We left Abel point marina at 9 am with a light, but building SE breeze. Soon out of the entrance channel the breeze had lifted to 10 knots, so we put up the sails and looked forward to a reach to Stonehaven anchorage on Hook Island where we are to reconnect with Cooinda. The breeze quickly built up strength to 20 to 25 knots (forecast 10-15), and we were a bit overpowered but doing 8-9 knots we stuck with it and were at Stonehaven in record time.
A quick check on my phone after getting the sails down, showed a message from Cooinda that they had gone to Blue Pearl Bay at Hayman Island, so we motored around there and picked up the last available mooring.
Catching up with Cooinda at Blue Pearl Bay
After settling in we decided it was finally time to go snorkelling, which we were able to do from the back of the boat because the reef was only about 100 metres away. And it was a clear day and relatively sheltered from the breeze. Rod & Lee had been snorkelling most of the morning so were keen to move on. We decided to go to Butterfly Bay on the Northern end of Hook Island, and told Cooinda we would catch up with them.
Butterfly Bay was crowded and no moorings were available, it was also not as protected from the SE breeze as expected, but nevertheless we were there., and after a brief exploration of Maureen's Cove as an alternative, we decided to drop anchor in Butterfly Bay in 16m of water. We put out 50m of chain and held well in a strong breeze and a very annoying NE swell to which we were beam to all night.
It was another rolly anchorage, not as bad as Cleveland Bay, but not a lot better. Needless to say were did not intend spending another night here. It was too windy to snorkel.
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