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...

Middle Percy to Hoskyn Island...

We left Middle Percy Island at 0730 on 10 November. West Bay was empty after our departure - everyone else had moved around to Escape Bay the night before due to the arrival of gentle Northerly winds.

The conditions were light during the morning and we sailed under spinnaker and full main with a number of other yachts - including Nimrod and Duet. By late afternoon we lowered the spinnaker and hoisted the code zero. Lucey Blue was still sailing nicely at 8-9 knots, but before dusk we lowered the code zero and reefed the mainsail as thunderstorms were predicted along the coast and we wanted to time our arrival to coincide with high tide.

At around midnight with low cloud, no moon and storms along the coast we sailed between Mast Head Island and Erskine Island. There appeared to be five to six yachts anchored in the lagoon at Fitzroy Reef when we sailed past and as we approached Hoskyn Island we watched  - on our AIS - more than eight boats leave Lady Musgrave. The outer reef was amazingly busy, but our destination looked peaceful enough...