24TH OCTOBER, 2011

TO THE WEST OF HERON ISLAND, GREAT BARRIER REEF.

 

Having crept our way through the last half of the Sandy Straights between Fraser Island and the main land after a good long walk the previous evening on a long soft white sandy beach.  We did see Dingo paw marks, quite fresh but didn't hang around to find them, they are very wild and can be very aggresive they are said to be the purest Dingos on Fraser Island with no cross breading at all.

On our way out we saw some more Humpback whales.  We started fishing and we think it was a Sail Fish that Jonathan caught but I only caught a glimpse of it as it jumped into the air, then we saw shark fins and lots of birds and we lost our Sail fish which we would have released anyway if we had pulled it into the yacht.  Later on we did catch a small tuna so fish for supper with pak choi, both of us are trying hard to diet......ha ha.

The wind got up and we had about 20 knots blowing but with a quartering sea so it wasn't over comfortable.  By 3.p.m  we arrived at Lady Musgrove Island, a reef with a small island cay on it.  We picked our way in through the coral heads and dropped anchor in sand.  It was blowing a hooly so not great and quite cool.  This morning the sun came out the sea inside the reef was the most beautiful blue, but still quite cool for swimming.  We took the dingy to the island and walked all the way around it in about half and hour.

The temptation was to stay for another night and just relax on the beach but the clouds were showing mares tails and Jonathan thought it was wise to carry on up to our next anchorage which is off Northwest Island..  Anyway, sadly, Jonathan is not one for relaxing on a beach with a good book, he always needs to get a move on......which can be a tad irritating at times.

We have seen quite a few dolphins, porpoise, whales and a very large turtle just outside the entrance to the reef of Lady Musgrove, so wild life in abundance.

Must stop as just coming into our next anchorage.