Solway Lass

Good morning Airlie and first up some very welcome down time doing not a lot. Lounging by the pool, walking to the bakers, then a visit to the town lagoon. Another town fringed by beaches and gorgeous sea that no one goes near.
Late afternoon and it was time to move - to Abell PoinMarina to board the Solway Lass, for we’re off to sea for a couple of days. Built in 1902 in the Netherlands, she’s a schooner with three square topsails, and there’s a great photo below decks of her visiting Palnackie Kirkcudbrightshire in the 1920s.
So off we set for an anchorage between Whitsunday and Hook Island - about three hours of motoring into a stiffening breeze until we dropped anchor in the pitch black. What a joy to sit there in the quiet and dark. Well, quiet apart from the noises from the Party Boat anchored a few hundred yards away, and dark apart from the light we rigged up on the port side to attract little fish (which it did) which then attracted packs of hunting squid. What entertainment! I don’t think I’ve enjoyed looking at fish so much since Microsoft first came up with that underwater screen saver.
And then, a sea snake! At that point we headed down to the cabin, to slip off to sleep listening to the water slapping against the hull....