Saturday 17th May
We had the boat ready, so at 8am we cast off to head out through the East Channel, destination Heron Island.
Exhale and Bella wouldn’t be far behind us.
We’d timed our Gladstone transits well (NOT!).. We were against the outgoing tide when we first came in, and leaving now against the incoming tide.
The other two boats left via the North Channel, which they both said was easy and really quite pretty.
Our path from the East Channel had us going directly through the fleet of ships waiting/anchored off.
There was lots of checking on Marine Traffic to make sure they weren’t moving!!
We motored all the way, no wind at all.
We trolled most of the way, not fish at all.
We got to Wistari Reef in good time. There were three free moorings. We grabbed the first one.
Tender down, wetsuits on, and in the water for a quick snorkel.
This was what our trip had been about - diving and snorkeling the reefs/islands in Queensland!
The other two boats turned up while we were in the water. We gave them a wave.
No wind, perfect afternoon conditions.
Kristie geared up and got in for a solo night dive.
A pleasant enough dive apart from a very leaky mask.
Turns out there’s a good chunk missing out of the frame the holds the prescription lenses in.
A new mask has now been ordered.
Sunday 18th
Had breakfast then filled tanks. We still had two tanks that were empty from diving in NSW.
We got the dive gear ready, and the plan was to head over to Heron Bommie and dive/snorkel there.
Kenny and Kristie went in first, and had a nice 40min dive - they saw over 20 turtles, a dozen reef sharks and a Manta amongst everything else here.
The girls and I stayed up the top and snorkeled. They lasted about 30min before getting too cold and hopping back in the boat.
Kenny and Nic then took the girls back to their boat (via Lazuli, so they could get changed and grab essentials like iPads!).
Kristie and I enjoyed a very relaxing dive by ourselves.
Back to Lazuli for lunch and filling tanks while the girls were still on Exhale. Kenny and Nic even fed them - thanks heaps guys.
Got the girls back onboard, then took Kristie for an afternoon drift dive along the Wistari Wall (probably ‘Wistari 2’ -> ‘Wistari 1’).
Sunset drinks on Exhale with us and Viv & Russ.
Monday 19th
School and Work.
Early lunch then into Heron to walk around the island and have a swim. We saw a couple of the turtle nesting areas that were roped off for protection.
The NW side, sheltered from the wind, was particularly nice to swim at. Calm and clear water.
We had to wade through the water to get around the corner back to the boat. I carried Emma on my shoulders, whilst Kristie and Kristina had to wade along after me.
In the tender and a bumpy/wet ride back to Lazuli. The wind was up so we weren’t going to be doing much else for the afternoon.
Tuesday 20th
Early school this morning as we needed to be on the island for a tour of the Research Station.
The girls had their wetsuits on for the wet ride across.
We were met at the rotunda at the end of the jetty. A quick walk and a bit of a chat about turtles and some interesting research correlating nest temperature with the resulting sex of the baby turtle.
The station also has a touch pool with a variety of starfish, coral, and sea cucumbers… all for touching!
I enjoyed the fast-paced race to see which starfish could turn itself over after being placed upside down in the tank.
They also had a nice map of dive sites:
We said a very quick hello to Diana as she walked past on her way to go diving. She was on Heron Island for the week teaching a Coral Health Workshop.
We had planned to catch up for sundowners on the beach, however the wind picked up and it wasn’t possible to get back across in the tender.
The following is Emma’s recount of our time at the Research Station:
1 | We had a tour at the research station on Heron Island. |
Wednesday 21st
Conditions were better this morning. Kristie and I got the dive gear sorted and went across to Heron for another dive.
We tied the tender up to the mooring at (what we think is) Pams Point, and drifted towards Heron Bommie. Lovely dive.
Not long after we got back to Lazuli, Exhale and Bella left for Fitzroy. We still had more diving to do so we weren’t going to head off with them.
School & Work when we got back from our dive.
Filled tanks in the afternoon, and replaced one of Kristie’s reg hoses as it was about to pop.
Thursday 22nd
Early school, then wetsuits on for one last dive/snorkel at Heron Island (back at Heron Bommie).
The girls and I had a snorkel while Kristie did a solo dive.
We had tied up to the moorings to get Kristie in the water; not long after the tour / glass bottom boat came past and asked us not to use their mooring.
There was a fair bit of current, so we ended up doing a bit of a drift snorkel. Drift north, then motor back to the start.
The girls lasted about 30min. I stayed in the water, and eventually Kristie came up.
There was a Manta Ray on one of the bommies, so I snorkeled out to that. I managed to convince Emma to get in and she saw it, but Kristina didn’t.
Emma later explained that the reason she called it “dumb” was that she was cold and hungry.
Back to Lazuli for an early lunch and then to motor to Fitzroy Reef (no wind at all).
I finally managed to catch something on one of the lures I’d been trolling out the back! This time I hooked a 55cm Mackerel Tuna.
I got it in, and it managed to splatter blood everywhere. Got it bled, and then filleted before getting into Fitzroy.
We had an easy passage in through the very narrow channel. Kenny had his drone up and was watching/filming us on the way in.
