We are still at Eagle Island. Yesterday the smoke from the fires on Lizard Island diminished and the boats that were with us either returned to Lizard Island, or continued north. We were going to continue north today as well. But I got on a Skype session with a professional colleague (we still have access to 3G from Lizard) about our research collaboration, and the day went by without us getting prepared. So we decided to stay here another day.
We were able to snorkel in three different places on the reef around Eagle Island and it was quite nice, although a bit on the cool side. The highlight is the giant clams. The biggest are 3 feet (1 meters) across and about 2 feet (0.6 meter) tall, and must weigh a couple of hundred pounds. That is a lot of clam. They are the largest bivalve mollusks in the world. The color of their lips vary from clam to clam. Below is a photo we took of a smallish one that was just below were we anchored the dinghy.
We are planning to leave for the Flinders Islands tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 0400. It is about an 80 nautical mile sail. There is no shortage of wind this week. It is unlikely that we will have internet access for the next week, but we cannot know until we get there. We will continue to day sail up the coast until we round Cape York and move away from the Great Barrier Reef.
M.
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