The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest World Heritage Area, stretching for 2000km along the coast and covering 347,800km2- an area just over half the size of the State of Texas or an area larger than that of the United Kingdom, Holland and Switzerland combined.
We motor out for about 1 ½ hrs. get served coffee and muffins and then drop anchor for some snorkeling. The water is some messed up due to the recent cyclone that ripped through here a week or so ago and so it’s not as clear as normal but it’s still pretty good and we see a 5’ reef shark, turtles, sea cucumbers, pineapple sea urchin and many other fish and creatures. The boat’s zodiac drops us off at the nearby Green Island for an hour’s exploration and a bit of dry land and then it’s back to Ocean Free and a buffet lunch of cold chicken, salad and fruit and beer. Then more snorkeling.
Ocean Free is 52’ Schooner with two masts plus a Genoa up front and so we had a good two hour sail back to port with our 25 guests and 4 crew and enjoyed an afternoon glass of wine with cheese plate.
It isn’t possible to use the beaches up here from November to April since the box jellyfish are around in large numbers. The small ones are as big as your thumbnail but can still kill a dog or small child and the big ones, which are about 6-8 inches across have long trailing stingers and enough venom to kill 60 adults. They have to kill the fish they trap quickly before the thrashing fish tears the jellyfish apart. No-one is in the water at the shore-line. Luckily the jellyfish don’t make it out to the G B Reef.
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