Montebello Islands - Atomic History

 We arrived in the Montebello Islands early in the morning after a good overnight passage.  Our first anchorage was in Main Bay, the site of two British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s.  One test was on the island with the bomb on the top of a tower and the second test had the bomb on the HMS Plym warship anchored in Main Bay. A British video of one of the tests can be watched here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n9XnoexPXI 

After tidying up True North from the passage, we took the dinghy ashore at Main Beach on Trimouille Island where we could see a sign.



Radiation Risk sign at Main Beach

The sign told us that we should only stay in the radiation risk area on the island for 1 hour so we immediately set off to explore the area.

Hiking was a bit rough because of all the fractured coral rock under our feet

The “ground zero” site of the bomb blast

While hiking the island, we found a large number of steel chunks partially buried in the beach and all over the island.  We surmised they were what was left of the HMS Plym after the second bomb test.

True North anchored off of Main Beach, Montebello Islands


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russell

Image
 It was finally time to head to civilisation and leave the islands behind for a few days.  We sailed the short distance to Russell where we could find good shelter from a forecast strong wind.  We dropped anchor outside a large mooring field filled with yachts.  That evening we took the dinghy into the Russell Yacht Club dock and had a very good roast pork dinner at the club.   The next day we headed over to the Russell town dock in the dinghy to see the picturesque town and then take a hike up to the flagpole above town.  The flagpole is a very famous site in New Zealand because it was built as a signal flag by the British but the Māori kept cutting it down because they were unhappy with their treatment by the British.  These events caused a long war between the Māori and British.  When peace finally came the Māori cut a large tree, carried it up the hill and replanted the flagpole symbolising the peace between the groups. A poinsettia in a garde...
Read more

Binalong Bay / Bay of Fires Hike

Image
 Its our second day at Binalong Bay and we are still waiting for better winds to head south. Andrew and I decided to get off the boat and for a hike around the point between Binalong Bay and Lady Barron.  The walk ended up being about 15 kilometres with shoreline views, many woodland micro climates, beaches, boardwalks, dirt tracks, paved roads and even sidewalks. The map of our hiking route.  The distance is a little short because I forgot to turn on the tracker for a bit at the start of the hike  🙄 We were able to take the dinghy to a good dock in a very protected little man made harbour.  The hike started on the waterfront trail right at the dock. True North at anchor taken from the dinghy dock The hiking trail started right from the dinghy dock and headed around the point. After we rounded the point we were walking along the entrance to the river that leads to the town of Lady Barron.  We had planned to visit Lady Barron but when I called the volunteer...
Read more

Motuarohia Island

Image
 We had a very short passage from Paradise Bay to our next anchorage off Motuarohia Island.  This island has a very short hike up to some World War II lookout ruins and then continuing on to a lookout platform.  The other attraction is a saltwater tidal lagoon which has a snorkeling trail.  The lagoon was almost dry when we visited because it was low tide at that time. Andrew at the lookout viewing platform The view from the platform - the island in the background was our previous anchorage The trees were laden with mosses
Read more