Monday 20 May Butterfly bay, Hook island

After a peaceful night in Blue Pearl Bay we were woken at 7am by the arrival of a backpacker charter yacht with what sounded like 50 guests but was probably only 20, all with loud voices. Another backpacker charter boat which had been there all night were also up early and singing before breakfast. They were still happily singing and cheering as they went past our bedroom window in the dinghy on their way to the beach for an early morning swim. Having just re-read the last three sentences I conclude I must be getting older and crankier.

From Hayman it's a short trip across the northern tip of the island to Butterfly bay on the north side of Hook island – a big deep bay with nine moorings and only two other boats when we arrived. The water is cleaner here and David took the opportunity to get his dive kit and give the hull and propeller a good clean. The last time he did this was in New Caledonia at

butterfly or wasp?

the end of November and since then we've been in Brisbane, central Sydney and many river estuaries. We'd picked up a 1/4” coating of green slime and a few barnacles on the underside of the keel, the algae came away with a quick flash of the scraper and the barnacles a good budge with the scraper. I continued cleaning the waterline and now we're back to pretty, clean, and hopefully, quicker through the water.

I did some more snorkelling but there was little to see; less fish than Blue Pearl and the same restricted visibility. It's a shame as friends had recommended this as a dive spot. There did seem to be some fine hard and soft corals farther out which we could have investigated at slack water.

With no other boats coming in we felt it was OK to stay for the afternoon and for the night. In the evening we had clear skies, stars galore and cockatoos calling out in their roost.