Gus had been planning this trip for a couple of years and asked me along thankfully. Not certain but we could be one of the first Jet Ski’s to do this trip. Aligning the elements for this trip is a must including tide times and height that isn’t big out there and a 100 mm could make a difference. Jet Skis are capable of traveling in shallow water. What the none skiers may not realise is the jet intake can suck in debris like sticks, rocks or coral and jam the impeller that stops the Jet and you wont always be able to free it and 80 klms offshore is not good. Seadoo recommend a depth not less than 700mm of water. I don’t state this for drama more of a warning for any one planning to go inside of Hardy, might consider some strong research.
Gus his son Ashton and Myself headed out of Airlie just before 945 making way for the north end of Hayman Island. Spotted a Whale my first this year, had a bit of stop over and photos at Dolphin Point.
Conditions were good and inside the channel at Hardy reef just before 12. Found our way up to our entry area over the reef, it was a bit shallow with a couple of hours too high tide.
So a run to the north end of the channel were the tourist operators have large Pontoons. We had some lunch and refueled to fill an hour. Booby birds perched where ever there was something to perch on.
The Channel is incredible in its own right. It is mostly over 50 meters deep and average 400 meters wide separating Hardy and Hook Reefs for 12 klms. A wall of reef 55 meters straight up on either side.
Back at the south end we made the crossing of 400mts+ over the shallow reef to get to the Heart.
On the surface the appeal of the Heart is not fulfilled with out a drone that was soon launched. The area is best appreciated from the air or in the water that I leave for the ocean dwellers.
I spent a lot of time and money on setting up a full VHF radio on my Ski. Unable to get local help from the main dealers as they didn’t seem to want anything to do with Jet Skis in general let alone a radio on it. Out on the reef I asked VMR Mackay for a radio check and they returned with loud and clear 5 over 5 that is the best result. Note I was probably 145klms+ from Mackay but would of picked up their repeater at Brampton 110klms from me. Happy with radio performance and worth the effort.
Still a fascinating area from the surface the Great Barrier Reef has been a bucket list of mine for a long time and what a way to crack it.
Our run into Airlie was not as good conditions as the run out, we kept up a firm pace that rattled the bones. My fuel alarm was going off like half way back to Hayman and gauge reading zero just before reaching there. Which is very alarming in shit conditions, I had estimated out at the reef that 10lts would suffice. Put another 20ltrs in at Hook Island. Arriving back at Airlie after 415pm I had trouble walking after 6.5 hours on the Ski.
After refueling the ski it worked out I used 63.2Lts for the 186klms that is usual consumption of 2.94klms per liter. Fuel gauges on all ski’s are arseholes like this, that being said I may of been cutting it too fine. Expecting to arrive back with 6.8ltrs and 1.8 of that is when it starts to cough and splutter. I had carried 30ltrs with me, always ample but not ideal to be refueling in crappy seas, that was avoided.
Thanks to Gus for a memorable day.
Here is a link to all my videos were you should be free to view without being controlled by WordPress. Feel free to download any of the files as a .mp4 file to do as you wish without any controls from any entity outside of what you choose. Lap it up now because it wont last long as all freedoms are disappearing. Simply click a video and scroll down a little to Download and it should.
Jet Ski North Queensland 