Month: August 2020

27/08/2020

We went on Haslewood Island again at noon. There is a short walk at the southern end of the beach, leading us to a lookout. It was low tide so we could see the coral reefs near shore clearly.

There were hundreds of blue tiger butterflies on this island. This butterfly migrates like migratory birds, flying from south to north in winter and from north to south in summer. Their larvae eat a plant called Corky Milk Vine, which is poisonous, and they carry the poison to become butterflies, so birds will never eat them. Sometimes these butterflies can be seen trying to fly over the sea, but how can they resist the strong wind? I have also seen butterfly wings washed up by the waves on beach, romantic and sad. At least they tried…

I started fishing after lunch but caught nothing. J caught a bright red-striped fish. Since there was no Internet to find out what fish it was, we let it go to avoid food poisoning. Later, I found that it was a Squirrel fish, an aquarium fish.

For dinner, I had to open a can of chicken korma, which was bought at half price. I added a lot of vegetables and spices to it. The taste was good, but we could only find three pieces of chicken the size of my little fingernail.

26/08/2020

It was a bit rolly last night at Whitehaven beach. Today we moved to the nearby Chalkies beach on the west side of Haselwood Island, where there are several public moorings. Wind was relatively strong in the morning. We were sailing even though it’s only a short distance like 1.5 nautical miles. Wind got stronger while crossing the gap between the two islands. Just before we reaching the mooring, came a strong gust of wind, we immediately head to the wind and dropped main sail. Since I am already familiar with the moorings of the national parks here, I know how thick the loops at the end of the floating ropes are(wrapped with a plastic sleeve). Our boat hook is too small to pick up the loop (I failed at Scawfell Island, and also many other people we watched! ), this time I aimed directly at the rope bit between the loop and the buoy. The rope was thick and heavy too, our boat hook could just hook it up. Then had to pull the rest with hands,  and drain water from the plastic sleeve, hang the loop on the bow winch, then the boat would be temporarily moored, only need to fix it up with more ropes.

Staying at Chalkies beach was much more stable than the Whitehaven Beach. Though strong gusts of wind came from the hill at times, the boat was not rolly, but the mooring buoy would bang on the boat when there was no wind.

In the evening, J made delicious sardine and cheese pizza. With my suggestion, he wrapped some cheese inside the edge of the crust so Mum will not have to worry that I don’t eat the crust.