Middle Percy Island to Curlew Island
A 7am start today, designed to get us to the Curlew Island
anchorage before the anticipated strong winds.
The day started completely grey, with low cloud and mist enveloping us. It lent the island quite an atmospheric
feel, reminiscent of stories of romantic, rainforest filled Polynesian
bays after a rain storm.
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| Looking back at Middle Percy on our way out |
We left Middle Percy with only Argonaut of Melbourne
still at anchor and began what turned out to be a pretty comfortable motor sail
for the 25 miles to Curlew Island. Rain
was apparent in most directions but fortune spared us. Until we were half way through dropping the
main, just off Curlew, when the heavens opened, the wind hit and visibility
went to almost nothing. I negotiated the
bay’s narrow channel largely reliant on chart plotter and depth sounder. We were drenched, but it was still warm and we
were well anchored.
The anchorage at Curlew is sandwiched between the island, to
our south and east, and a sand shoal running parallel to and about 500 meters
off the beach. At low tide the shoal is exposed
and provides a shield against the swell that curves around the island. However at high tide water covers the shoal and waves have nothing to stop them from coming at us from every angle. Curlew ended up giving us a horribly rolly
experience. During our short time there
we had heavy wind and rolling, and light wind and rolling. Although undoubtedly safe even in the 25+
knots SE winds we had, I can only imagine this is a comfortable anchorage in
the most glassy of conditions.
We were stuck on Curlew for two nights, waiting for
conditions to moderate. Friday was dry
and mainly sunny, and we used the opportunity to go ashore (away from the
rolling). It is a pretty place, but,
frankly, it’s not on my list of places to revisit.
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| Curlew Island is quite spectacular, with a prominent rocky peak |
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| Curlew Island looking very pretty from ashore Waves breaking on the fringing shoal are clear in the above photo |
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