Around midday on Thursday (29th July), we made the modest 3 nm move east to Taylor Reef. Randall and I had visited this site last year and so knew that there would be plenty of room for all four of our boats, and many more, in the large sand patch north of the cay.



L to R: SVs Mischief, Curried Oats, and Symphony II in beautifully calm conditions at Taylor Reef

Our plan for the rest of the week was to move to the next reef in the morning and snorkel in the afternoon. As we prepared for our afternoon snorkel at Taylor Reef, we were glad that the water temperature was a tolerable 25.5°C (78°F) since this would be our second snorkel of the day. An advantage of moving the boat before snorkeling each day would be that we would have hot water for our rinse-off showers.



A lemon damsel (to 7 cm or 3 inches) one of the commonest fish on the reef and a pink anemonefish (to 10 cm or 4 inches) a species we see rarely, hover over a large anemone

Choosing to launch the dinghy without its outboard, Randall and I limited our snorkeling option to the shallow reef on the north side of the sand cay. There was probably as much, or maybe even a bit more, soft coral than hard, but the fish diversity was still good. Like Beaver Reef, Taylor is in a green, no-fishing conservation area so we would probably have seen larger fish if we had snorkeled in a deeper section.

Our sightings included both slingjaw wrasse and latent (or dwarf) slingjaw wrasse (see introductory photo). The name for these species is derived from their ability to unsling their jaw to form a tube when feeding. Although we have seen this strange maneuver, a few times, I have never managed to capture it in a photo. The following YouTube video shows this weird action in slow-motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDU4CQWXaNY

In total, I recorded 94 species in 54 minutes, all of which were familiar to us, although the pink anemonefish was one that we have not seen very often. Instead, the afternoon’s novelty sighting for us was a pair of common egg cowries that Randall found. These gastropods have a smooth white shell, much of which is covered by the black and white mantle.



Common egg cowries (to 12 cm or 5 inches), the one on the right is lying on its side

In the middle of our snorkel, we stepped ashore on the sand cay which is bigger than the one at Beaver Reef. We tried not to disturb the various terns, cormorants, and brown boobies that roost on the islet while we spent a few minutes chatting with Anita and Mike. They were enchanted by the area and were planning to stay for a second night. This made sense because this anchorage was more protected from the eastern swell than we had been at Beaver Reef. The lighter winds also made for a very peaceful night but we, and the crews from Mischief and Symphony II, were not going to be quite as sensible. We already had the route to our next reef and snorkel planned for the next morning.