Lady Musgrave - New friends with new stories and new toys...

Radha and Pam from Sesha came to visit one afternoon and a new friendship was quickly formed. Eric ran the boat tours and ensured there was always plenty of nibbles and small talk for our guests.

We spent the next few days snorkeling and exploring the island together. Radha even setup his dinghy so the kids could go sailing one morning which provided plenty of fun for all.

Thanks for the good times, the pancakes and the awesome wood carving...

You guys really know how to declutter and enjoy the small footprint life!

Lady Musgrave - Turtle nesting season...

The first night we made it ashore we found a large Green Turtle laying her eggs in the sand surrounded by a small group of school students who were camped on the island.

We missed the turtle coming up the beach and digging her nest, but we stayed with her until she had finished laying and was on her way back down to the waters edge.

Eric enjoyed the show and even managed to stay quite for an hour or so. He was getting a little tired by the end, but he woke up rather quickly at one point to asked loudly why the turtle was flicking sand at him!

Emily and Ryan's own experience in 2011 had taught them to stand back after a turtle stops laying her eggs. I wonder if Eric will remember for next time?

Lady Musgrave - Just hanging around...

When not diving we spent our time split between turtle watching, visiting the island and thinking up new ways to cool off. Probably the most enjoyable solution we found for the latter problem was leaping off the boom into the crystal clear waters of the lagoon...

Dolphins surfing our bow wave as we sail down the East Coast of Australia...

Lady Musgrave underwater life - Another day another adventure...

We spent over a week at Lady Musgrave on our way south and each day we hit the water in a new location to explore the reef and interact with the local inhabitants.

Eric made the transition to deep water snorkeling during our stay and despite his limited swimming ability the extra buoyancy of his wetsuit gave him wings.

There is awalys a lot to see at Lady Musgrave and during our visit we found a large Moray Eel which we called Eddy!

We also found some cool Nudibranchs, several fish that liked the security of small shells and a couple of musical Yellow Flute Mouth...

One afternoon we also found a mystery monster fish (prehaps a false Stonefish) and the remains of someone else’s misadventure - the rudder of a small yacht that had obviously run aground on reef near the lagoon entrance.

Ryan is always eager to explore so near the end of our stay we decided to swim over the edge of the outer reef wall where Ryan entered the surf zone and saw several turtles and fish surfing the ocean currents...

Thanks Lady Musgrave!

Hoskyn Island - Swimming with dolphins...

A pod of dolphins played around Lucey Blue as we motored into the lee of Hoskyn Island to anchor in a small sand patch. The sea conditions were perfect for an exposed anchorage and we decided to go for a snorkel along the reef wall. The water was amazingly clear, the coral diverse and complex, the fish were friendly and to our amazement the dolphins that had played around our bows returned while we were swimming.

We have never swum with dolphins before and it was a great experience. The dolphins only stayed for a short while, but we heard them talking to each other and we managed to get a grainy underwater photograph or two!

Unfortunately Hoskyn Island is not a great place to stay overnight night so we departed in the late afternoon to a secure anchorage in the sandy lagoon of Lady Musgrave just eight nautical miles further south...