Hardy’s Reef

At an Abell Point Marina function, we met a New Zealand couple who kept their yacht in the marina, flying over a couple of times a year to go sailing in the Whitsundays. Brian and Lyn, are intrepid adventurers, having sailed the yacht they built themselves, from Sydney, along the Australian coastline to Fiji and back to New Zealand, spending time at various locations with their 3 children. All of this was 25 years ago when electronic charts were only just being dreamed of, and many paper charts were simply not accurate.
With the forcast showing a few days of next to no wind coming up, a trip to Bait and Hook Reef looked promising.
As we only do our routes on 5kts, this would mean a four or five day trip to get out there and back. We hooked up to a mooring bouy at Stonehaven the night before which cut the six hour trip in half and meant that by leaving at 6am we would get to Bait Reef about 9am. A nice motor with the sun rising in calm waters saw us there at 9am, however all the mooring bouys were taken. This is a marine protection zone and no anchoring allowed, so we decided to head around to Hook Reef, where we anchored just outside to wait for the tide to be easing. The gap is so narrow that as the tide runs in and out, waterfalls are formed and not recommended. There were 3 catamarans in the lagoon formed by Hardy’s reef and once we saw them up anchor and head out, we quickly up anchored and motored in. Queen B II cruised on through and we followed, but being a catamaran, the sides of our boat were skimming over the sides of the coral gap. Nerves were calmed once we were able to drop anchor in 5 metres in a sandy patch just inside the lagoon.
Hook Reef has the big man made … where day trippers flock to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reed with the many varieties of fish. Giant gropers are a hit with everyone.Helicopter rides operate from here to get a birds eye view of the reef, with Heart Reef a favourite.
We stayed here the night, spending the afternoon kayaking and snorkelling. The reef was a pleasant surprise with the colours and variety even better than I was expecting. Drinks and nibbles and an early night saw us in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight – Wow!
We took the tender for a cruise around the lagoon the next morning waiting for the tide and then headed down the Hook Channel to Little Black Reef.
Little Black Reef had been recommended to Brian by a neighbouring yachty at the marina with the navigation through the reef written on a napkin. Shouldve known better – the napkin was probably secured after a late night of drinks. We unfortunately broke the rules and only got to Little Black Reef at 4pm and as luck would have it, no sun had disappeared and no one culd see any reef at all, let alone the gap. After a while cruising Queen B II found the gap, proceeded in and we did our best to follow their track. Finding a sandy spot with no bommies to wrap the anchor around filled in an hour or so after that. One of the appeals in this reef, was that Steve was able to fish. In the Witsundays there are a lot of marine pparks and no fish zones, so he was looking forward to throwing the line in. Brian and Lyn heded over for drinks and nibbles whilst Steve pulled in 3 fish in quick succession. Brian and Lyn spoke about their love of fish – snorkell9ing with them, but not the catching of them, so I decided for Steve that that would be enough for the days haul. One of the fish was not easily recognisable and even though the fish books were referred to, one was a mystery. Brian decided to have another look at it, and to this day we will never know if he mistakenly or deliberately let it go. Down to 2 fish for the days haul. Steve gutted and cleaned both and then sent the Kiwis on their way back to their boat with a nice fish dinner to be had.
Considering the difficulty, we had in finding the reef the day before, we up anchored on a high tide to get across early as the calm conditions were expected to change by days end and we needed to be back at Stonehaven by dusk. Same problem was encountered though, the pass in the reef didn’t seem to present itself any better in broad daylight. WE followed Queen B II out with me on spotter duty on the front of the boat. It is so true that the reef always looks closer than it is. After yells of; ‘watch out’ go left’ ‘no – right’, stop, we made it out, albeit slightly frazzled and with a few more grey hairs.
Footnote to this story. We met up with the couple (Gary and Amanda)who gave Brian the mud map of the entrance to Little Black Reef a few nights later – nowhere near where we were. Breathed a sigh of relieve that we escaped a potential holing of the boat on the reef.
Brian and Lyn had been into Hook Reef 25 years ago. At that stage, they didn’t have any information or co-ordinates for the gap in the reef to get through, so Brian simply hoisted Lyn up the mast and she guided him across.