Hook Reef TO Magnetic Island - a brief picture tour - 3.-26. October 2017

Andromeda
Michael
Wed 25 Oct 2017 23:01
19.16:396S 148.20:957E
3. - 26. October 2017
Faith Reef

Actually, we went from Cid Harbour on Whitsunday Island to Butterfly Bay, Hook Island, 
then Hook Reef, Bait Reef, Gould Reef, Faith Reef, back to the mainland at Cape Bowling Green and then 
went into the marina to sit out the 4 days with sometimes torrential rain. 
Everyone was super happy, as it hadn’t really rained like that for 2 years (!) and we could get some parts and got boat projects done. 

Time always seems too short to do all the things I want to. 
I’d loved to keep the blog up to date with every anchorage, if any, at least for my own memory of all these beautiful places. 
And also, I’m still struggling with sending html to the blog website from the mac computer. 
No idea how it will appear this time. 
But for now, this must just do. 
Often, we don’t have good internet, and tomorrow, we’re leaving the Palm Isle Group for another excursion to the outer reef. 

So here just a few pics from the last weeks. :-)

Our stops on the last reef excursion - from Airlie Beach to the reefs to Townsville.

Michael facebooking with his little girl :-) Sometimes, internet
is amazingly good! 

To the right is Bait Reef, we anchored were you see some 
other boats to the right. 

The brown/green stuff is mostly and almost always underwater, 
so there’s no land, just corals and corally rock, 
but forming a reef which gives protection and good anchorage. 
There wasn’t much wind those days, so we sailed with the 
big beautiful spinnaker sail from one reef to the next. 
Very slow, but at least very pleasant and beautiful.
We caught a nice tuna - SUSHI! 
Well, we had sashimi, that was easier to prepare :-)
The more southern reefs were quite destroyed by the last cyclone ‘Debbie’, but Faith Reef here was very pretty.

The yoga pants are also great underwater! The water was quite warm, so we only needed a shorty, and they protect me from little stingers. 

LEFT: 
Free diving, Michael speared us a lobster, a grouper and a snapper, now we have the freezer full of fish. 
and found a big clam :-)


Very idyllic out on the reef when there’s not much wind - just the sea bird’s got to be a nuance with the mess they left every morning! They liked to fight for the best spots.


Returning from the outer reefs to the mainland, we stopped just south of the biggest (little) town around, called Townsville. We sandy point, stretching 14km (about from Sunset Beach to Cape Town) out from the mainland, forming a huge bay that big green turtles seem to love.
Also for making love! 


We actually saw them mating in the distance!


Went for a hike in Townsville - Andromeda is anchored to the far right,
 just before the breakwater wall in the distance.
Saw this amazing spray painting on a water reservoir - pretty cool, hey?
Gigantic boulders at a lovely bay on Magnetic Island, just north of Townsville

Love life. :-)