monkey beach

One of my favourite spots is Monkey Beach on Great Keppel Island. It’s a small bay and if you’re lucky you can tuck in close, right next to the small fringing reef.

While it would have been nice to visit a few different bays on GKI, the wind direction always dictates where we anchor and I’m not complaining cos’ I love Monkey.

I did have a rather nervous moment while capturing the above drone photos (actually, the ‘moment’ lasted for at least 10 nerve-wracking minutes). Not good for the heart! My drone went in to a tizz and wouldn’t let me control it, nor would it return to home (even though it said it was).  Eventually, it did return and who knows why?!  Hooley dooley … we both needed a stiff drink to calm the nerves on this one! We’ve since learned a few friends have had similar problems after the latest firmware update. At least mine did return to the beach and I wasn’t jumping in the water to catch it, while my tender floated away!

While the fringing reef at Monkey is not what it used to be, with extensive areas of algae cover and dead coral, there’s always something under the water to enjoy and photograph. We anchor in close so I can snorkel from The Bossa at my leisure, without hassling the Captain. It was also hot so swims were the go and we had plenty of company with many yachtie friends nearby.  Sunset drinks on the beach and a visit to the café for their infamous hamburgers are always on the program too.

Featherstars … I’ve only ever photographed Featherstars attached to coral.  They are stunningly beautiful plant like creatures with their feet tightly gripped to the coral, while their feathery fronds are either billowing or tightly woven around themselves. They typically have multiples of five fronds and if they lose a frond, they can regrow it. Seeing them move around is rare. This time though, on two different occasions, I saw a Featherstar swimming or is it walking? Such a treat. (I did video this … see my Instagram feed.)

This yellow and brown Featherstar was the first one I saw on the move.

My other highlight was finding my second Nudi for the season (two Nudis plus one Flatworm to date). Another blue one, but a different type. Nudibranchs are so hard to spot so when you do it’s exciting.  This one was only a few centimetres long.

And the clams!  Wow. There were so many big beautiful clams at Monkey. I have read that a clam’s vibrant colours and patterns are indicative of good health. Pink, blue, green, brown, purple, mottled, spotted, lined, plain … clams have unique patterns and a huge range of colours and there were so many at Monkey!

Few other pics …

This colony of Anenomefish kept everyone entertained. So many Anenomefish, young and old.

With more storms forecast on the coast we felt very fortunate to have had such ideal conditions for a few days at Monkey Beach, and sharing it with Bushytales, Chances, Skellum, Vivacious and unexpectedly Lakoa, was the icing on the cake.

We did have to revisit the Keppel Bay Marina. More storms were on the GKI radar and we had an engine issue to address.  Suffice to say, the engine issue is still there, to be sorted at Boatworks. It was the unexpected surprise of finding we had a fuel problem that did our heads in. A big thankyou to Josh from Cap Coast Marine! He happened to walk by to a neighbouring boat with his tool box when we snatched him on board for 10 mins. He spotted a fuel issue, gave us the ‘drill’ (he had no time), including a list of the parts we needed ($$$) and we were on to it.  Remember we built our boat (but we were nine years younger then!). It was a crazeee long HOT and humid day. The evening drinks on Bushytales, while still in our sweaty, grotty clothes, did wonders for our mental health!

So, we have headed south, only as far as the wind has allowed. More southerlies are around for over a week.