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Misto - Aug 3-6: Great Barrier Reef and Hamilton Island



We had not expected to take a Misto to the Great Barrier Reef but a weather window presented itself to go to Bait, Hook and Hardy Reefs, the nearest point on the Great Barrier reef to the Whitsunday Islands.

Along with Smoke and Roses we spent the night on the north of Hook Island - we were on a mooring ball in Maureen’s Cove. We started at first light and arrived at Bait Reef around 9.30 am. We snorkelled on the Stepping Stones, huge straight sided pinnacles that rise from 25 m to about 1 m of the surface. The fish life was wonderful with huge reef fishes but the coral is still recovering from the cyclone in 2016 and is also somewhat bleached.

We then motor-sailed over to Hook and Hardy Reef and went down the passage between them. It’s like being on a river with wonderful coral and colours on both sides. This is another iconic photo that makes its way into the tourist brochures but we really could not capture the colours, even Martin’s photos from up mast don’t do it justice! This is where the big tourist boats go and they have a huge floating platform there along with a tourist submarine and helicopters for scenic flights.

We over-nighted back on Bait Reef and did additional snorkelling there, as well as at a mooring ball in the south side of Bait Reef, the following morning. It was a wonderful experience to have actually been out to the Great Barrier Reef but in all honesty we have seen much better coral elsewhere on our travels.

We had a rip roaring close-hauled sail back to the Whitsundays and spent a night in the calm confines of CID Harbour where we enjoyed walking to Dugong Beach and wine on the sand as the sun set. Howard even ran up the highest peak in the Whitsunday Island the next morning to compete with Martin who had walked it the prior afternoon!

Next stop was the well known Hamilton Island. This has a large marina and huge resort complex. I was surprised by a couple of high rise apartment and hotel buildings as I was expecting low rise cabanas and villas. There are great facilities and nice restaurants and Howard and I had a lovely dinner at the Mariners, enjoying Red Emperor reef fish and golden snapper. The supermarket enabled some re- provisioning. It made a good stop for a night but I’d rather be in less well-trodden places.

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