The sail from Turtle Bay towards Coral bay started out superbly. Within an hour of getting underway we hooked a solid southern bluefin tuna. We managed to land it - a 9kg one which yielded lots of meat!

The day was champagne sailing conditions. We went up the west side of Dorre and Bernier, which gave us less wind but smoother water. Glorious sunshine had us drifting along under screecher and main quite nicely. As we ate lunch, Nina spotted the line going mad, and I went to pull it in, only to see 2 big sharks chasing whatever was on the hook! Then the lead shark grabbed it, and bit clean through the wire trace. Quite a spectacle but glad I didn’t have to pull it in. However, given the first tuna broke the bib on its lure, and the sharks took the second - we’re down to just relying on pink squidie for fish now.

The evening saw the winds pick up (as they tend to do here). We reefed down the main on Nina’s watch and carried on with winds up to 27knots. We were making good time, though it was a little noisy below.

The morning saw us closing on Coral Bay, and we anchored at Maud’s Landing. After catching up with the tuna processing, we headed out to the reef to have a look. Its ok, but we have been rather spoilt in Fiji.

It was not a late night - I think I fell asleep at 7:30pm and slept the longest I have in a while. There’s been a few things going on to remind you life can kick you in the teeth on occasion, so a good sleep was much appreciated.

We’ll spend a week or so exploring Ningaloo (and we also have some stronger winds coming), then a stop into Exmouth to reprovision, do a few jobs, fix a few things. You know how it is with boats….