Lizard Island and the Ribbon Reefs

[njwilliams449]

I hope to sail Cairns-Lizard-Cairns in the space of a fortnight, leaving in a week (Bavaria 46 2006). I've seen anchorages marked on Navionics charts at the southern end of Ribbon Number 10 and at St Crispins Reef. Has anyone used them please? I plan to head south from the Cod Hole and stick just east of the Ribbons to avoid the inevitable SE seas closer to the coast. Does anyone have advice on such a course please? Finally, is a two-week window a crazy plan?

[44'cruisingcat]

Is two weeks crazy? Depends.

Getting to Lizard is easy. Cairns to Low isles is an easy day, and we've done Low isles to Lizard in a day comfortably enough.

Which theoretically leaves 12 days to catch a window to get back.

But you'll probably want to spend some time at the Low isles, they're beautiful. Then maybe Hope islets. Maybe visiting them on the way south would be a better option.

Lizard can be hard to leave, and not just because of the weather!

With your time frame you'd really need to go the first window of sub 20kt SE or hopefully E that you get.

The sail back down the Ribbons can be really nice. Stand off from them a bit, because we encountered some big bommies a fair way west of where the reef shows on the chart.

Anchoring inside number 10 is easy. Just trundle in slowly, with someone on the bow. There's plenty of sand patches to anchor in. We usually go in to around 5 metres depth. The snorkeling is great, some huge fish that have probably never seen a human before.

The cod hole is well worth a look, snorkeling or scuba, but beware of the tidal current. Slack tide is the safest option. Huge friendly potato cod that will try to eat your camera and giant coral trout. The coral there is pretty smashed, two cyclones in succession left it looking a bit like the moon but the fish are still great.

There are public moorings there, some seem awfully close to some shallow reef.

Yonge reef was nice too, far less damage than around the cod hole.

It's a fantastic area, well worth more than a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

[njwilliams449]

Thanks for that very helpful post. Is it viable to anchor on the Ribbons in 20-25kt winds? do they go under and cop full swell with high tide?

[44'cruisingcat]

Again there are variables. Neaps would be better than springs. But mostly the swell will be greatly reduced, but a solid chop could be present at high tide.

The reefs do go under, coral can't grow much above the low tide mark.

Anchoring would be ok, but it would be disappointing to be there in those conditions since snorkeling wouldn't be very nice. If you have scuba you'd be fine though.