Graptolite - Reef Life
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Thu 7 May 2009 23:05
We are still sheltering here on Fury Shoal and still waiting for the wind to
behave. We're in daily radio contact with a number of other yachts in the
Red Sea and it seems everyone else is also trapped in the anchorage they
find themselves in.
Dolphin Reef on Fury Shoal, where we are, is surreal enough to be worth more
of a description. This is a remote, entirely watery, spot offshore and we
can see no land from here. To our north, only about 100 metres away, are
crashing big breakers over the shallow coral on the reef front. In the
moonlight the breakers are all that can be seen. We are anchored in the
lagoon behind the coral in sand in very clear water. The wind is howling and
the wind-generator is screaming but the big waves are fortunately mostly
tamed by the time they get to us. So far the anchor is holding. The rigging
has become crusty with salt and also red with dust blown in off the desert.
I took swim out to the inner edge of the coral earlier today, tooled up with
wetsuit, snorkel and spear. This was mainly in an attempt to try to find
something edible as we have no more fresh food onboard. There were plenty of
fish but millions of year of evolution make it just too easy for fish to
keep out of the stabbing range of us monkeys.
M