We had not been out to the Reef since the end of July and were hanging out for an opportunity to explore again with our cruising buddies on Oceaneer and Clair de Lune. It has been very blowy! But finally this last week we had a small two-day window of calm weather and we took it.
As we departed Cape Upstart and raised the main, it would not go to the top of the mast – bugger! We have a one line in-boom reefing system… wonderful when it works, but a pain when ropes jam inside the boom! After nearly an hour of fiddling, we gave up, left with one reef in the main and figured we would fix this later (which we did)! It was just as well we had a reduced mainsail as the conditions were rather fresh close to the mainland. We eventually caught up to our cruising companions. We all had a great sail and thankfully the wind eased as we neared the reef.
Our reef escapade took us to Stanley Reef, 30 nm offshore of Cape Upstart. We had been scouting Google Earth, Motion X, and a very useful feature on Navionics called Relief Shading, to make a list of possible targets. As you know we like sandy anchorages, not too deep, not too many bommies, with good protection from the reef wall… even better if there is a lagoon. It is really satisfying when all your research comes together, you mark promising spots, sail to them, enter the reef without drama and drop the pick pretty much where you were hoping it would be good.
This was very much the case at Stanley Reef. This reef has an oval shape with inky depths on the western side of an even deeper central channel running along a semi continuous wall with a maze of gutters on the eastern side. The channel gives access to a shallower sandy area near the southern wall. We followed each other inside, Anui leading the way, dodged a few bommies as we got further in and bingo, the three boats anchored in a lovely big patch of sand in 8 to 10 meters of water, just where we had hoped!
Stanley Reef is in a Green Zone, so no fishing is allowed. It is deep, there is quite a lot of current running everywhere, and the coral was not in great condition, but we had fun. The best snorkeling was near the entrance to the reef and we also checked out a few bommies near our anchorage. We saw a lot of big fish: the largest coral trout we have ever seen (1.3m), big cods, ugly big bumphead parrotfish with a mouth like a horse, beautiful and colourful steephead parrotfish, batfish, the odd shark… The nicest feature of the reef walls along the drop offs was the many elegant crinoids, those feather stars that come in shades of black, red, green and orange and filter the water for nutrients. And there were lots of tiny bait fish too. You swim among them and think “it’s raining fish”!
Here is a slide show with the pick of our underwater photos.
It has been interesting cruising in company. We pool resources, share experience and make a plan together. But each crew has to make their own decision and assessment of the conditions. In the end you might choose to tag along or do your own thing. Each crew has different levels of experience, attitude to risk, tolerance of discomfort, as well as priorities. We are the wise old owls, 15 to 25 years older than the other crews. It is just us two and Bengie on Anui, but the other two boats have young children to worry about. And yet it all works well. We enjoy the interactions with the kids and value the exchanges with the grownups, all this while doing what we love and putting our reef hopping experience to good use.
We are back on our own, having returned to Cape Upstart for a day to avoid the worst of a blow.
But being our usual reef addicts, and not keen on anchoring with a large number of boats at Magnetic Island, we have gone back out there in stronger conditions than ideal, hoping to be able to stay at a couple more spots we know and exploring new ones if the weather allows. Stay tuned for more reef hopping adventures!
Sv-Anui 
Great pics Chris. Love the gutter shot! Off to the reef ourselves shortly. Bossa
Hi Amanda – the gutters were full of fish… loved it. See you out there soon!
The underwater photos are so beautiful! The shark is a bit scary. I’m glad that you guys are enjoying the days now, so much better than the marina! Be safe. 😎🇦🇺
Huge difference in mood… back doing what we love and the engines are great! The sharks are fine when they are white or black reef tips.
I was wondering about the new engines, great news! I just assume that every shark sees you as a tasty morsel, yikes!!
The reef sharks are not interested and don’t pose a threat to us… we are just aware of them. It’s the bigger ones like the tiger or hammerheads which give us the willies, but we very rarely see them.
I see, thanks!
Looks pretty nice there. All the best.
It was great fun, Murray!
You are indeed wise owls. We value your experience, enjoy your company and look forward to our next rendezvous. 🙂
Hi you two! Getting closer. See you at the reef again soon. Lots to explore!
love all your posts, great images Chris.
Was wondering whether you still get the posts! Nice to get your comment Henry. Having some fun at last now that the engines saga is over!
Beautiful and a good way north all ready. You must tell me the trick for embedding slide shows.
Hi Mick, slide shows are one of the display options like image, gallery or video. If you press the + key it should come up although I see it when I work from the laptop rather than the phone.
Thanks I’ll check it out. I was thinking of you both last night. There was a blue cat anchored off Cable Beach at sunset last night.
There are few boats that aren’t white and they stand out! We reckon colour looks better, but we are biased!
Great pictures and I bet that you were having lots of fun. It’s good that you had plenty of company and I see the best of weather too! 🙂
It has been wonderful to spend time out there. More to come HJ!
Loving all the wildlife pics as usual! Keep ’em coming ….
Will do… plenty more on the way.
I love the amazing range of photographic talents that you display in this posting, Chris. The wide pano shots, in which the Anui looks tiny, are breathtaking and the color and detail of your underwater shots are impressive. Wow!
Thank you Mike for the feedback… improving a little at a time and always learning. The clarity of the underwater shots is very dependent on the visibility and weather conditions. For the aerials, as I get more comfortable flying the drone, I am learning to send it higher and further to get the broader perspective of the reefs. The challenge is the light, the direction of the sun and the breeze all have to be right not only to take multiple shots but to bring the drone back safely with limited battery time. Errors aren’t forgiving when you are over water, so progress is slow. The most useful piece of advice I got from a friend is to go much further away from the boat and higher to get that all encompassing view!
There are so many areas of technical expertise in photography that it is hard to become skilled simultaneously in multiple areas and I admire your willingness, Chris, to tackle so many of them. You are trying to master shooting photos from high in the air, on land and water, and under the water. All of those environments have different requirements and limitations–it boggles the mind to think about how complicated it is to mentally switch gears to plan for all of these different scenarios. Your results speak for themselves, Chris–you are getting some amazing shots.
It is so encouraging to get feedback like this. I hope you realise what it means to me. Thank you Mike.
Loved the slide show, some of the fish were really weird but facinating. I enjoy seeing the maps you generate and it sure makes sailing much easier I would imagine.
The weirdest fish were the Humphead parrotfish. They are huge, congregate together and have a mouth like a horse…
The sat maps are a big part of our planning and we have now found a way to overlay these on top of our navigation software… a game changer!