reef hopping to maggie

Yay!!

We had a calm weather window in sight so we decided to sail north from the Whitsundays and spend these rare calm days out at the Great Barrier Reef, between the Whitsundays and Townsville.

In particular, Little Broadhurst, Wheeler and Keeper Reefs.

We had a fantastic few days with little breeze, flat water, pristine anchorages, a sand cay, whales, dolphins, snorkeling, a big spotty mack’ and I finally got to fly my drone over the reef.

After leaving Gloucester Passage (always a favourite stopover), we decided to ‘launch’ our reef adventure from the infamous Cape Bowling Green, or as we yachties call it, Cape Rolling Green. As you can tell it’s not usually a comfortable anchorage due to the Cape being so low, the lowest on the Queensland coast, so it offers little protection. However, we had a comfortable night while also enjoying a meal of our freshly caught Spotty Mackerel.  It was a big one too.

Another new addition to The Bossa this season is a Toughbook loaded with an alternative navigation program, specifically a satellite view of the outer reefs. While there are occasional public moorings out there, it’s more common to have to anchor. The Toughbook has a GPS installed so we can see our boat entering these reefs. With a little research in advance we can plan ahead by identifying access routes and anchorages in areas that are protected by reef, shallow enough to anchor and have a large enough radius to allow for anchor swinging room.  The Captain is handling this one.  A big thankyou to Paul on Skellum for his tutoring.

This is a long post.  So many photographs to choose from! Hope you enjoy the read.

We had a great sail all the way out to Little Broadhurst Reef. Whales were everywhere. Perhaps even more than last season?

Little Broadhurst was recommended to us and we could see a ‘lagoon’ type anchorage with surrounding reef on our new navigation system, so this was our first stop. Unfortunately, where I jumped in for my first snorkel I found the reef state quite sad. Dead coral, rubbly reef, silt and slime. I saw only one Crown of Thorns but there was evidence of further damage . However, surprisingly there were plenty of fish, big and small, Parrotfish, Sweetlips, Angelfish and Coral Trout, but all way too quick for my camera skills.

Most of my photos tend to concentrate on the colourful and interesting aspects of what’s down under, but these photos have a slightly different slant, the damage that I often see but don’t highlight.

It is pleasing to read positive articles about the health the GBRMP because there is no doubt the state of the reef has deteriorated immensely over the years … certainly since our first snorkel up here way back in 1987.  Increased coral cover is now being reported which is great, mainly due to benefiting from a few years of not being battered by cyclones and while coral bleaching events have occurred in 2020 and 2021, they weren’t nearly as deadly as the ones in 2016 and 2017. There have been four bleaching events in seven years, so time will tell. This same article also referred to the damage the ongoing outbreaks of Crown Of Thorns Starfish are causing.

Amongst the silty rubble I did spot a tiny little pale blue Nudibranch, maybe only 2-3 cm long if that. These critters are so colourful and bizarre, and so challenging to find. So when I do, I get quite excited. They are slow movers so once spotted, if not too deep, they are easy to photograph. To date I have photographed only one Nudibranch per season since I ‘discovered’ these tiny sea slugs even existed. Fingers crossed for this season. Each photo has a fun fact about Nudis …

14 miles further north we arrived at Wheeler Reef.

Perfect weather! It was actually hot, muggy and so still.

Wheeler Reef had a sand cay which is always appealing.  In fact, at the lowest tide it had two sand cays. Perfect to try my drone!

But first a snorkel. Unfortunately not a good one and not because of the state of the reef.

I drowned by treasured first underwater TG4 camera. It has been my ‘go to’ camera since I purchased it 2016.  All my close-ups have been with this camera. Devastation! But, it has lived a good and robust life surviving six years of being dunked so many times. And yes, I do have another camera, a newer TG5 which I use with my wide-angle lens, so all was not lost.  Fortunately I’d already uploaded my pics from that morning’s snorkel of my Nudibranch.  Phew!

How? Why? I’m so big on routine with my cameras.  Routine is G.O.D!  But this time, who knows why, I didn’t follow my routine. 🙁

Move on, stop beating yourself up, let it go … just bugga bugga bugga!!!!!!!

The snorkeling was so good at Wheeler Reef with healthy, colourful coral.  The fish life the same.  It does help being in a Green Zone – no fishing. There was lots of healthy plate and staghorn coral, long gullys of white sand between numerous coral bommies and such clear shallow sky blue water.

And there was the cay. There’s something special about a sand cay way out in the middle of the ocean. We dinghied across to the cay the following day once the sky cleared.  Here’s some pics from above. The shades of blue from the air are stunning aren’t they?

A few more from overhead …

Next it was Keeper Reef, a short 15 mile hop.

After seeing so many whales in the distance since we’d left the Whitsundays we were finally fortunate in seeing a Humpback mother and calf not far away.  We cut the engines and waited. They glided gracefully by behind us.

Keeper Reef has often been described as “a keeper” and we agree. We picked up the one and only mooring at Keeper in calm clear pale blue water. No wind. Does .6  knots count?! We felt like we were in a swimming pool it was so blue and so clear.

So … it was time for my first ‘boat launch’ of the drone! Think I nailed it for a first try. I also have The Captain on deck catching it on return.  He’s nailed that too.

Of course … a few more …

I spotted these Humbugs in the white sand.  In fact there was quite a cluster of Humbugs darting in and out of their coral homes. They do tend to congregate around isolated coral heads, usually Acropora coral and they don’t venture too far away. I’ve always found them in exposed white sandy shallows, only a few metres deep, but I have never seen so many living in such close quarters as this cluster.

And a visit from a pod of dolphins along with more whales on our way back to Maggie …

We are now back at Maggie (Magnetic Island), anchored in a millpond amongst fifty or so other yachts (I counted them). A stunning sunset tonight too.

What’s next? A visit to a camera shop in Townsville … and an afternoon of washing!

PS. Thankyou for all the positive comments I’ve received via phone and txt regarding my blog and photos.  I do appreciate them. Don’t forget you can subscribe for email posts and follow me on Instagram @ajcandthebossa … and even make a comment!