Happy(?) Bay

This morning, we woke up at 6am and prepped the boat for our journey to Long Island. We finished breakfast around 7:30am and headed out of Sawmill Bay. The weather was beautiful and it was a nice, leisurely sail with Southeast winds of 5-10 knots. The distance to our destination was 14 nautical miles and we reached Happy Bay at Long Island Resort at 11:45am. We moored, ate lunch on the boat, and dinghied to shore.

Sailing out of Sawmill Bay

AM soaking up the sun

We checked in at reception, paid our mooring fee of AUD$55, which included the use of facilities, hot SHOWERS and watersports. Afterward, we explored the resort and headed to the pool area. We fully intended to first cool off in the pool, then head out for some watersports. Once we got to the pool, however, the refreshing water and sounds of Jack Johnson and Bob Marley lured us in. We stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, only moving to the hot tub after it started to rain.

Curlew, cute birds about 18" tall and they eat snakes so we're told

The rain stopped after about 30 minutes and the sky cleared. We decided it was a good time to go back to the boat to pick up clean clothes, head back to the resort for a nice shower and seafood buffet.

After a refreshing shower, we sat at the bar for an hour waiting for dinner to start.  It started raining very hard while at the bar so we got a little wet running to the restaurant.  We figured most of the rain we've had has only lasted a little while so we were OK.

We got to dinner and the buffet looked amazing. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. Dinner was mediocre at best, which was disappointing since we were looking forward to it (and it cost AUD$40 pp). As we ate dinner, the rain persisted and the intensity increased. By the time we finished it was a downpour.  Before we left, we checked our e-mail while we had access to the internet and then changed back into our bathing suits in anticipation of getting drenched.

"Funny" tidbit #1:
Received an e-mail from AM's parents which said that our fridge died on them when they got to our place … and there was nothing we could do (and we have a new one scheduled for delivery in February.... one week after they leave).

#2:  The lady at the front desk wasn't kidding when she said the tide went out fast.  When we got to our dinghy, it was 100 ft from the water.  We had to drag it across the sand in the pouring rain...

#3: After dragging the dinghy about 30 ft, we realized the anchor was still in the sand.

#4: did we mention it was pouring buckets?

#5: and it was pitch black and we had no flashlight?

#6: and we forgot to turn on our anchor light on our boat ...so we only had a general idea of where it was?

#7: and it was pouring buckets of COLD rain?

Miraculously, we found our boat. When we got there, shivering cold, we had to put the dinghy back into the davits and secure it, scramble in the dark to unlock the cabin area, then try to find the correct switches on the panel to light the anchor light and the cabin lights.

And by the way.... Driving a dinghy in the dark, freezing cold, with raindrops pelting into your eyes trying to find an unlit boat in the dark is NOT fun... but it is funny in retrospect :-)

We are now lying in bed, dry and (somewhat) cozy, though the boat is rocking a good bit down below and it's STILL pouring buckets.

Sidenote: Am was looking forward to finally having a good night's sleep with DRY hair. Guess she'll have to wait two more days :-(

Silver Lining.. we are REALLY clean .. and learned a few lessons for the future :-)
Tomorrow we do a bit of kayaking at Long Island before heading over to South Molle Island. Plans are weather permitting...