Back to the reef!
Once our ‘overnight’ parcel arrived, we hightailed from the Townsville Marina as quickly as we could.
Oops, let’s be clear … there’s nothing wrong with Townsville Marina, in fact its one of our favourite marinas on the Qld coast, but we’d completed our chores, visited the skin clinic, provisioned, walked to Juliette’s ice cream shop, washed The Bossa and we were just ready to leave.
After a Maggie stopover where we reconnected with Marg and Ross on Adagio, it was time to visit the outer reef. Yay!! Keeper Reef and John Brewer Reef were on our radar.
The sunsets are always beautiful from Horseshoe Bay … fish & chips on the beach.
Both of these reefs have moorings, Keeper two and JB four. So it was with some frustration the second mooring had disappeared from Keeper, until the Captain suggested we try locating it in the tender. It was actually still in place as it was only the floating buoy that was missing. After a quick assessment, both Captains jumped in our tender, hooked up the mooring line dangling under the surface with our tender anchor and Adagio was sorted. We reported the missing buoy to the GBRMP authority and by pure chance a discarded fender came floating by that afternoon, so Adagio when leaving, attached this to mark the spot. Keeper Reef really has nowhere to anchor so moorings are a must.
Keeper Reef from the air .
It was so good to be out at the reef again and as always, marvel at the colours of the water. The water was crystal clear and with little breeze, we were floating in a swimming pool. We didn’t have very low nor high tides, so with little water movement, it was a case of snorkeling any time of the day.
The water was so clear and with such little breeze it really did feel like we were anchored in a swimming pool.
My favourite walking plants! Particularly the red Feather Stars. I have seen a Feather Star ‘walking’ twice (they are rarely caught moving,) but not a red one. The Feather Stars that anchor themselves to sea structures with their tiny legs are actually juveniles. They lose these stalks as adults.
We did see a number of white tip reef sharks at Keeper Reef. This particular one was a bit too brazen for our liking. A bit too interested in us. I do wonder if even more behaviors have been learned. It is a fact that the vibrations and sounds of speared fish do attract curious sharks. Dinnertime is the call. With so much spearing happening now, usually with a dinghy floating above, are these sharks also associating a dinghy with dinner?
Check out the dark orange Sea Anemone this Blackback Anenomefish is residing in.
John Brewer Reef was our next reef stop, only a few hours further north from Keeper.
What I love about JB is I can snorkel from The Bossa. The Captain decided to be ‘on watch’ from the mothership rather than the dinghy this time.
There is a large bommie near one of the two eastern moorings (check out the drone photos). I snorkeled this bommie a few times. One corner was particularly pretty. On every visit I saw big schools of Fusiliers usually hovering a bit deeper than the Blue-Green Pullers, and always just chillin’. The Pullers not so, they are usually darting around in a bit of a frenzy.
I was buoyed by the amount of new coral growth at both reefs. While there is still obvious coral damage, both from weather events and bleaching, there are also signs of coral regeneration.
Here’s a slideshow of some more images …
And … my first Nudi for the season! If you follow my blog, you will know how excited I get when I spot a Nudibranch. It was all about yellow, as I also snapped this Yellow Boxfish too. This yellow Nudi was ever so small. The first image is my first snap. It looked like a yellow golf tee from a distance! Unfortunately I couldn’t photograph it from the front, where those rhinophores are. But nevertheless, it’s my first Nudi this season hopefully not my last.
Here’s a few aerial photos of our time at JB. While enjoying a coffee one morning with Marg and Ross on board, we were lucky enough to see a whale pass just outside the reef, no more than 50 metres away. The tail lifted twice with that distinctive splash following. What a treat!
The whale was just outside our lagoon. The bommie is the one between Argo and The Bossa.
We had an amazing sunset on our last night out at the reef. I actually emailed a photo to the Queensland ABC news where they often show people’s weather photos. Bingo! My photo made the news that night. Thankyou to all those friends out there who saw it and texted me. What a laugh!
This is the sunset photo … and the proof I’m not telling fibs!
Envious of this series of reef photos while we languish at the shipyard! Nice mix of serials and underwater shots, Amanda!
It was our first reef visit since Lady Musgrave so a long time coming. Such clear water & positive signs with the coral regeneration I saw. Fingers crossed Anui is back out there soon.
We probably won’t be back this season. But good to hear there is some recovery.
Amazing photos Amanda, great to see that the reef is recovering in some spots. Love your yellow nudi branch and yellow box fish amazing. Clarity is terrific too. Hope you get back out to the reef soon.
Thankyou Jeanette. So glad we snuck that visit in as no calm window on the horizon at the moment.
Fabulous!
My wish is to ‘tail’ the Boss one year! You know, the old “grass ii always greener” . Or in this case “water is always clearer”!
Ha! Lovely compliment Sally. And I’ll always find something to photograph.
Hi
that’s amazing to get you photo on the news
you don’t want to make the news
Well put John! It was a bit of a laugh.