Day 19 - Middle Is, The Percys to Scawfell Island

National Parks Shelter & Toilet - Scawfell Is

 We departed Middle Island, The Percy's at a rather challenging 2350hrs hoping get to Scawfell Island with plenty of daylight. It ended up being quite a ride with winds up to 30KTS from the south and very confused seas. We started with the big genoa but soon exceeded the max wind for that sail so transitioned to a double reefed main on its own. We did a bit of surfing that night with max speed 12.7 kts and and an average of 6 kts for the trip. We arrived at 1115hrs so had plenty of light!!!!

Savannah & Wharram catamaran

We were soon joined by others of similar mind  and it was a merry band of 6  boats that hunkered down for the joys of massive wind


bullets and plenty of chop. Did I mention the rain? No need to wash the salt spray off the windows and the rain turbo cleaned everything. We are starting to get to know the other cruisers working their way north and have had some great times with Tony off Savannah (a 46' Roberts ketch).

Ayam Rendang Curry

Pete has been keen to show us the miracle of Ayam Malaysian Rendang Curry Paste. Rendang is always a challenge to cook properly but this pre-prepared paste is meant to be the 'real McCoy'. Carefully following his wife's instructions (thank you Chris!) he got it right and it was delicious. We are now converts!

The DF Dominos Challenge

Shiralee - Seawind 31

Pandanus Fruit

Another native fruit. Bugs love it!

Like on most boats, things get pretty quiet of an evening without the distractions of TV or internet so out came the dominos. We made up the rules as we went along (or at least I did to make sure that Pete was always a tad confused)   and it was a great excuse to sample a few delicious Para ports.







We were hoping that the BOM forecasters would get it wrong but they did not. The weather stayed very much as advertised - strong wind warnings and rain squalls. What fun - it even made getting ashore quite a chore and avery wet one at that.

Our neighbour in Shiralee dropped by to get the weather forecast and I commented that she was a very pretty boat with lovely lines. Turns out she is a stretched Seawind 31 - bought in Hong Kong and extensively sailed through SE Asia.



When we did get ashore we found some interesting plants and a fruit that we had not seen before. The fruit was covered in what might have been very large aphids who were sucking it dry and leaving obviously dead shells on the branches.










The only other bit of 'nature' that we saw was several turtles swimming around the bay although even they disappeared when the weather got wet and windy.