We have now moved onto Shaw Island, which is a far more sheltered anchorage with very good holding. We headed off to the beach and explored the shell covered beach.

The previous night at Goldsmith Island was not too good. This anchorage is very tight. You enter the bay and need to navigate a small section of sand inbetween coral reefs... not very easy. So we did this and dropped anchor... YAY...

Later in the evening I went upstairs to check the depth....mmmmm..... based on tide calculations, and the fact that low tide was due at 2am, it looked like we were going to drag on the bottom if we swung towards the reef!!!! NOT GOOD.
So I did the calculations again, and watch the depth sounder, and I was now 100% sure we needed to move.....

It's dark, real dark, so its on with the navigation lights, radar and plotter.... I tried the next bay up, but this was much more unstable, so we returned to the previous bay and tried to locate an anchorage further away from the reef. We tried to do this and were partially successful....

I recalculated the tide changes and found that we should be safe at low tide, 2am.... BUT!!! I layed out 25m of chain, and because I was inbetween sand and reef, the chain was dragging on coral every now and then.... This makes a hell of a noise in the boat.... not to mention the re-sculpting of the coral!!!! It was only fringe coral, so I was not too worried.... I did not get much sleep that night.... next morning we were off to Shaw Island, which is right next door to Lindeman Island.

A far better sleep, and a far more sheltered location.

Tomorrow (29th) we are off to Hamilton Island.
If you would like some more details I have updated our family website, www.malyfamily.com

thanks
Frank, out