keeper reef

It had been three weeks since we’d seen a shop or laundry so after a quick visit to Townsville to reprovision and visit a laundry (3 weeks’ worth of washing is big), and some unexpected socialising with Lukim Yu and Pacific Dreams, we dropped by Maggie for our last stopover for this season.

There were a few days of very calm weather ahead. Our challenge was how use these few days not only to visit the outer reef but also head south.  Which way you say this depends on your priority.  You know mine!

After several sessions poring over the weather forecasts, I finally hatched a plan (I seem to have taken on the weather routing role.) The SE trade winds have been constant.  It takes two long days of passaging to return to the Whitsundays from Magnetic Island, so bashing in to a head wind for two days definitely was not on our agenda. It had to be gentle breezes with a calm sea or northerly winds for this passage.

So, the plan … we would sneak out to Keeper Reef for the day, stay overnight, then drop by Davies Reef further south for another (quick) snorkel, before motor sailing overnight to Gloucester Passage, the northern end of the Whitsundays.  The seas were going to be calm with the light winds forecast and there were even some light ENE breezes predicted that would help us along.  And … there was going to be a full moon!  Easy peasy.  All we needed was for BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) to be accurate.

At first light we weighed anchor with Pacific Dreams, who were joining us at Keeper Reef.  We had visited Keeper on the way north and it was definitely a reef we wanted to revisit. Remember my camera drowning?

What a visit it was!  Perfect weather with a blue sky, zero wind and an extra low tide measuring -0.01, just after we arrived (remember there was full moon coming the following night).  So much of the reef came out of the water.  It was stunning.  So many shades of blue, fantastic visibility, colourful coral and white sandy shallows. It was so still amongst the reef at low tide. The photo above from Fiona on Pacific Dreams is a favourite.  It captures the scene perfectly!

I do love snorkeling in these conditions. It’s so much easier to focus on the life below, spotting the small critters and there’s more chance of getting up close and capturing a great photo.  As a snorkeler it’s all about how long you can hold your breath and keep steady.  In the shallows it’s so much easier.

The reflections in the shallows were beautiful …

I found some of my favourite little critters.

A Spine-cheeked Clownfish …

Keeper Reef has quite a lot of healthy coral, not so many larger fish (it’s a fishing zone) but an abundance of smaller fish.  It was lovely just cruising around the bommies, in and out of the white sandy gullies and when looking up from below, seeing amazing reflections in the water. It’s hard to see the actual waterline in some of these photos!

Talking of little critters … I found my second Nudi for the season!  Whoopee!  Aren’t the colours on this Nudi stunning??!! So beautiful. This little tacker was no more than 2 cms long. I really don’t know how I spotted it. I had quite a lot of time to photograph this Nudi, although, I was amazed how quickly it moved, finally taking a tumble off the edge of the coral, landing inside another coral head but this time out of my camera’s reach.

A few Nudi fun facts … There are over 3,000 species of Nudibranchs.  Nudi’s are hermaphrodites, they aren’t female or male, but actually a mix of both sexes. They will eat their own species. Bright colours means danger!  My question of this Nudi is, where are the rhinophores (horns)?  All Nudis have two rhinophores so where are they? Maybe it’s a flatworm not a Nudi? My reading indicates they can withdraw their rhinophores when they sense danger. Danger being me?! I was up close and personal.

Then there was the pink Anemone with a family of Pink Anemonefish. An absolute favourite.  I’ve seen a brown, a red, an orange and even a glimpse of a purple Anemone, but not a pink one before.

It was all about shades of blue at Keeper Reef. Even the Christmas Tree Worms were stunning.

Another boat launch of the drone … Pacific Dreams and The Bossa …

The next morning we motored south, very reluctantly.  We realised entering Davies Reef was going to take time as we had to dodge around too many coral bommies to get to a clear anchorage, so we motored on further, with some strong current assisting us, to Little Broadhurst Reef.  Four fish were caught on the way but we are getting fussy. All were returned to the deep. It was to be a quick snorkel at Little Broadhurst and we knew from a previous visit the reef was not in a healthy state but nevertheless, I jumped in. This clam made my short visit worthwhile!

After giving the The Bossa a quick clean around the waterline we started the engines and headed south at about 4 pm. It was an 80 nm passage, timing our departure for a daylight arrival. Amazing.  Everything went according to plan.  The weather forecast was accurate including the ENE timing.  The ‘lights were on’ with the full moon lighting up the sky. We had flat seas, along with some current assisting us and I saw an amazing sunrise over Gloucester Island as we approached the passage.

We do feel very fortunate to have visited the outer reef off Maggie three times so far this season.

We are now back in the Whitsundays.  We will catch up with friends, collect guests who will be aboard for a week and enjoy the short passages between the numerous islands here.