Monkey Beach is a small bay on the western side of Great Keppel Island. It has a fringing reef that attracts day visitors from Yeppoon, along with us yachties who want a quick snorkel. In recent years this reef has looked a bit sad with algae growth, slime, discolouration and some weather damage to the coral. The fish life however, has always been a treat. But on this visit I felt it was looking a tad healthier, and like always, there’s plenty of fish activity.
But it’s the colourful clams that really caught my eye this time. Clams spend their entire life in the one place so I’ve seen them before but maybe with the morning low tide I saw them in a different light. There was such a variety of rich velvety colours and intricate patterns. Colours created by a contrast between algae inside the clam and the clam’s natural colour. Vibrancy is an indicator of clam health so I’m sure these clams I photographed are very healthy.
These clams are known as “giant clams” and can live for 100 years. As I mentioned earlier, they live in the one spot forever … so they don’t move … so they are a treat to photograph!
Here’s a few more …
We have only spent a few days around GKI enjoying some calm sunny weather and the company of other boats. We’ve also had to drop by the Keppel Bay Marina for a sail repair. Our screecher’s eye at the top of the sail failed and as a result the sail slid down the bolt rope. Fortunately, we managed to furl it in the light winds. But, hmmm, we need to fix it. The one and only sail maker here in Yeppoon can’t look at it for 2 weeks so after talking to our preferred sail maker in the Gold Coast, we decided to send it back to Mike at Gold Coast Sails, who always looks after us. Once repaired, he will courier to where we are (maybe Airlie Beach).
We are amongst a very big group of yachts here at GKI so with the winds turning south tomorrow, there’s going to be a huge fleet heading north to the Whitsundays. There should be some fun out there as “when there’s two boats” … the race is on!
Good to hear Monkey Beach is on the improve. Some of the reefs offshore are showing significant regrow the, so let’s hope we don’t have another extreme heat event this summer!
We have seen a huge increase in the number of boats this year! Not our favourite thing but a good incentive to go far off the coast! See you further north!
Great to catch up Anui! Good luck with all your plans.
Love your photos of Monkey beach and the clams are quite fascinating, we just came in from North West Island where the clams and fish were prolific there too. Loving our backyard of amazing creatures and vibrant colours …
Cheers
Kerry
Thanks Kerry. Catch you further nth. Just arrived at the Whitsundays.
Hi
good to see more great pictures .it sounds like you have joined a crowd they up north enjoying the nice weather .the sail damage do you think it is wear and tear from lots of use or did it get caught on some thing
with that sort of failure it can be difficult to recover.its good you can organise to get it repaired .it looks like
if are lots of boats on the move there will be some fun racing between boats .more fun than on your own.
It is very quiet here not much going on.
John
Hi John. The screecher’s clamp on the top of the torque rope failed so not really wear & tear. Clamps are much better in design now so we had that replaced. Being sent to Airlie Beach by our sailmaker. Lots of boats around which is to be expected in these COVID times. Always fun sailing in company. Hope you are surviving yet another lockdown ok. A&N