Finally to the main event and undoutedly the highlight of our day - Fort Darnet. Amberel had kindly allowed me to borrow his boat and outboard motor for this expedition, for which I was very grateful as I had reservations about attempting it in our inflatable canoe with my sons, in view of our relative inexperience with the craft. In the event, Ursus Bear and Team Postie Grum who came with us with their canoes paddled all the way to the fort. We followed but didn't actually catch up with them, towing just Sharky in our canoe. I mistakenly thought that the weight of the tow was slowing us down, but on arrival at the fort discovered that the propellor had become badly fouled with weed, despite not starting the engine until I thought we were well clear of them. Clearly they were lurking below the surface too and if only I'd stopped to check once a little further out, I'd have discovered why our rate of progress was so modest.

On arrival at the fort, we discovered a group with canoes of their own, who had set up camp on the island for the weekend. What a fantastic idea and great way to extend your time at the fort!

We tackled the TerraCache first which became our 1999th find, then turned our attention to this one, the big one! Well, the cache is a micro, but 2000 is a big number for Team Sandvika, albeit a very modest achievement compared to many other cachers.

We wanted to be the ones to find this cache - in fact, I'm struggling to think of any cache that we did that we found on the day, other than this one - and it was Penuin who discovered GZ and made the intrepid descent to find the cache and retrieve it. Photographs had already been taken with our "Sandvika 2000" sign before launch and on arrival at the island, so of course there had to be a couple more to mark the exact occasion.

We'd barely finished photographs and returned the cache to its hiding place when Ursus Bear had found the Geocache, completing the trio.

Thereafter, so we were soon paddling our canoes around the 'moat' and into the flooded magazine level  of the fort. This was a fantastic way to explore the building, adding a new dimension to the experience and I should add, the perfect approach to this OpenCache. For the sheer drama of paddling across the moat, lying down flat in the canoe to pass through the mostly flooded out doorway and emerging into the lobby where the stairs rise impressively from the waters, I cannot help but suggest that this would be the most splendid way to retrieve the cache.

Regrettably, due to the fairly late high tide, both car park locking and fading daylight meant we had to head back in a less than leisurely manner. This time, without a fouled propeller, the boat made much faster progress and we caught up with Ursus Bear and Team Postie Grum very quickly. We then towed all three canoes back to shore, which the engine coped with admirably, but with much of the weight aft of the propellor, it was a bit like the tail wagging the dog and the alignment of the tow caused the heading of the boat to be shifted quite dramatically. At first I was keeping one eye on the towed boats, to ensure all was well, but once it was clear that the towing was working fine, I concentrated on keeping the heading pin-point accurate with continuous course corrections, which in turn ensured that the tow behaved much better.

All in all, a totally awesome and fantastic experience and one I am determined to repeat in due course. I cannot match Amberel's Top Cache awards, but this trio of caches is instantly in my top caches and absolutely on a par with the best of the outstanding Below Above caches!

Many thanks indeed Sandvika #2000

Many thanks also to Team Postie Grum for posting these videos which give an idea of the fun we had! Inside and Returning

Pictures for this log entry:

Launching

Arrival

Found it, the big 2000!

The triumphant pose!

Sharky exploring

Team Postie Grum

Celebratory cake - Thanks Ursus Bear!