Wednesday 13th July 2022

I’ve been loving this anchorage, flat, calm water with plenty of breeze to cool you down, beautiful views all around and new beaches to explore. At dusk each night the bats (Flying Foxes) on the Island take flight in their thousands, its jaw dropping to watch; last night it was a full moon and seeing all the bats flying in front of the moon was just incredible.

I found what I think is the skeleton of a flying fox head, that sounds a bit macabre, but I think it’s beautiful, and it’s in perfect condition, I may have to frame it when I get back.

The full moon was so incredibly bright last night, it was almost light enough to read by. A full moon always brings changes in the tides, exceptionally high and low tides, it also affects the wind. The wind had picked up a bit last night, gusting around 25 knots, and oddly the boat was hanging stern too, to the wind and waves, totally the opposite way it would normally hang at anchor. A boat always faces into the wind (that is unless its a weird full moon night!)

The waves were crashing and banging into the stern (where our master cabin is) and every few seconds there was a deafening thud, as if we had crashed into another boat, each time a wave hit us the entire boat shuddered. Needless to say, we got absolutely zero sleep. We both went up on deck at different times throughout the night to check that we were still hanging ok on the anchor. It was so odd as the anchor chain was hanging limp, while we were being slammed by the waves and the wind from the stern, I thought the white caps on the rolling waves looked ominous, maybe they looked bigger than they were due to the moonlight, Bob said all was fine, hmmmm…

It was a miserable, sleepless night, but the effects of the full moon continue today as we’re still facing away from the wind, the current must be so strong in this pass to keep us facing in this direction, I’m really hoping things go back to normal tonight.