School's Out!
06 July 2016
Kim
Our private bays have been taken over by charter boats!
Last night we were with 36 other boats in Cid Harbour. Quite a different experience compared to a few weeks ago when there were only a handful of us.
This morning we wove our way out of the anchorage and booted it up to Hook Island to grab a mooring ball before the rush. The weather forecast looked good for a day of snorkeling in Butterfly Bay so we were keen to get there early.
Three of us entered the bay at full throddle in a race to grab the last remaining mooring balls. Fortunately there were 'no dramas' as three of the nine balls were still available. Scores of people with the same idea streamed in over the rest of the afternoon, but nobody seems to take the '2 hour limit' on mooring balls seriously, so most newcomers ended up streaming straight back out again to find another option for the night.
Having to share our favorite anchorages isn't much of a hardship after so much solitude over the past month, and all the action is actually quite entertaining. Everyone's eager to make the most of their holidays and we have front row seats to watch it all from the cockpit.
Drying off in the warm sun after snorkeling we watched kids splashing around, kayakers and paddle boarders drifting along the shore, and dingies buzzing back and forth across the bay (one was even towing a water skier on a paddle board!)
But the sun is slipping over the horizon now and everyone's back on board. Their stereos are on, glasses are clinking, I can smell meat on 'the barby'...
Hmmm... what did I take out for dinner tonight?