8th October Hunter Island to Pearl Bay 45nm

 Billabong Leaving Dukes in the turbulent current

We woke to calm conditions and a beautiful morning. All the other yachts exited the anchorage at first light and headed for new destinations. Most went to Island Head Creek and some pushed on further south.

We could not believe how bad the night was and how calm it is now. It only became calm at about 4am which allowed us some sleep.

We are not having a lot of fun with these overnight anchorages. The lack of sleep takes its toll on the body the next day.  We motor sailed to Pearl Bay after contemplating going into Island Head Creek. Glad we didn’t because we heard on the VHF chatter that they were swarmed upon by sand flies.

We arrived at Pearl Bay at 2.30pm and we relaxed and did not do too much. We had 5 o’clock drinks on Billabong but it was short and sweet. After we cooked dinner we could not keep our eyes open. The wind had dropped away to nothing and we had no swell so we got a great night’s sleep.

The next day the wind started to build from the SE and it became quite strong. Graham put his dinghy in the water and took us all into the beach for a walk.

 Beach walking on Pearl Bay

In the afternoon we tried our luck fishing but could not quite find the spot. Graham caught two very good Parrot Fish but that night we had a lamb roast on Echo Beach.

By the end of the evening the developed SE swell started to bend around the point and we were in for another bad night. We rolled all night and we managed very little sleep. I think this would go down as our worst night’s sleep in all the years we have been cruising. At this point I felt we would have been better in Island Head Creek with all the sand flies.