K'Gari. Voyage of adventure , to the horizon and beyond........: Of Manta Rays and mainsails.........

Another jaunt, with the predicted weather looking good, turned out to be an excellent idea as we finally found and swam with the elusive Manta Rays.

My list of favourite marine life is expanding all the time. There are now only two species I haven’t swum with.Whales, but I’m happy watching their majesty from above and the other being whale sharks.

One day I will swim with a whale shark, either in the west at Ningaloo or perhaps Raja Ampat beckons when eventually borders reopen. Perhaps the west is a better option as it saves the interaction with Border Force and AQIS on re-entry, but as we skipped Raja Ampat on the way home in 2017, it’s still lurking in my mind as a potential adventure for the future. St Helena is just out of the question!

We chose, for tidal /daylight arrival reasons to do it in a couple of hops. The southern end on Platypus Bay the first evening, then across to the northern stop off for a couple of hours, en-route we encountered a pod of whales with a grunter in it. It could be clearly heard for some distance- not sure if it was a display of Alpha whale-ism or a sore throat from too much singing, certainly haven’t encountered it before.

Relaxing for a couple of hours at anchor, we left just after 1900 to sail to “our” lagoon and for the first time ever we sailed in company with our marina neighbours, coincidentally headed the same way. A pleasant 10-12kts NE’ly was forecast for the night , perfect strength and direction. After that the forecast showed next to nothing wind wise for a couple of days, so off we set, reefed down as always at night. We cruised peacefully and trouble free during the night averaging a comfortable 5kts. Once daylight came I shook out the reefs and the then 7-8kts had us anchored up by 0900.

Perfect (for being at anchor) glassy weather in a surprisingly busy lagoon. In our visits to date I’m guessing the maximum number of other vessels has been about 20.This time (school holidays and perfect weather) there were at least 40. For the first time the motor boats out numbering the yachts. 34:6! Also now in position in the lagoon was the live aboard reef pontoon.

Our marina neighbour, a keen spear fisherman invited us to accompany him the next day outside the lagoon as he intended using the perfect conditions to snorkel outside the lagoon for a change.

En-route to wherever he was heading we happened upon the manta rays. We stopped, he kept going- I guess he noticed we weren’t behind him when he eventually stopped!

https://youtu.be/MWqqyqpk_iA

https://youtu.be/Zo_EQSt4lbM

Beautiful, graceful, elegant underwater gliders. Massive and entirely harmless and very inquisitive. To date my only other encounter had been in not particularly clear water off Keswick Island back in 2017, when one had scared me half to death when it glided past just on the periphery of my vision- or at least I keep telling myself it was a manta! Either way it didn’t count, as I’m still not really sure it was, that is how quick the ‘encounter’ had been.

These were an entirely different experience , seven totally unconcerned mantas, in beautiful clear water, with brilliant sunshine to cap off it off.

We stayed, they stayed, they played, we watched. The next day we repeated the experience again.

Just the Jo and myself in the water watching them coming and going, feeding I guess, but I don’t know, my knowledge is limited indeed. Perhaps as it was spring it’s a courting ritual. There was nobody else there, we had them entirely to ourselves.

https://youtu.be/RGIgLV5VjWI

https://youtu.be/FRbghI1hRIM

After a couple of perfect days the weather report indicated that a change was coming, a 30kt SE’ly was due. As we intended continuing north ,we decided to stay as it passed through and set off on the tail of it.

The lagoon began to empty- as if by magic! As the power boats departed we picked up a now free mooring. Yes, one of those Marine Park moorings that clearly states 24 hr occupancy- Guess you only need money to buy a boat these days, being literate isn’t a necessity, clearly, as we had been in the lagoon for 72hours before some of them moved!

I had heard but had no experience of the lagoon being a safe enough place in a blow, getting a little lumpy at high water, as the protection of the reef decreases. So as there was now a vacant mooring we picked it up and rigged our three point bridle- just in case. Similarly an hour or so later so did our neighbour as another mooring became vacant.

There were about a dozen vessels left , 4 sailing cats, half a dozen monos of various lengths and towards sunset a couple of trawlers came in and anchored. All well spread out in the lagoon.

We registered 41kts at 2238hrs and yes it was a tad bumpy at high water, but after that it settled it down again. I suspect one of the smaller monos found themselves dragging anchor at the height of it, as suddenly their nav lights came on and I watched as one minute I was seeing their red nav light ,followed some minutes later by their green and that continued for the best part of 30minutes. In daylight everybody seemed pretty much where they had been the previous evening so I guess they just steamed to maintain position for a bit. The wind maintained 25kts all the next day, so we stayed put and cleaned off the salt that had settled on every external surface. The bbq and every bit of stainless steel was coated. It looked for all the world as though fine table salt had been sprinkled on everywhere.

Setting off north the following morning, my birthday as it happened, in very much less wind, we cleared the lagoon, set the sails, and headed off. The current was taking us south and I had to gybe to clear the near by island. We gybed in benign conditions and having cleared the island gybed back again.

I called out to Jo before the gybe just to warn her as always. She was down in the galley- preparing pancakes for brekky as a treat. I gybed, the mainsail flicked over with the usual shuddering sensation, which apparently wasn’t normal. Jo came flying up saying “what was that”. I said “just the gybe” but she said “no I heard something different”. I was still in hand steering as she stuck her head up to have a squizz. “You probably don’t want to see this, but you need to” was what I heard next.

Whoopsie- my 6.25y.o, 20000nm mainsail had somewhat shredded itself. The lower panels below the first reef point horizontally in a direction from the clew to half way along the boom had a gaping tear in it.

Happy birthday to me! Bugga! So we didn’t go north , we returned from whence we came to await the forecast N’ly in a day or two.

Our neighbour had set off towards Bundy an hour or so before we had departed as his wife needed to return home. Obviously watching us on AIS, and realising we were returning to the lagoon for some reason, he called up to enquire if we had an issue. My initial thought of quipping ‘no issue, just a mainsail resembling a soggy tissue’ - I knew wouldn’t be understood over the VHF . Instead I replied that a change of circumstances would have us heading south back to the marina in a day or two when wind changed and would be happy to take his wife with us if she would like to , thus alleviating the need for trip back to Bundy for him. They too returned to the lagoon.

We left once the wind changed with our extra crew on board - her first experience of sailing on a cat, or as we refer to it, coming over from the dark side!

On the way home, which took a few days, -best breach to date!