30th September to 3rd October 2019
We loved Sandy Island. We were on one of the mooring buoys for the first two nights, but as we only had enough cash for two nights (given the extra ‘snorkelling tax’ for people who use the marine park) we dropped back to anchor for the third night. I say “dropped back” as Arthur wouldn’t let us turn the engine on, so we un-moored from the mooring buoy, drifted back for a few minutes then dropped the anchor. Fortunately, we were far enough away from the rocks for this to work for us. Anchoring is easy, just to the West of the mooring field (far enough away from the island to avoid the reef which extends a fair way out at that point).
It’s a relatively small island, a few hundred meters long, so while on shore we pretty much let the kids roam as they wished. Well, we followed Hector, but he is only one year old so we figured keeping an eye on him would be sensible. Arthur and Theo looked after themselves and occasionally each other. Mostly they looked for hermit crabs, collected cool corals, built/improved/destroyed dens made from parts of the coconut trees, and swam. Arthur had a very long snorkel at one point and needed rescuing – he didn’t want to stand on the coral in case he damaged it and had got himself into a wavey-zone too close to shore. He could have stood up, but instead he screamed for Charlie to help him. Charlotte and the kids had a good beach morning with the crew of another boat (with two slightly older boys) while I was working. Seems to be something of a routine when I have a work call now – Charlie takes the kids to the beach while I work 9-12 or so, then we spend the afternoon on-boat together.
