Alison Stocker | Photo: The bold markings of a crested morwong (to 30 or 12 inches)
There were two startling sights when we arrived at Lady Musgrave Reef on Wednesday (29th September). The first was that, other than the two commercial tour-boats, there were only two boats in the lagoon...possibly the fewest we have ever seen there. The second, was the unexpected presence of a floating hotel.
We had heard from other cruisers that they had seen this two-deck structure being assembled near Bundaberg, but it was quite a shock so see it, with the Reef Empress tour-boat tied alongside. It was located on the west side of the lagoon, near where the Reef Empress (the Bundaberg/Burnett Heads tour-boat) had previously had a mooring. As long as the tour-boat was there, the hotel was busy with many people using the picnic tables and snorkeling directly off the platform. Once the boat left, it seemed as though only two or three people remained, and we assumed that they must sleep in the tents that are under cover on the top deck. We intended to go over to take a closer look after visiting the island, but completely forgot.
The new floating "hotel" in the Lady Musgrave lagoon with the Reef Empress tour-boat on the far side
It seems good to encourage people to appreciate the Great Barrier Reef at a site that is already impacted by large numbers of cruisers, campers, and day-tour visitors. And, presumably in a related agreement, the old eye-sore of a structure, which had been moored next to the entrance of the channel into the Island, had been removed. I certainly hope that the rules intended to protect the reef and Island are strong enough and are enforced, because with both tour-boats apparently carrying full-complements of passengers, there were many people on the reef and Island. It was a bit ironic that with the fewest private boats that we had ever seen, the Island and western side of the lagoon looked busier than ever. Of course, it is easy to feel as though too many "others" are infringing on "your" reef when something new appears like this floating hotel, but we have no great claim there than any other visitors. We are all "others" from the perspective of the creatures that call the reef home.
It had been only a 23 nm passage from Fitzroy Reef to Lady Musgrave Reef, but we had needed to time our passage to allow us through both passes under benign conditions. Exiting the Fitzroy lagoon was easy enough but it was rather rough, heading into wind and waves, as we slowly made our way around the north end of Fitzroy Reef. However, once we turned southeast towards Lady Musgrave Reef, we were able to sail for 2.5 hours and the seas felt more comfortable. A sudden shift in wind direction meant that we motor-sailed the last two hours to get to the Lady Musgrave pass.
Once we had got over the initial shock of seeing the hotel, we realized that the dearth of cruising boats meant that there were several public moorings vacant. This was a first for us at Lady Musgrave. This raised a bit of a dilemma. Boaters are encouraged to use a moorings rather than anchor. Technically, the time limit on each moorings is 24 hours but nobody seems to abide by that in Queensland. Since we were planning to stay more than 24 hours, we thought that maybe we should anchor. After some debate, we took one of the vacant moorings. By nightfall, only three more boats had arrived, so there were still vacant moorings.
Bridled terns (to 41 cm or 16 inches) enjoying a vacant mooring...the one on the right is not walking on water but is standing on the hidden floating mooring line
It was another sunny day so, as you might imagine, we quickly launched the dinghy and snorkeled on the nearby shallow reef. Finding 89 species in 53 minutes, it was a pleasingly diverse snorkel but the most memorable aspect was the presence of a large tasseled wobbegong shark, which was a new species for us. Having spent so much time snorkeling in Lady Musgrave and Fitzroy Reefs, it is not really surprising that this was the only new species that we identified in our eight snorkels. There are undoubtedly plenty of species there that we have never seen before, but they are too small, too shy, too well-camouflaged, too cryptic, or too deep.
The tasseled wobbegong shark (about 1.45 m or 57 inches) at Lady Musgrave
The following day, we raised the cellphone up the mast to get our first internet connection in 10 days. The main news was from my cousin Penny telling me that her mother (my only remaining immediate family-member of my parent's generation) had died in August. Although sad, this was not particularly surprising as she was already showing signs of dementia when I last saw her in 2016. More shocking was the recent death of Penny's older sister, my only other first-cousin, from leukemia. I passed the news along to my brothers and sent my condolences to Penny who must have suddenly felt big losses from her life. Randall and I would love to sail in the Mediterranean and visit Penny, who owns a holiday rental villa in Turkey, but if and when this might happen is very difficult to predict.
Later in the morning we snorkeled in the green-zone (protected) part of the reef, starting near the floating hotel and moving into the area that the glass-bottomed boat-tours favor. This is another favorite snorkel of ours with a wide variety of coral types in deeper water, and a satisfactory tally of 94 fish species in 75 min.
A green turtle that was almost as curious about us as we were about it
Although there was heavy rain overnight, the clouds appeared to be thinning by mid-morning. So, of course, we went for a snorkel. With relatively light winds, we went to a part of the lagoon where anchoring is not allowed. Thus, as he had done the day before, Randall was towing the dinghy, mostly going downwind. We visited the edge of the reef on the east side of the Island which Rachel and Adam on SV Lady Annabelle had recommended. Roughly parallel to the Island's shore, we weaved around and over large areas of coral, finding a much more varied coral topography than in many other areas inside the lagoon, including some quite unusual formations.
