We have left Mackay and have started our next Coral Sea Atolls voyage. We are off to Marion Reef!

This is a reminder of the overall voyage plan:

And now, here is what our passage to Marion Reef looks like on Google Earth.

We are making this trip with our friends Will and Rochelle on Havachat, and are all more than a little excited. The first two short legs of the passage are within the protection of the Great Barrier Reef and although they could have been done in a single hop, it gave time for the sea to settle after the period of strong winds. The third leg is out in the ocean, facing the Coral Sea swell. The entire passage is in very light conditions, which means motor-sailing, or just plain motoring… just as well we are not purists!

First leg: an easy 25nm afternoon motor-sail from Mackay to Scawfell Island on Tuesday. It was a wee bit inauspicious leaving on the 13th but we were itching to get out of the marina after days of wind and rain! We were stern to the beach at Refuge Bay, but in 2 knots of NW, it did not matter. Six other boats thought the same!

Second leg: Stupid o’clock departure at 2.00 am on August 14th to reach the outer reef line 65nm away. No wind… We motored all the way!

We chose Little Bugatti Reef as our second anchorage because it has a more compact and shallower lagoon than the much larger Bugatti Reef and there is a nice coral garden at the entrance, perfect for a snorkel.

These two short legs were also a good ‘practice’ run for our buddy boat Havachat, with a middle of the night departure from Scawfell Island, a baby overnight hop to Little Bugatti, satellite navigation into the U-shaped reef, lagoon anchoring, then play time in gorgeous isolation!

The snorkeling was not as good as three years ago, not helped by ordinary visibility after the windy weather. There was evidence of bleaching and storm damage, but it was nice to get in the water and just drift in the current.

Third leg: the big overnighter thursday to Marion with very light winds and some swell… not ideal conditions, but getting to Marion was never going to be easy given its easterly position. You gotta work for your atoll! We left Little Bugatti by 11.00am after another snorkel and followed the Hydrographers Passage out, a deep shipping channel through the Great Barrier Reef. We had plenty of time to settle the boats before dark, get used to the motion since as soon as you leave the protection of the GBR, you face the choppy waters of the Coral Sea… nothing that a Kwell or two won’t fix! We sailed some of the way, and motor-sailed during the night.

As we post this, we are nearing Marion Reef and will be spending quite a few days there, exploring different parts of the atoll while the weather is calm.

Marion Reef is a 40km (22nm) long by 20km (11nm) wide atoll with a deep lagoon and surrounded by very clear, deep waters. It is a bigger version of Elusive Reef at the Swains, also called Little Marion. This atoll consists of six main reefs in a horseshoe shape. The centre of the atoll is studded with coral bommies, but the eastern band of the atoll reveals a string of cays, sandbanks and shallow reefs which provide good shelter in SE trade winds. 

Join us next Friday to discover what we found at Marion Reef!