Wind   SE  10 – 15  80 % chance of showers   23 nm

What a change a drizzly morning and rain during the night. Its the first lot of rain we have had since we left in May. The ocean was flat and calm as we motored out of Mourilyan harbour with about five knots of wind so we didn’t even bother to put up any sails.

The rods went out and we towed the lures all day admist intermittent rain storms. At times the land, tankers, islands and the horizon all blurred into one greay mass.

We hooked one small spotted mackerel just before we reached Russell Island. John thought it was a lump of weed until he got it close as he didn’t put up much of a fight.

 

We arrived at Russell at 2:00 and picked up a mooring buoy. There are three bouys around the north eastern side but only one is an 18mt one suitable for our boat, the others are for a 10 mt boat. A couple of day trippers were on shore and a trawler was anchored just around the corner.

John cooked us fresh mackerel and sweet potatoe chips for lunch which complimented each other well. We went ashore to explore the island which had a high peak and adjoining island with a mainly coral rubble beach.  I didn’t take my shoes so it was very hard on the feet. Scavenging was excellent as it seems to be a spot where lots of flotsam and shells come ashore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lagoon on the ocean side was full of sea slugs and as usual Morgan wore herself out chasing fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a small camping area with picnic tables and a composting toilet.

 

Back on Ovive we fished but only caught a variety of small colourful fish that we threw back. John got bitten off by a couple of what he assumed were large sharks so we gave up.