We had a beautiful day on our trip from Great Barrier Island to Mercury Island.  We had hoped to sail, but alas Mother Nature had other plans.  With less than 5kts of wind we could not fill the sails so we ended up motoring.

But the day was so pretty, the waters calm, and the skies clear. Nothing else mattered.

A Hidden Bay 

A few years ago our friend Leigh took us on a helicopter ride over Mercury Island (read blog post).  Matt spotted this gorgeous bay that could fit 1-2 boats.  We marked the location of the bay and told ourselves that we would come anchor there someday.  

Fast forward to today!  We happened to pull up to the very same anchorage  with no boats. 

This is a shallow bay so we cautiously nosed our boat into the bay using our forward sonar, Project X, and satellite charts.

Absolutely as stunning from the water as it was from the sky!

We had this beautiful bay all to ourselves for a few days.  It was so beautiful that we decided to stay longer.

What did we do?

However, when Saturday arrived so did the Auckland launches.  The day trippers arrived in full force to enjoy the beautiful weather and pretty sandy beaches.

Then our friends on Moon Shadow, Leigh and Linda Hopper, came in their 70′ Maritimo. 

Leigh expertly maneuvered his yacht next to us.  And to our surprise he wanted to raft up.  His magnificent Maritimo 70′ yacht to our 47′ catamaran.  

Ok…we dug out the fenders and tied up.

Not 30 minutes later their friends on a 60′ Maritimo arrived and rafted up next to them. 

So, we now have a 70′ Martimo and a 60′ Maritimo rafted up to Sugar Shack.  

All I can say is our 30kg Spade anchor is AMAZING!  Granted we had little wind, but still we had two gigantic boats rafted up to us!

Yes, the smallest boat, Sugar Shack is holding the two larger boats 🙂

While we were here we had our friend John stopped by with some snapper on Friday.

Then Leigh and Linda served up some delicious pack horse lobster on Saturday.

Yes, we are living like royalty.

After our early lobster dinner both Maritimos left to a larger anchorage where they could drop the hook safely.

A Return to Mercury Island

We left Tauranga with two buddy boats: Purr and Go Baby Go.  John on Go Baby Go captured a few shots of Sugar Shack as we were underway.

And then John took a drone shot of all three of us at South Bay on Slipper Island.

We left Slipper Island and headed to Mercury Island again.  While our friends headed to Great Barrier Island. 

We wanted to go back to Little Bay but \a launch anchored right in the middle of the bay preventing us from anchoring  So we went next door to Mamona Bay which was almost as beautiful!

Sugar Shack had this beautiful spot all to ourselves.

Matt got the drone out and captured the beauty from the sky.  Check out the gorgeous waters!

Our blog posts run 4-5 weeks behind actual live events. 

We were at the Mercury Island in early March 2026 and returned mid-March 2026.

Find this bay on No Foreign Land.