Birds, Birds, and More Birds
07 November 2014 | Chesterfield Reef
Kim
We left Huon Reef and had a very pleasant, 2 day sail to Chesterfield Reef. The boys hooked 2 tunas coming out of the pass at the drop off. David landed a 14 pound Big Eye tuna and Zack got his to the back of the boat but when David was trying to get it onto the boat it shook the hook and was gone. Score one for Flourgirl and one for the fish. We saved out a couple of fillets and froze the rest, thinking this is just the beginning. Big mistake. We were using some of David's homemade lures and not our usual Hooker Lures. The last passage we lost a few lures and we were hesitant to put out the good ones this trip, the fish out here are HUGE. The rest of the trip was uneventful as far as fish. Pulling into Chesterfield Reef, David hooked something on the handline that fought for a few minutes then bent the hook and escaped. Zack caught a fish on the reel and got it into the boat, but we were not sure what it was and as it looked like a reef fish we let it go.
Through the entire passage Flour Girl, Allure and Arcturus stayed within radio distance and also sight distance for most of it. We all sailed into Chesterfield together on a beautiful sunny morning. We were working our way to the anchorage under sail when Allure hailed us. Jason says "hey, take a look of of your port beam." We were about 2 meters from a huge coral bommie that was almost breaking the surface. OOPS! More vigilance needed. We made it to the anchorage and found 3 other boats already here. Tereva we had seen at Huon Reef and 2 others.
Chesterfield Reef is a lot bigger than Huon Reef and there is a chain of small sand islands that are mostly connected at high tide, but separated at low tide. We have walked around most of the islands, some days spending hours just walking the beaches. The birds are insane, there are bazillions of birds. The island has a few scrubby trees which are full of nests and any land over the high tide mark is full of nests. Some birds have eggs and there are chicks in every stage of development. When you walk along the beach thousands of birds fly up and over your heads. Hats are advisable and we have all been the target of well aimed poo. You can smell the stink of bird droppings about 200 meters out, and walking on the leeward side of the island is a nasal assault. The shells are amazing and the kids have found lots of nautilus, cowrie, and spider conch shells. On the windward side of the island there is a bay that is full of sharks. There is a small outcrop of rocks and we walked out there to get a good view. The kids were all in the water trying to get as close as possible and daring each other. They would run if a shark came within a few feet. I guess this is "chicken" for boat kids. It is crazy how not afraid they are. The sharks in the bay are black tips between 1 1/2 and 4 feet. They come right into shore and are a lot of fun to watch. There are a few turtle nests here but nothing like at Huon Reef. We were surprised at how few are here. We have not seen any when we are snorkeling, unlike Huon where they were everywhere. We did have a turtle experience though. A huge turtle beached itself in the middle of the day, which is strange as nesting turtles come up at dark. It was obvious that this turtle was not nesting and had come up between the islands at high tide. It would be underwater at low tide. The turtle was not hurt in any physical way but did not look to be in great health. It had half buried itself in sand and did not move when we came near. The kids poured water on it to cool it of in the hot sun and were all very concerned for the turtle. We will check on it today but it did not look good for the turtle.
We have done a few snorkels. The best was a huge bommie out in the bay. The reef comes to within a couple meters of the surface and is in maybe 10 meters of water, so there is a fair drop off around it. The reef has thousands of small fish and lots of great corals, both hard and soft, and in every color imaginable. We even saw red corals. We found lots of giants clams some as long as a foot and a half across, which is the biggest we have seen out side of the sanctuary at Makongai in Fiji. We have only seen one Crown of Thorns starfish which is a good sign. Although we could see the damage it had caused to the reef and it was a big starfish. On the drop off to the bommie were lots of very big Travallie Jacks and David and Zack were keen to catch one for dinner. We have read that there is ciguitarra here so we have not eaten any reef fish. We also saw a small white tip shark swim by which was cool. The bommie was some of the best snorkeling we have seen this season and we were really hoping the wind would lay down so we could get to some of the other reefs here. The wind had been really blowing and is not forecasted to lay down so not likely to happen.
Luke on Allure celebrated his 10th birthday here. It was a good time with lots of games and prizes for the kids. Philippe on Tereva also had a birthday with happy hour on the beach. His wife Michelle had asked the kids to play a joke on him for his birthday. They collected a whole tray of very large Hermit Crabs to present to him. All in good fun. Maria on Allure will also be celebrating her birthday tonight. Big year for birthdays on Chesterfield Reef. It is pretty cool to have your birthday in different places around the globe. Zack turned 7 in Grenada, 8 in Suwarrow, and 9 in Fiji. He is wondering where he will turn 10. It may be Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand, we're not quite sure.
We are planning to depart for Australia on Sunday morning. It should be a 5 day trip into Brisbane. If you are reading this Paul, Bernadette and Finnley put on a pot of tea, cause we are on our way!!!