John and I got up in preparation for heading north. The forecast was for very light north west winds looking like we would be motoring a lot. Had breaky , plotted a course and were ready to leave. I rang Debra to see when she was leaving, no they had decided to stay for the day as the wind would be on the nose. Glad we rang instead of just heading off!
Oh well, the fish were calling so a fishing expedition was prepared. We were disappointed when we checked the marine zone chart as the best fishing spots were in a green zone. The Queensland coast is divided into marine zones – blue is for general use, basically we can do anything, yellow only one rod and hook each and green – no fishing or collecting at all.
The green zones starts half way to the little island.
We lowered the dinghy and fished outside the green zone catching several long finned cod, some small blue face whiptail that were extremely pretty and a tusk fish.
Blue faced whiptail
All of them were thrown back except one long finned cod which we ate for lunch. The fishing was great fun, Morgan constantly whined and panted in excitement so much that she wore herself out.
Unfortunately, the fish went off the bite making it an easy decision to head over to a patch of rocks in the middle of the bay. John hooked something large which took him under a ledge and snagged him. He was not a happy fisher. A lot of small brown cod kept taking our bait and we got sick of hauling them in and letting them go so we headed to the beach to let Morgan cool down after all that excitement.
Deb and Wayne were doing as well as us.
The beach was stunning with fine white sand and crystal clear water.
I wandered along and found two shells for Riley and Charli while John sat in the shade at the bottom of a cliff. The Hoop pines towered above with their root systems precariously gripping onto the rocks. I don’t know how they manage to cling so well to the rocks and loose ground.
These two look knackered!
We were all worn out after the mornings activities and back on Ovive lunch was welcome followed by some Mulligan Geo work (not so welcome).
The others summoned us to happy hour on the beach at 4, had to go couldn’t let the them down so we packed our drinks and nibbles and headed towards the beach. The six of us plus Roxy and Morgan sat on the sand and enjoyed sundowners topped off by fresh coconut that Wayne had brought from Great Keppel Island. It was an excellent end to the day.
Morgan satisfied her puppy memories and tossed a coconut husk around.
Darkness arrived too fast as it does this far north , it was off to our big boats where John and I had scotch fillet and vegies in cheese sauce for dinner.