Snorkelling in the northern Whitsunday’s and Bait reef

Eric continues to enjoy his time in the water and whenever we get a chance we all hit the water together. The conditions were quite nice so we spent a few nights at Langford Island and then sailed out to Bait Reef.

The trip out to Bait Reef was unusually eventful with a large fish (that got away) causing no end of trouble. As a tip - do not set a large code zero and then hoist your full main in 20 knots of wind if you want to slow down in a hurry.

The net result of our failed fishing adventure was: one code zero in the water; one halyard lost halfway up the mast; and two hands with rope burn!

We detoured back to Luncheon Bay at the top of Hook Island to affect repairs and then headed back out to Bait Reef in the afternoon. With a more conservative sail setup – blade jib and full main – we made the journey in just under two hours.

Snorkelling on the Stepping Stones at Bait Reef remains impressive.

However, the best part of our time back at Bait reef was the amazing song of a Humpback whale and her calf. The two whales swam up and down the edge of the reef for over 48 hours and on the way out they treated us to some spectacular breaching approximately 100m off our port bow.