SEAN O’BRIEN
‘It seemed like an eternity standing on the sandy spit of Vlasoff Cay with JC, waiting for the chopper and watching the water rapidly recede from the reef. In the hour that we’d spent on the sand, rigging and preparing our heli-shoot game plan, the water had dropped close to 1m.
This part of Australia has huge 3m tides and, with a super moon and the winter equinox all in the same weekend, our mission was staged around the biggest tides possible. The low tide was approaching at 14.30 p.m., the lowest of the low.
The 50m sand spit quickly becoming a kilometre long sand spit with rock and reef outcrops. This amazing stretch of reef and pristine waters only exposes to this extent a few times a year and, if you drove a boat here a few hours later, it would just be dark blue waters, the beauty hidden underwater like the lost city of Atlantis.
It was amazing to think that the only reason we were here, was because our boat captain, Cam, had by chance driven past this reef on a king low tide a few years prior, discovering this hidden gem which may have been submerged for the rest of the year in deeper waters.
The heli landed, which was my cue to hit the water. 30 minutes prior I could’ve sailed straight off the beach. Now I had to walk my gear 200m and negotiate a plethora of razor reefs and rocks.