April 15, 2016
As soon as we got back from our morning hike at Jacobs Bay, we dropped our mooring and got underway. Today’s wildlife theme was definitely blue penguins–we saw them all over the place.
Our destination today was the little island I’d fallen hard for on our earlier visit to the Tennyson Inlet: Tawhitnui Island. So we headed back up the Popoure Reach, down the long, dry Tawhitinui Reach, to the islands near the entry to the Tennyson Inlet. The trip took about 2 hours. (The interactive map below shows our route.)
As we approached Tawhitinui Island, we could smell its jasmine-like floral smell. With an underwater rock and deep water, we’d need to tie off to the shore but had already made a plan using satellite images. It turned out to be pretty easy. We dropped and set the anchor, then tied off to a branch onshore. One nice benefit of tying off this way was a beautiful shoreline view from the cockpit.
Last time we were here it was cloudy, while today was bright and sunny. This is generally a good thing, but in this case the island had lost some mystique in the bright light of day. It was still beautiful, but some element of magic was absent, at least for me. Rich, on the other hand, was now quite taken with this place–Tawhitinui’s strange magic had cast its spell on him. It just goes to show how drastically variations in light and sky can alter places and affect people differently. (Below a gallery of photos; click to enlarge/scroll.)
We ended having a lovely day and overnight here, sitting outside to enjoy the scenery as the changing light and shadows would change the character and feeling of these surroundings. Plus, there was that wonderful smell! The photo below shows the early evening moon sometime around sunset. –Cyndi
