Bernier Island and Cave Boating

 We had a sumwhat uncomfortable night with waves bouncing the boat around quite a bit.  Luckily the wind direction changed overnight and by morning the waves had almost disappeared.

It was a beautiful day so we decided to go for a walk on the island.  Bernier Island is mostly sandstone and loose sand dunes.  We took the dinghy into the beach and hiked up through the sparse vegetation to the to- of the cliff.  Our goal was to hike across the island to the west ocean side but we ended up following the lines of dunes south down the island, eventually coming back to the east shore at a lovely beach with crystal clear water.  I flew my drone for a while but unfortunately had forgotten to turn on the camera so I don’t have video of the island 🥺.  After flying the drone, we had a lovely swim before hiking back along the coastline to the dinghy and returning to True North.

Glen hiking up the first dune at the beginning of our hike. 
 True North is the yacht anchored furthest away in the picture.

It was early afternoon and the weather was calm so we decided to take the dinghy north up the shore about 8 miles to Wedge Rock.  The cruising guide said the rock had a large cave which you could drive your dinghy through.  The cave was easy to find and we drove through it several times.  There were no bats or other animals in the cave but there was large colonies of tubastrea or sunflower coral on the underwater rocks.

Tubastrea Coral
This coral opens at night so the polyps looked like the closed ones in the bottom right of the picture.

The entrance to the cave.  Corals are on the rocks under the water.

Inside the Wedge Rock cave

After visiting the cave, we took the dinghy to a large nearby beach on Bernier Island and enjoyed late afternoon beer and snack we had brought with us.  We then set out on the long trip back to True North so we would arrive before sunset.  It was a very enjoyable day.

Today we are hanging out at the Red Cliffs anchorage because it was rainy this morning and we have strong westerly winds which would make the other anchorages on the island uncomfortable.  Tomorrow we will sail back to Carnarvon to pickup Paul, our second crew member.  He arrives by plane late in the afternoon.

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