Saturday 5th September 2015
After a very calm night at Stonehaven, we
decided to go around the top of Hook Island, heading for Tongue Bay for lunch
and possibly overnight. The sun is shining and there is a SSE breeze of around
10 knots.
As we pass Butterfly Bay most of the
moorings appear to be occupied, but there is the odd vacant one in some of the
little bays east of there. The tourist dive boats start arriving as we motor
past, with Manta Ray Bay by far the most
popular.
Dive Boats gathering at Manta Ray Bay
When we turned South around the tip of Hook
Island, we put up the headsail and motor sailed as far as the Hook Passage,
before the breeze had dropped and we were straight into it. So it was motoring
the rest of the way to Tongue Bay, which was remarkably quiet with 2 of the 3
moorings vacant. We picked up the closest one to the beach.
We were greeted at Tongue Bay by the usual Turtles
It was now midday, the trip taking 3 hrs
from Stonehaven. Whist we were having lunch the boats started arriving, mainly
day tour boats, and all of a sudden the bas way busy. It didn’t seem to worry
the turtles that reside here, who just went about their daily routine, often
surfacing for air quite near our boat.
The tour boats rushed people ashore in
dinghies to take them on the walk up to see Hill Inlet and go for a swim at
Lookout Beach. We waited before some of them started coming back before going
ashore ourselves. Even though we have been to Hill Inlet Lookout many times,
the view is still stunning and depending on the state of the tide is always a
little different.
Nicole at the lookout
On the way back down the path we diverted
down to Lookout Beach to go for a walk along the beach and have a swim.
A Catamaran anchored off Lookout beach
Nicole walking along the shoreline
Carole and Nic enjoying a swim off lookout beach
We have decided to spend the night here,
even though there is a bit of swell penetrating the bay. It turned out to be a pretty rolly night, making
getting a good nights sleep challenging. As soon as the sun went down it got
quite cold and we all had jumpers on.
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