13th Nov 2005
Yanks Harbour
Sunday 13th November, 2005
We were awake fairly early this morning. Anne went for a swim and I sat out in the sun and caught up on a few notes. We went along to breakfast at about 8.30 determined to crack on with what was on offer and get on with the day … but the pace of life took over. Our man of the moment, David had very obviously had a heavy night and short-term memory was non-existent. The order for juice passed him by … and the order for coffee but in the meantime he did appear with a plate of fruit … the main choice of breakfast arrived at least a quarter of an hour later and we reminded him about the coffee (wince and brief apology - something about a back log in the kitchen!) Coffee didn’t immediately manifest itself so I went and made some at the 24-hour bar nearby and returned with it. Ten minutes later up wanders the bold boy with his coffee … not the sort we’d ordered which was just a regular and decaf but some form of latte with frothy milk. Oh well … he tried; (mental note to be extremely explicit with him tomorrow).
There was a snorkelling expedition going at 10 and we decided to go on that and then take a boat and a picnic lunch around to Yanks Harbour and snorkel ourselves for the rest of the day.
I collected a disposable underwater camera from the shop just in case and we went round to the reef in Research Bay with another four others. We dropped off the front of the barge. Quite shallow water and a slightly disappointing reef in that it was suffering badly from bleaching and looked fairly knocked about. The other point was that the visibility was really poor; not nearly as clear as the Caribbean and this put a slightly dull bluish sheen across everything you looked at … enjoyable nonetheless. One or two giant clams and quite a few reef fish.
We got back around to the resort at about midday … and duly collected our picnic lunch (in a wicker basket) and a huge (and heavy) ‘Esky’ or cool box – presumably something to do with Eskimos?
After a few minutes briefing on the mechanics of the boat we set off down the channel and out through the navigation buoys and took a hard left towards the headland.
We rounded to the jetty at Yanks Harbour quite a large floating dock with a fixed walkway out to it and a set of picnic tables set up under the shade of a canopy. We took up residence there, unloaded the boxes and set up our picnic; a box about 12x8 of seafood, another of cooked meats and another of salad along with a loaf of bread, cheese and biscuits. Quite a feast … and we made a very respectable dent in it.
The fishes around the jetty were quite incredible and we spent a bit of time feeding them and then taking some shots. It was hot out on the beach but I wandered along a few hundred yards and then sought some respite in the trees.
We’d planned to snorkel just around the headland back at a place called Little Sandy and as the tide was rising it was an ideal time to work our way in there, take the anchor ashore and let everything take its course in the knowledge that we wouldn’t end up having to carry the boat half a mile across the sand to re-float it.
Grounded the boat and then set off out to the reef buoy off shore. Visibility wasn’t great and we just pottered about on the edges of the coral. There were a good number of fish but we didn’t really get spectacular sightings.
Swimming back to the shore we came in across sands that had been exposed previously and the water temperature was, in places, almost unbearable; certainly as hot as the hottest bath you’d normally have at home.
We lazed about on the beach for a while, until these nippy little crustaceans took a hold. They seemed to frequent the splash zone and took a real grip of your ankles. Back across the bay, we made another landing straight across near to where there’s a colony of Giant clams … drifting over the top of them you could look down and see the shapes but we decided to forgo the snorkelling, because there was no ladder on the back of the boat and I reckoned it was a dead cert for a capsize if you tried to haul yourself in over the side; couldn’t be bothered swimming to shore.
We got back to the resort at 5.45 and had a bit of fun as Anne tried to balance on one of the giant clamshells at the top of the beach, which they have filled with water as footbaths, to wash off the sand. Sadly I just missed the moment as the whole lot tipped over spilling out the water.
We sat along the beach outside the room watching the sun go down.
Dinner was the usual performance and it seems worth noting the various courses for posterity; Amuse Gueule involving a microbe of salmon; Cream of asparagus soup with confit spatchcock and smoked paprika oil; A tataki of yellowfin tuna complimented by a petite salad of pickled fennel, chilli, snow peas and bocconcini, glossed with a fragrent soy and sesame vinaigrette; A whole snapper oven roasted with lime and coriander, served with buttered kipflers and a rocket parmesan salad; Bread and buter pudding with blueberries with kind island double cream; Smoked applebox cheddar cheese with petite poached apples and water crackers. How’s that? Spreads over about two and a quarter hours its quite a measured experience.
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| 13th Nov 2005 |
| Feeding fish |
| You could spend several months taking pictures of the swirling masses of feeding fish out here - lots of colour and abstract patterns. There are several varieties in this lot. |
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