Best of the Great Barrier Reef July 10 - 24, 2018 Osprey Reef Stanley Island Howick Island Lizard Island Ribbon Reef #10 Ribbon Reef #9 AUSTRALIA Ribbon Reef #3 PACIFIC QUEENSLAND Escape Reef OCEAN Undine Reef GREAT BARRIER REEF Cairns Thursday, July 12, 2018 Cairns, Australia Today, everyone met at the Cairns Shangri-La Hotel for our Great Barrier Reef trip. Once everyone was settled into their rooms, we made our way to the Salt House Restaurant and Bar for dinner. After dinner it was time to head back to the Shangri-La for a good night’s sleep before our morning tours. Friday, July 13 Cairns / Cape Tribulation / Kuranda / Embark Coral Expeditions II After breakfast, our groups prepared for their day tours of Cairns and the surrounding areas. Our early morning intrepid group boarded their private bus to head north to Cape Tribulation. After crossing the mighty Daintree River via the cable ferry, our group headed for a boardwalk that took them through beautiful rainforest, mangrove ecosystems, and the beach. It is easy to see why they say Cape Tribulation is where the rainforest meets the reef. The lush tropical rainforest, which is one of the oldest in the world, winds its way down the mountains and stops right at the beach where there are small coastal reef systems. After touring through the beautiful ecosystems around Cape Trib, our group had lunch at Lync Haven surrounded by wildlife including eclectus parrots, swamp wallabies, and carpet pythons. After a great lunch it was time to head back across the Daintree to Cooya Beach. Here the Walker brothers, traditional owners of the land, took us for a walk along the beach at low tide to explain how they and their ancestors traditionally used the land and its bounty for food and medicine. We were able to walk through the mangroves to see how intricate the root systems of the Rhyzophora or red mangroves are, while on the hunt for mud crabs. Our guides then welcomed us into their home to explain more about their culture and show us some traditional artifacts. While the Cape Trib adventurers were away, the rest of the group boarded the Kuranda train in Cairns and made their way through the suburbs of Cairns and up into the Kuranda Range. The carriage provided a comfortable vantage point and the views from the windows were amazing looking down to the coast out to the Coral Sea and at waterfalls coming down the side of the mountain from the Upper Barron River. Arriving in Kuranda, the group went to the koala sanctuary and had the opportunity to hug a koala and meet some other local Aussie favorites including various wallabies, wombats, and sugar gliders. A delicious lunch was provided at the Tree Frog Cafe with some time afterward to relax. The trip back to Cairns was going to be very different as the group left the train behind and boarded the cable car system that follows the Kuranda Range down, giving amazing views out to the coast and over the top of the beautiful dense rainforest canopy. Once at the bottom everyone boarded the bus and headed to Trinity Wharf to board the Coral Expeditions II, our home for the next ten nights! Once aboard, we were welcomed by the crew and then we made our way out of Trinity Inlet towards Trinity Bay. Great views of Cairns were enjoyed on the sundeck with a glass of champagne before we headed inside for a briefing and introduction to the vessel. After finishing with our briefings we enjoyed a delicious seafood buffet for dinner on our calm anchorage off Double Island near Palm Cove. Saturday, July 14 Escape Reef / Ribbon Reef 3 We awoke after a night of steaming to our first sightings of the approaching Great Barrier Reef. After breakfast and collecting our snorkel gear, the crew moored us safely into position at Escape Reef. Nearby is Rachel Carson Reef, named after the famous American naturalist. The wind was a little strong, so most of us opted for a glass bottom boat (glassy) trip to start the day while the divers prepared for their check-out dive. The water was very clear, and we had amazing views of the beautiful coral life including many species of Porites and Acropora. We also saw many burrowing clams amongst the Porites and feather stars clinging to the sides of the coral. After our glassy trip, it was time for a snorkel. The reef really came to life as the sun shone down and showed us all of its stunning color. Fish life, including steephead parrotfish, longnose butterflyfish, and scissortail sergeants, swam freely over the top and at the sides of the reef. Blue linckia