We arrived at Lady Musgrave Island after a nice 5 hour motor-sail. The journey was made especially worthwhile be the distant sightings of a number of 'breaching" whales. The Island itself is quite small and has crushed coral beaches that are difficult to walk on but the setting of the island within a lagoon is very picturesque. During the nigh a wind came up (not in the BOM forecast again) and once agin I had a sleepless night keeping one ear and one eye on the anchor alarm.
Next morning we were on the way to Gladstone, or we thought we were. The wind of the previous night had now picked up and was driving in from the North at between 15 and 25 knots...on the nose again!!!! As we motored out of the channel we were alarmed to see the waves at the entrence to the lagoon were quite large, very steep and only a few meters apart. Then we were in them. The waves were about 3 meters high and came crashing across the deck throwing sheets of spray high over the deck. Silly Peter had left one hatch open at the front of the wheel house, I knew it was too high to be in any danger from water entry. Wrong!!!.
The next hours saw us having to deviate from our course, running westerly to gain a more comfortable ride in the angry seas. Eventually we reached calmer waters near the coast and motor-sailed up the coast towards Gladstone