8th Sep Bait Reef to Stonehaven 25nm

It was a very quiet and peaceful sleep on the reef and the wind was mild all night.

Went for a snorkel around the reef near the yacht and the further into the reef the better the coral. A lot of the coral has been decimated on the outer parts of the reef due to cyclone Debbie.

There are still a lot of good fish.

I found one coral bommie that had a lot of anemone fish on it and found this one which had made its home inside a clam shell.

Also found another couple of giant clams on the reef.

The big black trevally was hanging around the yacht looking for a free feed. I fed him some fish scraps yesterday but he turned his nose at the bread today

At 11 o’clock we decided to depart back for Stonehaven. The wind had increased to 15 knots as forecasted and it was time to leave.

We motored around to the southern end of the reef for a look. The tide was coming in and so a massive amount of water was flowing over the reef.

Fish were schooled up and jumping. As we departed I put two lures out and they were immediately monstered by something very big.  A double hook up. With-in seconds the 50kg hand line snapped and on the other line the fish lasted about 4 minutes before that one was lost. When I recovered the line the wire trace had been bitten through. What-ever they were they were too big and too toothy for me.

We had a nice sail back to Stonehaven where we anchored in the calm but windy waters of Stonehaven. As soon as the sun retreated the wind dropped and it was a very pleasant evening.