Saturday 14 September 2019

We are now back to being just the 2 of us, we have had visitors solidly for the last weeks, and the boat seems a little empty without them, but at least the washing up is reduced!

We spent time topping up essentials like food and particularly fuel and cooking gas so that we can be a little more remote over the coming days.  We would have topped up the water tanks as well, but had been told that the water available at the pontoon was not of drinking standard.  We found a tap that did have drinking water, and filled our drinking water bottles at least. 

By midday we were ready to leave the hustle and bustle of Palau, and head for, what turned out to be, the hustle and bustle of Cala Nord Butelli, inside the Maddalenas National Park.  This is a short distance across to one of the islands, and is a favourite spot for the trippers and day boats.  We found a mooring buoy and used it, as the usual requests were being made to avoid damage to the sea grasses.  There were also areas that were strictly no go to all but canoes and rowing boats, although this did not appear to be strictly followed or enforced. One of these is the so called Pink Beach. We looked at it from afar, but did not get too close.   We relaxed during the afternoon as boatloads came past us, stopped for a while for the trippers to swim and then departed again.

As the evening started to fall, it did become more peaceful.  We launched the tender and explored Deadman’s Passage, a confusing jumble of shallows and rocks between a couple of the small islands, which would catch the unwary, presumably that is why it is so named.

We were treated to a spectacular harvest moon, I don’t think our photos do it justice, but they are included anyway.

Distance covered today	6.0	nautical miles
Trip distance covered	178.0	nautical miles
Distance covered 2019	1231.0	nautical miles