-Dark Sea with an almost full moon rising

Ashore

The distinctive “knob hill” of Curlew

from the anchorge

Thanks Noel Patrick, we lovevd the Curtis Coast, but now its on to the Whitsundays

Hope you enjoy the photo selection, words to follow about the more interesting bits of this section of our trip!