Stormy Saturday at Ship Cove

Saturday started earlier than expected for Nathan. At 4am he got up with a full bladder and while heading outside found that the wind had changed direction, leaving them with not a lot of room (about 20m to possible rocks, and 50m to the shore) behind them should the anchor slip. Feeling uneasy about this, and knowing the weather forecast was for worse to come, the anchor came up and we moved to a spot with a bit more of a buffer.

With the anchor and all of the chain down, the forecast weather quickly came through and settled in. Unable to go back to sleep, Nathan made himself cozy in the saloon to keep an eye on things. The weather did get pretty extreme, but the anchor held. Vela got up and requested a coffee and some sesame porridge, but with the wild weather the food and drink didn't want to stay down.

We went into hibernation mode for a few hours stairs, wrapped up in a blanket and napping when we had the chance. Nathan jumped up a few times to check our distances to shore and make sure we weren't dragging. But our anchor held fantastically - fingers crossed it always does so!

Late morning the weather started to clear, and by midday we had beautiful blue skies and it was time to explore Ship Cove. We launched the dinghy and went ashore, the humidity and heat from the sun, coupled with the beach and thick undergrowth made it feel very tropical. We did a little bit of exploration, checking out the wharf, the James Cook monument and the many bush chickens (Weka) that we're hanging about. We also noted a short walk to a waterfall so we plan to come back tomorrow with some better footwear to check that out too.

Afterwards we took the dinghy to the point for a little bit of a fish, Vela pulled in a baby blue cod which got sent home, and also another spiny dogfish. Back on board Starling and Vela was on a roll, fishing up another spiny dogfish, myriads of small Gurnard, and one extra Gurnard big enough to keep. No blue cod for the bin today unfortunately.

We celebrated with a Pina colada, and Vela cooked up a little hot pot of yesterday's Gurnard and the jar remaining blue cod.Read more