We departed Raft Point at 06:00 to run with the tide to Montgomery
Reef only ten miles away.
It was hot and breathless and very humid and we had to motor
all the way again today. True North were already at the reef when we arrived
with their helicopter whizzing around all over the place.
I waited for the helicopter to land and take off again
before I passed with my twenty-meter-high mast or it could have been very
embarrassing getting it caught up in our rigging.
We dropped the pick several hundred meters to the north of
True North and headed off in the dingy to explore.
Montgomery reef is a massive high reef platform covering
around 300 sq kms, and when the tide falls, a huge volume of water is trapped
several meters high up on the reef and it cascaded down back into the ocean in
small river torrents.
This is best observed during the largest spring tide, but it
was coming off a small spring tide and the runoff was not as spectacular as it
could have been.
The channel we headed up was crystal clear and full of fish
and turtles with small rivulets cascading down on both sides creating a loud noise
and lovely fresh clean air.
We motored the dingy into some of the rivulets cascading
down struggling to keep up with the force of the water, then we headed off as
far up the channel as we could go.
Eventually the tidal stream became too strong and dangerous
resembling wild river rapids and I switched off the engine and we drifted back
in the swirling whirlpools and crazy strong current listening to the raw off
water and watching all the fish and turtles as we drifted quickly past.
After an hour or two we had had enough and decided it was
time to head back to Raft Point. As we passed True North all their passengers
were laying back in deck chairs under beach umbrellas on a large sand bar and
it was such a bazaar sight in such wilderness.
I felt like donning my crocodile suite and doing the worm up
the beach and watching them all scatter in every direction.
After exiting the reef, we had a six to seven knot breeze,
so I raised the sails and we had a pleasant two-hour sail back to Raft Point
saving some precious diesel.
Back at Raft point we met up with our Fonster friends and as
it was Jim’s birthday in a couple of days, we decided to make him a cake and
celebrate his birthday tonight while we were all together.
In the afternoon, I motored over to see some aboriginal
paintings high up in an overhang which was worth the hot hard walk and then I
went trolling deep into the mangroves trying to catch dinner without any
success.
We had a great evening all together on Fonster and this may
be the last time we see them as they are going back to Cockatoo Island to pick
up some more guests and therefore, they will be a week or two behind us from
now on. It’s a real shame as we all get on so well and it has been so nice to
cruise with them.
[
At around ten o’clock in the evening we said our goodbyes
and loaded up the dingy for the dodgy ride back to Sirocco in the dark crock
infested waters.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
No comments:
Post a Comment