A coral formation that reminded me of a crowded fantasy citadel on a hilltop
Realizing after about 40 minutes that the tide was still going out and it might become difficult to snorkel safely over the shallowest coral, we had to change direction and aim away from the Island, towards deeper water. We were able to get out easily, but if we had not paid attention we could have ended up in an isolated pool in the maze of shallow reefs. If the water had become too shallow to float over the corals, we would have had to have waited until the tide came in again. The diverse coral formations were matched by a diversity of fish, with 90 species recorded in 60 minutes.
On arriving at Lady Musgrave, the forecasts showed that the following week we would have a wide weather-window suitable for heading all the way to Moreton Bay. Our plan was to make a double-overnight passage on the outside of Fraser Island. This avoided the possible constraints of needing specific conditions to cross Wide Bay Bar at the mouth of the Great Sandy Strait at south end of Fraser Island. By Saturday, however, the forecasts had changed. What had looked like a four-day window, starting on Sunday, was now shrinking back to little more than three days. The 250 nm trip east of Fraser Island would still be possible, but we would have to maintain a 6 knot average speed to be sure of avoiding contrary winds at the end of the trip. Although our overall average speed tends to be closer to 5 knots, we should have an assisting current most of the way and the 20 knot northerly winds should allow us to keep up the pace. We looked at the possibility of leaving a day earlier (potentially missing two snorkels) but that was not going to help. So we decided to stick to our plan to leave at 4 pm on Sunday and hope for the best.
Part of the varied coral topography seen on the outside edge of the Lady Musgrave Reef
I was especially thankful that we did not try to leave on Saturday morning because it was calm enough that day for us to snorkel outside the lagoon. With Randall nobly towing the dinghy, we started on the outside edge of the fringing reef, across the reef from where the floating hotel was moored inside the lagoon. We then drifted northeast, much of the way back to the pass. Starting over a platform of densely packed low corals, the topography varied during our 85 minute drift. There were corresponding variations in the fish species resulting in a total record of 105 species, including sweetlip emperors and a boldly colored crested morwong.
A sweetlip emperor (to 90 cm or 36 inches) with its bright red mask seen over a lawn of staghorn coral
That afternoon, we took the dinghy to the Island and wandered through the pisonia woodland doing an eBird survey. Unlike our last visit in early June when we had seen only 4 black noddies, this springtime visit resulted in a count of 669, mostly on nests easily seen from the trail. We estimated that there were several thousand black noddies using the Island. We also recorded ruddy turnstones, wandering tattlers, Pacific reef herons, buff-banded rails, and bridled terns, but none of the usual silvereyes.
Most nests had only a single black noddy, presumably taking turns to feed or incubate the eggs, but this nest had a very cute couple
By Sunday morning, our weather window had shrunk a little further, but by leaving at noon we estimated that we should still be able to get to Moreton Bay before the winds turned southerly. Randall was kind enough to humor me by squeezing in one last snorkel before we left, but it meant that we had to rinse-off, raise the dinghy and outboard, and be ready to leave within an hour of finishing the snorkel. It felt a bit frantic but it worked, and we had raised the anchor and were heading out of the pass by noon.
The snorkel was on a more distant section of the nearby shallow reef from the area that we had visited when we first arrived. We saw another good collection of fish species (90 species in 69 minutes), the most notable of which was a large tawny nurse shark tucked up under a ledge. I was pretty shocked when I first saw it, because it was considerably longer than me and all that I could really see was the huge tail and relatively large pair of dorsal fins. I was a bit leery about getting too close in case it felt trapped, but when I returned for another look, and hopefully to take a photo, it moved even further under the reef and became almost impossible to see. Although I was a bit sorry not to get a better view, I was also quite thankful that it did not hurtle out in my direction in a bad mood about having been disturbed. Like white-tip reef sharks, nurse sharks are usually pretty harmless but any animal that feels like it has been trapped can turn aggressive...and they do have plenty of sharp teeth!
The turquoise beauty of Lady Musgrave lagoon seen on a clear-sky day, with part of the shallow reef nearest Tregoning, a sport fishing boat, and a sailboat outside the reef
We were in such a hurry to clean-up from our last snorkel, lift the dinghy, and start our passage to Moreton Bay that we did not have time to dwell over our departure from Lady Musgrave. It was not until we were out of the pass and sailing away that we looked back and realized that this might be our last visit. As one of our most familiar and favorite anchorages and snorkel sites in the world, it seemed like a sad farewell to an old friend. However, we felt that with a good walk on the Island and excellent snorkels on each of the days we had been there, we had made the most of this visit. Now it was time to look ahead to what we would do in Moreton Bay over the summer and, pandemic allowing, what our exit strategy from Australia would look like.