Wind SE 10 – 15 knts

Enjoyed a beautiful calm night although we had the screens drawn as extra large mossies descended on us at dusk, there was no breeze to blow them away.

John dropped Jenny and Morgan off at the beach on Newry Island then headed out fishing. Bryan and Deb had kayaked ashore as the water was flat and calm. We walked around the island on the track maintained by the National Park, it was a 1.8 klm circuit then an extra 1.2 to Sunset beach.

The views from all four corners of the island were spectacular, either looking east over the rest of the Newrys and Brampton Island, north towards Shaw island at the bottom of the Whitsundays or west over the cane farms on the mainland.

 

The track wound up through Hoop Pine and dry schlerophyll interspersed with grass trees then dropped down to Sunset Beach through typical island rainforest of vines, ferns and buttressed trees. Sunset Beach was very pretty although at low tide the waterline was muddy. Morgan enjoyed herself chasing fish in the shallows, they were leaping out of the water towards her.

Walking up to the north east corner we were regaled with spectacular views of the yachts in the anchorage.

John didn’t have any luck fishing he only caught small parrot fish and cod and barracuda.

Moor R&R arrived about 1:30 and anchored west of us and Back Friday.

After pigging out on lunch John decided he needed some exercise so we dinghied over to the island for a walk.

We walked the circuit then while waiting for the other crews to come ashore for happy hour John tried his hand at coconut getting. By throwing a rock and smaller coconuts he was hoping to dislodge green coconuts from the palms but to no avail.

 

We sat at tables under the original resort bar roof and enjoyed a mixture of nibbles, wine, beer and kahlua.

 

With the refreshments under our belts it was time to get serious about coconut gathering. John tied a rock to a long rope and after several attempts managed to get a rope around the chosen nuts.

With  plenty of advise from Paul and Bryan and a fair amount of laughter from all they finally brought down 3 green coconuts and about 5 small ripe ones. John husked the green one and we shared coconut milk and sweet soft coconut. Truly a tropical island.

Before the mossies descended Bryan and Deb paddled back and the dinghies speed back to their respective boats.