Lady Musgrave Island
After a solid nighty of downwind sailing in 18- 25 knots, we approached Lady Musgrave reef from the south west around 9am and entered the channel at 0930 hours, 45 mins after high tide.
Lady Musgrave Island with squall to left
Lady Musgrave Island rainbow
We had 2 crew on the bow watching for bommies and directing our path into the lagoon and anchored in lagoon in 15-20 knots. We watched with baited breath as 3 big squalls passed to east of us, with just a slight increase in breeze hitting us.
The crew heading ashore
The narrow coral reef lagoon entrance
Taku ferried the crew ashore in the RIB, for hiking, swimming and snorkelling activities. I stayed onboard Silver Fern to repair water maker leaks that had occurred from adding my second water maker membrane.
An ominous cloudy backdrop
Crew heading ashore in the RIB
The crew arrived back on board about 12pm to prepare for our sail to Middle Percy Island. We exited the lagoon right on low tide and wind had increased to 20+ knots, making it hard to see the channel on exit, but luckily we were able to retrace the track in, back out again. We flew out of the lagoon with 4 knots of tide pushing us and then turned back up into the wind to hoist the main. We departed for Middle Percy initially with 1 reef, but increased to 2 reefs as the wind hit 30 knots and partially furled the jib.