After just an hour, we rounded the southwestern corner of Brampton Island and headed into Dinghy Bay. There were already two other boats anchored there, well back from the beach.
Dinghy Bay is another one of those areas where the shallow, sandy beach is protected by a wide swath of coral. All of the real estate for anchoring is in 10-14 meters in the deep water beyond. Fortunately, there is plenty of space for everyone to swing in their own hundred-meter circle.
Feeling a bit paranoid about the bottom conditions, I was quick to go in and swim on our anchor. This time, we deployed it with a trip line and float, so all I had to do was swim over there and then follow the line to the anchor.
Unlike Tinsmith, when I finally got deep enough to see the seabed, all there was down there was clean, unobstructed sand, crisscrossed with the imprints of the anchor chains of previous boats that had used that spot. Since I was already in the water, I decided to swim over to the reef to see what it was like. As I did, a few more boats arrived and a few seemed to be taking a keen interest in the ‘mooring’ in front of us, passing by it several times before giving up and finding another spot.
The coral zone was pretty disappointing. There were a very few widely scattered heads, but most of the area was silted over, covered with algae and dead. I checked several different areas with the same result. I reported to Maryanne when I got home that while she might want to go swimming to cool down, the trip to the reef was not worth it.
Since the beach was just a little too far to row, especially against a strong wind with our less-than-trustworthy (new) oarlocks, and since the fringe of dead coral would be havoc on our prop, we decided Brampton would be just a nice view to enjoy from a lazy day aboard.
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