Our First Overnight Sail

It is 80 nautical miles from Platypus Bay on Fraser Island to Lady Musgrave Island. Rene worked out that we’d have to leave at 3pm to arrive in the lagoon at midday the next day travelling at approximately 4knots.  We ended up being 22 hours under way = our biggest non-stop journey so far. It was a beautiful night; the full moon accompanied us until dawn, when it swapped the sky for the sun. The wind was a little indecisive and we had to motor occasionally to maintain course and speed. We had an alarm clock set to beep every 15 minutes – it was there to remind us to perform a regular lookout for navigational hazards. This alarm became quite annoying, because just as we’d start to drift off to sleep (lying in the cockpit - as pictured) it would wake us up resulting in a very disrupted night for both of us. The proper way to manage a night voyage is to sleep in shifts – but at this early stage in my life as a sailor, I’m not yet confident to sail solo thanks! 


Lady Musgrave Island sits inside a large lagoon. It is like an oasis of calm, crystal-clear waters in the big, bouncy ocean. We washed away the journey with a snorkel around Anhinga and were pleased that our antifouling paint still looks great!


This morning we watched the sunrise while sitting up in the cross-tree of the main mast. A great way to start a perfect day! We also walked around the island - it brought back so many good memories of when we spent 2 weeks here over Christmas back in 2005. 


I'm beginning to understand more about why people choose this lifestyle. The sailing and maintainance of a boat is hard work - but when you arrive at a place as perfect as this - it all makes sense! Time to have a coffee and bake something to take over to a lovely couple we met today.