Turtlally Lady Musgrave

Sens de la Vie at Lady Musgrave Island

 After leaving Roslyn Bay Marina we did radio logs to Coast Guard for our passage to Pancake Creek.

Shortly after setting the sails we were contacted by Coast Guard in regard to being a part of Search Recovery and Retrieval, for vessels travelling in this area particularly around the Cape of Capricorn where significant debris had been sighted. We would pass this Cape on our way to Pancake creek. 

We were instructed to change to Recovery Mission Control radio channel operating out of Gladstone for monitoring and instruction in search and retrieval protocols for debris including human remains. I have become reasonably confident in Radio transmissions but this was new territory for me.  It is not an easy task out to sea to pick up anything in big swells but we prepared for search with binoculars and GPS coordinates log and  retrieval drill with boat hooks, tarp and other equipment.  Listening to the radio channel was very sombre with many local boats supporting the families of the lost seaman by searching in particular for human remains.

Debris was found by other vessels and some debris was found in Pancake Creek. Such a significant maritime accident with the loss of lives and our thoughts go out to the families of these young men.

Sailing on sunset to Pancake Creek

We reached Pancake creek in the evening as it was a difficult day sailing, tired and exhausted from another day in big seas but thankful for  the calm anchorage.

I spy a lonely little coconut Tree

Pancake creek is one of my favourite places and it has coconut trees and sandy beaches.

At sunrise we departed for Lady Musgrave as we needed to be there by 2pm to negotiate the small channel which you need sun overhead to spot the coral bommies.

Greeting Turtle

We anchored close to the island cay and relaxed on the beautiful crystal clear blue waters greeted by a turtle and a sea snake .

Lady Musgrave as we approached the coral channel

Lady Musgrave is a favorite of mine and I kept thinking about my girls some 20 years ago when we took them to the island on another yacht for a couple of days.

Particularly Tanya who would not eat anything out of the sea after her visit to the island until she was 21 years old, having experienced the wonderful coral gardens and the Turtles laying their eggs. Jacqui my youngest has fond memories riding on the back of turtles.

On this visit I had the wonderful experience of swimming and snorkeling with the Turtles, amazing.

My Walrus Outfit

It was magical, in the mornings with my morning cuppa I was greeted by turtles and a display of Mantra Rays doing flying breaches and aerobatic displays  into the air.

The bird life is abundant, fishing is fantastic and my count now is 13 to Capt Teza 3, but who’s counting.

Terry found the plug

A LongTom I caught and let go

Sunny warm days, beautiful sunsets, great snorkelling and walks on the island.

Lee Fordes homemade Jam and Freshly baked scones

Terry checking the hull and wing keel

I went for a deep-water dive in the coral gardens which are large boomies in deep surrounding waters. This required me to somehow get back on the tender without a foot hold. Terry fixed a rope foot hold but that did not help much.

I did my “I am a walrus beaching impression”  using my legs to propel me on board the tender that seem to work although I am sure for any onlookers it would have been a hilarious sight. I did not care I was pleased that I could handle the deep-water currents and with my efforts of strength to haul myself into a floating tender in 20ft of water. The black moving shapes on the bottom of the sea on the coral drop offs still freak me out so that is always good motivation to get back onboard.

We explored the outer coral rim and just when I was about to dive in I spotted a shark.  Not a reef shark which I have no real concern about swimming with but a bloody big shark.  

I spy a dark moving shaddow

Bronze Whaler Shark over 3.5 mts Long

We followed it in the tender and it was longer than our tender so it was over 3,5 meters long.  We identified it as a bronze whaler.

Turtle coming ashore to Nest

A sunset picnic and cocktails on the island gave us opportunity to watch the turtles come ashore to nest and lay eggs.

The 4 days at Lady Musgrave was truly magical, totally relaxing and wonderful moments  being in such a pristine coral cay which certainly made up for being blown out of the Percy islands early than we had planned.

