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Pristine Oasis Rowley Shoals |
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Clarke
Reef - Bedwell Island from King Sound, NT November 2007 |
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| Satellite photo of NW Australia showing start point at Anzac Shoal, Broome, Rowley Shoals and Dampier |
| Upon an aquatic slab we
had another easy night, our fourth from Coppermine Creek, with Jude
again getting the best from the ship. I only managed nine miles in my six-hour watch, at one point threatening to launch the longboat to tow Banyandah after recording a measly point nine of a mile in one hour. Jude bested me by logging twenty-one miles in her six hour shift. |
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| Jude attempts contact nearly one hundred miles from land |
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 Clerke Reef |
| Rowley Shoals; three extensive coral atolls twenty
miles apart lying 150 miles offshore. Unique because their tidal range is greater than any other oceanic atoll in the world. |
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| Perfect weather for a lazy ocean crossing | Tea break when nearly one hundred miles from land |
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| Wondered whether it was the same fellah from last night? | The catamaran anchored inside while we're in deep blue sea |
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| the entrance channel the light greenie blue is coral reef |
And then we were safe, in calm water. Bedwell Island and lagoon |
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| I climbed a few steps up the mast for a better look | Around a coral studded lagoon is not the time to go dreamy eyed |
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 Down went the baited hook and before it reached bottom there was a strike that pulled her arm down to the rail and made her grimace. But she fought back and the line twanged taut. Urging her to use her shoulders to turn the brute, I shouted to pull hard hand over hand. Geez, it was exciting. In that moment, years of cutting wood and sitting in front of a computer screen were shredded away and I was back on the charter boat running fishing parties out of Cairns. Jude grunted, her eyes popped, and I laughed and hopped about yelling, “You’re winning - Keep pulling.” And then with a big splash that wet us both, a monster came flying out that transparent lagoon, and it didn’t just wiggle, with abandonment it threw itself about while Judith muscled it aboard. |
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“Ah, Ha, a wrasse,” I said. “But okay to eat,” Jude asked, “But they can be a bit mushy and soft, remember.” And I had to smile at her look of dismay. “You remember those fish Rolly and Anna ate the night they bayed at the moon till they dropped asleep at daylight?” She frowned in concentration. “Geez, that was a long time ago. Didn't we used to run them down in the shallows then step on them.” “Yep. Same fish.” |
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 And then a big brown and white thing with a monstrous mouth came over the railing |
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| The breeze, which had been easing all afternoon, ceased as the sun shone low across Bedwell Island. |
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| Bedwell Island, named after one of
Lieutenant King’s midshipmen From the island to us lay a shallow field of aquamarine dotted with coral heads that abruptly fell into deep blue just behind us. |
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| Jude had the honor of placing the first footprint on Bedwell Island while I sat aft filming the event like a big time producer. |
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 Young ones - Some creatures when they're young have a very hard life |
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