27 degrees, sunny
Lovely day today so we went down to the beach for a swim and sunbathe before getting on the Manutara, a 47ft classic yacht built in 1946, for a sail round the harbour to hopefully see some dolphins. We didn’t see a great deal of wildlife on the way out, despite being told to look out for dolphins, penguins and apparently hundreds of shags diving for fish. As usual didn’t see a thing, but John got to steer the boat for a while, along with all the men on board as the only crew member was the owner.
We had a good sail for an hour or so in a nice stiff breeze and listened to the entertaining patter of the owner.
When it was time to head back the sails were lowered and engines started, and the dolphins appeared as if they were waiting for this to happen. They were Hector’s Dolphins the smallest and rarest in the world, who are fairly solitary creatures not usually found in groups, so we were so lucky to see 6 of them riding our bow wave and generally having fun.
They stayed with us for about 5 minutes, but it was very difficult to get photographs as they moved so quickly.
As we reached port the weather had changed to rain so we went straight back to the van for a shower, dinner and to see whether or not John had managed to get any pics.
At about 6pm we were sitting in the van and suddenly heard a whooshing noise. Looking out of the window we could see the wind picking up and the clouds moving up the hillside completely obliterating the view. The wind continued to rise in less than a minute so that the van was rocking about and people were rushing around trying to save their tents and possessions. We have never seen weather change as quickly as that before. One tent across the path was collapsing and inflating in the wind like a pair of bellows, shaking off the rain every time it inflated, until it finally collapsed. We watched our neighbours in a permanently sited caravan with an added wooden extension frantically holding on to their roll out awning until they could wind it in. Didn’t offer to help! Several people had to spend the night in the kitchen and play rooms on the site. The wind and rain carried on for a good few hours so we went to bed.