On a last minute whim, we booked a sailing trip on the Gunga II out of Pahia to get a close up look at the Bay of Islands. This was the day after the torrential rains, and the weather had greatly improved but was still iffy, so we chose a sailing trip rather than trying to kayak. It turned out to be the perfect day to do so as it was still quite windy and not only did we get some really good sailing in, but also good views of the multitude of islands and bays in the area. It was an all day sail that inluded a stop at a beach where we took a very quick walk to the top of hill for some panoramic views of the bay as well as some looks at the large houses on some of the privately owned islands. Yikes...can you imagine owning your own island! Most of the area is owned by the Department of Conservation and is open to public use. From what I gathered there are few restrictions to where you can go as long as you have a means to get there. It was great fun sailing, especially towards the afternoon where the wind really picked up and we got some good "tilt" to the boat. We got to help out a bit with raising and lowering sails and I took the helm for a while and got us going to about 10 knots! It threatened to rain on us all day as you can see in the picture, but we hardly got wet at all. We also snorkled briefly, but I didn't last long as it was quite cold and we got a great show from a huge pod of very large bottlenose dolphins. Beautifimous, as Keith would say.
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