“in 20m you can turn to port”. Thanks Kenny.
There are only 3 moorings there, and all were taken. We dropped anchor near not far from the others.
They were just off for a snorkel, so we had our tender in the water and wetsuits on pretty quickly.
We loaded up the swim mat and met the others close to the entrance channel. Lots of fun with the mermaid tails, and some snorkeling.
Sips ‘n dips on Exhale. Some tasty G&T’s from Russ, thanks!
Friday 23rd
Early breakfast, then loaded up the tender for Kristie go to diving. We just popped outside the entrance and around the corner.
Easy dive, but not much big stuff there (not surprising when you consider the number of fishing boats that overnight at Fitzroy!).
Exhale & Bella left for Musgrave while Kristie was underwater. We’ll see them tomorrow.
Back to the boat and school for the girls.
Lunch then more time in the water. We took the swim mat to another reef near us, and had lots of fun with mermaid tails.
The wind was predicted to swing about during the night, so with two moorings now free, being on them was going to be better… apart from the mooring ball smacking into your hull in the middle of the night :(
Not long after we’d picked up the mooring, we noticed a turtle was enjoying a good munch on the growth on the mooring line.
More importantly, 3 massive squid were also hanging around it. With possibly the fastest lure change I’ve done, I had a squid lure on and on the first cast hooked one before they swam away.
It squirted out quite a bit of ink when hooked, and on the way in. I thought I was in the clear so I lifted it up to get it in the bucket.
It then unloaded another supercharged jet of ink that went all over our nice white deck, and Kristie (it got her dress and face :(
After much cursing and cleaning, I had the squid ready for eating. Sadly cleaning the deck wasn’t as easy.
Calamari for entrée, and the mac tuna for the main course. Yum. Hope to catch a few more of either of those :)
There were now a dozen other boats in the lagoon for the night. Very popular in these good conditions.
Saturday 24th
We left Fitzroy Reef at 7am with just a slight outgoing tide, heading to Lady Musgrave Island (LMI).
With no wind we had to motor the entire way.
We got to the entrance at about 10:30am, and there was a lot of water rushing out the channel. I wasn’t super keen to go against that.
We grabbed the mooring that’s right at the entrance and decided to wait for slack water at midday. We had tanks to fill, so it wasn’t a waste of time.
By 12:30pm the water had slackened right off, so we cast off the mooring and headed in. The entrance is much wider and deeper than Fitzroy, but still you worry about it!
We were about halfway through the channel when the dive boat from the pontoon shot straight past us at full speed.
Just what you need! Couldn’t see the edge, and the waves were big enough that Emma had to sit down. They are a bunch of clowns.
20 years ago I had first come to Musgrave Island as a Dive Master on Esperance Star. I was so impressed and taken with the place that I vowed that one day I’d come back in my own boat.
Today was that day! I’ve been back and spent some time on the island on other trips, but being here on our own boat was really special.
Exhale and Bella had anchored just to the left/NW of the entrance (pretty much as far away from the island as is possible!).
Their friends where also there, so with plenty of space around them (and it looked magnificent) we dropped anchor there as well.
Kristie and I went for a quick dive in the lagoon. Easy, apart from the end when we ran into a lot of current. Wasn’t expected nor appreciated!
We came back to the boat to get the girls and take them to another spot to give them a go at the scuba thing.
We had borrowed an XS BCD from Chris R, but it was still too big for the girls. I had my ally backplate, so we tried that.
With the harness setup I could get that pretty tight across their shoulders and waist. The plate is still a little big, would be good to have a smaller one.
Kristina didn’t feel that comfortable and did not really get a dive, but Emma had a nice little swim and really loved it.
While on the tender, we got the call over #69 that dinner was going to be on Exhale tonight, 5pm, and all were invited to come and bring something to share.
Another boat, “Sailing Papao” (they spearfish - you can check them out on the socials) were next to Exhale, and had given Kenny a massive slab of Spanish Mackerel.
The beast it came from was probably 1.2m or so, nearly as big as Emma. Everyone else was out of potatoes, so I offered to cook ours up and bring along something.
We got back to Lazuli at about 4pm, and I got the potatoes in the oven pretty quickly, and sorted out downstairs while Kristie filled tanks.
Potatoes came out of the oven and into the Billy Boil with some sun dried tomato pesto.
There was so much food - we didn’t get through all the Mackerel. The steaks took up half a plate each!
Also, plenty of drinks. Russ brought out an unopened bottle Danish schnapps. We finished that bottle.
I had also taken the rest of the Port. We also finished that.
Good times with great people.
Sunday 25th
7am departure for Manata Bommie. We offloaded some dive gear into Kenny’s tender, then the 3 of us (in two tenders) set off.
It’s a good 2NM from where we were anchored to the dive site. It’s a long time in a slow tender (ours isn’t running that well).
I did surface watch when Kenny and Kristie dived. I eventually dropped anchor and managed to get it firmly stuck in some coral.
I had plenty of Manta Rays on the surface with me. After a good drift, I picked the other two up (I’d had to chuck my anchor rope overboard attached to a pool noodle to get later).
