Showing posts with label reef. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reef. Show all posts
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Off to Masthead Island for some reef hopping South
December 1 - 2016
The sky began to lighten nice and early at Great Keppel Island as the calendar ticked over to December first. It was now well and truly into summer and we were enjoying nice long days. Despite having fifteen or so hours of daylight available to us, we still raised the anchor in the predawn for our fifty nautical mile passage offshore to Masthead Island on the outer Great Barrier Reef. We wanted to arrive early enough to have time to go ashore and do some exploring as we only planned to spend the night there before moving onto Fitzroy Reef for a couple of nights before sailing further south to Lady Musgrave Island.
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| On our way from Great Keppel Island as the sun climbs into the sky. |
Only a very weak north easterly breeze blew in the early morning. Hopefully it would strengthen enough later in the day for us to sail but the engine stayed on as we began the passage on flat seas. Fortunately the wind angle generated as we motored along was such that we were able to fill the sails and gain a small lift. We also look a lot better with the sails up, very important of course.
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| Light winds and calm seas en-route to Mast Head Island. |
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| Our Whitby 42 ketch does well motor sailing in light conditions. |
As hoped, the wind did fill in enough in the late morning for us to silence our 80HP Ford Lehman and glide along nicely maintaining better than five knots. Karen took advantage of the calm sea state to spend some time in the galley teaching Kristian how to make his own sushi rolls for lunch which proved a smash hit – highlight of the very laid back passage in fact.
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| At last, enough wind to silence the engine. |
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| Kristian constructing his own sushi rolls for lunch. |
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| They're a winner. |
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| Great Keppel Island to Masthead Island 49.9 Nautical Miles – 9 Hours 17 Minutes Average Speed 5.4 - Max Speed 7.9 Knots To see our track in a zoom-able format click HERE |
The pilot guide suggests the best depths to anchor in are to be found off the north west corner of the island’s fringing reef and the Google Earth imagery also indicated this was also where the most sand was to be found. However, the wind was forecast to continue from the north east before swinging slightly more northerly over night. The tide was very low when we arrived and the reef was totally exposed but we were concerned that the high tide overnight could see any swell sweep over the reef so we anchored in 7 metres a little further in along the reef edge in attempt to gain some more protection from the island itself.
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| Masthead Island has good sand for southerlies through to north easterlies but we pushed the anchoring envelope with an overnight northerly predicted. |
Dinghy access to the beach was impossible with the low tide so that ruled out our planned afternoon’s exploration of the island. Rob decided to see if he could spear us some dinner instead so we dropped the dinghy off the davits and zoomed over to a likely looking section of reef. He was only in the water a few minutes before surfacing with a nice coral trout.
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| Hunter-gatherer about to do his thing. |
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| One coral trout headed for the dinghy. |
Next he spied two crayfish hiding under a coral ledge and was soon passing the first one into the dinghy before heading back for the second. Unfortunately this larger specimen managed to evade him scurrying into a deep inaccessible hole in the coral. Keen to add to the catch to provide a decent dinner of crustacean, a long but ultimately unsuccessful search for more crayfish followed.
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| The fringing reef at Masthead Island provides incredible snorkelling |
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| La Jorja arrives at Masthead Island |
Having enjoyed a sleep in and later start from Great Keppel, our friends, Matt and Debbie on La Jorja had arrived while Rob roaming the reef was chasing shellfish. They anchored up nearby and while a visit for another sundowners session was inviting, we opted to get the dinghy back up on the davits as the wind and swell was building. We also had another early start planned next morning to arrive at the right point of the tide to pass through the narrow entrance into the lagoon at Fitzroy Reef.
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| Rob's snorkelling yielded a good sized coral trout and crayfish. |
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| A couple of visitors on the bow. |
We enjoyed a nice feed on the very fresh coral trout done on the BBQ that evening and were treated to a truly awesome sunset that went on forever evolving through a number of stages. That night the wind did swing more from the north at about 15 knots with a bit of swell finding its way over or around the reef at high tide. We also spun 180 degrees when the tidal flow reversed but still enjoyed a reasonably comfortable night.
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| The Masthead Island beaches were lined with the tracks of nesting turtles. We look forward to exploring ashore next time. |
Next morning both us and La Jorja found our anchors/chains fouled and took a fair bit of time and effort to free ourselves. We both paid that price for choosing the additional protection of anchoring further behind the island rather than over the clearer sand bottom to the north west. Regardless, we are very keen to return to Masthead Island sometime in the future and explore underwater more of the great fringing reef and get to land on the island itself. A few more crayfish would be good too.
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| We hope you enjoy the evolution of a magnificent sunset below. Good night from Masthead Island. |
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| Cape Capricorn in the distance. |
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Friday, October 14, 2016
Batt Reef Were all alone on the outer Great Barrier Reef
26-27 September 2016
As we had to wait until after three in the afternoon for the tide to come in and give us enough depth of water to get out of our berth at the Reef Marina in Port Douglas it was fairly late by the time we reached our overnight stop at Low Isles. All three public moorings were occupied so we went a fair way into the anchorage and dropped the hook in 4.5 metres over good sand. We then kicked back and enjoyed the sunset.
We planned a reasonably early start the following morning as we intended to overnight somewhere in the passage between Tongue and Batt Reefs. The forecast sub five knot winds were perfect for spending some time at the outer Great Barrier Reef. Rob had downloaded a lot of Google Earth imagery of the area and overlaid it on our Open CPN chart program. It was then a case of looking along the reef edges for likely looking spots which may be suitable to anchor. We identified three or four possible areas along the edge of Batt Reef that we would have a look at when we got out there.
