We were anchored for a NW at Whites Bay, Middle Percy but knew that a southerly change was predicted at 'something stupid o'clock'. When it arrived, we'd be on a lee shore in a falling tide and as a result of the late (sunset) entry of a few catamarans who'd claimed the beachfront as their own, we'd have a crowded and diminishing anchorage to contend with too. The Bloke who is generally very nervy about such situations was conveniently anesthetized by the evening's libations and had a great night of sleep, if snoring intensity is a measure. Luckily captain has a handy First Mate and night time checks showed that despite an extended swing to the west, all was well.. at least until it wasn't.
Dawn view across to NE Percy
At 04:30 a new story announced itself. The southerly was IN and building. Our anchorwatch track indicated a few wiggles as the chain and anchor repositioned but we decided to leave ahead of drama. At this stage we were the only ones up. On the back of the coming SE change we had planned to visit West Bay and the famous Middle Percy 'A Frame' and trying to calculate the tides and guess which was the shortest and best way, we chose the northern route. This was very attractive and provided a lovely view of the sunrise over North East Percy as well as a sheltered run along the northern cliffs.
Rounding Howards Headland however revealed the full ferocity of the Southerly and the tide which switched direction half way down the channel. We kept going in case there was any shelter at all behind the small headland at West Bay. This anchorage looked like it might elude us again.
West Bay looking very unprotected. In a word - "rubbish".
Deciding to turn about found us in 25-30kn following seas + current as it switched from slack to full-on, propelling us back in our track at 8-9kn! And that was despite towing our dinghy which was custodian to many litres of rain water courtesy of a thunderstorm the previous evening. By the time we were 3/4 the way back and headed for Blunt Bay on NE Percy, the rest of the Whites Bay anchorage had emptied with 50% heading to where we'd just rejected! What surprised us greatly is that none turned about. But that's catamarans for you, they probably put themselves on the beach to get out of the wind and chop.
For our part, we finished up in Blunt Bay with the rest of the boats. We could have been there in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Lesson for the day:- If you anticipate being blown out of an anchorage by a night wind shift, have a plan to pop to the very NEAREST viable alternative!
On the upside, we did our tour in daylight and were in another splendid bay with an interesting pebble, pumice and coral rubble beach.
Tiers of pebbles, then pumice balls which rolled like ball bearings underfoot!
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