Hannants Inlet

Team clean started the day rafted up for a fry-up brekkie in beautiful calm Schooner Cove, where the bravest and noblest among us had a morning swim. We sprang into action preparing ourselves for an overland assault on Stephen’s Beach, only to change tack immediately on seeing the forecast. After our haily day yesterday, 20kt Southerlies out on the coast didn’t feel attractive. Instead we putted over to the beaches of Hannant’s Inlet with the strategy of divide and conquer.

Initially team Rumours was leading the count on the longer beach on the Eastern side. It was hit and miss on the other beaches, with some of the crew finding nothing and others being sucked into the micro-vortex.

We eventually joined forces to tackle a sludgy disheartening stretch of shore where rope and plastic were embedded in the soil and undergrowth everywhere we looked. That final couple of hundred metres took us a good couple of hours, digging and crawling through the scrub to pull out festy net pieces and bottles. Big ticket items were some big buoys, a fender and some fish crates. After six hours we called it a day, with everyone happy to get back to the boats and have a good scrub

We spent the evening in Bond Bay, where the first pots of the infamous cray competition were set, and after the count we settled in on Rumours for curry night (thanks Ruth and Masaki!)

The final count for today was 5,563

By Gabby