We are motoring back to Airlie Beach having spent the most wonderful two days at Bait Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef. Adam and Rachel on Cabellero had been there before and were going again, so we tagged along. Night one we spent at Blue Pearl Bay on Hyman Island, where we had our deepest anchorage ever at 20m. This meant we had to put out 80m of chain, which left us with no more to go. Anyway, the night was peaceful and the snorkling okay. Cabellero and Rebel set off at 06.00 the next morning for Bait Reef, some 18nm north east in the middle of the ocean... The maritime people have put down five public moorings there and both of us were lucky enough to get one. Despite buoys having two hour time limits on them, with no other boats around, we stayed for two nights. Adam and Ian towed the dunghies with ropes around their waists and we drifted along on top of the Stepping Stone bommies. The variety of coral and reef fish was fantastic and sadly my photos do not do justice to what we saw. (Glasses are needed to operate the camera... I must take a magnifying glass next time!) Adam is a dive instructor but has only ever snorkled on the Great Barrier Reef as there is just so much to see that way. By the look of the boats steaming towards Bait Reef early this morning it looked as if it was going to get much busier, and before we had thrown off the mooring line someone had come over by dinghy to ask if we were leaving. The minute we dropped the line they pounced on it! It has been a hot windless day with the sea like a mirror, meaning we had to motor the entire way back to Airlie Beach. Tomorrow we are going to look at our new boom  and hopefully by Friday it will be fitted and Rebel will look normal again.