14 October - 2015
After
having such a glorious time ashore, we could have easily been tempted to stay
another day at Hexham Island but the call of the North was strong. We
felt we really needed to keep moving up the coast before the northerlies arrived. As a
result we hauled up the anchor and pointed our bows towards the Percy Group of
Islands. We were hoping to stop in at the famed cruisers favourite, West Bay on
Middle Percy but were reserving our decision to see what the breeze would do
later in the day.
We were sorry to leave Hexham Island and its magnificent beach in our wake but the North was calling. |
We
had about 15 knots from the South East when we set the sails just outside the
bay at Hexham and were soon making good speed. We had just settled down in the
cockpit when a fish took the lure on the one of the lines we were trawling. We
soon had a good size mackerel on board with Karen quickly wielding the knife
and making short work of turning our catch into mackerel steaks ready for the
BBQ. Our day had got off to a great start.
At 95cm our mackerel was big enough to put a smile on any fisherman's face. |
Karen was raised on her parents' game fishing charter boat so really knows her way around a filleting knife or, in this case, how to steak a mackerel in just minutes. |
The Percy Islands ahead |
The
wind continued to strengthen to 20 knots gusting beyond 25 giving us a great downwind sail getting up to 8.5 knots but we reluctantly
made the decision that West Bay would not be a suitable anchorage in the
conditions. It has a reputation for being very uncomfortable in anything above around 15 knots so we opted for our Plan B of spending the night behind South Island
as was reported to be a secure anchorage in South Easterlies.
Hexham Island to South Percy Island - 21.1 nautical miles - 4 hours Average speed 5.3 knots - Max speed 8.5 knots |
Our cruising
guides indicated we could expect less tidal run and swell rolling around the
island at towards its eastern half however, we did find we had to anchor in
over twelve metres of water and a fair way from the beach to avoid the fringing reefs. This reduced the
protection from the wind provided by the hills. When we reversed to set the
anchor it worryingly pulled across what felt like a rocky bottom before firmly
gripping into something. We gave the engine a good long blast in reverse and
found the anchor holding rock solid so felt confident it was secure.
We found we needed to anchor further off the beach at South Percy Island than we would have liked. |
The locals were friendly though. |
Forget the shrimp, throw some mackerel on the barbie. |
Conditions
were comfortable enough through the afternoon and we had a fine first meal of
our freshly caught mackerel appropriately accompanied by a chilled white and
magnificent sunset. The night was far less comfortable with a considerable
tidal run holding the boat beam onto the modest sell penetrating around the
point inducing enough roll to make sleep a stop start experience. We were
relieved when the sky began to lighten in the pre-dawn and we could prepare to
up anchor and move on. In more settled conditions it could be a nice spot to
spend some time but if we find ourselves at the Percy’s South Island again in a
strongish South Easterly we will anchor close to the beach near the Western end
and try our luck there.
Good night from South Percy Island. |
To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love to read your comments regarding our blog, what you enjoyed and what you might like to see more of. Please leave us your thoughts.