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Thursday morning, August 29, we set off bound for Lizard Island where we planned to stop for a night before heading out to Osprey Reef. Lizard Island is about 100 miles away and we hoped to make it there in about 12-14 hours. From there, we would head out to Osprey Reef, another 80 miles further out. But as so often happens, things didn't go quite according to plan! After about seven hours of sailing we knew we wouldn't make it to Lizard until very late at night so we started looking at alternative places to stop. First we decided on Cape Bedford, but later decided to put in at Cooktown for the night. Cooktown has a very shallow channel but the tides were favorable, allowing us to get in and to leave early in the morning with no problem. We were anchored by 5:00pm which allowed us to have a very nice dinner on board to celebrate our third anniversary!

We arose at 5:00am the next morning in order to get out of Cooktown while the tide was still high enough. We had a small problem getting the anchor up as it seems a washer on our anchor winch was stripped during some of our anchoring problems at the reefs. Of course it was pitch dark and we were in quite shallow water! But we got the anchor up and got underway bound now for the Cod Hole at Ribbon Reef #10, which puts us 10 miles closer to Osprey than Lizard Island. We had a nice day of sailing and made good time, arriving at the Cod Hole in the early afternoon, in time for a dive with the large potato cod. Bradley had rented me a larger dive camera with an external flash as we found that our underwater camera is good for snorkeling in shallow water but does not have a strong enough flash for diving. It also does not have the ability to attach an external flash. So I was anxious to try my new toy! Unfortunately I will have to wait at least a week to get any pictures developed. We had a good dive and I had plenty of willing photographic subjects.

Saturday morning we arose at 2:00am to head to Osprey Reef. We must arrive at Osprey with good daylight visibility and there is no place to bail out if we don't make it in time, so the best plan is to leave early and allow plenty of time. Unlike some reefs, it is not a problem to leave the Cod Hole in the dark. It was a great day for sailing. Winds ranged from 15-23 knots and we made good speed. Bradley caught a 15 pound yellowfin tuna. We arrived at Osprey reef just before noon and picked up a mooring. Osprey is a reef surrounded by water more than 3000 feet deep!  Anchoring is not an option here as there is not anchor chain long enough to reach that bottom. Instead, you tie up to a mooring which is secured to coral. In our case we tied up to one that is fine as long as the winds come from the south or east (as they are predicted to do). If the winds shift to the north or west, we could be pushed toward the reef. We'll have to keep an eye on it!

We had an afternoon snorkel. The landscape of the reef is definitely different here than we've seen before. There are huge sheer walls of coral coming straight up from the bottom. Definitely more rugged than the other reefs we've seen. We did not catch any fish and just as we were deciding what to do for dinner, a dive boat arrived and called to invite us over for drinks and dinner! It was a live-aboard dive boat which takes divers out for several days of diving. They do four dives a day! Normally they carry 12 passengers, but this trip they only have 8, so they have room for a few guests. Lucky for us - not many people come to Osprey Reef and get to go out for dinner! We met Jim, the captain and the crew and guests and had a nice tuna nicoise dinner.  Jim and the crew invited us to dive with them tomorrow when they do a shark feeding. Sounds like fun!

Sunday morning we worked on various boat projects and then moved five miles north to the top of Osprey Reef where the shark feeding dive would occur later in the day. We decided to do a dive on our own first and it was quite spectacular. We dove to 120 feet - the deepest I have ever been - and the bright coral wall extended all the way above us as well as several hundred feet below us. After lunch the dive boat arrived at the site and told us the shark feeding would be at 4:00pm. A couple of the crew and the two German passengers we met at dinner came over for a brief visit.

