Spawn!
As I mentioned yesterday, last night we dove on the Moltke, a wreck off the coast of Magnetic Island. Our dive coincided with the annual spawning of inshore corals just after the full moon.
The trip was pretty sweet. We (read ‘I’) organised gear and food (with some help from Zoe, bless her) yesterday afternoon, before we put the car on the ferry and headed over to the island. We went straight out to Florence Bay on the potholed 4WD track, putting the Pathfinder through its paces. When we arrived the surf was nothing short of epic; 2ft windswell breaking down the point and perfect for bodysurfing. Unfortunately the onshore winds hampered the barrelling potential of the waves, but it was super fun anyway.
At dusk we continued onto Radical Bay for dinner. Despite some efforts from Cameron (one of my field volunteers who lead the dive) to catch some crabs/crays/seagulls etc… we settled for vegetarian pasta 
It was still tasty though! Then we drove back down the 4WD track, avoiding the native wildlife along the route, and got kitted up for the dive itself. The dive site is a little tricky, particularly at night. You have to swim out about 100m to a post that marks the wreck. The problem is that it’s right through the car ferry route!
The corals weren’t exactly going crazy, as many of the species had already spawned the night before, but there were still a few going off. It was pretty cool, so many fish and larvae and crabs and eels were moving around and supping on the feast.
November 2nd, 2004 at 5:53 pm
I never want to hear you complain about living in Townsville ever again…
November 3rd, 2004 at 8:44 am
Just keep the money coming in, and you won’t
November 3rd, 2004 at 10:03 am
yeah! I’m sure she will appreciate that!
November 3rd, 2004 at 10:20 am
(Not to mention Him)
November 8th, 2004 at 12:49 pm
Due to a lack of comments over the last few days i thought i would make a comment about the lack of comments!!
November 8th, 2004 at 1:02 pm
With respect to the lack of comments I have no comment.
November 8th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
I second that motion and raise my own motion to make a non comment about all the non-commenters out there…rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb
November 8th, 2004 at 4:25 pm
by the way were there any pirates on the high seas around maggie, perhaps that is the real story behind the moltke wreck. arrgh
November 9th, 2004 at 10:40 am
Just thought you’d like to know that I was quietly refuelling my motorcycle at the local Wahroonga servo the other day when this bloke in a disgustingly filthy RAV-4 pulls up behind me and looks menacingly at me from behind a muddy windscreen! When I gesticulated to him to back off, he pretends not to understand, and makes strange gesticulations back to me. I tell you I could not get out of there fast enough. He looked to me as though he had recently arrived from South America. Probably some drug courier or something! Wahroonga’s not the peaceful place that it used to be
November 9th, 2004 at 10:46 am
“quietly refuelling my motorcycle”… likely story