my happy place … part two

The brilliant weather continued.  

Kelso Reef is a favourite destination.  I’ve enjoyed some great snorkels here in the past, even last season, but unfortunately, not this time. 

It was so calm!

There was a lot of weather damage to the coral at Kelso. Broken staghorn, upended plate coral and big patches of dead rubble, more than I remember from last season. I did find some giant clams amongst the Kelso carnage and busy parrotfish grazing on the algae growth and chomping on the dead coral with those strong scary teeth. They spend 90% of their day doing this. They then poop out the chomped up coral as sand, providing that fine white sand we all love to see. It’s tricky to photograph them doing their work as they are spooked easily.

john brewer reef …

Then it was back to John Brewer Reef for a few days where we met up with Skedaddle once again. John Brewer Reef is about 30 nm from Maggie, between Kelso and Keeper Reefs.  It’s also a popular reef for the Townsville day trippers, but that didn’t impact us.

The snorkeling here was much more interesting with big drop-offs on the outside walls, shallow white sandy expanses and deep gullies to explore. It’s also a fishing reef.  Skedaddle generously shared some coral trout they speared. Yum!

We also had a -.01 low tide!  This means the reef was exposed and when you have a glass-out as we did, it’s such a stunning sight.

And from the air … the last drone photo below was taken from only a few metres above the water. A bit scary!

Wow, my favourite Pink Skunk Anemonefish … here’s a slideshow of the two Anemones I found (use the > to flick through the images). If you don’t already know, these are definitely a favourite of mine.

The Feather Stars were a highlight at JB. They certainly don’t worry about camouflage.  They hide in plain sight and being bright red, orange, yellow, green, white, brown or a combination of colours, means they are seen by all. They look like a plant with their feathery arms but they are an animal and related to sea stars.

This Feather Star I’m sure was either about to depart or had just arrived.  It did actually move from one piece of coral to another while I hovered, but usually as per some photos below, you find Feather Stars huddled up or maybe their feathery arms are billowing like plants, but they are usually firmly anchored to coral. When they do move, they are like walking plants which is quite a sight. Not something you see often at all. I have, but only twice.

This Feather Star either just landed, or was about to take off.

These Gorgonian soft corals (sea fans) were stunning.

I often get asked about my camera set up. I know I really don’t feature in many of my photos either. That’s because I’m the one with the camera in hand!  

So here’s a bit of info. I use two Olympus TG underwater cameras.  One is for my closeup photographs. It’s an Olympus TG5 camera and the other is a newer model Olympus TG6 camera (TG 7 is now the latest model), which is in a waterproof housing mounted on a tray with handles. I can use a wide angle lens attached to the housing on this camera, for more panoramic photos.  No video or strobe lights. All my photos are taken using natural light. 

The aerial photos are taken with my DJI Mavic Air 2S drone. It’s fantastic at capturing all those shades of blue – azure, cyan, powder blue, teal, aquamarine, turquoise, cobalt …

And the Captain’s set up … our favourite red and white umbrella for shade, lathers of sunscreen and a fishing shirt for skin protection, a towel to cover his legs, a shark shield attached to the dinghy (as I’m often snorkeling on my own), a water bottle and muesli bar, and a book to pass the time. 

Along with my fins, wetsuit (always, as it protects me from the sun, coral and cold), mask and my weight belt, packing all the above may take time, but it’s well worth it.

So here’s a pic of me with my wide angle set up, one of the few times the Cap’n has my TG5 in hand … and the Captain …

The Bossa Nova crew … the Captain with his trusty umbrella & me, the photographer (& writer).

A stunning sunset across the water. We could see the Palm Island group which are approx’ 25-30 nm away.

What a wonderful week we had. We are now back in Townsville catching up on a few chores and reprovisioning. Might even be another reef window on the horizon!