We took our tender back to the anchor and fixed it there, and the 3 of us went back to the start of the dive in Kenny’s tender.
We dropped in a little further away from the mark this time.
Kristie and I had an amazing dive. We were lucky enough to see 3 mantas on the top of one of the bommies. So cool.
Otherwise, plenty of fish, sharks, and other critters.
We managed to drift past the abandoned tender anchor. It was easy enough to unhook and send drifting for Kenny to pull up.
We had a slow trip back to Lazuli, only just managing to get in through the outgoing channel!
I did the washing up, and then we set off to go snorkel and a reef walk with the others.
We had a nice snorkel not far from the island, then the tenders all made their way into the beach (avoiding coral and landing boats from the pontoon).
We walked through the island and across to the campsite to explore the reef (it was now low tide).
Saw a bunch of squid in some of the pools at the end, a seahare, and lots of sea cucumbers, crabs and starfish.
We were last back to the tender, and the others were long gone. We headed over to just in front of the pontoon. Jess (from Sailing Papao) had mentioned there was a bit of a turtle cleaning station there.
There were a bunch of turtles, but they all fled when a boat load of snorkelers turned up and jumped in on top of them.
We had a long snorkel, and ended up seeing quite a few turtles after the tourists all left.
Back to Lazuli for a late lunch.
Kristie went off for a SUP, then we filled tanks.
Just sips ‘n dips by ourselves tonight.
The anchorage gets quite rolly at high tide (which were at night while we were there). However, it makes for a nicer morning/day when it’s low tide.
Monday 26th
School.
Wetsuits on as we were going to head into LMI to walk around the island (has to be done on every trip). Girls enjoyed jumping off the boat to cool down.
Quite a few trees down along the eastern corner of the island.
We all had fun exploring and looking for shells and turtle tracks. There were some fresh tracks around the southern side.
We stopped off for a quick cool down in one of the pools by the waters edge.
We had also packed dive gear into the tender, so with the walk done it was back to the turtle cleaning station and tied off to the mooring there
(no day boats today - nobody to interrupt us or move us on :)
Kristina went first, and had nice dive around the bommie. She saw quite a few turtles (some shallow, some down at 6m), and even got to see one with her fingers ;)
(what’s that saying: “Fingers don’t have eyes!” ;)
Emma had a go, but had troubles equalising and was put off. Kristie went to take some photos of Kristina swimming around with her mermaid tail.
I convinced Emma to have another go, and she did really well the 2nd time. She also got to “see” the turtle down at 6m.
With the girls (and Kristie) exhausted from the diving, it was back to Lazuli for a late lunch.
Charlie paddled over, and the girls played lego, roblox, and watched some tv.
I went for a nice SUP around the reef near us. Saw a few reef sharks and plenty of fish.
Back onboard it was time to put away as much gear as possible, ready for the sail/motor tomorrow.
I had the engine on to charge up the batteries a bit, then it dropped into gear and wouldn’t get out of gear!
Bit of a panic (wasn’t looking forward to getting stuck in the lagoon!).
I tried a bunch of things, then called over kenny to help.
Turns out the morse/cables had a hydro lock, and with that released it was back to normal operations.
The following is Kristina’s recount of her dive:
1 | We had a great time at Musgrave Island and we did so many fun things. |
The following is Emma’s recount of her dive:
1 | Musgrave Island is amazing. At Musgrave I scuba dived for the first time. |
Tuesday 27th
The night before we’d heard over the radio that the others were planning to leave at 7am. They were heading for Gladstone.
We had planned to leave at the same time, but we were going to stop for a snorkel with Mantas on the way, and then head to Pancake Creek for two nights.
So up early, and the others were both off before 6:30am. Lucky we weren’t racing ;)
We left at 7am on the dot, and motored to the mooring just off the island. Quick drop of the tender and over towards Manata Bommie.
Surface conditions were a bit more choppy with the NW winds. We saw one on the surface but couldn’t get to it in the water.
Kristie jumped in to snorkel to see if she could find one (the girls and I stayed in the tender).
Not long after, we saw one underneath us. Kristina got in quickly and saw it, then Kristie came over and she and Emma saw it.
It ended up swimming off pretty quickly.
We were done, back to the boat to rinse off, raise the tender, and head off.
We got the sails up, and initially the wind was ok. However, after 30min or so it dropped off and swung to the W. The best I could aim for was south of 1770 - a long way from where we needed to be.
Sails down, motor on.
Time to work. I had a work meeting from 11-12:30. It was going well until 12pm when Starlink decided we were in the wrong spot (not on land!) and everything dropped out.
An hour or so later when close enough to the land it came back on ok. It’s the first tme we’ve been out of service the entire trip.
Dropped anchor in Pancake Creek just before 4pm. It was only just after low tide, so we couldn’t go much further than the entrance.
With the tide going to rise another 3m, the sandbar protecting us from the northerly swell was going to disappear.
Just before 5pm we pulled up anchor and slow motored further down (we had 1.1m of tide - up from 0.3m low).
The lowest we saw was 2.6m. Definitely could not have got in at low tide.
With the tide up, it’s still a bit rolly, but much better than it would have been further up.
