Fri, 20 Jan 2012
Hope Islet
Kanimbla is moving to Hope Islet today to spend our last day of the survey. We pulled up anchor at 8 am, it only takes half an hour to get there. Wayne our technician from James Cook University is a mad keen fisherman. He threw a hook in as we left and within 10 minutes he had a fish. Tonight’s dinner looks like this! Wahoo!
We arrived at Hope Cay at 9.30 am and by 10 am the mag team was away in their boat. We also had a team on the cay to survey and metal detect there. There was nothing of historical significance, but much more evidence of modern visitation than at West Islet. There were iron star pickets driven into the cay and the shallows in the reef. There also appears to be the remains of an engine block. Possibly these were anchorage points left by fishermen who visit the area.
The mag teams came back with a few anomalies buoyed for investigation. Two teams of divers went out for what is likely to be our last dives. They will be back by lunchtime and we will make a decision to either stay anchored here for the afternoon or start our trip back to Gladstone. We hear that there are gale warnings out for the Queensland coast, so that may slow us down the closer we get.
Anyway, once we start to move we won’t be able to connect to our satellite to send back any further information. So this is it, our last update from the field. We will give you a final wrap-up once we are back in the office. Hope you have enjoyed our reports on the progress we made. It has been a tremendously busy and productive time.
Cheers
Paul and the rest of the team
P.S As Xanthe stayed on Silentworld she wasn’t here to provide our usual quality images. And just so you don’t think Xanthe is a figment of our imagination… Here is one of the rare photographs of our photographer!
