Another beautiful morning with breakfast on deck and a steady breeze, boding well for today's sailing. Chris and I started early with an optimistic trip to the marina store which advertised sailing and fishing equipment.

Unfortunately, the only prawn trap they had was enormous, designed to be used with a winch and costing in the region of $800. The man in the shop could not have been more unhelpful, but we did find a copy of Tommy Transit's book for sale in the shop and bought that so that we could use his words of wisdom to lift our spirits (they did!).

Back at the yacht we lifted the anchor and motored southeast just inside Phillimore point east of Julia Island, where we anchored again so that BMC and K could go ashore to explore the island. Once again, the skipper stayed ashore to watch his anchor.

We moored our dinghy inside a private jetty in the approved area and set off to run up Mount Galiano. We ran a spiral 10km course through forest up to the summit and after a long time between ancient moss covered trees, with twinkly sunlight between the green branches, we emerged on the summit (311m) to a panoramic view south west, out over the glittering ocean. Perfect.

We ran back down again, keen to set sail whilst the weather was so good.

We left Phillimore point at 1.30 and had the sails up by 1.45 sailing in a brisk 9 knot breeze - very exhilarating! We decided to head south to Sydney where there appeared to be a store selling prawn traps at a sensible price.

As we sailed south down the Trincomali Channel something white in the water caught our eye. Unbelievably, it was our prawn trap - drifting miles away from where we had left it yesterday! We retrieved it, amazed and delighted, although, once again, there were no prawns, just a tiny sea urchin and an even tinier spider crab...

We sailed on to the south eastern tip of Prevost Island and moored in Richardson Bay, where there is a lighthouse on Portlock Point.

We moored in Richardson Bay in beautiful warm sunshine and set about exploring the pretty red and white wooden lighthouse and its surroundings - unusual rock formations, kingfishers and fascinating twisted trees - on foot and by dinghy / paddleboard.

It was a beautiful afternoon full of fun and crazy photographs (giant Beth by lighthouse / tiny people by lighthouse...), paddle board races and spectacular scenery. Happy times indeed.

At 6.45 the light was starting to fade so it was time to move to our overnight anchorage at Winter Cove. First, and after much discussion and planning as to the best and safest place, we baited and dropped the prawn trap near Richardson Bay before motoring south east down Plumper Sound to Winter Cove on Saturna Island. This was a shallow but very beautiful and secluded anchorage. Although it was nearly dark by the time we arrived the sky was still glowing red from the sunset.

Deep Cove Gin and tonic / Ginger Ale provided a fitting reward at the end of the day.

Then we opened a bottle of red wine and tucked into a tasty spaghetthi bolognese that had been coddling on the stove all afternoon, before turning in.