Capt Teza and I are truly grateful for reasonably good weather conditions to be out in the middle of the ocean on a coral cay.  Wish we could have stayed longer but forecast not favourable and we need to make passage home.

Loved it and will return again next year.

Percy Islands, Island Head Creek ,Port Clinton to Roslyn Bay.

 

Wild weather blew us out of the Percy Islands and continued to dictate our destination passages.  The seas were very rough with huge swells, rogue waves and winds up to 25 knots.  It was about this time that we got communication of the Trawler sinking off 1770 and the loss of 6 young seaman. Such a tragedy that shook us to the core as we negotiated huge seas to get to safe waters. 

Reminding us that the sea has a power that can never be underestimated no matter how good your seamanship or how well your vessel is equipped.

My blogs I write of wonderful scenery and great experiences to those who are interested in our adventures but the reality is that it’s not always Cocktails at sunsets, fishing and relaxing. Indeed  our yachts name Sens de la Vie(the meaning of Life) has given Terry and I much dialogue of discussion.

“what the hell are we doing owning a yacht and sailing around in this big ocean, we must be crazy”

It ends with us both agreeing we are a bit crazy but we kind of like it that way.

It takes hard work  being constantly vigilant for our safety, charts, plotting, weather, tides, sail trimming, anchoring and passage planning as well as maintaining the safety and working order of the yacht to get us to our destinations.

Certainly, the good days sailing out weigh the bad and I am convinced that life is best enjoyed by understanding and accepting the bad days and rejoice in the good days.

You need to experience all the ups and downs……………..that’s Life.

It’s like this…………………Metaphorically speaking. If you witness a beautiful sunset over the ocean you are amazed and in awe, the next day another beautiful sunset and its wonderful, the next day another beautiful sunset, great and this goes on for the whole week by which time the glorious sunset you witness gets a casual “oh that’s nice”.  Having beautiful sunsets everyday becomes somewhat expected and ordinary.

You need the not so expected and out of the ordinary. A storm, a rainy day and not so great a moment to really appreciate joyous and amazing moments and to recognise what is important and meaningful in your life. To have the ups you must have the downs.

So our passage took us to Island Head Creek where we did not get much comfort from swells and wind, we moved onto Port Clinton which gave us some comfort for a sleep even though we still had to get up to do anchor checks.

To add to our big days on the sea we developed electrical problems and a broken pump.

It must be said that despite the big seas the scenery of the ocean and our anchorages are beautiful and we a very thankful to get to experience all that is about sailing the Queensland coast in areas less travelled by most.

Keppel Bay

WE headed for Roslyn Bay and stayed a couple of days. I was thankful to be in port as weather conditions of storms and big swells meant that we were safe and comfortable in port.

Storms at Keppel

We would be at marina until we could get the parts needed and contact our Marine Electrician on the Gold Coast for assistance. At this point Capt Teza had lost all his good humour. We had a pump on board that Terry used to keep our fridges and freezer operational but it was oversized and we nursed our refrigeration condensers with care until the marine suppliers opened up on the Monday.

The job got done with some problem solving by Capt Teza and some serious and robust discussion with our Electrician. By passing the ubeaut new inverter that cost a fortune and a transformer and we got our batteries charging properly.

I cancelled the Hitman on our Electrician that Terry had ordered, and our electrician has accepted that he now owns the expensive invertor and he will uninstall it when we get back to the coast and sort out the mess of redundant cabling and electrical components and professionally finish the job to the original scope required.

As for the pump we managed to purchase a pump that is different than our normal pumps in the it is a diaphragm Pump, so our boat has this little heart beat for our fridge and freezers.  Capt Teza says “I can do emergency heart bypass with this pump and I Have the jumper leads to start you up again”.  Such a resourceful man my husband.

Heart Pump

We stocked up, did washing, scrubbed the boat and decided that embark to get 4 days at Lady Musgrave if the weather and sea conditions are favourable.