The GBR

Haydee snorkelling at Bait Reef

Our Whitsunday fun continues as we continue our grand tour of this lovely (if busy!!) bit of the Queensland coast. We've seen some beautiful places but the highlight this week would have to be a few days we spent on the reef. On Tuesday this week we left Airlie Beach after stocking up on food, fuel and water once again and overnighted on a mooring buoy at the stunning Butterfly Bay on the northern coast of Hook Island. We left bright and early on Wednesday and sailed out to Bait Reef, accompanied part of the way by some of the biggest dolphins we've seen yet (well fed on reef fish I reckon) and a couple of whales playing not too far off. We picked up a mooring buoy at Bait Reef and the kids enjoyed feeding fish from the back of the boat (see the video below) and snorkelling around the "Stepping Stones", a dozen or so tall coral columns with amazing fish life, while I shepherded them in the dinghy.

Thanks to Graham and Meredith on
Stray Cat, who gave us the Silver Spoon
lure we caught this spotted mackeral on

We then moved around to Hardy Reef and managed to find the entrance to the lagoon (we have the lat and long for the waterfall if anyone needs them) and spent the night by ourselves near Reef World. The wind, 10-15 knots when we first arrived at the reef, picked up to 25 knots overnight but the outer reefs absorb almost all swell and waves from the Pacific so it was surprisingly calm. Leaving Hardy Reef through "The Waterfall", an 8m wide gap in the coral (Seasprint is nearly 4m wide), was interesting as we had decent wind trying to push us sideways into the reef and water rushing out of the lagoon with the tide. God bless 50hp, which also safely took us down a deep channel between Hardy and Hook Reefs where swell from the Pacific kicked up 2-3m waves for us. We went back to Bait Reef, which we liked a bit better than Hardy, and spent our second and third night on the reef there with one other boat (hi to Emily and Ryan on Lucey Blue).

We're spending the rest of this week circumnavigating Hook Island and are right now sitting off Black Island after trolling around Hayman Island, snorkelling at Blue Pearl Bay and swimming at Langford Island today. It's a hard life - friends and family who are up this way are very welcome to join us!!