Start Loc: Hardy Reef Lagoon (19o 44.36'S, 149o 11.10'E)
Narrative: It was not an uncomfortable night despite the winds of around 15kts. This morning, after watching a humpback and her calf swim up the passage between Hook and Hardy Reefs, we got ourselves organised and took the dinghy for a look around. The first task was to find the entrance we came in and mark its position on the hand held GPS so we could readily find it again when taking the yacht back out. It was something I should have thought to do on the way in. As we were roughly halfway through the ebb tide, it was not too difficult to locate all three “waterfalls” and GPS marked the one we wanted (19 43.811'S, 149 11.146'E). It was an interesting sight looking at the different tide levels inside and outside the lagoon, and the horizontal waterfall type effect it creates as a heap of water tries to get out of the lagoon through the three narrow gaps in the coral. That done, we went snorkelling. The make up of the coral was slightly different to the pillars at the Stepping Stones, but it was similarly spectacular.
Low tide was at 11:39am and I wanted to allow an hour after low tide for the waterfall to stabilise. After snorkelling, eating lunch and getting ready to go, it was a little after 1:00pm by the time we dropped the mooring and made for the exit. Despite being ninety minutes after low tide it was still flowing out a bit much for my liking, so we anchored just inside and waited for the tide to come in a bit more. At 2:00pm the sun was starting to glare off the water at the waterfall, and I didn’t want to leave it much longer as the lower the sun got the more difficult it would be to see the coral. I double checked my calculations to confirm we had enough tide to get through (we did), raised the anchor and motored through the waterfall at 2:15pm. Almost halfway through the incoming tide (2.5 hours after low tide), I was surprised that there was still water flowing out. The gap in the coral is only about 8m wide, and to add to the excitement there was a bit of a crosswind and the glare, but we got through without problems and the depth dropped off sharply from 3m to 50m.
We decided that seeing we had got out of the lagoon a little later than planned we would head back to Bait Reef for the night rather than back to Hook Island. Despite it more than doubling the distance we would travel, we motored down the passage between Hook and Hardy Reefs as we thought it might be interesting. It was interesting enough, but might not have been the best choice. As we came out the southern end of the passage we were exposed to the full force of the seas associated with the 20kt SE winds, and we had seas and swell of about 3m. These waves were also shortened and steepened by the opposing tide. We motored around the long corner of Hook Reef and once we were heading west with the wind and waves on our port quarter, we put out 115% head sail and cut the motor. The reduced head sail had us sailing at about 6kts, and it was a lot less uncomfortable than when we were into the waves. At 4:15pm I decided I wanted a bit more speed so we could get inside the Stepping Stones at Bait Reef well before sunset at 6:00pm, so we motor sailed at 7kts. We furled the head sail as we rounded Bait Reef and were on a public mooring by 5:15pm; in time for a beer while watching the sun set. We were the only boat at Bait Reef, and looking around could see nothing but water.
End Loc: The Stepping Stones, Bait Reef (19o 48.69'S, 149o 03.85'E)
Distance run: 21nm (cumulative: 1020nm)
Engine hours: 3 hr, 13 min (cumulative: 118 hr 51 min)