At 4:00 we joined the eight dive boat passengers and three dive masters for the shark feeding. There is a natural coral amphitheater at about 50 feet where everyone can sit with their backs against the wall. Several sharks were already swimming around in anticipation - most were small but some were up to 8 feet in length. They appear completely disinterested in people. A cooler is then lowered into the water from the dive boat. It contains fish heads and other shark delicacies attached to a chain inside the sealed cooler. The sharks and other fish nose around the cooler, trying to get it open. Finally, the food is released and the "feeding frenzy" starts. It is really amazing to watch. The speed and power of the sharks really is awesome. It's also interesting that several of the large fish hold their own against the sharks, battling them and pushing them away from the food. After the bulk of the food was gone, one small shark had somehow got himself wrapped around the chain and couldn't seem to get free. One of the dive masters went into the fray and grabbed it by the tail with one hand while he tried to free it with his other hand. After several attempts he was successful and the little shark swam away. After 25 minutes it was over and we headed off to continue our dive. The sharks tagged along, keeping us company and looking quite content. After the dive we moved back to our overnight mooring.

Monday morning we went for a nice dive right off the boat. More great coral and fish. After lunch we went on a spearfishing expedition at the False Entrance which had a little excitement. Bradley nailed a nice sweetlips right off the bat and got it back to the dinghy with no problem. Soon afterwards he got another one, but it somehow managed to get itself off the spear. It was badly wounded and still in sight.  As Bradley reloaded his gun (this takes a while) a very small reef shark came sniffing around, sensing the wounded fish. We are both getting more comfortable with sharks, especially these small fellows. After seeing the feeding yesterday and how disinterested they were in people, we are pretty confident they are not a danger to us. So Bradley was ready to fight for his fish! He got reloaded and went in for another shot, spearing the fish again. But again the spear came loose. This time the fish was dying and floated to the surface. Now the little shark was joined by his big brother - a 6 footer. Bradley tried to reload again, but not in time. The little shark finally found the fish and helped himself to a bite or two before the big one took it away from him and swallowed it in s single gulp. They looked at us as if to say "thanks for the snack" and calmly swam away.  We didn't catch anything else after that.

We decided conditions were perfect for our first night dive. Ron and Bradley have done night dives before but it was a first for me. Just after sunset we readied our gear. We planned to dive the same spot we had dived in the morning, right off the boat. We turned on all the lights on the boat so as not to miss it when we surfaced. We each had a neon glow stick attached to our tank and a high powered dive flashlight to shine on the coral. All went smoothly and it was a great dive. The ocean is a different place at night. There were little specks of phosphorescence and some glow in the dark fishes. The coral even looks different under the glow of a dive light.  

Tuesday morning the winds had shifted to the northeast and the boat has swung on the mooring to be dangerously close to a large bommie. We scrambled to move the boat to the other nearby mooring where it would be safe.  After securing the boat we went back to the False Entrance for a dive on the wall. It was a nice dive - nothing too out of the ordinary, but we are getting mightily spoiled with the great coral and fish! We took it easy the rest of the day. Wednesday morning we did one last dive at the new mooring, then set sail for the trip back to Port Douglas. We departed Osprey Reef at noon with southeast winds of about 20 knots. We had a great overnight sail, arriving at Port Douglas by 10:00am Thursday morning, having covered 173 miles in just over 21 hours.

We spent the next few days in Port Douglas doing errands and re-provisioning. Friday was a calm, windless day with flat seas so we decided to take the dinghy for an expedition to the Daintree River. It was about 10 miles to the mouth of the river which we covered in just under an hour. We then cruised for an hour and a half down and back on the Daintree looking for crocodiles. We saw three of them and had a beautiful, scenic ride. Then it was another hour trip to get back home. Amazing how sore you can get just sitting in a little boat for four hours!

The highlight of our time in Port Douglas was when Bradley went to town for a visit to the chiropractor. He returned to the boat and related the story of how he had been approached by the local police while standing on a street corner. They had apparently thought he resembled a man wanted for the murder of a couple German tourists and suspected in the disappearance of two British tourists. Somehow Bradley convinced them it wasn't him and they believed him!

On Saturday our next guests, Mike and Becky arrived and on Sunday we set off for the next adventure.