Year 2 – 27 March 2025 - Lady Musgrave Island – Fitzroy Reef-Great Barrier Reef

If anyone reading this and is free from late June to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.

It was a bit cloudy when we woke but no rain. We had breakfast of avocado on toast with poached eggs which set us up for the day. We prepared the boat and then upped anchor at 7.45am and then had to get out of the lagoon. The light was not great so we crawled back to the danger buoy marking a big bommie to avoid any coral and retraced our steps out of the entrance to the lagoon. This seemed fine and we were through.

We set sail (full main and genoa) for Fitzroy reef which was about 22 nm North of where we were. We passed Fitzroy Island and then sailed on with the wind just behind the beam. It became a nice day and warm and a bit humid. The swell was not bad and we sailed well and past Hoskyn Island, Bault Reef, Llewellyn Island and reef and Fitzroy Reef was beyond that. This was a reef in the middle of the Coral Sea and some 50-60 miles offshore which has a small opening with a little lagoon inside but no Island.

Fitzroy Reef is the largest reef in the Bunker Group and is a 3650 ha drying, closed ring reef with a large, deep (6-10m) lagoon that can be entered through two narrow, natural channels. Although no cay is present at the reef, an intermittent sand body often appears at low tide on the south-western end of the reef. The presence of a lagoon attracts many travelling vessels, as the lagoon is a good anchorage. The corals at Fitzroy Reef are diverse and are one of the important values of the area. The lagoon includes well-developed coral communities on bommies interspersed with large tracts of sand in addition to a large community of branching corals on the lagoon floor. Near the lagoon entrances is a group of bommies that have moderate to dense coral cover. This area is the prime site for activities such as snorkelling and glass bottom boat coral viewing. lagoonal reef system, Fitzroy Reef is important to turtles, particularly to loggerhead turtles, which feed on molluscs in the lagoon floor sands. It is estimated that the annual population of turtles at Fitzroy Reef is approximately 1,000 green turtles, 100 hawksbill and 100 loggerhead turtles. These numbers represent a small but extremely important component of the turtle populations of the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Apparently there were some form of buoys near the entrance to the channel. We sailed for about 3 and a quarter hours and by then we were adjacent to the reef so we took the sails down. We motored toward the reef and then we saw 3 stick type buoys. We got closer and could see the surf on the reef surrounding the area and where the lagoon was. We motored on and then saw that two of the buoys were red and green so that should be the markers for the channel. There was one other marker before the channel marker and as we got closer we could see this other marker was on the reef.

The channel looked narrow and Trevor and I had headphones on and we slowly eased forward toward the entrance. We could see the brown and greens of the coral and the darker deeper water. The tide was coming out and we had to motor toward the red then bear right toward the green but not be pushed too far right on to the coral on the right. There was then a kink to the left and we then gradually came through and we were in. It was quite a tight fit and the pilot books do not give enough detail and there was no detail on the plotter.

The lagoon is not large so we found a sandy patch and anchored about 70 meters from the entrance. We were the only ones here again and it was beautiful and sort of unique. We were as if in a calm pool with a coral ring around us with white surf breaking over the outer reef. Ahead was a turquoise blue area which was shallow water over sand. We had some lunch and a rest and then lowered the dinghy.

We motored up to the blue area of sandy which had some coral around so we anchored the dinghy and then had a snorkel. There was some fish and coral but it was not as exciting as the day before. We therefore took the dinghy nearer to the entrance of the line of coral on the inner reef. This was far more interesting and there were some nice corals and fish which I was enjoying. I was snorkelling and then Mark came up and said he had seen a big shark and was swimming quite fast back to the dinghy. You can imagine I was not enamoured about the idea so swam back to the dinghy as well. We got in but I did not see any shark but Mark was quite concerned about the experience. We had seen a fair bit and that was enough for now so we all decided to call it a day.

When we got back to Stormbird we put the dinghy on the davits and had some tea and hot chocolate. We then got the deck chairs out and watched the beauty of this place. The wind was blowing a constant 12-15 kts and we could relax and enjoy. The water was just flowing with different colours and white on the outer reef. However, spots of rain came and we had to come in.

We had bangers and mash with cauliflower for supper which people enjoyed. We plan to return to Bundaberg tomorrow which is about 72-74 nm and to get up at first light as we need to see how we get out of the entrance and it is quite a long way.

The picture of the day is the view ahead of us in the lagoon. It seems off we are in the middle of the coral see and yet able to anchor in 10m of water with the deeper ocean all around us.

Need/Opportunity Year Two

I am in need of more crew from late June to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com