sea stars and sea cucumbers could also be found readily over the top of the reef in the shallows. Our divers all made it back safe and sound and were also treated to the beautiful sights of the reef and its inhabitants. Despite the wind the sun was shining, the water was clear, and the marine life was abundant. After a great morning we dropped our moorings and during lunch headed north to the first of our Ribbon Reefs, Ribbon Reef 3. Escape Reef is the most common type of reef found on the GBR, being a shallow reef built up on the continental platform. The Ribbon Reefs are the farthest reefs from the mainland and are out near the continental slope. Swimming a few hundred feet off these reefs can have you in water over 1,600 feet deep, whereas the reefs around Escape Reef are all found in an area that has an average maximum depth of 130 - 200 feet. The glassy was again a popular choice for those not diving. As the tide had dropped, the conditions were calmer but the reef was closer to the surface so we had to navigate the glassy carefully along the edge of the reef and over the deeper areas. Here we saw massive stands of beautiful branching staghorn coral, an enormous growth of Pavona, and our leviathans the Porites boulder corals. Huge giant clams were showing off their beautiful mantles as the zooxanthellae in their tissue photosynthesised, producing food for their hosts. Our divers swam from the back of the ship and circumnavigated a large coral bommie and were treated to schools of fusiliers swimming along the edges of the reef, as well as surgeonfish, parrotfish, and many species of damselfish amongst the stunning corals. The snorkelers then had a chance to make their way around the same bommie from the surface. Again we had great views of giant clams, pink anemonefish, blueline fusiliers, and large numbers of parrotfish and surgeonfish to name but a few. Once everyone had finished with in-water activities, we dried off and the ship made its way to Ribbon Reef 5 for our overnight anchorage. Over a sumptuous dinner we toasted to a great first day on our expedition of the Great Barrier Reef. Sunday, July 15 Ribbon Reef 10 / Eagle Rock Today was a special day, as it was our first chance to see if we could find the dwarf minke whales that travel from Antarctic waters during winter to stay for a few months around the northern Ribbon Reefs of the GBR. This is the only place in the world where people can swim with these amazing mammals, the second smallest baleen whale in the world behind the pygmy right whale. They congregate here during winter to calve and enjoy the warmer waters during the winter months. Luckily for us we had a volunteer research scientist with us, Andi Laidlaw from James Cook University in Townsville. Under her guidance we would hopefully observe and interact with these beautiful and inquisitive mammals. Andi was up at first light to scan the horizon for signs of the minkes, and as we made our way past Ribbon Reef 9 and into Ribbon Reef 10 she spotted several whales surfacing and breaching. Andi explained that this is a behavior not often seen in minke whales. Our destination was Eagle Rock, a small pinnacle bommie surrounded by deeper water. Once we anchored the vessel everyone was up on deck to search for whales in the surrounding waters. It wasn’t long until we spotted two individuals who started to make their way toward us. Once they swam around us for 20 minutes or so, Andi decided to put our “minke line” in the water. At the end of the line goes a selected volunteer to let us know if the minkes are coming up to look at them. This person is often referred to as the “bait” and our bait was Rich Pagen. Once the “bait” showed us that the whales were now comfortable and hanging around, others were allowed into the water to make their way along the line to position themselves for viewing. Upon the decision to start our in-water interaction, we divided everyone into groups so we only had a few people in the water at a time to give us a better chance of observing and the whales less people to concentrate on. Those who went into the water were treated to incredible close-up views of up to five individuals at a time! The in-water portion of the day wasn’t the only fun, as spending time on the sundeck allowed for great above water views of the minkes. It was exciting to spot the whales and let everyone in the water know “They’re Coming!” As the day drew to an end we were the ones who left the whales as we needed to head to our next destination.