Boat Bound on Beveridge!
23 August 2008 | Beveridge Reef
Sally
We arrived safe and sound at Beveridge Reef on Tuesday morning. It was so odd to see what looked like 3 boats anchored out in the middle of the ocean! There is no land here at all, just a low laying coral reef in a big oval shape (5-6 miles long). There is a pass to get into the oval on the northwest end. As we were making our way along the outside heading toward the pass, Glen hooked up with a nice yellow-fin tuna on one of his rods. He had me come back and pull in one of the hand lines (he had 5 lines out!) to get it out of the way and as I was pulling, we realized I was also pulling in a fish - it turned out to be another yellow fin tuna! Yum! We have really been eating well and realize the tuna makes even better sashime than the mahi mahi!
The water inside the reef is such a beautiful blue. We are anchored in 30 feet of water and when the winds are calm, can see clear to the bottom. After anchoring, we rested most of Tuesday then enjoyed a barbecue on board Shilling (yellow fin, of course!). Wednesday was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed putt-ing around the inside of the reef. There is a wreck on the northeast side of the reef - a 50' long line fishing boat. It looks like it is just laying on its side in the ocean - you don't see the coral holding it in place - apparently the crew didn't see it either! There's a lot of coral heads inside the reef as well. Wednesday afternoon we joined a couple of other boats on the outside of the reef for a snorkeling adventure. As Glen was anchoring the dinghy, I jumped in and swam a ways away. Big mistake! There was a gray shark about 5 feet long swimming by - I probably could have set an Olympic record for the time it took me to swim back and get into the dinghy! Maybe we should ask for that event to be added to the swim competition! We all decided to move into shallower water and pull the dinghies with us instead of anchoring them - that way we could get in quickly if the need arose. Thankfully, we never did see another big shark and Oh my gosh! It was so beautiful! The visibility was incredible and it was one of our best snorkeling spots yet. We saw millions of fish in every shape and color, lots of different types of coral, several eagle rays, a little white-tipped reef shark (2'), but best of all... a sea turtle! It was so graceful gliding along through the water. It was pretty good sized (the shell was maybe 3' long) and an olive greenish brown color. It's face was so cute - it looked like an animated cartoon. We decided right then we would like to go back and dive the same spot. Back on the boat, Glen had a great time catching several small fish (we think big-eyed jacks) but let them all go because we're a little worried about eating reef fish. There is a neurological disorder called ciguterra that you can get from eating infected reef fish. We've heard the disease is awful, so don't want to take a chance.
Thursday, the winds had really started picking up and it was pretty rough water inside the reef. Glen and Dennis (Shilling) went over to the wreck and salvaged some line (he's thinking it's probably 1500 lb test), but our plans for a dive had to be put on hold. Shilling hosted a potluck on their boat Thursday night to say goodbye (they were going to leave Friday), and we all got drenched in our dinghies on the way home. The winds had picked up even harder and it was pouring rain. Sometime throughout the night, our snubber broke (a line that is hooked on the anchor chain to keep pressure off the bearings in the windless). When Glen went to check on things Friday morning, he found the snubber gone and all 400 feet of our chain had let itself out (we had only needed to put out 125' when anchoring). Yikes! Not a good thing! Luckily, there is about 10' of rode (rope) at the end of the chain that is tied to a chunk of 2 x 4 wood, otherwise, we would have been adrift and Glen would have been making a dive to retrieve the chain and anchor! The winds were crazy all day Friday (gusting over 30k) so we became boat bound. There were white caps everywhere and squalls throughout the day. We did, however, put on our foul weather gear and brave the dinghy ride to go over for pizza on Charisma (new friends Alan and Kristen). They are from the Napa area of California and it was fun to talk wine with them!
I am writing this on Saturday morning. The winds are still howling, but we're starting to see a little blue in the sky and the sun is trying really hard to break through. We still have whitecaps all around us, so will be boat bound again today. We're hoping it will lay down by tomorrow - we really do want to go back and make a dive right outside the pass before we head out. We'll see! We haven't been able to get e-mail in for a couple of days, but am hoping for better propagation today - here goes! :)