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| Being anchored at the outer Great Barrier Reef surrounded by ocean and not another soul in sight is a magical experience. |
Batt Reef gained worldwide notoriety on 4 September 2006. The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin was on location on the reef taking part in the production of the documentary series Ocean's Deadliest.During a lull in filming caused by inclement weather, Irwin decided to snorkel in shallow waters while being filmed in an effort to provide footage for his daughter's television programme. While swimming in chest-deep water, he approached a stingray with an approximate span of two metres (6.5 ft) from the rear, in order to film it swimming away. According to the other cameraman in the water with him, “All of a sudden [the stingray] propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds”.
The barb pierced Irwin’s heart. The stingray's behaviour appeared to have been a defensive response to being boxed in. Crew members aboard Irwin's boat administered CPR and rushed him to Low Isles where medical staff unfortunately pronounced him dead at the scene.
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| Batt Reef was the location of Steve Irwin's tragic encounter with a large stingray. |
Steve Irwin’s death shocked people both here and abroad. Having firsthand experience when Karen was struck in the ankle by just a small stingray we believe the venom injected by multiple strikes to the torso by a two metre specimen may not have been survivable regardless of the injury to his heart. We absolutely love seeing stingrays gracefully gliding through the water but we definitely give them a very wide berth these days.
Wind and sea were both dead calm when we weighed anchor. The moment we were out of the Low Isles conservation green zone the trawling lines went in the water as we were very hopeful of picking up some nice fish around the reefs. A little over an hour later we entered the wide passage and began running along the edge of Batt Reef in search of a fish and an anchorage. The first potential spot we had identified in the satellite images looked like a good sized lagoon with a reasonably wide entrance through the coral from the deeper water of the passage.
We have fast become big fans of the Google Earth – Open CPN combination as we would have never found our intended anchorage without it. Despite motoring slowly reasonably close to the reef edge there was no way we could pick the entrance by eye. Instead we relied on using the Open CPN to navigate to a position directly off the entrance then turned 90 degrees and carefully made our approach with Rob on lookout duty up front relaying info by radio back to Karen on the helm. Sure enough, from his position as high as possible on the bow he could then identify the coral heads to port and starboard exactly where they should be.
We edged inside the lagoon which was easily the size of a couple of football fields and found a sandy spot to drop the anchor in seven metres of water. After making sure we were well hooked in the first order of business was to drop the dinghy and do a quick check in all directions around the boat to make sure there were no hidden surprises for us close by. There was a ring of four coral bombies about 30 metres around our stern which only looked about a metre below the surface as the water was so clear. It wasn’t until Rob put on a face mask and had a proper look that he could see they were at least three metres down and not a concern. We now had our own private, well sheltered anchorage on the outer reef with not another boat in sight. It was perfect.
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| Our track in and out of the anchorage we found using Google Earth. |
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| Low Isles to Batt Reef - 13.7 Nautical Miles - 2 Hours 38 Minutes Average Speed 5.2 Knots - Max Speed 6.6 Knots |
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| A satellite view of the Tongue and Batt Reef area with the anchorage marked by our Spot tracker. |
Even better, Batt Reef is a yellow zone so recreational fishing is permitted. We were disappointed we’d struck out with our lures on the way over so quickly had the rods out chasing whatever may be around the coral outcrops by the boat. We landed three nice plate sized sweetlip and a parrot fish but our biggest catch had to go back. Rob was very excited to also land a good sized fish that we weren’t immediately able to identify. A check of our fish chart showed it was most likely a ‘Paddle Tail’ which are totally protected so after a quick photo opportunity back in the water it went.
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| This 'Paddle Tail' is a protected species so went back in the water after a quick photo. |
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| Karen at work cleaning our catch of reef fish with nothing but water in sight. |
The rest of the afternoon was spent snorkelling around enjoying the amazing underwater delights of the reef. Once more we did see the extensive coral bleaching that the northern reefs have suffered due to the extreme weather events of the last couple of years but there was more than enough healthy growth areas interspersed to keep Rob busy with the underwater camera. We can only hope the reefs are able to regenerate and we see the ratio of bleached to unbleached coral reverse over time. We were also constantly surrounded by an abundance of brightly coloured fish of all shapes and sizes and saw a number of giant clams. We did spot a shy turtle in the distance which unfortunately sped off pretty quickly without posing for the camera.
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| We can't get enough of snorkelling the reef's warm clear waters full of marine life |
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| Nice examples of healthy coral stand out against their more bleak surrounds. |
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| We saw a few of these colourful starfish but thankfully no Crown of Thorns. |
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| A giant clam on Batt Reef. |
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| These blue Damselfish were plentiful at Batt Reef. |
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| Perfect outer reef weather. |
Later while sitting on the stern with a glass of cold bubbles experiencing an amazing sunset, we agreed this was the sort of place we could happily stay as long as the weather let us but, with light northerlies predicted for the next few days, the time had come for us to begin making our way south. We have a lot of the Queensland coast to cover before the start of the cyclone season so Batt Reef was to be a one night stand – this time.
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| Good night from Batt Reef - a wonderful piece Australia's Great Barrier Reef. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We love to receive comments on our blog from readers. If you do leave a comment and you also have a blog, please leave a link as well. We'd like to click over for a visit and leave you a comment too. To stay right up to date with what we’re up to and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at DreamtimeSail If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. |
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