The Reef

Denise Lowden

The adage ‘it’s not the destination but the journey’ does not apply here!

Despite reports that the anchorage at Lady Elliot Island is tolerable at best, we set sail south from Lady Musgrave Island hoping for the best, with winds predicted to be light and favourable. The four-hour sail was incredibly pleasant, with large swells of up to four metres and winds that blew us straight to Lady Elliot.

The northerly approach is visually dramatic, with a long breaking surf east of the resort. We passed slowly in front of the island, hugging the fringing reef, completely mesmerised by the turquoise water, dolphins, turtles, and a mysterious shape that turned out to be a manta ray feeding at the surface.

Neither of us could contain our excitement, and the temptation to snorkel as soon as we dropped anchor was high; however, the current was raging, and we were still a few hours away from high tide.

After 30 minutes of circling (driving up and down the reef) we concluded that anchoring in the strong current at significant depth was going to be our only option. Fortunately, we recently increased our chain length from 60 m to 100 m and upsized our anchor to 60 lb (27 kg). We dropped anchor in 18 metres of water knowing that with two hours remaining until high tide we would gain at least one more metre. Using the four-to-five times scope rule we laid 80 m of chain, secured the snubber and turned on the anchor alarm.

The anchorage was robust (understatement) but secure. As we only intended to stay until 1 ambeforedepartingforBundaberg(aslong as we were secure) we didn’t really care. The island already exceeded my expectations, witnessing a plethora of marine life on the way in, I was eagerly anticipating our snorkel.

Sitting on the back deck waiting for our lunch, and the current, to settle down, I was completely taken by surprise when two manta rays swam by. Ignoring the ‘let’s wait for the slack high tide approach’ we threw on our stinger suits, jumped into the tender and took chase (in a safe and very environmentallyfriendly way).

Given the powerful current we opted to alternate staying in the dinghy whilst the other person snorkelled (once a safety monkey, always a safety monkey!). We positioned our dinghy Lil’LY (little Lukim Yu) well in front of the manta rays with the expectation that they would swim towards us, leaving any interaction entirely up to them.

Jamie’s experience was the same, however, he’s a stronger swimmer so he managed to keep up with them for a little longer. We repeated this for almost an hour, hopping in and out of the dinghy as the manta rays circled around the island’s reefs. Occasionally duck-diving to swim deeper with them, we were completely enthralled. Eventually, they tired of either us or feeding and disappeared into deeper water. Never have I been more disappointed that we didn’t have a dive compressor and dive gear on board (something we are soon to remedy).

Despite the current working in my favour I had only a few seconds with them before they swam past. I reluctantly pulled myself back in the boat, hoping to be able to repay the favour to Jamie, as we swapped positions and repeated the manoeuvre.

Not quite exhausted, we turned the tender around to a shallower part of the reef, and, with very little remaining current, we spent the next hour snorkelling together in crystal clear water. Now it was easy to snorkel together taking turns to hold on to the painter for the dinghy. We had 20-30 m of visibility depending on our proximity to the breaking surf.

Lady Elliot continued to deliver, with an exceptionally large variety of fish and hard corals. At one point a school of perch congregated just off a large bommie, unfazed by us swimming straight through the middle of them (which of course we did repeatedly as it was so cool).

Likewise, the turtles seemed to have no fear of us allowing us to swim incredibly close. This was so unexpected, as everywhere else we have snorkelled with turtles, they swim away quickly as you approach.

Finally exhausted, we dragged ourselves out of the water and back onto the boat. During the evening the anchorage deteriorated (although our holding was secure and we did not drag). I was unable to sleep, deciding instead to stay up until 1 am for our planned night sail to Bundaberg – and indulge in the gratitude for the wonderful welcome to the marine life at Lady Elliot Island.

Reproduced with permission from SisterShip Magazine August 2018