With supplies to last us a month offshore loaded, charts plotted, and sails hoisted, we were ready to lift anchor from Broome, Western  Australia and begin our 500 nautical mile return journey to Australia’s largest standalone offshore coral reef, Scott Reef. The reef lies in the Timor Sea, a remote part of Australian waters 425km northwest of Broome and 270km to the closest Western Australia land formation. To the west, is the seemingly endless Indian Ocean – thousands of miles of water stretching to the Africa coasts. To the north and northeast lie Indonesia and Australia’s rugged Kimberly Coast.

We sailed without stopping for four days and nights watching the sun rise and set over the rolling seas as we edged ever closer to Scott Reef. Riding a steady easterly wind blowing from mainland Australia, our sails were full, and we relished the warm Kimberly air, the horizon stained with a red tinged dust that blows from the sunburnt land. Scott Reef is uniquely positioned on the edge of Australia’s continental shelf. The Reef is made up of three separate atolls covering about 650km2, a mere pinhead in the vast expanse of the surrounding seas. If we sailed only a few degrees off course we would miss it entirely, not even knowing it was there.

Seemingly inconsequential above the water, below is a stunning, teeming world. Rising from depths of approximately 800m, the reef ’s sloping walls jut up to the surface and are almost fully exposed at low tide. Cold, nutrient-rich deep-water currents hit the reef walls and are pushed to the surface displacing the warm nutrient-poor surface water. The upwellings are primarily created by the reef ‘s topography which causes vertical mixing throughout the water column. This creates a food banquet to sustain a city of hungry mouths across the reef. The dramatic reefs and upwellings attract large aggregations of marine life. Huge pods of resident spinner dolphins, travelling in pods of up to 50, leap out of the water to greet us as we navigate the intricate reef system, often riding the bow of our boat, curious about the new visitors. Short-finned pilot whales pass around the reef ’s outside walls travelling to their feeding grounds, often diving to hundreds of metres to hunt for squid on the slopes of the continental shelf. These pods are frequently sighted around the atolls. The reefs lie in the migratory path of endangered pygmy blue whales which are sometimes seen passing between the channels of Seringapatam and Scott Reef ’s northern atoll. In winter months, mother humpback whales nurse newborn calves in the warm tropical water. Juveniles embrace their playful nature, leaping up out of the water mimicking their mothers’ actions.