Off to See the Wizard - Coral Bay

We had another full day at Coral Bay.

I started the day by joining in with the Chookshed Stitchers in a Zoom party, which was lovely.

We had booked a tour on a glass bottomed boat with some snorkelling.

This is the boat.  You actually board by wading out in to it in knee deep water.

There were quite sizeable fish swimming around us as we headed out to the boat.

As we travelled along we learned that all the coral in the bay is actually dead!  In March this year, during the coral spawning there was really strong on shore winds that prevented the excess spawn from moving out too sea.  That was quickly followed by a cyclone that trapped the dead spawn in the bay, which took the oxygen out of the water, killing the coral and thousands of fish.  It has adversely affected this bay, but fortunately, other areas were unaffected.  It was rather disappointing not to see it in its usual state.

As we travelled further from shore we reached living coral.  However, it does not have the colour we usually associate with coral reefs.  Due to the low latitude, it is mostly brown, with just a few bits of purple.  There were quite a few fish swimming among the coral.

That is the breakers at the far side of the reef.

At this point the snorkelling began.  The guide took them on a guided snorkel, to show them some turtles. I was happy to stay on the boat.

The weather had started out quite calm, but the longer we were out there the windier and the rougher the water got.  It wasn’t forecast and came out of nowhere, so the second snorkelling site wasn’t as clear under water, so no one stayed in very long.  I’m not a good sailer, but I had been feeling fine initially.  However, once it got rough I was happy to be heading back to shore.

After a lunch of fish and chips we went looking for the site of the old Maud’s Landing to see the remains of the jetty.  This is all that is left of the settlement.

The beach was very pretty.

We then had a bit more of a look around the area.  One of the wind turbines had been a victim of the cyclone as well.

There was another pretty bay a bit further down with quite a few boats moored.

We then returned to the van and I in joined the Zoom party again, this time stitching an EPP unit and cutting the next lot of fabric, ready to glue baste.  A nice way to end the day.

Although Coral Bay is pretty, we must say that it was the one place we were a little disappointed in.  Probably, our expectations were too high.  For some it would be a beautiful, relaxing place to stay.  I think we have been spoilt with some of the other places we have enjoyed.

The highlight of the day for me was the Zoom party.  For Mick it was Maud’s landing.