Carrying on the Mackerel Tradition

I know that you are probably well and truly over all the fishing photos...but I'm putting this up because I think it is amusing that with an ocean full of different fish, it really does appear that Mackerel (or Mackerel-themed fish [aka Mackerel Tuna]) are pretty much all that we are going to catch! Obviously our lure is a 'Mackerel-only' lure!

We left Bundy on Wednesday and had a terrific Spinnaker ride down through Hervey Bay, stopping behind Bookar Island in the Great Sandy Strait for the night. It was a glorious day to be out on the water, capped off with another catch of....you guessed it, Mackerel! This time we caught a lovely, golden-hued, Broad-Barred Mackerel (or Grey Mackerel), 80 cm long and weighing in at 3.5 kg.

Apparently the bars fade into grey patches...so you can't really see them above, but Emily caught them nicely in this picture below.

He was delicious, as usual. We are now on the hunt for a Jack Mackerel or Wahoo to top off our Mackerel menu!

I thought I'd also show you a cute picture Emily snapped of one of the Bundaberg Port Marina natives...

These little Green Tree Frogs came out to sit on the grass along the marina walkway in the evening, much to the delight of the kids.

Close Encounters of the Fishy Kind...

Swimming with a beautiful Humphead Maori Wrasse in Manta Ray Bay, Hook Island. Isn't he stunning?

Leaving Lady Musgrave (again)...

Yesterday we were up and away, leaving Lady Musgrave Island bright and early in the morning. She really looks lovely out there in the middle of the ocean, and I am already looking forward to going back.

It was a great trip down to Bundaberg, we were sailing along beautifully with the main and screecher out, and a boat speed of up to 10 kts. It was exhilarating, and Nick and I were patting ourselves on the back over how much fuel we were saving.

We saw dolphins on the way, and they joined us at the bows, but I reckon we were going too fast for them as they didn't stick around for long. The shot below was the best I could do, with everything lurching about up there (including the dolphins), I was just doing my best to stay on the boat!

And, not meaning to sound like I'm gloating or anything, but we might have caught another beautiful (105 cm, 7.5 kg) Spanish Mackerel on the way (and we might have been patting ourselves on the back over how much money we've saved on meat recently too ;-).

Green Turtles Nesting

Last night Nick took the kids ashore on Lady Musgrave Island at 10:30 pm. The moon was up, the tide was coming in, it was a perfect night for a spot of turtle watching.

They saw a small Manta Ray in the lagoon under the dinghy on the way in. That in itself made the trip worthwhile, but the true highlight of the night was watching several Green Turtles in various stages of nesting in the sand at the top of the beach.

Nick and the kids stayed ashore for four hours (we decided not to take Eric in, as his Cockatoo-like screeching would have been enough to scare away every Green Turtle within 50 nm.... causing some sort of drastic population decline that'd be talked about for years to come), and were able to quietly watch the whole process of a turtle coming ashore, dragging herself up the beach, choosing a site, digging a hole with her flippers, laying her 100 or so eggs, filling in the nest, and then making the arduous journey back down the beach to the water.

Nick tried to convince the kids that he'd probably seen these same turtles being born about 30 years ago on Lady Musgrave Island (adult female turtles returning to where they were born to reproduce from the age of about 30 years onwards). The kids were dubious at first, but came round to the idea in the end. Only time will tell if the kids will make the journey back out here to say the same thing to someone else!