We left Eddy Reef at 7:30 am on Saturday (31st July) and motor-sailed with the jib and low engine rpms about 25 nm north to Howie Reef. Since Randall and I had been there before and were not very impressed with the snorkeling, we would have liked to have visited the nearby Nathan Reef which is in a green conservation zone. However, the only report about it was from SV Lady Annabelle and although they said that it was in reasonable conditions, we did not have any GPS waypoints for an anchorage.

At Howie Reef, we followed Mischief as we approached the anchorage for which Lynne had a waypoint. As we found last year, there is a wide area to the west of the reef of relatively deep water (20 m or 65 feet) with a smooth sandy bottom. However, unlike at most other reefs, there is not a gradual incline but shallow bommies and the edge of the reef rise suddenly from these depths. Moving parallel to the reef edge, Andrew and Lynne searched for a while for a shallower, coral-free area in which to anchor, but finally gave-up after being rather startled by some of the large bommies. So, we all anchored in the deep water away from the reef just as we had done last year. Seeing the scattered shallow bommies made me realize how lucky it was that we had not tried to get any closer to the main reef last year when we arrived late in the day with poor visibility into the water.



Andrew watching for bommies on the bow of Mischief at Howie Reef

Having had a very mediocre snorkel at this reef last year, we put the outboard on the dinghy so that we could look around for a better place. I donned my mask and peered over the side of the dinghy on several bommies and parts of the reef edge, but it was all rather disappointing. As before, the water had a yellowish, milky appearance so the visibility underwater would be poor unless we stayed shallow. Most of the reef edge consisted of dead corals with mostly small clumps of soft coral on top. Some of the deal coral was broken and looked like cyclone damage, while other parts may have been attacked by crown-of-thorns starfish or subject to coral bleaching. I am still not really sure how to tell. With poor visibility and our uninspiring previous visit, we decided that it was not worth snorkeling at Howie. We reported this to Mischief and Symphony II and I think that we were all fairly tired and not entirely sorry for an afternoon off.



A black noddy that spent the night aboard Tregoning

Unless we hear from someone else that there are better parts of the reef to explore, we will regard Howie Reef as a reasonable place to stop for the night but not a place to visit for snorkeling. Apparently we were not the only ones to think this. As evening approached, I noticed that we had a stowaway aboard Tregoning. A black noddy (a type of tern) was sitting on the far edge of one of the solar panels. This was our first avian visitor for a while and it was traveling solo, unlike at John Brewer Reef last year when dozens of terns spent the night decorating Tregoning’s decks. We told the noddy that it was welcome to stay, if it could deposit its messes overboard. It moved around at the stern a few times during the evening but was gone by the time we got up. Disappointingly, our request for sociable behavior had fallen on deaf ears and I had to clean-up one of the solar panels. Ah well, a minor inconvenience when it was really the bird, not us, that was tolerating the other in its habitat.