The Great Barrier Reef

Thursday, 29 September 2011 - Lizard Is to Ribbon Reef No 5

We left Lizard at 0600 in a 20 knot SE wind that eased to 10 to 15 knots by lunchtime. 8 boats left today including Truest Passion (Seawind 1160) and Allikat (Lightwave 45) who we were travelling with to Ribbon 5.

The shift to the north east that we were hoping for did not eventuate so it was hard going to cover the 53 nm to Ribbon 5. Good news was we caught 2 Spanish Mackeral while Truest Passion with 8 fish invited Allikat and us for dinner that evening.

By 1400 we were motoring in a light easterly and racing to get the anchor down before dark. Definitely not recommended although we followed the others who had forward facing sonar to assist. 71nm covered in the day.

Friday, 30 September 2011 - Ribbon Reef No 5

I think we both had a mental image of the Great Barrier Reef as being a large continuous barrier with only a few openings. We were surprised to see this morning that the reef between Phase2 and the Coral Sea was quite narrow. There are hundreds of reefs in a maze that overlap and interconnect to form the GBR. It is strange to be swimming in 4m of water knowing that about 100m away it is 1600m deep.

We had spent a calm night in the perfect conditions and discovered that the ketch Tic Tac which was beside us at Bluewater Marina was anchored nearby. Karl dropped by with some coral trout that he had speared and offered to show us the best snorkeling spots. We snorkeled most of the morning in the clearest water we had encountered so far.

Another beautiful night with dinner together on Allikat.

Saturday, 1 October 2011 - Ribbon No 5 to St Crispin Reef

0700 start so we could see the bommies and a nice 7-10 kn westerly as a bonus. We put our spinnaker up while Allikat started with screecher and Truest Passion with their code zero. Both eventually put up spinnakers as the breeze went to the NW before dying about 1030. We had some nice photos by then and we motor sailed to St Crispins where we anchored about 1500 after having covered 44 nm.

Dinner on board Phase2 where we all enjoyed Karl's coral trout.













Sunday, 2 October 2011 - St Crispins to Cairns

With a forecast of 15-20 SE, we headed out through the opening north of St Crispins to the Coral Sea to come into our planned anchorage of Michaelmas Reef through the Trinity Opening - the largest opening near Cairns. Unfortunately the breeze was soon up to 25 knots and gusting higher and the seas were quite rough. By lunchtime with no drop in the wind strength, we all decided to head for Yorkeys Knob marina. We were tied up at 1700 after 66nm. Print this post